Design Basics

The design curation process guarantees a flawless selection of designs for our partners and more sales possibilities for designers. A great design is both beautiful and technically sound. In digital printing, what you see on screen is what will be printed on fabric. Therefore, we are selective when choosing designs to share with our partners. Each published design goes through a curation process, where we examine it for flaws. Appropriate designs may be shared with our commercial partners, while designs with technical issues will not. We reserve the right to  keep designs with major flaws unpublished. To help you to optimize your design’s potential, we’ve put together this post to explain some of the things we are looking for when we curate designs. Design Curation Process: what we look for in scale The best trick to scaling a design for WeaveUp is setting it at 150dpi and fit within 54”. Keep in mind that some of our clients are in Home Decor trades, where motifs are preferred to be large-scale. With WeaveUp’s Customization Tool you: Can reduce a design’s original scale. Can not increase a design’s original scale. Here’s what we look for regarding scale. Appropriate scale for the intended use: Designs should not be scaled too small, as our tool is unable to enlarge them more than the original file size. Optimal resolution and quality: Designs should be clean and sharp, and free of pixels and noise created by inappropriately enlarging the image. Design Curation Process: what we look for in repeats. Here’s what we look for in Basic, Half-Brick, or Half-Drop Repeats. Seamless Repeats: Elements in your design match along the repeat line. Spacing: Elements should be spaced well and no visible lines or large clumps between them. Rotation: Elements should be well placed and not duplicated too close together. Background: Pattern in the background, if present, should be seamless as well. Here’s what we look for in Mirrored Repeats. Cropping: Elements should be cropped appropriately, ensuring they aren not cropped at odd points. Shapes: All shapes created when repeated should be deliberate and not oddly met. Background Pattern: Should be repeating appropriately and not breaking when repeated. Design Curation Process: Line Quality The universal rule is that edges and lines, when present, are clean, continuous and free of stray pixels. When evaluating designs for line quality and noise, we consider the type of design and the artist’s intent. Here’s what we look for regarding image and line quality. Cleanliness: The design, including backgrounds, should be clear of any stray pixels or unwanted noise. Clear edges: The design should have clean, free of unwanted pixels and sharp edges. Smooth and straight lines: The design’s lines should be smooth, or show that curves and bumps are deliberate. Free of overly fine lines: When lines are too narrow, they break down in a different scale. Design Curation Process: Color The best trick for your design to be color-customizable is to create it appropriately, with 12 colors maximum and on a

On our previous post, we talked about how to change a design's color. Most designs have an intended repeat, with the WeaveUp Customization Tool you can change design repeats. Let's take a closer look. Change Design Repeats.   Let's start by taking a look at the different types of repeats available at WeaveUp: Basic Repeat: Also referred to as a block repeat, this is the simplest repeat style. Your motif is designed as a rectangle that is repeated in a simple grid across the surface. 4-Way Mirror Repeat: This repeat style mirrors your motif both vertically and horizontally. Half-brick Repeat: This repeat style most closely resembles a brick wall. Your motif is repeated in rows, with each row stepping sideways halfway. Half-drop Repeat: Imagine a brick wall rotated 90 degrees: that is a half-drop repeat. Your motif is repeated in columns, with each column stepping down halfway. Change Design Repeats to Basic. The majority of designs in WeaveUp have been created using Basic Repeats, especially when they have seamless repeats. Notice how objects repeat through the area evenly. Geometric design, notice how everything repeats evenly using the Basic Repeat. This simple design repeats evenly throughout. Floral Design, notice how everything repeats seamlessly using the Basic Repeat.   Change Design Repeats to 4-Way Mirror. While not all designs will work with this repeat style, it is a good tool to use when a design is not set up with seamless repeat. Change design repeats using this mirror look and get completely different results. Notice how this "waves" design made some ovals/geometrics by simply changing the repeat to mirror repeat. Geometric design, notice how each triangle is facing each other, changing the look from triangles in squares to diamonds. These triangles create a whole new look when set up in mirror repeat. Floral design, notice how some of the flowers overlap with the next, this is because the edge of the image is intended to repeat seamlessly.   Change Design Repeats to Half-Brick. Change design repeats using this option, and see how the objects shift 50% to the left. Below are a couple of examples of this repeat: This design is one triangle in the center of a solid color square, therefore it looks evenly when you use the repeat.  Geometric design, notice that because the objects are in a perfect square, the design works in this repeat.. Floral design, because this design was created with a seamless, basic repeat, the objects will break up when repeating on this setting, breaking the design.   Change Design Repeats to Half-Drop. With this option, you can change design repeats by moving the objects in columns and dropping them 50% down. This is a great repeat to use for designs that have the objects in the center, for example, polka dots, triangles, and certain geometrics. Notice how setting up this repeat for this simple design allows for the objects to repeat in an even manner. Notice how there does not seem to be any change to the way this design repeats

You can change design colors with our WeaveUp platform! Assuming that a design has been Optimized {click here to learn more about this},  you can change the color, repeat and scale. We use LAB and RGB/HEX Color Settings, the biggest difference between the two is that you can find more color values on the LAB space than you can  on RGB/HEX. There are many ways to change design colors in our platform, let's take a closer look. Change Design Colors. Current Colors. If the design is customizable, you will see all the "color chips" appear on this tool. On each color you will have the option to "Copy" it with the color-drop icon, or "Paste" a color with the drop icon. LAB Values. If you are working with our Huesteria Palette or Mini Guide, you'll notice that we use LAB colors. We explain LAB colors below: L for lightness: 0 to 100, zero represents darkness, therefore one hundred represents lightness. A for green to red: -128 to 127, the lower the number, the greener it gets. If you want more red, then, the number should be higher. B for blue to yellow: -128 to 127, the lower the number, the bluer it gets. If you want more yellow, then, the number should be higher.   This is a LAB Color Value Chart   Color Picker. If you prefer to move the mouse around, the color picker is right for you! Simply move and slide the small circle around the color wheel to find the color you are looking for. When the selector moves, the numbers around the tool change, therefore changing the design colors to what you select. Lightness Slider. This slider will show you different versions of the color you selected from lighter to darker. RGB Values & HEX Codes. These are very tightly related, they both live in the same color space. As one writer added to their blog post: "HEX color code is shorthand for its RGB values with a little conversion gymnastics in between".  We explain RGB colors as follow: R for red: 0 to 255, if the number is closer to 255, then it will have more red. G for green: 0 to 255, if the number is closer to 255, then it will have more green. B is for blue: 0 to 255, if the number is closer to 255, then it will have more blue. My Colors. Create your own palettes! As you work with the designs, you can save colors. Clicking on the "+" sign, you can add up to 12 colors to each palette you create. Saving Your Own Palettes. This tool makes it easier to create collections, make coordinates, and save your favorite colors. Featured Palettes. Select from our Pre-Curated Palette Collections. The image above, shows how a design can be changed in 6 different ways.