Abstract:

In higher textile design education, the collaboration of technology has widely accelerated students' ability to reflect on the visualisation of textile products and product characteristics in multiple perspectives. In this study, we had the opportunity to document textile students' use of digital interior technology visualisations to assist them in evaluating design prototypes of digital repeat patterns. Repeat patterns are significant design elements in textile design that convey the aesthetic value of textile products. Repeat patterns are used to express the visual effect, decorative value, abstract meaning and artistic value of textile products. The measurement of the actual value of a textile product from the repeat pattern is regarded as a design process from 2D image to 3D visualisation, which utilises technological means that can help textile designers to check the design features and aesthetic value of the digital repeat pattern before production. It is well known that China is a major textile manufacturing country, with more than 50 per cent of the world's textile raw material exports coming from China, which provides Chinese textile designers with a great deal of design convenience and students have the opportunity to consider the coherent relationship between textile product design and manufacturing; In addition, students have the opportunity to simulate real product design using digital in-house manufacturing techniques, which can enable them to fully perceive the aesthetic match and visual effect of the product, thus generating self-communication and making quality design decisions. In this study, we will share the process of Chinese textile design students' collaborative textile repeat pattern design using digital interior technology, so as to understand how Chinese textile design students can gain judgement and insight into textile product design based on the technological resources and under instruction under the pedagogy-based approach. In this study, students utilise 3D digital interior technology software to carry out product prototyping of repeat patterns during the design process and discuss the potential benefits of the visualisation and simulation effects of 3D digital interior technology in the textile repeat pattern design process. Eight undergraduate textile design students at the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts (LAFA) were documented in a collaborative design process, with empirical observations ranging from repeat pattern design to interior decoration. This study will specifically describe the students' design behaviours during the design process, the students' repeat pattern drawings fixed at the 64 x 48 standard repeat pattern size, as well as share the students' process of collaboratively developing textile designs designed using digital interior technology.

The study demonstrates that digital 3D interior technology is effective in collaborating on students' understanding of textile design products, and can assist students in adequately presenting the visual value of repeat pattern prototypes in their portfolios, but that it is difficult to observe the full range of perspectives due to the limitations of the visual angle of the digital screen, as well as difficult to perceive the potential range of repeat pattern scales.

Keywords:

3D interior technology, repeat pattern, China, textile pedagogy, empirical observation.