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!
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.
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.
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…
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.
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
Repper doesn’t require a predetermined plan: just dive in, go discover and find the beauty within.
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…
I’ll get a small commission if you buy any of the products featured here (at no extra cost to you, but it does help run the blog!). But please be assured that I only recommend stuff that I would buy/use myself, and that’s a promise.
This app looks like a lot of fun, but can you use this to sell to fabric companies or to Spoonflower?
Hi Barbara, so happy you liked the app, I like it a lot too! And yes, you definitely can sell the patterns you create with the app. And the best thing is that I believe they’re working on an option to export the designs as vector files!
So wonderful! Will definitely try it. Happy Holidays
Hi Lisa, so happy you liked the post. Let me know how you get on if you try it. Merry Xmas to you too! :-)
Wow, so cool.Thanks!
So happy you like it Lesie! Thanks for coming to check out the post :-)
Si me escucharas a mi se te pasaba todo pero va a ser difícil, con esto del diseño casi no hablo ni en español, cualquier día de estos charlamos otro rato y nos contamos…
¡Gracias, Verónica! No te conocía hablando inglés tras nuestro skype de este verano desde Londres, ¡qué nivel!.
Tiene buena pinta Repper pero como bien dices, me da miedo hasta abrirlo para probar porque sé lo que pasa, que me colgaré haciendo cientos de combinaciones. De todos modos sé que terminaré por probarlo en unos de esos momentos de bloqueo que nos acechan continuamente.
¡Gracias por compartirlo!
Jajaja! Que me haces reir Nacho con lo del nivel de ingles! Yo por eso no pongo casi videos ni tutoriales en internet porque me parece que me oigo horrible… Pero bueno, que bien que me visitas, y si, echale un ojo a Repper pero con mucho cuidado ;-)