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A few days ago on "Mosaic Forest" and "The Stationery Position" posts I briefly touched two especially important topics for seamless pattern design which I would like discuss a little further, if I may: repeats and colorways.

One of the limitations imposed on microstock clients while deciding upon which seamless pattern to pick, is the absence of a "zoomed out" view big enough so the client can truly visualize how the pattern will repeat while still keeping some of the pattern’s details in view. In this regard, it is important to keep two things in mind: any additional geometrical shapes a pattern may reveal when repeated and how organically it will expand.

For an example of the first case, please refer to "Lollypop", the very first pattern of the "Leaves 20 Seamless Pattern Set" enlarged view and compare it to how it is displayed at StockXpert, for instance. Just by looking at the image offered by StockXpert, the uninitiated might miss how the circles will actually unfold once the pattern gets applied.

As for the second issue, I hope my print "Trip to the Amazon Rainforest" will suffice as an example of an organically balanced seamless patterns (as organic as a mathematically accurate repetition can get, that is!).

First, a word about the pattern name. More than once have I been called attention to the fact that there are no giraffes in the Amazon Forest, that they are present in wilds of Africa only. To what I respond by asking where your imagination has gone to these days, people?? :) The print is about a giraffe who travels to the Amazon Rainforest!! Isn’t that "obvious"?? :) :)

Back on point, picking a colorway for an element rich pattern can get really tricky, really fast, especially if one is restricted to CMYK colors (for printing). This is the main reason why I try to provide several different colorways of my designs. The image below gives us a taste of how so incredibly different can the same pattern look just by changing its colorway.

The purpose of this text though is not to scare you away from experimenting with colors, quite the opposite! You can investigate the matter further starting with Color Theory on Wikipedia or engage in Adobe’s Kuler Community for access to thousands of themed colorways or even dig deeper on your favorite vector editing application (Adobe Illustrator has great tools just for that). Regardless of your approach, you can always count on me for several different starting points for you colors explorations.