Hand vs machine: What's the future of print design in fashion?

"In fashion studios worldwide, a creative evolution continues to reshape print design. While some designers manipulate pixels on screens, others insist on paint-loaded brushes. This tension defines one of fashion's biggest creative developments: the shift from analogue to digital processes in print design. However, far from a simple case of replacing old with new, it's a complex dance between tradition and innovation, craftsmanship and efficiency, artistic expression and commercial demands. Some of the most influential fashion trends have balanced the old and the new. And as AI increasingly encroaches on the industry as a digital tool, how should designers navigate hybrid models to bring designs to life? Designers and fashion educators weigh in."

""Printed textile design really developed through the industrial revolution, prior to this, pattern and imagery on garments would have been achieved through weave and embroidery. Copper plate printing, which was used to create toile de jouy, was the first invention, where an image was engraved onto copper, the different depths of the incised lines creating tonal qualities in a single colour. This method was industrialised and the plate became a roller and roller printing," says Professor Amanda Briggs-Goode, head of department for fashion, textiles and knitwear and director of the Fashion and Textile Research Centre at Nottingham Trent University."

""Another method of the 19th century was block printing, used well into the 20th century, where each colour of a design is carved into a wooden flat block and then lined up and printed as a repeat - a method best known in the work of William Morris.""

Print design in fashion is undergoing a creative evolution from analogue techniques toward digital processes while maintaining historical craftsmanship. Tension exists between pixel-based digital manipulation and traditional hand-painted methods, creating a balance of innovation and legacy. Commercial demands and efficiency often compete with artistic expression and artisanal skill. Significant trends emerge from hybrid approaches that combine old and new methods. Historical textile techniques include weave, embroidery, copper plate and roller printing, block printing, and the 1920s emergence of screen printing that increased designer control through photographic translation.

Read at Creative Bloq