One of the many monthly events in The Textile Design Lab is a design tutorial based upon an emerging trend. This month we are thrilled to have Aaryn West share her process for developing an authentic and marketable glitch-inspired pattern. Aaryn West is the creative director of her own eponymous independent textile design studio. She creates textile and color inspiration from the realms of fashion and interior design, exploring everything from recent trends to vintage treasures.
This is an abbreviated version of a longer tutorial available to members on The Textile Design Lab. Learn more about this online community here, and register to gain access to the full post along with e-courses, webinars and other great content.
*image via: Rosa Menkman
Out here in the real world a glitch is typically considered something to be avoided, a small nuisance at best. So it stands to follow that in the digital arts world Glitch Art is an aesthetic movement derived from technological errors. What once was considered an embarrassing blemish to be removed from the final product is now being embraced and lauded as beautiful. And being a trend within the digital arts, it seems there are, fundamentally, an endless number of ways to ‘glitch’ an image. As long as there are new technologies for artists and designers to tinker with, there will be ways to break them. And that, essentially, is the philosophy behind glitch art.
*images via: (Dress) Hi! Expectation Spring 2014, (Top Right) Lnk Si, (Top Left) Stallio
Techniques for creating Glitch Art range from very basic things like shaking a piece of paper while it’s being scanned, to more advanced processes like altering the source code of a file. Some processes even include intentionally breaking a device, such as a camera, to create a modified image. I have even been known to set up a camera in front of the television in order to photograph the heavy digital static that bad reception causes. Whichever approach one might take the process is founded in experimentation, often creating exciting and unexpected results. Moire patterns, flecks of random color, and pixelated artifacts in a spectrum of colors and patterns are just some of visual elements common to glitch artwork.
*images via: (Left to Right) Leone Bachega, Cedric S Touati, Aaryn West
While I’m a fan of the glitch trend in both fine art and commercial formats, I am by no means an expert on the topic. I highly suggested browsing the extensive compilation of resources that artist Phillip Stearns has made available via his website. – Aaryn West
To learn how to create a collection that is the perfect balance of your authentic style, relevant trends and your customer’s desires, please join us for The Sellable Sketch Group Study which begins on February 3rd and is FREE for all Textile Design Lab members.
