A Field Guide to Fabric Design by Kimberly Kight

As I've mentioned before, there are many talented designers on Spoonflower.  They can work absolute magic with the designs they upload.  Someday I'd like to be like them!

Kimberly Kight has written "A Field Guide to Fabric Design."  Her blog is www.trueup.net. The softcover book, 160 pages in length, is divided into three sections.  I'll get my only criticism of the book out of the way first: there is no index.  Even if the Contents page is comprehensive, I find an index is always helpful. Now on to the good stuff.

The book's first section deals with the basics of design and color, i.e., how to develop a style and the use of color.   There are four different kinds of patterns: one way, two way, tossed, and four way print.  When designing on Spoonflower, designers can automatically put their uploaded designs into a basic repeat pattern, a half drop repeat, a half brick repeat, or a mirror repeat.  My goal right now is just to achieve a seamless repeat.    Kimberly mentions that the eye is naturally attracted to a one way print; however, the disadvantage of a one way print is that more fabric is wasted in cutting out a pattern.   A tossed design, one that has no up or down, is print in which less fabric is wasted because pattern pieces can be cut any which way and the finished product will still look great. The section also covers set layouts as opposed to random layouts.  There are excellent tutorials for designing repeats by hand and also by computer and why we need to PROOF!

Under the heading of "Know Your Color," there are ideas for developing color  palettes and how these schemes can be applied in Illustrator and Photoshop. The upsides and downsides of following trends are included as well as where to go for inspiration.

Another important part of Section One is the Copyright Primer.  It covers how important it is to do your own work and it also talks about protecting your original work.  Public domain designs are discussed.  Also this helpful web site is included:  www.copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm.

In Section Two, printing the design is addressed.  There is an excellent tutorial on fabric construction and the different weaves that are involved.  After a discussion of weaves, there is a discussion of knits.  There are lots of illustrations and photographs.  She goes into fiber types and weights and yarn qualities.  There six pages devoted to which fabrics are conducive to digital printing and hand printing among other methods.  Kimberly also goes into lino block printer and rubber block printing.  Again, her instructions and illustrations are extensive.  Inks are also covered.  There is a section on digital printing.  Spoonflower is covered as well as other digital printing services.

Interspersed with the tutorials and basic information are discussions with designers about the various topics covered in this book.

The final section covers the world of fabric design: building your brand, going pro, design school?  There are also three pages at the very back of the book devoted to resources such as reading material, software, digital textile print services, supplies, websites, design programs, and trade shows.

This book is well worth the price.  I have marked and highlighted many of its pages.  In the evenings, when I'm tired of sitting in front of the computer, I read and re-read its pages.  Kimberly Kight did a great job and I highly recommend this book.