Design Confidently, Live Comfortably
  It can be frustrating to have people in the design trades toss out words that are meaningless to you, so here’s a short primer on the “language” used by designers, upholsterers, and fabric salespeople to describe patterns: Patterns are created by repeating an image; hence, a repeat is one complete unit of pattern. The size of the image, whether a small, uniform dot or a large, fanciful swirl, will determine the size of the pattern’s repeat. Scale is used to describe the size of an image within a pattern; again, it may be large and obvious or so small it appears solid. A pattern that consists of very small images is often referred to as a miniature.
A placed print is integrated into a specific area of a design. A border print is an example. Direction refers to the ways in which repeats are arranged in relation to each other, such as diagonally, mirrored, or rotationally.
Railroad center describes a design oriented across the width of a fabric, running perpendicular to the selvages, or edges. A railroad match is similar to a railroad center, but the fabric must be matched precisely to allow a unit of pattern to repeat without interruption; for instance, a plaid or an irregular stripe. Unstructured and abstract patterns are sometimes call random patterns, but I personally don’t think random patterns exist, because a pattern, by definition, repeats. Colorways are the color choices available in a particular pattern or family of patterns. A pattern’s cultural or traditional origins may be described as stylized (a Persian miniature with a 4-inch repeat) or historic (an English damask with a 24-inch repeat).
NEXT: More Tips for Mixing Patterns BACK: Finding Inspiration and Getting Started |
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