Tartan Design  As with all art mediums tartan design can reach an end result which may or may not appeal to the end viewer - there is no formula or 'correct' approach.  A simple check may be more effective than a complex thread count - yet some of the most effective tartans do have more complex thread counts.  A simple range of colors may be more effective than a large diverse range but again some effective tartans use a wide but closely co-ordinated range of colors.  If you are serious about design it is worth working through the entire database of registered tartans noting ones that appeal (and maybe those that are especially unappealing) and analysing aspects like the number of threads in the thread count, choice of width of adjacent stripes, whether a pattern exists within the sett itself, colors - close or complimentary, etc.

There are some 'tricks' or techniques that are used.  Some argue that the essence of tartan design lies in recognising the combination of the mirroring of the stripe sequence combined with the horizontal and vertical replication - this resulting in a level of pattern form belying its basic components.  Some tartans e.g. Macdonald of Price Edward Island (large image - 50k) (there are many others) uses pseudo mirroring within the sett although it is not a mirrored tartan.  Use of color sequences in different widths of stripes can be used effectively.  Highlighting of wide bands of dark color with narrow bands of light color can emphasise a pattern that may otherwise be lost - this is sometimes referred to as the 'under-stripe' and the 'over-stripe'.

Although a tartan is essentially abstract i.e. the same pattern can be scaled from very small as perhaps used in a silk tie up to large as in a woollen blanket - scale still has to be taken into consideration.  If, for example, the sett is doubled a kilt would look very different from one made from the standard sett.  Many registered tartans are in fact the 'same' tartan but at different scales.

Keith Lumsden, a tartan researcher of many years experience based in Scotland, has written a short guide to designing tartan especially for Tartan Designer.