Textile Designing Basic Concepts

Textiles are frequently made to be decorative and are used to embellish and decorate both people and objects. The designers responsible for such textiles have to balance many factors when answering a design brief. What is the fabric for? How must it perform? Who is the customer? What are the economic restraints? How is the fabric to be produced? Etc.

Research into how people select products shows that colour and appearance are two of the most significant factors, with handle, performance and price coming lower down in terms of importance. Textile designers therefore need to have a good understanding and sensitivity to colour and aesthetics.
The same design elements and principles apply to design as to fine art, and an understanding of and an ability to use these are as vital to the designer as to the fine artist.


‘Design is about relating elements, whether they are similar or contrasting and visually arranging an interesting unity with them. Shapes, forms, colours and texture all combine to become a unified whole which is commonly called a design.’

Art and the act of creating are highly personal activities. In the first instance it may seem impossible to objectively analyze works of art. In different cultures and at different times, styles of art and even the media used to express art have varied enormously. There are, however, certain basic design features that appear to be natural and common to all art.