How to Create Patterns in Affinity Designer

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create patterns in Affinity Designer.

Go to the following link to download the mockup for the tutorial:

• Coffee Mug

Step 1

First, go to File > New and create a new document with the following properties. Print. Set the Page Width and Page Height to 2000 px by 2000 px.

Step 2

Now, go to the View menu. Scroll down to Studio and click Symbols.

Step 3

Next, grab the Artboard Tool from the Tools Panel to create another artboard. Set the size of the artboard to 4000 px by 4000 px.

Step 4

After that, go to the Tools Panel and select the Rectangle Tool. Draw a rectangle inside of Artboard 1 and make sure it covers the entire artboard. Go to the Swatches Panel and set the color of the rectangle to the following fill color #7BD4FC. Then, remove the stroke.

Step 5

Now, go to the Layers Panel and select the rectangle we created. Then, go to the Symbols Panel and click Create.

Step 6

Next, grab a symbol from the Symbols Panel and place it onto Artboard 2. After that, grab 3 more symbols and place them on Artboard 2 to cover up the artboard.

Step 7

Go to the Tools Panel and grab the Pen Tool. Make sure you’re in Artboard 1 and that the rectangle is selected. Also, make sure you have Snapping turned on in the Toolbar. Next, take the Pen Tool and draw a line. Then, hold Shift to make sure the line is straight.

Step 8

In the Swatches Panel, set the stroke color of the line to white. Then, go to the Stroke Panel and set the Width of the stroke to 3 pt.

Step 9

With the line still selected, press CTRL + J to make a duplicate of it. Or right click on the line and select Duplicate.

Step 10

Select the duplicated line. Press and hold Shift and rotate the line to -90 degrees.

Step 11

Now, make another duplicate of the line. Then, hold Shift and rotate this line to -135 degrees.

Step 12

After that, make one more duplicate of the line. Rotate this line to 135 degrees.

Step 13

Grab the Pen Tool again from the Tools Panel. Make a V on top of the original line.

Step 14

With our V shape selected, press CTRL + J to duplicate it. Place the duplicate onto the tip of our other line. Continue doing this until all the ends of the line have a V shape on them.

Step 15

After that, gran the Pen Tool again. Add some smaller lines to the snowflake to finish out the design of it.

Step 16

Once you’ve finished creating the snowflake, select all the elements of it in the Layers Panel. Go to the Layer menu and select Expand Stroke.

Step 17

With the snowflake still selected, go to the Boolean Operations Panel in the Toolbar and select Add.

Step 18

Next, make a duplicate of the snowflake by pressing CTRL + J. Hold Shift and drag the duplicate to the top left corner. Make sure that part of the snowflake goes past the edge of the artboard.

Step 19

Now, go back to Artboard 1. Make 3 more duplicates of the snowflake and place them on the other corners of the artboard. Make sure that the snowflakes go beyond the edges of the artboard.

Step 20

Grab the Ellipse Tool from the Tools Panel. Hold CTRL + Shift and make an ellipse on Artboard 1. Make sure the ellipse is inside of the rectangle in the Layers Panel. In the Swatches Panel, set the fill color to white and get rid of the stroke.

Step 21

Next, make 3 duplicates of the ellipse and place them around the snowflake that’s in the center.

Step 22

Now, make a duplicate of one of the snowflakes. Press and hold CTRL + Shift. Then, make this snowflake smaller. Place it below the bigger snowflake in the center holding Shift to drag it down.

Step 23

Select the ellipse that’s on the right at the top. Press CTRL + J to make a duplicate of it. Place the duplicated ellipse above the smaller snowflake we created. Make sure that part of the ellipse goes past the edge of the artboard. Do the same thing again. This time place the duplicated ellipse below the other smaller ellipse at the bottom.

Step 24

Now, make 2 more duplicates of the ellipses. Place one of the ellipses on the left edge in the center. Then, place the other ellipse on the right edge in the center.

Step 25

After that, make 2 duplicates of our smaller snowflake. Take the smaller snowflakes and place them on the left and right side of the bigger snowflake that’s in the center.

The following steps in the how to create patterns in Affinity Designer tutorial are to showcase how the pattern would look on a real object.

Step 26

Go to the coffee mug mockup link in the description.

Step 27

Scroll down and click Free Download.

Step 28

Now, scroll down on the new tab and select Download and click Ok.

Step 29

Once the file finishes downloading, go to the download.

Step 30

Right click on the folder and click Extract All to unzip the folder.

Step 31

After that, go to the unzipped folder and open the Free_Mug_Mockup 1 file.

Step 32

Now, go to our pattern. Select Artboard 1. Then, go to File > Export to export the pattern. Set the pattern to either JPEG or PNG.

Step 35

Uncheck the Colors group. Then, go to File > Place and select the snowflake pattern.

Step 36

Hold Shift and stretch the pattern across the mug.

Step 37

In the Layers Panel, drag the snowflake pattern layer inside of the Project group.

Step 38

After that, drag the pattern inside of the Mug Project group.

Step 39

Now, go select the Background Color layer in the Layers Panel. Then, go to the Swatches Panel and double click on the color to open the Color Chooser.

Step 40

You can make the background whatever color you want. The hex code for the color I chose is #B0E5B7.

Congratulations, now you know how to create patterns in Affinity Designer. For more Affinity Designer tutorials, check out this tutorial on how to use mockups in Affinity Designer.