ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies a range of common motifs and pattern types used historically in textile manufacture. It is shown how patterns often conform to certain thematic types and are built on grid structures and the importance of grids in design development is stressed. This chapter identifies important motifs, patterns and thematic types used in textile manufacture. The importance to the designer of recognising the anticipated means of manufacture at an early stage of the design process is explained, and it is stressed that different means of production place different restrictions on the nature of final designs. It is explained that essential early considerations relating to anticipated end use, as well as design theme, include selection of raw materials, texture, line and form. It is stressed that although the role of the textile designer had changed to a small degree in the early-twenty-first century, and it was necessity for designers to keep abreast of digital changes, there remained the need for creative individuals to ascertain what the market required and how best to meet that requirement with the facilities and resources at hand.
