School of Design Textile Design
Aidan Morris
A printed textile designer with a fascination for the flaws in digital systems and the beauty found in error. My work explores the aesthetic potential of glitches, distortions, and corrupted data—translating them into vibrant prints that embrace the spontaneity of digital glitching. I’m drawn to the unpredictability of broken technology, using it as a visual language to question ideas of control, clarity, and digital overload. Colour plays a central role in my process, often pushing the boundaries of intensity and contrast to evoke movement and disruption. Through experimentation with surface, scale, and digital manipulation, my practice turns malfunction into method—creating textiles that feel energetic, graphic, and unapologetically digital.
Error 404
The project explores distortion within the real world through reflection, refraction, and
repetition, drawing inspiration from digital glitches. I have also incorporated motion
and video, extracting stills from videos of my primary research of vibrant and
distorted environments to inform blended colour and layered imagery. Visual
research also includes warped and distorted windows, focusing on repetition and
interactions with light, and gradient colour blends with the shifting effects of lighting
on surfaces. I have explored dye sublimation printing to experiment with different
fabric qualities, including mixed yarn jacquards, which change appearance
depending on the viewing angle, and sheer fabrics, which interact with light.
Preparing files for digital printing has been enjoyable and led to exploring how
illusions can be created through layering, and pre-treating woven fabrics. I have
coated these woven fabrics with my own made seaweed-based digital coating,
allowing my designs to be digitally printed onto the jacquard fabric, which has
allowed for a plethora of technical discoveries. The outcome is a range of fashion
printed textiles designed to bring energy and motion into these pieces, brightening
and adding character to the wearer. The textiles are intended for contemporary
menswear, allowing for a more colourful outcome to menswear that is not typically
seen. I have considered responsible design by incorporating found fabrics and
working with dead stock materials donated by Gainsborough Weave Mill, ensuring
that my project minimises waste while reimagining existing materials.
Complimentary
Complimenting my main project by re-imagining my designs and colours for a wide range of home and office interior settings. Using deadstock jacquard fabric donated by Gainsborough weave mill, I have used digital processes such as distorting my colour palettes using waveform glitches and creating motifs by layering them to create a cohesive interior collection. The collection is grouped by colour to maintain the coherent nature of the designs, bringing motion into static spaces. Using seaweed-based digital coating, I have digitally printed my designs onto the deadstock jacquard, allowing the base fabric to help inform my designs.
