A Core Theoretical Principle of Clothing Fabric and Complete LIST of “Printing” Expression Technology
Printing pattern design is a kind of processing technology in the design of fabric surface decoration. Generally, after forming the design idea, designer select the appropriate design style pattern based on theme and express it by some expression way like hand-drawing, collage art and photography and then they choose appropriate medium to further express their design.Finally, they finish work according to the printing technology matching with the fabric. In the creation of the works,only in the grasp of fabric design style pattern and fabric printing technology, can those application be handy. Taking the printing pattern design as an example, today ES apparel group who is one big clothing suppliers comprehensively summarizes the fabric design theory principle and the actual operation technology to let you learn fabric usage well which is the most important garment accessories.
Basic Principles on Fabric Design
1. Pattern Repetition
On a large piece of clothing fabric, the larger the range of repetition, the harder it is to see, and the smaller the range of repetition is, the more obvious it will be. In the process of design, learn to observe how to loop a length, to consider the direction of the pattern and the effect of splicing and so on.
2. Proportional Relationship
It is important to observe the proportion of design works during creation. We can change the proportion and put it on the human body to compare the effects, observe whether the pattern is too small, too repeated or too big to appear abstract and so on.
3. Arrangement and Layout
You can arrange the layout well if you can consider the location of each design point on the apparel product. We can choose to put it in the computer so as to make it easy to scale the design, meanwhile to make comparison in form of pattern tailoring.
4. Color Collocation
In the processing of the pattern design, if there is no good sense of color can be directly self-collocation, we had better do well in color theme board collocation in advance. Besides,we need to try the color effects of different materials, because though the color is same but the material is different, under different lighting conditions, there will be different tone and saturation.
Selection of Printing Design Style
With the development of fabric design, printing patterns have formed a variety of styles, these styles also reflect a variety of available printing methods .Following are some normal pattern styles that help to master more printing design methods.
1. Flower Pattern
Flower themes are popular styles and vary from season to season, with leaves and grasses falling into this category, but vegetables, fruits and trees are listed as folklore prints.
2. Broken Flower Pattern
A small cluster of cell patterns is scattered over a background.
3. Full Flower Pattern
Patterns spread throughout the garment fabric, occupying more space than the background.
4. Stereoscopic Realistic Pattern
A design that looks like three-dimensional which is one special design used well by other garment accessories like drawstrings, webbing tape, etc.
5. Stripe Pattern
A parallel striped line of color or monochrome clothing fabric.
6. Dot Pattern
A monochrome or multicolored circular pattern clothing fabric.
7. National Style Pattern
An exotic design often reminiscent of Africa, India, minorities, etc to show clothing fabric different character well.
8. Geometry and Abstract Patterns
Usually abstract, non-visual angular patterns garment fabrics.
9. Lattice Pattern
Intersected with multicolored horizontal and vertical banded lines and mixed in intersecting positions, this lattice pattern is most common with small squares full of clothing fabric.
10. Photographic Pattern
In order to produce a new design effect, the computer drawing software is used to design the layout of the apparel that will be photographed.
11. Hand-drawn Pattern
Original drawing, direct drawing of fabric or use of drawing software to repeat, the same proportion of magnification or small processing.
There are also folklore patterns, folk patterns, Chinese style patterns, gradual patterns, visual fantasy patterns, animal patterns, camouflage patterns and so on. When we master these basic clothing design styles, we can design our own print designs.
Fabric Printing Technology
After the design scheme is formed, it is necessary to carry on the printing pattern design on the fabric and select the suitable printing technology to realize changes of the pattern, the color and the texture change to complete the ready-to-wear production. Several printing techniques are described below:
1. Hand-Drawn Fabric
Use fabric pigments to print directly on the fabric. We can use a variety of tools like brushes, sponges, and so on. Processing a piece of fabric takes a long time, bringing a “handicraft” feeling.
2. Drum Printing Fabric
Developed from copperplate printing, one color is printed, and other additional colors are added by manual template printing or hand-drawing.
3. Circular Screen Printing Fabric
Its plate-making is to use the scraper to make the color paste in the circular net driven by pressure and printed on the fabric. Similar to roller printing, it is a continuous process in which the printed fabric is transported through a wide rubber belt to the moving drum.
4. Flat Screen Printing Fabric
Its plate is made of nylon and other materials wire mesh, with the frame taut, to achieve a rich, fine printing effect. Because of its wide range of flowers, wide adaptability and low cost of plate making, it is suitable for printing production of small batch and many varieties as well as mass production, so it has become a common printing method in screen printing.
5. Screen Printing Fabric
T-shirt printing technology is the most widely used. Printing technology is relatively complex, mainly includes design, printing, drying . By adding some special materials, there will be different printing effects to meet the special needs of customers.
6. Transfer Printing
First, flowers patterns are separated by computer, then the printing patterns are printed on special paper by using electronic engraving roller and ink, this is, heat transfer printing paper. After a certain time, temperature and pressure control, the pattern will be printed on the fabric.
7. Digital Printing
Digital printing can obtain high-resolution images by computer and print many colors . It is quiet different from the mentioned printing methods, the use of inkjet printing head is more sun resistant and washing resistant and cheaper than dye,besides it can be used in many types of fibers and fabrics. Of course, the fabric printing pattern does not mean just to choose the pattern to print on the clothing, the most important thing is to fit our own design theme.
