Spring 2025

Jeev Designs, "The He(Art) of India"

FTM 271: Computer-Aided Textile Design

The Computer-Aided Textile Design course at the Wilson College of Textiles included using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and NedGraphics to develop a collection of knit, woven, and printed textiles with mockups.

"The He(Art) of India" is a collection of textile designs inspired by repeated motifs in Indian architecture, and layered over garments using repeat tiles and patterns.

Programs Used: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, NedGraphics (Design and Repeat, Easy Coloring)

Concept & Vision

"My concept is based on my culture. I chose Indian architecture and textiles as inspiration, focusing on the intricate designs, shapes, and structures incorporated into Indian culture. The arches and carvings on the pillars and entryways can be seen drawn into various fabric block patterns. To emphasize the warm seasons of India, I chose warmer tones, and the slight contrast of the greenery in the images adds to the tropical feeling."

Reference images sourced from Pinterest.

Target Market & Color Palette

The simple but intricate patterns derived from Indian architecture are often used on Kurtis (basic Indian tops, usually a simple natural fabric such as cotton or linen). Because of this, the target audience for this aesthetic is people from India or people interested in Indian culture who often wear loose, comfortable, and colorful clothing.

Warmer, more neutral tones in these Indian prints are currently popular amongst a younger age demographic, allowing this aesthetic to target Indian and/or culturally interested people who are twenty to thirty or younger. Each hue in the color palette has been named after a traditional Indian item to cater to the target audience.

Technical Motif Drawings

Using some images taken from Pinterest of Indian architecture and traditional Indian textile prints, technical motifs were created on Adobe Illustrator by tracing areas of the images. Flowers and drawings on the textiles, and the floors and walls of architecture, were traced and recolored to create individual drawings of isolated portions of each image.

Adobe Illustrator was used to create technical motif drawings.

Prints

Knits

Wovens

Textile Design Creations

The traced motif drawings were then individually exported into NedGraphics Design and Repeat to create three categories of textiles: Prints, Knits, and Wovens. In Design and Repeat, each motif was individually edited and cleaned by recoloring pixels around outlines and fill colors. The motifs were placed in various patterns, and the backgrounds of each textile were customized. The backgrounds included lines, shapes, gradients, and solid colors.

Due to their fabric composition (weave, tension, etc.), printing on Print, Knit, or Woven textiles required different resolutions and color limitations:

Print textiles were created at 200 dpi and included all twelve colors of the color palette.
Knit textiles were created at 64 dpi and included four colors of the color palette.
Woven textiles were created at 84 dpi and included eight colors of the color palette.

NedGraphics was used to create the textile designs.

After creation on NedGraphics Design and Repeat, each textile design was exported into NedGraphics Easy Coloring to create multiple colorways of each, as there would be in a retail fashion company.

NedGraphics Easy Coloring was used to create the textile design colorways.

Prints

Galactic Gulaab

Neon Haathi

Mandap

Do-Do Phool

Knits

Glacier and Gulaab

Kaleidoscope Carvings

Buds and Blocks

Mandala

Wovens

Laal Chauras

Udata Mor

Phool Patte

Hava Ka Naach

Print

Knit

Woven

Texture Mapping Mockups

The final textile designs were transformed into repeat tile patterns on Adobe Photoshop and were variously scaled and angled to create various sizes and orientations of motifs. The textile designs were then placed over white clothing mockups (such as tank tops, kurtis, skirts, and blazers) to demonstrate how they would look on fabric. The mockups, with the patterned textiles overlaying them, were further cleaned on Adobe Photoshop using retouching, painting, and gradient tools.

Adobe Photoshop was used to create the mockups through texture mapping.

The tedious process of creating individual textile designs involved tracing Indian architecture and patterns, recoloring the drawings, editing backgrounds and technical details, and finally placing the designs on fabric mockups, resulting in an entire collection of Print, Knit, and Woven textiles inspired by Indian culture.