In this mini tutorial we make vintage tiles with Affinity Designer. We make use of symbols to make sure that the design is symmetric and to make adjustments and changes easily possible. Instructions are below the images.
We start with this tile seen in the Green Tiger House in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Trace 1/8th part of the tile with the line tool
This is the result
Add a triangle on top of your tracework. Let the left bottom angle of the triangle be a 90 degrees angle
With the triangle selected, click on the settings-icon
Select Anti-aliassing : Force off
I group the tile-elements, click on the settings icon and select ‘Force on’ for the anti aliassing
I select the triangle and select ‘Mask to below’
I select the group, open the Symbol tab(*), and select create. (If the symbol tab isn’t there, Go to View -> Studio -> and put a check before ‘symbol’)
Make sure that my symbol has exactly the same height as with. Also I put it on an “perfect” position. This makes it easier in the next steps
Duplicate, Flip horizontal, rotate 90 degrees, adjust the position in the transform tab
Select both groups, duplicate, flip horizontal and adjust position
Select all groups, duplicate, flip vertical and adjust the position
The result can be downloaded here (registration/login required)
Credits
This couldn’t be done with the users on the Affinity Forum and especially JimmyJack. In the beginning I used clipping masks and there was a seam visible, but by using vector masks and setting the anti-aliassing setting different for the triangle and tracegroup the problem was solved.
