3 Biggest Mistakes in Surface Pattern Design and How to Fix Them

In the world of surface pattern design, details matter. Whether you’re creating patterns for textiles, wallpapers, or products, a small mistake that makes it all the way into production can not only impact the overall aesthetic but jeopardize your brand as a designer. Allowing these mistakes to go unchecked, can make you look unpolished. To avoid that from happening to you, let’s look at the 3 most common mistakes in surface pattern design and how to avoid them.

Lines or Holes in the Pattern

Imagine you’re at an indoor event in one of the most lavish venues you’ve ever seen. The décor is beautiful, the food incredible, and the details immaculate. But none of that matters to you, because ten minutes into the event, you notice the wallpaper has a line in the repeat. You’re so distracted by it, that you can’t stop looking at it and analyzing how to fix it.

Lines or holes in a surface pattern design can occur for many reasons. Unbalanced motifs, improper alignment, or mishaps in editing can disrupt the visual harmony in your work. The culprit may even be the method in which you are putting your repeat together, paying too much attention to repeating on the edges, and not enough to the overall look of your design.

To avoid this mistake, pay meticulous attention to detail during the design process. Ensure that motifs are balanced and flow in all directions. Check your pattern from a distance, or zoom out as far as you can to see how this might look. If you can see a line from a distance, that means others can see it too. And as a surface pattern designer, it’s your job to make sure this doesn’t happen. In fact, the responsibility of it is just as important as all other aspects of the design.

Only Changing the Background Colors

When you are first learning to color your designs for a new industry or market, it can be so exciting to watch how drastic a look can change with just a small shift in color. But as you grow in your career, your expanded knowledge of how colors combine can help create your signature look. One of the most common beginner tendencies is relying solely on background color variations to create diversity.

While changing background colors can add visual interest, it’s not enough to elevate your design to the next level. Using the same motifs and only changing the background can make your patterns feel repetitive. The lack of depth within the different color combinations fails to connect with end users on a deeper level, even if they don’t understand why.

Experiment with colorations throughout all elements of your design in order to get a deeper color story. Playing with classic vs modern colors, trying colors you wouldn’t normally put together, and adding unexpected accents are all great ways to elevate your look. Don’t be afraid to break the rules.

Flipping Motifs Instead of Varying Them

One of the great joys of a surface pattern designer is seeing a pattern come to life for the first time when you align a single motif into a half-drop repeat layout. As you expand your skills, flipping or rotating elements is a simple technique to create symmetrical looks or to vary the look in your designs. However, relying solely on this method can lead to predictable and stagnant looks.

Part of your job as a surface pattern designer is to create visual interest that sparks an emotion in the viewer. When you don’t push the design enough, the viewer will be disinterested. The test for this is how easily you can figure out the repeat. If it only takes a glance, it’s not developed enough.

Instead, introduce thoughtful variation by experimenting with different motifs, scales, and textures to enrich the overall story of the piece. While it takes more time to expand a design in this way, the impact can be significant. 

Our roles as designers give us unique opportunities to evoke creativity, emotion, and personality into everything our patterns touch. It’s a delicate balance of inventiveness, pushing the boundaries, and attention to detail. By avoiding these common mistakes with pattern lines, uninspired colors, and homogeneous motifs, you will elevate your work and create fans who love what you do–even if they don’t understand the emotional reason behind it. And that is what creates a brand that others connect with and rave about.

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