UKFT member RMJ Print Studio, a forward-thinking textile design company, has created a new platform to help visualise pattern design in realtime 3D called SwatchEditor.

The company founded by Roseanna Jiggins, has always had a sustainable mission at the heart of its business. When the pandemic hit, tradeshows were among the first events to stop. This prompted Roseanna to apply for a UK grant to innovate her company out of the crisis, instead of staying stationary during lockdown.

RMJ Studio Ltd at the London Textile Fair, Islington

In response to the pandemic and the inability to attend trade shows and meetings, Roseanna and her partner Hugh launched SwatchEditor, an immersive 3D artwork visualisation and trading technology primarily but not exclusively for the fashion industry.

After securing funding from Innovate UK, a team of product strategists, producers, designers and engineers from YourMajesty worked together to build the pioneering digital technology that aims to support digital circular design and manufacturing in the surface pattern design industry.

In addition to optimising the way in which the surface design industry operates, the aim of SwatchEditor is to enrich the way fabrics are experienced online, by allowing visitors to visualise, organise and share textile patterns digitally in 3D.

Roseanna’s passion for building a sustainably conscious company can be seen within SwatchEditor. SwatchEditor’s ongoing research on energy efficient smart coding is central to its vision.

As part of the textile industry, the company aims to play its part in the circular economy, helping industries to achieve net zero carbon targets.

Photo credit: Lanhtropy

SwatchEditor, is the logical step forward bringing time, energy and cost-efficient digital solutions for the circular textile industry. Historically, tradeshows have evolved from paper samples. SwatchEditor has taken the next step to combine the physical and digital into the 3D and towards the Web3 world.

The cloud-based software trading portal SwatchEditor reduces the carbon footprint associated with travel and waste. Production efficiency improves turnover time as the collection can be curated and showcased digitally.

SwatchEditor has already grown very popular and gained positive feedback from students, Universities, print designers and retail businesses. Following its success, it has also been featured in the WGSN SS23 trend report.

“SwatchEditor has helped us re-establish our position in the international marketplace. Our previous business model involved a significant amount of work to send physical swatches overseas so that clients could see our latest collections. Now we can send clients a digital link to virtual swatches that can be visualised in a variety of ways using the Swatch editor software. This truly is an innovation and is changing the way that the industry operates, not to mention the benefits in relation to sustainable working.” John, AboutPattern

SwatchEditor is a great in-house creative tool, offering companies a playful sustainable way to digitally visualise, share and store artwork allowing them to trade globally without the necessity to physically attend every trade show and meeting, which essentially saves time and money. It is also a useful hub to revive archived artworks and store swatches.

“SwatchEditor allows creatives a quick and easy way to visualise their designs in a virtual space. It takes away all the technical struggles and complications to allow textile designers to focus on the physical making. It’s the most uncomplicated software to visualise in.” Manchester School of Art, BA (Hons) Textiles in Practice Lecturer, Clare Calveley

Roseanna introducing SwatchEditor in Manchester University

The creative tool has been making a positive impact on the designers of the future. Roseanna has visited universities to introduce SwatchEditor as a helpful outlook to envision their work in a realistic approach. A student from Manchester School of Art, studying BA (Hons) Textiles in Practice said: “I have learnt software I had never even heard of before. I really loved using SwatchEditor and the way I was able to visualise my designs on a 3D garment avatar as well as changing the colours to enhance my prints even more!”

SwatchEditor minimises manual sampling as much as possible and allows for efficient shared communication.

VISIT THE SWATCHEDITOR WEBSITE

VISIT THE RMJ STUDIO WEBSITE

RMJ Studio is a UKFT member. Interested in UKFT membership? Find out more here.