When researching 2024 pattern trends, a common thread ran through everyone’s predictions: personalized style. Sure, there were other styles and motifs mentioned, which we’ll discuss, but the overarching theme was: Whatever you like, that’s what’s in. It seems like a lot of people are growing bored with the social-media-ready rooms that fit neatly into a […]
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During the pandemic, I discovered (and instantly binged) The Great Pottery Throwdown on MAX. In the throes of uncertainty (pun intended), it was the kind of relaxing television I found soothing. Nice people making stuff in a beautiful setting. What’s not to love? I’ve always loved pottery and appreciate the skill involved in making it. […]
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Our new Vintage Tiles collection is an homage to classic tile patterns. Kristen designed this collection to give interior designers an option to have the look of tile in spaces where they couldn’t install the real thing, whether because of budget restraints or cleaning requirements. Kristen created the illusion of authentic tile pieces by designing […]
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New in the Design Pool library, The Quilt Collection, designed by Kristen Dettoni. Kristen has always had a fascination with quilts. “The quilts I grew up surrounded by always had a lot of personal meaning. They held a special place in my heart, made by people who loved me.” Kristen wanted to create a collection […]
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Up now through February 4, 2024, at the Cooper Hewitt in New York City, is A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes. This exhibit is an absolute must-see for any lover of weaving, textiles, or just good design. Dorothy Liebes was a prolific and influential designer whose work was revolutionary in […]
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The Ikat Collection, designed entirely by Kristen Dettoni, is new in the Design Pool licensable library. This new collection is inspired by the resist dye technique known as ikat and the beautiful textiles it produces. But first, what is ikat? To describe ikat in the simplest of terms, it’s a resist dye technique. However, unlike […]
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Despite having lived in New England for most of my adult life, it took listening to a podcast from an English journalist to learn about a unique group of designers living on the North Shore of Massachusetts. If you’re a textile maker, enthusiast, or someone who loves a well-researched story, you may already be familiar […]
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After plain weave, the twill is the next most common weave structure. You will recognize it by the distinct diagonal line visible on the face of the fabric. Unlike in plain weave, where the weft yarn goes over one warp thread and under the next, the binding points in a twill happen in a diagonal […]
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Textile design is a complex, fascinating, and ancient field of study. Every human on this planet is intimately involved with textiles, yet very few people consider textiles much at all. For thousands of years, all over the world, textiles protected us, comforted us, and gave us a way to communicate information about ourselves with the […]
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There is a reason classic argyle socks have become a favorite for wearing and gifting alike. This pattern stands the test of time, has wide-reaching appeal and has an exciting history. While we don’t have any traditional versions in our licensable library, we have several patterns inspired by this classic. These translate well in residential […]
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Textile and pattern designers often throw down a term that seems counterintuitive, plain fabric. When we say plain fabric, we’re referring to a material with minimal patterning and usually solid or tonal in color. If we’re being honest, nothing about fabric or pattern is ever plain at all! Look closely at even the most unassuming […]
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Summer is officially here, NeoCon 2022 is officially over. We all deserve a little downtime, right? As I stare down the huge pile of books begging to be read, I’m thinking back to a few favorites that have been inspiring the Design Pool team lately. In unique ways, each of these five books offered a […]
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In the spring of 2022, I joined a group of thirteen women on a Local Flora Field Guides trip to Holland. The trip was led by Kimberly Becker, Lauren Pignatello, and Susan Becker with the goal of experiencing the country while learning about the local flora and creating field guides. Each of the three hosts […]
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I am a sucker for a good documentary, especially ones focusing on creative people. Fashion documentaries in particular are one of my weaknesses. I find it fascinating to see how creative people work and build a business. Plus, fashion designers are inspiring on so many levels – visually, creatively, and professionally. As an entrepreneur, I […]
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Diamonds are a popular motif in textile design. As a result, there are a lot of different terms textile designers use to describe the different types of diamond designs they create. As you search our licensable library, you’ll see in the Theme search menu an option to view Harlequin. What exactly does that mean? Textile […]
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How do you turn your inspiration into something tangible? Of course, sometimes you don’t need to. Inspiration for the sake of it fuels our creativity whether or not there is a direct line to a piece of art or project for work. But, it’s also helpful to save inspiration to use as resources when you […]
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As winter loosens its grip on New England, our team was feeling the need for an inspiration day. Our small team works remotely, separated by about 90 miles. Technology makes it easy, but it’s nice to have real-life face time every couple of months. I had just spent two weeks on Kauai and was feeling […]
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For a lot of creative people, traveling can be a huge source of inspiration. Different scenes, smells, and sounds all heighten your senses and seem to open the door to new ideas. Once home, how can we take that inspiration and use it in our work? I recently got back from two weeks on Kauai, […]
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Stripes truly are one of the most ubiquitous types of patterns. From the moment humans decided to make their everyday items decorative, they have been using stripes. While some people hear the word stripe and think of solid lines of color lined up next to each other, a stripe can be much more than that. […]
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On a recent visit to North Carolina, I visited the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh to see their exhibit Alphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau Visionary. This exhibit is on display through January 23, 2022. When I lived in North Carolina in the 1990s, this museum was one of my favorite spots to visit for […]
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Textile lovers in the northeast should absolutely add a visit to the Montclair Museum of Art to their holiday break to-do list. Their featured exhibit, Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles closes on January 2, 2022. This exhibit, which originally opened at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, is a breathtaking collection of Navajo (Diné) […]
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In our licensable library, we have many different categories to make searching through our 600+ patterns easy. There are filters for shape, technique, theme, market, and color family. We also have three main categories: Geometric Patterns, Landscape Patterns, and Organic Patterns. Geometric and organic are probably easy to visualize. A geometric pattern has harder edges […]
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When designing the patterns in The Cryptology Collections, Kristen used a unique technique she developed exclusively for this collection. Her initial inspiration was to pay homage to the women codebreakers whose work went unrecognized in their lifetime. What better way to do this, than with codes. Kristen created a collection of patterns, each containing a […]
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An ombré is a stripe or pattern with gradual shading and blending from one color to another. In fact, the word ombré itself comes from the French word meaning shaded. A designer or artist can create an ombré using most textile techniques, including knitting, weaving, printing, and dyeing. Ombrés first appeared in pattern designs in […]
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The Greek Key is a common motif in textile design and many other places where decorative elements are necessary. Whether or not you know the name, you have most likely seen a Greek Key design. In fact, it may even be in your home. Often used as a border, it is also used frequently in […]
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Designers Today is a digital and print magazine that promotes itself as the link between interior designers and the home furnishings industry. As part of their goal in pushing the envelope to make the interior design profession stronger and more transparent, they are hosting a yearlong webinar series that interviews experts on their business practices. […]
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Chintz, glazed cotton prints, were the rage in over-the-top interiors in the 1980s and an excess associated with interior designer Mario Buatta, among others. This pattern-upon-pattern riot eventually died out, giving way to the minimalist and ubiquitous mid-century modern aesthetic –first in beige, and then in all white- we have been living with since. Polychrome […]
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What could possibly be meant by the term The Inca Insistence? I will get to this! First, I have to explain how patterns are categorized and how this is culturally relevant. Previously in this blog, we have discussed basic pattern repeats. An ogee, such as this image below (and which we defined here), is an […]
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Is there anything more frustrating than a creative block? At best they make you feel like you’ve wasted valuable time. At worst they can make you question all your life choices. When you make a living off your creativity, feeling blocked can be more than a nuisance. It can cause a lot of anxiety. Yet, […]
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A novelty print describes a particular type of pattern. Sometimes referred to as a conversational print, a novelty print has something about it that is, well, novel. These prints go beyond the familiar motifs of flowers, leaves, scrolls, and shapes. Instead, these designs contain unusual, but recognizable motifs. The novelty of the motif itself is […]
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“I have to find a light somewhere,” thought Luise Stromberg as spring turned to summer in 2020. Like most of us, Luise was spending most of her time home and was searching for a creative spark to get her through the dark time we were all experiencing. So, she turned to a passion of hers, […]
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No conversation about sustainability exists without mentioning transportation and cars. And most of that conversation tends to center around our driving habits and gas emissions. We don’t think much about the actual car interior that we’re sitting in. That is changing though. Helen Scott, Head of Fabric Design at Borgstena Textile North America, spent much […]
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In our previous post about resist dyeing, we focused on the 4 most common techniques for creating shibori patterns on fabric. We talked about binding, stitching, folding, and pole wrapping as ways to add pattern to fabric. In this article, we’re going to dig deeper into the world of resist dyeing and discuss different types […]
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Whether chic and elegant or wild and punk rock, animal skin prints are seemingly always on-trend. In fact, it’s almost as if our affinity toward them is in our collective DNA. Animal skins and hides were used around the world to clothe people for hundreds of years out of necessity. Some cultures even believed the […]
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Plaids and checks. These two words often show up together, but they are not actually interchangeable. They refer to different types of patterns. Before we get into the differences between a plaid and a check, it’s important to know that both words traditionally describe a woven cloth. So, let’s start by talking about weaving. Plaids […]
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The world of textile design encompasses a variety of skills and techniques which fall into two main categories. The first describes the actual construction of a fabric out of individual fiber and threads. In other words, interlacing yarn through weaving or knitting, or interlocking just fibers through a process such as felting. Secondly, textile design […]
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The Jacobean Age takes its name from Jacobus, the Latin form of King James I of England. This style of 17th-century decor is best known for intricate carvings, heavy oak furniture, detailed tapestries, and especially crewel embroideries with flowing designs. The type of patterning associated with Jacobean Design has its roots in two places. First, […]
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Anni Albers is best known for her time in the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus in Germany and later as a teacher at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. But that is only half of her story. In 1950, she and her husband Josef moved to Connecticut when Josef accepted a job at Yale University. […]
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Artists and designers from across disciplines often have something in common, a daily creative practice. It makes sense. Art takes work, practice, and most of all, time. Whether you make art for your job, your hobby, or your side hustle, the need to create is competing for your time with everything else in your life. […]
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Humans have been turning fibers into materials with which to clothe themselves, warm themselves and express themselves for millennia. Still, there are certain moments in time we can point to as having made huge impacts on the way textiles are made. The invention of the cotton gin and then of the spinning jenny are two […]
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Ikat fabrics are beautiful, intriguing, and always in style. While other types of patterning come in and out of fashion, there is something about ikat that manages to always stay relevant. It’s nothing new. This has been the case around the world and throughout history. What exactly is ikat? Ikat (pronounced: E–cot) is a method […]
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As a textile designer, one of the best tools in my designer toolbox is my texture library. Designing patterns digitally, I sometimes felt the patterns looked a little flat. To breathe life into a pattern, I add texture to a design instead of a flat color. This technique optimizes a pattern by adding depth and […]
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If you’re not careful, work-from-home life can easily turn into work-all-the-time life. Spending more time at home, have you found yourself working more? At Design Pool, we’re definitely guilty of it. That’s why we’ve been so inspired lately by friends giving themselves the time for creativity. We’re particularly loving those with a daily creative practice. […]
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Picking the right material to use for digital printing is an important one. If you’re working with print-on-demand companies or thinking about customizing materials for your next project, you know there are a lot of options out there. That’s the fun of customizing! Still, it’s a lot to take in if you’re new to materials […]
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Paula Stebbins Becker has worked in the textile industry for decades. In fact, she has designed for us at Design Pool. We know her to be a talented designer with a keen eye and rich experience. Yet, when we asked Paula to talk with us for our Talking Trends series, she was reluctant, uncertain if […]
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Growing up one of three girls, time alone with my mom was not something that came in big doses; but was always savored. Our interests didn’t always align perfectly, but browsing through dusty antique stores or wandering through museums were always activities we could count on doing together. So when we first started thinking about […]
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Occasionally, at Design Pool, I receive a request to replicate an antique textile, and I rarely say no, if I can. If the company making the request owns the copyright to the design, then this is something I can help them with. If not, I have to politely decline the project. Recreating an antique textile […]
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Chevron, according to textile historian Susan Meller, “are offspring of the herringbone weave, in which columns of short diagonal stripes meeting in a line of Vs not unlike the skeletons of a fish. Some herringbone prints imitate a woven herringbone, complete with uneven lines that imply the roughness of woolly threads; others loudly declare their independence […]
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If it wasn’t obvious by now, I’m a pattern lover! I love designing patterns and surrounding myself with them in my home. (Not to mention wearing them!) As a result, I often get questions from friends and clients about how best to coordinate patterns in a room or project. I’m not an interior designer, however, […]
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Everyone at Design Pool may have different roles, but we all have one thing in common. We all have degrees in textile design. When people ask the standard cocktail party question, “What do you do?” answering, “I’m a textile designer” is nearly always a surprise, which kind of blows our minds. We surround ourselves in […]
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If you’re a pattern and design lover like we are at Design Pool, Spain needs to be on your bucket list. Narrow that down even further to southern Spain, where the decorative Spanish tiles used in the architecture will blow you away. On a recent trip to Seville, it was inspiration overload walking through the […]
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A houndstooth refers to a design created in a woven cloth through a color and weave effect. Traditionally, the warp layout is designed with alternating bands of four dark threads followed by four white threads. Similarly, the weft is woven with four dark threads followed by four light threads. The weaving is done with a […]
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An ogee is a distinctive pattern with two continuous S-shaped curves narrowing and widening. These two curves form a perfect oval before repeating out gracefully. Known for their pleasing flow and rhythm, this layout is extremely versatile as a design element. In fact, designers from cultures all around the globe have been using it in […]
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At Design Pool, we like to say that our creative process is client-driven. We do this work because we love to see our designs find their way into a client’s product and out into the marketplace. Founder Kristen Dettoni does the majority of the design work for Design Pool and is passionate about creating a […]
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2019 has been an exciting year for anyone who appreciates the women of the Bauhaus. Around the world, museums have been installing exhibits that celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany in 1919. From a vast retrospective of Anni Albers at the Tate Modern in London to The Bauhaus and Harvard, a […]
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Georgia O’Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and said later, “From then on, I was always trying to get back there.” New Mexico can have that effect on people. The big sky, the clear air, the piñon trees dotting the landscape, it’s no wonder so many artists flock to New Mexico. And then keep […]
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Design Pool is excited to let you know about a volunteer project we are working on to create textile reproductions for Museum L-A in Lewiston, Maine. Museum L-A was founded to tell the story of the textile mill workers who had once worked in the Bates Mill in Lewiston, which ceased production in 2001. Their mission reads […]
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Anyone lucky enough to have seen a suzani up close will always remember the experience. These beautiful textiles are expertly crafted by skilled artists, and their size and density of stitches are awe-inspiring. The stitching is what gives these textiles their name. The word suzani is derived from the Persian word suzan, which means needle. A […]
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According to the classic book Textile Designs by Susan Meller and Joost Elffers, “the plaid is a box layout of stripes, usually horizontal and vertical, and almost always crossing at right angles. The simple definition is scarcely very descriptive, but plaids have been produced in such vast variety since the beginning of modern textile printing that a […]
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During her recent trip to Ireland and Scotland, Design Pool founder Kristen Dettoni spent seven days in the Scottish Highlands with ACE Camps. One of those days was spent visiting the Knockando Woolmill, where Kristen was just as inspired by the history as the fabrics. Knockando derives from the Scottish Gaelic cnoc cheannachd, meaning “Hill of Commerce,” […]
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About three years ago, I learned of a company called ACE Camps through a colleague. I describe it as an adult creative summer camp. It has always been a bit of struggle for me to find friends with similar vacation interests, but when I heard about ACE Camps, I decided to step outside of my comfort zone […]
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There is always the desire to bring the outdoors inside to our interior spaces. The garden as a source of design inspiration offers endless forms, colors, and textures that create a feast for the eyes and senses. A trellis (treillage) is an architectural structure, usually made from an open framework or lattice of interwoven or intersecting elements […]
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Running your own creative business can be incredibly fulfilling and rewarding, and the life of an entrepreneur is never boring. But a creative business is not all drawing and drooling over color swatches. It’s also sending out checks, figuring out why your website isn’t updating and making sure there is toilet paper in the bathroom. […]
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Computer software may make it easy to take a motif and tile it out, but that doesn’t mean that a pattern has been designed in a pattern repeat. In fact, a skilled pattern designer can spot a design that has just been tiled out and not designed in a pattern repeat from a mile away. […]
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It is safe to assume, that nearly everyone has had a polka dot pattern in their clothes or linen closet at some point in their life. It seems from the first time this pattern made an appearance, it has always been on trend in one form or another. Polka dots are fairly recent in the […]
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Damask textiles originated in China around 300BC. The knowledge of this weaving technique slowly spread west from there. They are named after the significant silk road trading city Damascus, Syria. These finely patterned textiles grew to major production in the Middle Ages, particularly in the Middle East. Legend often credits Marco Polo with bringing the […]
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