If you already have a nice logo and color palette, you may be wondering why do I need a pattern? Patterns are an easy way to elevate your branding. They may even become as recognizable as your logo. Take Burberry’s pattern as an example. Their signature plaid pattern is almost as important to their branding as their logo. As soon as you see the familiar tan plaid pattern on a bag or other item, you probably think, “that must be a Burberry.” Patterns are a great way to bring all your branding elements together to further strengthen your brand. Simple and elegant patterns will help you make an impression in the marketplace and start gaining the trust of your customers. You can even take the pattern one step further by incorporating your logo. Louis Vuitton is a great example of this type of pattern. Their traditional logo pattern is iconic, elegant, and highly lusted after. These patterns are a significant reason for both Burberry’s and Louis Vuitton’s success as luxury brands.
How do you create a seamless pattern for your brand? This step-by-step guide will help you on your way to creating a beautiful tool for your branding toolbox. Before you create your pattern, you will need to make sure you have your brand personality down. Emotional marketing has shown time and time again that the best way to build consumer relationships is through a personal experience. This means understanding the demographics and interests of your target audience. Your pattern design will need to relate to and interest your demographic. Once you have that, you will want to nail down your branding colors, if you haven’t already.
Now that you are ready to create your pattern, you will need to decide what kind of pattern you want. This guide will be exploring a pattern that consists of various branding icons, including a piece of a logo. There are countless types of patterns that your brand could utilize. Geometric, symmetrical, floral, logo, simple, stripes, etc. When choosing a type keep in mind how you want to use the pattern. Patterns are a great alternative to solid color backgrounds and can spruce up anything your brand puts out. This includes business cards, a website, social media posts, flyers, products, etc.
Now let’s get into the creation of a pattern. First, open a new document in Adobe Illustrator or a similar program. For this purpose, your document should be a square and can be anywhere from 100-500 pixels on each side. We chose 500 by 500 pixels. Then you will want to add in any icons that you are planning on using off to the side and make sure those icons are in your branding colors. You can go ahead and put just the background color on the first layer. Once you have that color in you can either hide the layer, so it is easier to move your icons around, or leave it as is.
Create a second layer to place your icons on. You will then line up icons on the X and Y axis of your artboard. Take care to keep the top left corner empty for now, as it will make the process easier down the line.
To make your pattern seamless, you will now need to fill in the rest of the outline. The best way to do this is to copy and paste your first icon in the same place. Once you do that, open the move panel. This can be done by right clicking, selecting “transform”, and then selecting “move”. To get your icon on the left to move to the right, you will need to add the size of your artboard, in this case 500 pixels, to the horizontal position. Do this for all the icons on the Y axis.
To copy the icons from the top to the bottom you will do the same thing. Instead of adding 500 pixels to the horizontal position, you will be subtracting 500 pixels from the vertical position. Do this for all the icons on the X axis. You should now have an outlined artboard.
Now you get to fill in the middle of the pattern. Take the rest of your icons or logo and fill in the middle until you have the look you are going for.
Once this is done, you can un-hide the background layer. Now you have your first pattern!
You will want to test this pattern and make sure it is seamless so that you can start using it for your branding. To do this, export your current artboard as a jpeg or png. Open a new document that is large enough to add a few rows and columns of your 500 by 500 square. I chose 2500 by 1500 pixels but anything from 1000 by 1000 pixels and up will work just fine. Place your new pattern and fill up the document.
If everything lines up, you have a new seamless pattern you can use anywhere. If it does not line up, check each step to make sure you moved everything correctly.
Not sure you are able to make your own pattern? Hiring a professional graphic designer is an easy way to get a beautiful pattern. Reach out to see how we can help you create an elegant pattern to elevate your branding.