Tartan Design Feedback

[OC Richard]

Am I getting the gist of tartan design?

Seems to me you're doing just fine.

Peter is the one to ask though. He's a weaver and has examined many early tartans in person.

I'm just an American learning as best I can from secondary sources.

So take this with a grain of salt, but in my opinion tartan design is design, and good tartan design is good design. Study 2-dimensional design at any college and it's all clear, basic stuff like The Rule Of 3rds, The Golden Mean, and so on. Attractive tartans, and ancient Greek buildings, and traditional landscape paintings, and the phone you hold in your hand are all designed using the same principles.

Now, weavers might not realise that when they're designing a tartan the proportions they're using are universal, but it stands out like a sore thumb when people go about designing tartans on their computer, and come up with clumsy ill-proportioned designs which violate these universals.

Your designs are rather attenuated; any more and they might be too diffuse.

You could, if you wish, experiment with bulking up your designs a bit, and see if they become a bit stronger. I think your designs are fine as they stand, and a relief to the eye after seeing so many modern designs which are too chunky and congested.

What might not be as universal are some of the traditional tartan design motifs one sees over and over such as three stripes going narrow-broad-narrow or the reverse, or four stripes going narrow-broad-broad-narrow or the reverse.

BTW a fun way to experiment with pure design is to limit yourself to two colours, and see how attractive and interesting you can make it. Many's the weak design that looks attractive due to effective use of colour.

Here's a couple of my 2-colour experiments