While there are many pattern layouts you can choose for your surface pattern designs, one of the most impressive is the multi layered surface pattern. In this post I will cover the advantages of and instructions for successfully completing a layered repeating pattern.

Why layer your patterns?

While single layer patterns can look elegant, beautiful and are often the right look for your purposes, sometimes they can appear flat, uninspired and have clearly noticeable repeats.

By layering your patterns you can produce two or more complimentary patterns which could repeat independently, therefore creating a more fluid design, overall.

How to create your seamless pattern layers

1. Choose graphics wisely

Most importantly, think about what graphics go well together. I recommend choosing one eye-catching graphic and making the other(s) more subtle (in form and colour) — thus, avoiding distraction or confusion.

You may want to create a mock-up first to get an idea how your patterns will intergrate.

2. Create patterns which will repeat in sync

Your patterns can be in sync even if your tiles are different sizes. Just make sure that your largest tile dimensions can be divided (exactly?) by the smallest. In addition to size, you can change the way the pattern repeats. Follow my tutorial on how to set up pattern repeat templates in Inkscape.

I recommend using the 500px tiles used in my tutorial and changing the size in your png export settings within Inkscape — this way you can easily alter the dimensions later if your pattern doesn’t look right.

3. Layer your exported pattern tiles

Using GIMP or another image editor, open your largest tile and, on new layers, seamlessly lay out your smaller tile.

4. Export your tile

That’s it! You can export your layered tile.