This month, I wanted to build off of last month’s class and keep exploring our creative skills in Surface Pattern Design. Last month we worked on learning how to build 4 different repeat styles in Affinity Designer for the desktop. This month, we are going to learn some similar concepts, but how to do them in the Affinity Designer app on the iPad. I wanted to share this process on the iPad as the interface is quite a bit different than the desktop interface. I know how important it is for those of you who work on the go to be able to utilize the iPad in your work process and it always helps to keep things streamlined if you can work in the same software, but in different environments like desktop vs. iPad.

If this is your first foray into my classes relating to surface pattern design or your first time building patterns on the iPad, I highly suggest you check out my previous surface pattern design intensive course. In that course I show you the basics of surface pattern design and building repeats on the iPad. In today’s class, though — we will take that process a little further and explore how to create 2 of the most common surface pattern repeats – the Full Drop repeat but with a twist as we will be creating it in a rectangle format rather than square, and a Half Drop repeat.

Expanding on the types of patterns you can create helps to add visual interest to your patterns.  Choosing the right pattern repeat for your design will depend on what sort of look and feel you are after. But, the wonderful thing is you can keep experimenting with your repeat layouts until you get the result that you are after.