If you’ve started creating lots of designs and you now want to start creating pattern design collections, there are a few things you need to think about before you start.

Creating Pattern Design Collections

The first thing is creating a theme for your collection. So you’ll need to research and develop ideas that you’re going to base your whole collection on. This will help keep your whole collection cohesive so all the designs look good when they’re placed together.

Hero Design

The first place I recommend you starting within your collection is on your hero print or hero design. The hero design should be the stand out design of your entire collection. So if you place all of your designs together it should really be the wow factor of the collection. It will usually use most of the colours in your colour palette and complex design elements and it should be the design that really stands out in the collection.

Secondary Designs

From there you can create a secondary design/s. These designs will also be quite complex. They should use different design elements from the main design but will still be a stand out design in its own right but will accompany your main design.

 Coordinates

You will then create a range of coordinate designs. Coordinates are designs that are developed to work alongside your main design. They are generally less complex designs with usually fewer colours. They can be as simple as spots or stripes or have more detailed elements. Most importantly they should remain cohesive with your hero and secondary designs.

All of your designs within your collection should go together cohesively and none should stand out as not belonging.

Tips

In order to create an interesting and cohesive collection of designs, there are a few things that you should consider.

You could try:

• changing the proportion of colour within each design
• change the background colours within each design
• using different scales for your patterns e.g. some large scale, some small scale
• using different repeat types e.g. not using the same repeat type for every design

You could also look at adding:

• A placement print. That is a design that isn’t in repeat
• Colourways of your designs

 

A collection can consist of any number of designs. The number of designs within a collection will depend on your brief and can be anywhere from a few to designs to many, many designs. Regardless of the number of designs within your collection, the most important thing to ensure is that it is cohesive.