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How To Create a seamless Kawaii Pattern

Learn step by step how to create a seamless kawaii pattern in Affinity Designer. I used some of my candy designs here, but you can use whatever art you like!

What you need

Step by Step Tutorial

Now let’s get into the different steps on how you can create your own repeating pattern. I personally like to use Affinity Designer, because it’s fairly affordable in comparison to Photoshop, which I used before. But unlike Photoshop, it doesn’t have the very neat “offset” function, which I love to create patterns. There is still an relatively easy way to create them in other apps, so let me show you how!

Step 1: Set up a square document

Create new document in Affinity Designer

Step 1: Create a new document

Create a new document in a square format

Create a new document, which has to be a square format. I make all my documents 12×12 Inches with 300 DPI, so it’s a good resultion to use for printing. The background should be transparent.

Step 2: Import your first design

Import your designs and add a rectangle behind it

Step 2: Import your first design

Import your first design & create a transparent square behind it

I already created the designs I wanted to use, so I just imported the first one and placed it right in the center. Then add a transparent square in the same size as the document behind it. We will use the square as a guide with snapping to be able to distribute the designs evenly, so it will create a seamless pattern.

Step 3: Place your first design

Move design and rectangle to the right place

Step 3: Move your design where you want it

Place your design together with the square where you want it in your final pattern

I like to start all my pattern with filling the corners first. So I rotated my design slightly and then moved it together with the square, so that the bottom right corner of the square is in the center of the document.

Step 4: Duplicate the design

Duplicate design and square and move them

Step 4: Duplicate the design

Now you can duplicate the design along with the square

The next step is to duplicate the design and square you just placed. With the help of snapping and guides, that Affinity has, it’s easy to move it to the right until it snaps into place right next to the first square. So you now already distributed your design evenly in the first two corners.

Step 5: Fill the other corners

Step 5: Duplicate both and move them down

You can repeat the last step again, duplicate both designs and squares and move them down until they snap

To fill the last two corners and make the pattern seamless, we need to duplicate both designs and squares we aleady placed again. Then move them down until they snap at the edges of the upper squares. With the guidelines it’s easy to see.

Step 6: Check for equal distribution

One design in all four corners spread evenly

Step 6: Check that the designs are distributed equally

This check makes sure that all designs are really snapped correctly into place

To check if the snapping really went the way it should, you can select all layers and see if it forms a perfect square and is placed in the center of the document.

Step 7: See how the pattern looks

Step 7: Let's see how the pattern looks

I like to see how the pattern looks after this first step and usually a couple of times in between

I like to see how my pattern looks so far, again if I placed everything correctly. For this I export the file quickly and add it to the document. Then place it in the way that the final design would look.

Step 8: Repeat the same steps with the other designs

Repeat the pattern creation steps with all designs

Step 8: Repeat the same steps

Now you have to repeat the same steps until your happy with your design

This is basically all there is to it. Now I do the same steps with all the designs that I want in my final pattern until I’m happy with the way it looks.

Step 9: Export your final pattern

Step 9: Export the finished pattern

The last and final step is to export your pattern

The final step is to export your finished pattern. I like to export is as a PNG and pick a fitting file name and you’re done!

Final Thoughts

I really love creating my own seamless patterns, because I enjoy getting them printed on my clothes to make them unique. This design in particular I also used to create this candy bear wallpaper, which you can download for free.

So I really hope this was helpful to you and might have given you some inspiration what you can create with kawaii designs!