Beat your creative block with Repper, an awesome pattern-making app

I think you’re gonna love what I’m sharing with you today!

The other day I got contacted by Wouter from Studio Ludens. He and his partner Alex are the creators of Repper, a web app to create patterns on the fly. He wanted some feedback on the app, and to do some research on how it would fit into the workflow of a surface pattern designer. I fell in love with the app in about 5 minutes…

I’ve done a little screencast so you can see it in action but I highly recommend that you take it for a ride yourself. The only problem I foresee is that it might be quite difficult to stop once you start!

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Repper was born in 2008 and was left pretty much untouched until 2018 when Wouter and Alex decided to rebuild the app from the ground, and the results are soooo good.

Repper automates the manual process of pattern making, so you can focus on the creative part. It can make advanced tilings that are near-impossible by hand. As one user put it: “After trying to make patterns in Photoshop, Repper felt like taking off on a rocket!”.

Repper

The app uses raster images (JPGs and PNGs) as a starting point for the creation of new patterns. You upload your images and keep them in your Projects area. From one image you can create infinite patterns, depending on the area of the image you choose to select, the size of that area and the tiling style chosen.

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There are 26 unique tilings to choose from like Honeycomb, Zigzag, Roof Tile and Windmill. You can also apply effects like Black & White, Halftone or Duotone to your pattern.

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When you finish playing around with your design, you can export your pattern as a surface with a specific measure (if you need a pattern of a certain size, e.g. A3 for a poster background), or you can export a repeating tile, which you can use to create fabric, wallpaper, etc…

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You can only export your designs as PNGs or JPGs which means that they won’t be infinitely scalable as with vector images, so consider that if you’re planning to use your designs for licensing or on products you’re planning to sell.

I do all my designs on Illustrator because I like the versatility of vector images, as I don’t ever have to worry about editability and scalability, but I know many pattern designers use Photoshop. They’ll be right at home using Repper images.

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Because of my vector obsession, I probably will be using Repper a bit differently. It’ll be a wonderful source of inspiration. I love the idea of being able to get in there and have fun creating different layouts in seconds. Perfect for jump-starting those days when your muse has gone on holiday! I can then export my designs and trace or recreate them in Illustrator… Ta-da!

Say goodbye to creative block. We all know those days of daunting blank pages. Unlike Illustrator and such, we don’t leave you hanging.
Repper doesn’t require a predetermined plan: just dive in, go discover and find the beauty within.

Repper

Repper is a membership-based service with 2 options: Hobby (£4.99/month) and Pro (£9.99/month). You can visit their website to see the difference between the two. They’ve also got a 14-day free trial, so take it for a spin if it sounds like something you’d enjoy and/or find useful…

I’ve got my own Pro account now and I’m really loving it. I’ll have to be very careful though… before I know it all my day will be gone!

Check Repper out, have a good go and let me know how you got on. Would love to know what you think…

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