Textile design is an arena in which individuals design fabric for a variety of purposes like clothing, carpeting, furnishing and other products. It mainly deals with creating designs for textiles in the apparel and furnishing sector. Textile designers are an integral part of the textile industry and have a wide range of role and responsibilities are frequently required to make design decisions throughout the manufacturing process.
Textile designers work in knit, weave and print to create two-dimensional designs that can be produced in a design repeat for the production of commercial or artistic fabrics or textile products. The textile designers often have to work in both industrial and non-industrial locations and they often specialize or perform in a specialist context within the textile industry.
The two major fields of the aspect of textile designing include interiors furnishings and fabrics for clothing. Textile designers may also work in associated industry functions, for example designing wrapping paper, packaging, greetings cards and ceramics. Most of the textile designers are self-employed while some work as artists. The major functions performed by the textile designers include briefing the initial ideas and concepts to clients; development of design; attracting maximum clientele by proper planning and presentation, analysis and research works, commercial aspects of finishes product. The textile designers should also possess a number of qualities: basic comprehension of texture, color and pattern; creative imagination and artistic flair; sufficient knowledge of various textile techniques and characteristics of different textile materials; good communication skills; ability to work in a team; financial, marketing and administrative skills in case of freelance designers.
