6 Things to Remember When Designing Tile Art

Tile art is a way to express yourself and beautify your space.

Planar Creations has a range of ready-to-use artwork to choose from, but many of our clients come to us because of our ability to create unique designs, with unheard of speed and simplicity. In order to take advantage of this ability to customize and personalize, it helps to have a general idea of the design process.

This is helpful both for artists and designers who will be actually creating tile art, but also for home or business owners who will be guiding a designer to create their own special work.

So no matter what role you're playing in the design process, we've put together 6 tips that will help you improve your experience with tile art.

 

1. Size

Generally speaking the total size of your custom tile design, or your canvass, is one of three sizes. It can be 24” by 24”, 36" by 36" or 18” by 36”. These aren’t the only sizes that you can work with, but they are some of the more common ones. If it helps, work with these in mind.

 

2. Build a puzzle

Instead of thinking of tile art like you would think of a painting, think of it like a completed puzzle. It will have precision cut shapes neatly fitting together.

 

3. Think shapes, not lines

Most people who think of art think of a series of lines, but that’s not the way a custom tile design works. Each shape in your piece must have a single colour or texture that could be closely replicated using stone.

 

4. Don’t forget the grout

Think of how tile looks when on a floor or wall. There must be spaces between each piece of the design, surrounding each shape, called grout lines.

In practice, gaps are always left between tiles and filled in with a material called grout. You should include grout lines between pieces. Preferred width of grout line is 1/8”, although you may vary the lines from 1/4” to 1/16” for effect when required.

Grout lines will play a large role in fine details, and can be helpful in achieving certain effects. Have some fun experimenting with them.

 

5. Don’t think small

Extreme detail or very small pieces do not work when designing with tile. The smallest pieces should definitely be larger than 1/4”. Remember that each piece must be cut out, and handled from the factory, all the way to the point where it is laid on a floor or wall.

 

6. Turn strokes into shapes

When designing your custom tile art, make it personal to you. Find images that mean something to you. Remember: You are only limited by your imagination. Have fun with it.
We hope these are helpful tips. If you are looking for some inspiration, check out our tile art gallery or contact us to see what we can help you create .

Rob Parsons is Planar Creations’ tile art consultant. 

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