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finlay_7586
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May 7, 2025
Answered

Designing Custom Kilts in Adobe Illustrator – Tips and Ideas

  • May 7, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 257 views

Hi everyone!

I'm designing custom kilts using Adobe Illustrator and need some advice. Specifically, I'm working on tartan patterns and looking for tips on:

  1. Creating Precise Tartan Patterns: Best way to align lines and use the Pattern Tool effectively?

  2. Simulating Fabric Texture: Any brushes or techniques to make vector tartans look like woven fabric?

  3. Choosing Colors: How do you approach selecting modern yet traditional color palettes for kilts?

I’d appreciate any advice or resources! Thanks!

Correct answer Bobby Henderson

Tartan patterns are typically just stripes within an invisible square, one that is either vertical or rotated 45 degrees.

 

Various approaches can be used to create and position the stripes so the pattern repeats precisely. You could use blend operations to repeat stripes or just use align and distribute operations to evenly space individual stripes, pairs of stripes, etc.

 

I'd recommend looking at reference photos of Tartan patterns. It's not difficult to deconstruct how the pattern is built.

Regarding colors, again this is where reference images are good for both inspriation and accuracy. You can use transparency effects on some fills to make colors where stripes intersect look more natural.

 

Texture? I wouldn't recommend such a thing baked into a repeating pattern. The human eye can easily pick up on texture details that repeat. Instead, I'd have a larger object filled with the pattern and maybe take it into Photoshop to turn into a raster-based object where a fabric texture could be applied over the whole thing. Still, most Tartan patterns have flat colors (no gradients and no textures).

1 reply

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Community Expert
Bobby HendersonCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
May 8, 2025

Tartan patterns are typically just stripes within an invisible square, one that is either vertical or rotated 45 degrees.

 

Various approaches can be used to create and position the stripes so the pattern repeats precisely. You could use blend operations to repeat stripes or just use align and distribute operations to evenly space individual stripes, pairs of stripes, etc.

 

I'd recommend looking at reference photos of Tartan patterns. It's not difficult to deconstruct how the pattern is built.

Regarding colors, again this is where reference images are good for both inspriation and accuracy. You can use transparency effects on some fills to make colors where stripes intersect look more natural.

 

Texture? I wouldn't recommend such a thing baked into a repeating pattern. The human eye can easily pick up on texture details that repeat. Instead, I'd have a larger object filled with the pattern and maybe take it into Photoshop to turn into a raster-based object where a fabric texture could be applied over the whole thing. Still, most Tartan patterns have flat colors (no gradients and no textures).

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