What a brick repeat is
Lay one row of tiles across the fabric. Shift the next row along by half a tile’s width, line the third up with the first, and carry on down the length. That is a brick repeat, often called a half brick and sometimes a half slide. The shift runs across the fabric, in the weft direction, while the rows stack along its length.
For the joins to disappear, the tile’s top and bottom edges have to match with that half-tile shift: a motif that leaves through the bottom edge comes back in at the top, half a tile to the left or right. The left and right edges match straight across, as in a block.
Along the length, the layout only returns to its starting position after two rows. That is why the rectangle that repeats as a block is two tiles tall, and for rotary printing it is that height, not the tile’s, that has to fit the screen’s circumference.
Brick vs half drop
| Brick | Half drop | |
|---|---|---|
| What moves | Every other row | Every other column |
| Direction of the shift | Sideways, across the fabric | Down, along the fabric |
| Reads as | Diagonals with a horizontal rhythm | Diagonals with a vertical rhythm |
| Repeats as a block | One tile wide, two tall | Two tiles wide, one tall |
| Built by hand | Double the height, shift the copy by half the width | Double the width, shift the copy by half the height |
Turn a half drop a quarter turn and you have a brick. That matters when a fabric is printed sideways on the roll. Upholstery fabrics are sometimes railroaded: the design is turned so it runs across the roll, and wide pieces such as a sofa back can be cut without a seam. A design meant to read as a half drop on the sofa then has to be a brick on the roll.
When to use a brick repeat
- Designs with a horizontal flow, such as trailing branches, landscapes and wide motifs.
- Prints turned on the roll, like railroaded upholstery, where a half drop has to become a brick.
- Geometric and tile-like designs, where an offset row should look like brickwork, masonry or tiling.
- Breaking up a grid when the motif is wider than it is tall.
For tall motifs and designs that should flow down the fabric, a half drop is usually the better fit. For prints meant to line up exactly, use a block.
How to make a brick repeat
By hand
- Prepare the tile with the motifs clear of the top and bottom edges; they may run over the left and right. Offset it sideways by half its width to fix the left and right join.
- Double the height. In Photoshop’s Image › Canvas Size, make the canvas twice as tall, anchored at the top.
- Shift the copy. Duplicate the layer and run Filter › Other › Offset on the copy: down by the tile’s height and sideways by half its width, with Wrap Around on.
- Fill the strips. Flatten, then Offset the whole canvas down by half a tile’s height, so the strips over the old top and bottom edges run across the middle of each half. Add motifs there; anything you add, add again one tile down and half a tile across.
- Define and test the pattern with Edit › Define Pattern or View › Pattern Preview.
In Illustrator, choose Brick by Row as the Tile Type in Pattern Options.
In MYTH
Run Make Seamless and choose Brick: MYTH builds a new brick tile and keeps the original. Create Pattern in Normal mode and Abstract Creation also take Brick as a Repeat Mode, so a design can arrive as a brick from the start. Check it with Preview as Tile in MYTH Edit, where the Brick option shows the frame with every other row shifted.