Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Fabric Design: Design, Print & Sell Your Own Fabric; Traditional & Digital Techniques; For Quilting, Home Dec & Apparel

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Over the years I've written a little about how to become a fabric designer. Seems like most of the up-and-coming pattern designers in our biz aspire to designing fabric too one day. And the q-biz is responding by hosting fabric design contests in a consistent way over the last year. This Field Guide might very well be the first mainstream published book in our neck of the woods to address this very interest.

Tapping into the experience of some of the more popular fabric designers (think Tula, Denyse, Amy and Jenean for example--and it's because we know them by first name that we can bestow them with "popular") Kimberly Kight (of the True Up blog) explains in great detail and with lots of visual examples how fabric design works, what the technical aspects are (repeats, spacing and motifs) and how to work with today's tech tools to create multiple collections. Oh, and there's the stuff about color and types of fabric that fill in the knowledge gaps too.

What I really like about this book is that Kimberly assumes from the start you whoever picks it up and follows its guidance will become a big enough name in the q-world to warrant her information on licensing and copyright. That's just cool!

-This review was written for Generation Q Magazine an e-zine specializing in the quilting and sewing industry, by me, Jake Finch, one of the editors. We wanted to re-post it here because this really is an awesome book that Kimberly's written!

I got this book not knowing a whole lot about fabric design, just a little bit of exposure here and there to the industry. This book is not a how to necessarily for step by step how to design fabric (IE using photo shop or illustrator) but rather focuses on resources and pros and cons of different ways to design fabric (IE block printing, Spoonflower, mass production). The book also touches on some of the business ramifications of each arena such as minimum runs, cost per yard and what to look for when selecting a process. I definitley would reccomend this book for anyone thinking about doing any kind of fabric design for a business purpose.

Length:: 3:07 Mins

I've been creating textile surface designs for 20 years for both the garment industry and my own quilting fabric manufacturing business and I am amazed at how well this book puts all my years of knowledge into a nice little package. It's clear, well laid out and easy to comprehend. From repeat layout to color to how to build a collection of prints; from introduction to various printing methods to copyright concerns to base cloth options and beyond, this book touches upon so many invaluable points. It's a topnotch resource. I highly recommend this book to beginners especially. It is very well-written and concepts are well-illustrated. The textile examples depicted and the perspectives of contributing designers are inspiring. It is the book I wish I had when I first started in the business.

This book is well-researched, well-written and very informative about a process on which there is very little current information. If you are a budding fabric designer, it will answer lots of your questions in one place. If you are a fabric geek, you will also love it as it will increase your knowledge of printing processes, repeats, coloring, and collections. The author also has a great collection and variety of fabrics (many vintage) she uses as examples throughout the book.

This book is nothing short of a treasure trove of information about the many ways to design & manufacture fabric. Although I self-produce my own designs for my business, I don't have a degree or vast work experience in the field. Everything I know is self-taught. For that reason, the breadth and depth of topics covered by Kim has been very informative and truly educational! I have several sections marked for further exploration as well as quick reference. If you're new to fabric design, this book will be invaluable to you in your endeavors! Great job, Kim!!

I had one reason to want this book: I wanted to know how you design a repeating pattern. Not knowing was very perplexing for me. As far as I could tell, the only way I could design a repeating pattern would be to wrap a piece of paper around a tube and draw on it. That sounded borderline ridiculous so I needed this book.

Kim's book satisfied my curiosity, (no tubes!) but it did so much more as well.

First of all, a week after I read it I ended up designing my first fabric. Coincidence? Absolutely not. This book gave me the lift I needed to go from a good idea to an actual design. It helped me understand some important concepts that I could apply to the tools I had available. In my case, an iPad with a simple illustration program, but whatever your supplies are, even if they are just pencil and paper, there are instructions for you too. Do you want to do screen printing or block printing? Do you want to design with Photoshop or Illustrator for digital printing? All the steps are explained for whichever way you'd like to design.

The book also prepared me for dealing with color variation between my computer screen and online printers. Information on printing processes, types of fabric, and color theory are in there as well. There is a lot in the book I didn't expect. Some of it may not be useful to me right now (for instance, things to consider if licensing your designs) but I have to say I'm impressed at how thorough the book is. I can see that whether I just want to create an occasional fabric design, or if I get bitten by the bug and decide to pursue it as a serious venture, I will refer to A Field Guide to Fabric Design over and over in the coming years.

Review originally published on the blog A Few Scraps

This is bound to be a very popular book as fabric designing is so desirable and so now. Kimberly starts by taking a look at contemporary fabric design, she then goes deeper into the fundamentals of design and colour. Patten layout and repeats is a good section. She lloks at different ways of designing - by hand drawing, Illustrator and so on. There is an in-depth look at printing methods and producing fabric. Designers give their insight too. I liked the layout and design of this book and it has very good content, written in an easy to understand style with excellent supporting photographs. Basically this book will take you through exactly what you need to know to be a fabric designer. This review first appeared on yarnsandfabrics website.

I have spent a number of years reading about various aspects of design, whether it be ceramic, typographic, or graphic in nature. Quite a number of these books are intended to give an overview of the industry and how to grasp an understanding of how to begin your own exploration. This is one of the few books that I have come across that offers a wealth of information in an easily comprehensible fashion. The author, Kimberly Kight does an exceptional job of helping you understand the following:

* The foundations of design and color for fabric

* The printing process for both traditional and contemporary methods

* The overall applications of fabric design and

* (Most importantly) how to go about doing it yourself, by including tutorials and advice from practicing designers

I wish more DIY books were like this one. She leaves you with an enthusiasm to begin you're own designs and to share what you've learned. I highly recommend A Field Guide to Fabric Design.

If you've ever visited Spoonflower or Karma Kraft and thought you'd like to design your own fabric then this book teaches you everything you need to know. Kimberly shows you how to design by hand and how to handle those pesky "repeats" as well as how to do it all in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. If, like me, you can't afford such expensive software then she also shows you where to find free software that will do much the same thing.

Throughout the book Kimberly consults a "round table" of famous fabric designers, including Amy Butler, Denise Schmidt, Jessica Moore and Tula Pink, and asks them how they face particular design challenges such as inspiration overload or designer's block and more.

This book takes you from the very beginning, with baby steps and lots of hand-holding. You'll learn about printing techniques, design software, fabric types and their suitability for printing, design aspects, colour choices and more.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I'm keen to give it a go myself. If you're thinking of designing your own fabric this book is full of know-how as well as comprehensive lists of the resources you need to help you.

Excellent work Kimberly.