Project- Our own tartan design

**OC Richard** · 29th September 20, 08:08 AM

To me it feels like there are too many things competing for my eye's attention.

I think tartans work best when the eye is given resting-places.

For sure there are traditional tartans that have a congested feel, but whether a tartan is old or new doesn't matter to the eye, and good design will always be good design.

So much of good design is balance. Designs look best if there's a balance between active areas and restful areas, warm colours and cool colours, light and dark, etc.

With your tartan I think the solution to the congestion or hyperactive feel would be easy. See the black stripe in the red area? My eye wants to see that black stripe narrower, the red field a bit wider. That would create a calm/restful area, I think.

OK I tried it real quick, the colours I have there are bad but you can see that the design is less congested, more open-feeling, and the eye has a resting-place in the red field. Sorry it's just a screen shot with my phone, I'm not a registered user with that Clan tartan thing.

**kiltedsawyer** · 29th September 20, 12:18 PM

I am okay with the color choices, however I have to agree with OC Richard that some simplification might be in order.
Good start, best of luck,

David

**OC Richard** · 30th September 20, 11:19 AM

Just to clarify, I followed each stripe of the tartan in the OP as exactly as I could, so my mockup should have all the same stripes in all the same places as the original. My only change was to adjust the relative widths of some of the stripes.

I pretty much left the main motif the same (the most complex/dense part of the design) but made the red field wider and the black line within it narrower to give a calmer, more restful portion.

This balance of a complex/dense/busy portion and an open/restful portion is a feature of a large number of tartans, perhaps most of them.

**Purgy** · 30th September 20, 02:24 PM

OC Richard,
Thanks for the comments and clarifications, I’m thinking and “playing” with the new designs, so I’m not responding detailed, at the moment, to replies,
but as soon as there will be something "important" from my side, I will definitely share it with you.
I understand and accept the suggestions and I'm in search of balance, as we speak/write.

**OC Richard** · 6th October 20, 08:26 AM

An example of a single change in proportion making a big difference in the overall effect is Royal Stewart.

The same tartan, but with the red field reduced to a stripe, is called Prince Charles Edward Stuart.

Now one could rightly say that which of the two is "better" is simply a matter of opinion.

However the upper version, with the wider red area, is incalculably more popular than the lower version. I think it's because the busy/congested area of the tartan is balanced with a calm/open area, while PCES is busy/congested all over, giving the eye no rest. My old Pipe Major called it "the test pattern effect".

This is precisely what I saw in your upper image, and the thing my version tried to address.

I will admit that mine might have gone too far the other way, in an effort to make my point.

**Purgy** · 6th October 20, 03:28 PM

OC Richard
Thanks for the message, but from the beginning I understood what your advice was about, and I accepted it as a well-intentioned suggestion from the first.
I work on the design every day, for at least half an hour and since writing this thread I have made at least 15 new/similar versions.
Following all the advices, I will never cross the line that tartan lose special meaning for me/my family.
I hope to publish a couple of the most acceptable versions soon, so we will continue to comment and collaborate further.
I am grateful for every comment/reply and help.

**OC Richard** · 6th October 20, 04:48 PM

Sorry I didn't want to beat a dead horse, but give an existing (and well-known) example the thing I was talking about.

Actually the same thing has happened with many of the tartans that have been around for a couple hundred years.

In The Setts Of The Scottish Tartans (1950) DC Stewart writes

"...changes of fashion are to be observed in the relative proportions of the elements of which a design is made up.

A comparison of the setts given by Logan (1831) with those used now shows a change during the interval. Many of Logan's counts give patterns that seems weak when set beside more recent examples. The fine lines are relatively finer, and the open spaces more open; there are greater differences in the widths of adjacent bands than we see now.

Unfortunately there has been a tendency in recent years towards a thickening of the patterns, giving a clumsy and congested rather than rich effect. Greater refinement would not always entail weakness."