Turning stories into fabrics
Textile designer Cornelia Pongritz explains the factors involved in creating a new design.
Cornelia Pongritz completed her training in Textile Design and Weaving at the Ortwein School of Art in Graz. She has been working as a textile designer at Sattler since the late 1980s. Today she heads the design department, which employs four other designers.
Together they offer many years of experience as textile designers. What have been the most decisive changes over the years?
My work has followed an extremely exciting developmental path – going from analogue to digital. My paint set has been replaced by a digital yarn catalogue in a specially developed design program. And the fabric strips previously arranged and glued onto sample cards are now CAD prints that look genuinely real. New colour variations are just a click away.
What are the most important qualities a textile designer should have?
Everything stems from the creative process in the mind. It is also key to constantly observe and explore trends in different areas. Research methods have increased enormously here thanks to digitisation, which also means we’re facing a new challenge: sensory overload. Instead of absorbing information, we now have to differentiate between countless influences and trends – as well as filter out what is pertinent to our field of application: sun protection.
What challenges do you identify in your work?
A big challenge is collating all the relevant information. This includes colours, trends, customer inputs, societal changes, and the resulting developments in new architectural styles and lifestyles. But the needs of different cultures should also be reflected in our fabrics, design lines, and collections. It is a balancing act that challenges us as designers every day.
What is the most beautiful aspect of design work in your opinion?
It’s a creative and complex practice that always has my mind switched on, looking for ideas. Everything I encounter is a potential source of inspiration. The beauty of it all is that I can translate my colourful thoughts into a ‘product’ with a story.
But it’s not just about creativity, designs and trends. Research work, for example, can prove to be quite challenging. Filling out forms, compliance with regulations, developing yarns, and harmonising processes also feature in a designer’s remit.
What factors influence the design of a new collection?
Various trips I go on can influence my designs as well as collaborations with international trend agencies and colour psychologists.
How does a new fabric design come about?
As I mentioned before, there is a story behind every design, no matter whether it’s a plain pattern, fantasy stripes, or a design line. And it is these stories that connect with our subconscious in a very specific way. This interaction fascinates me: On the one hand, it is the story that transports me to ideas that are creatively morphed into designs, and on the other, it is precisely this story that the design is conveying.
What shapes trends?
A new collection or design can be influenced by many factors. A designer’s intention is, of course, to reflect the trend of the time. This must be seen in a much more global way since a collection lasts five years, for example, versus the fashion industry, which brings out four collections every year. This means we focus on the major trends with a longer birth and life cycle, while still trying to capture the spirit of the time.
What does that mean?
Major trends include a certain number of colours. These alternate within a time frame of five to ten years. The intermediate trends sometimes only last for half a year or a year and are usually just nuances of the main trending colours. The direction the colour nuance follows also depends on where it is released in the world. We do not necessarily see the same nuances developing across Europe, Asia, or the USA at the same time. In one country, red may look more like rust and in another it may be more like a tomato, but they both still correspond to the overriding trend of red. Market behaviour also influences the development of a new collection.
A trend that we have been able to follow quite clearly over the last 20 years is the shift from classic awning stripes and colourful colour combinations to monochrome designs. While classic, colourful stripes accounted for almost 60% of the range pre-2008, more than 60% of it now consists of monochrome and textured designs such as Landscape, Urban, Leaf and Co.
Which collection do you like best?
I am drawn to every part of our collection. But I do have a personal favourite. It’s a design from the Lumera Landscape design line: Sahara! Landscape Sahara transports me to a special story that started when I made my fist trip to the eponymous desert. This was during an off-road rally hosted in Tunisia. The interplay of the grains of sand in the dunes captivated me and has fascinated me ever since. I made numerous trips to the Sahara thereafter, both in Tunisia and Morocco. Places offering such tranquillity and variety inspire me and I want to soak them up for as long as possible.
A peek into the crystal ball: What trends can we expect?
I don’t know if I want to look into a crystal ball to get a sneak preview. I think that with what we have learned from the past and can take away from these lessons, while considering the influences from our current situation and the resulting forecasts, paired with sufficient creativity, we are well prepared for the future. But what the final outcome ultimately looks like also depends on people’s long-term thinking.
Collaboration with Sattler SUN-TEX
We have been working with Sattler on the fabrics we use in our sun blinds and vertical fabric blinds for many years now. This Austrian company specialises in textile architecture and technical textiles for sun protection.
