Creating a tartan for my college

[Liam]

I'm curious, why you think there is a need for a tartan. Is there a Scottish connection? Does the U have a pipe band? Sometimes it is better to adopt an existing tartan, since it is far more available and also far cheaper, because it doesn't require a special weave.
I'm not being critical, just trying to understand.
Slainte

[YOJiMBO20]

I curious, why you think there is a need for a tartan. Is there a Scottish connection? Does the U have a pipe band? Sometimes it is better to adopt an existing tartan, since it is far more available and also far cheaper, because it doesn't require a special weave.
I'm not being critical, just trying to understand.
Slainte

No, but I know a number of pipers who attended the school or are currently there.

Also, San Diego and Edinburgh are sister cities, and thought it might be cool for the school to have its own tartan. That's all.

[Liam]

No, but I know a number of pipers who attended the school or are currently there.

Also, San Diego and Edinburgh are sister cities, and thought it might be cool for the school to have its own tartan. That's all.

You may want to have a look at the existing City of Edinbugh tartan. To me it would seem an appropriate tartan to adopt.

[figheadair]

I very strongly support Liam's coments re the 'need' to design a tartan, especially for a college in a city in a State that already has its own tartan.

Is more stuff simply for the sake of it really necessary?

[YOJiMBO20]

Correct. There isn't a need, per se, of the school having a tartan. Yes, it's a school in a city with its own tartan in a state with its own tartan, but I still thought that it would be cool for the school to have its own tartan.

And, it wouldn't be alone. http://www.collegiatetartan.com/ shows quite a few schools with their own tartans. And I'm assuming these schools are in states that have their own tartans, and possibly cities with their own tartans as well.

[Liam]

Correct. There isn't a need, per se, of the school having a tartan. Yes, it's a school in a city with its own tartan in a state with its own tartan, but I still thought that it would be cool for the school to have its own tartan.

And, it wouldn't be alone. http://www.collegiatetartan.com/ shows quite a few schools with their own tartans. And I'm assuming these schools are in states that have their own tartans, and possibly cities with their own tartans as well.

Does your U have a tie? I have a tie from my U that I wear with my kilts. It is a much more affordable way of displaying your affiliation.

[OC Richard]

I'm going to weigh in with my Art School stuff, sorry!

And take my comments in the intended spirit, that of constructive criticism, of dispassionate discussion of purely technical merits.

I feel that tartan has a lack of integration, in other words it doesn't work well as an organic whole. What does this gobbledygook mean? I mean that it seems to be two different pieces of fabric, one laid over the other, because the two portions are different both in colour and in scale, and there's an abrupt change between the two (no area that serves as a transition to smooth the eye's movement across the tartan).

A picture is worth a thousand words and I'll make a quick demo to show what I mean.

Here's a very quick stab at it. I've kept the red/black/white and the blue/gold/purple portions separate, yet there's not a jarring disconnect between the two sections, rather they feel like one whole piece of cloth to my eye. (It would help to know the exact shade of blue, the exact shade of purple.)

Now why did I make the black and white lines thin? Because they were overpowering the rest of the design unless they were reduced. Likewise I had to keep making the purple and blue stripes fatter until they could hold their own. It's all about balance.



Here's a different colour selection etc. The white and black, relatively larger, are starting to overpower the rest of the design.



Here's a different version, probably too intricate and busy.