Tartan Design Question

[AFS1970]

For those that have designed a tartan, is it ever OK to base a tartan on another tartan?

I am thinking of trying my hand at a tartan, but have been thinking of researching a bit for design ideas. As this would be a tartan designed for an organization, the colors are pretty much set. However I noticed the founders name is one of Celtic roots. I haven't looked to see if Scottish or Irish yet, but if it is Scottish and there is a tartan for his family, would it be out of the question to try and design something in the organization colors but close to or reminiscent of the sett in the founders family tartan? I have read that two tartans can not have the same sett, but I assume that means the same sett in the same colors.

This all may be a moot point if he has no historical tartan, but I thought I would ask before getting too far into this project. For that matter I am not even certain that the organization will want a tartan, but if nothing else it gives me a chance to try my hand at tartan design.

[Taskr]

From what I have read, there are "based on" tartans. Why not just dabble with a few different and differing designs until you come up with the two or three that you consider will most identify the organization.

[usonian]

There's a U.S. Civil War memorial tartan (I think it's the "Union Memorial Tartan", but the tartan registry website is down at the moment so I can't verify) that basically took the Grant tartan (as a nod to General Ulysses S. Grant) and substituted some or all of the colors... so there's some precedent for the idea.

[AFS1970]

Thanks for the help. I like the idea of making the tartan a subtle nod to the associations founder, much like the Union Memorial / Grant idea. Now that depends on if there is an existing tartan and if it lends itself to the number of association colors. Essentially the colors are red, white, blue & gold. I think there may be some black and white, in there but only as edges or negative space so I would stay away from them if I could.

No onto the research.

[OC Richard]

the colors are red, white, blue & gold

Very nice tartans could be designed with those colours.

A question: are these colours equal and on their own? Or are they grouped?

What I mean is, the colours could be red, white, blue, and gold. Or they could be red & white, and blue & gold, or grouped in some other way. This makes a difference in how I would approach the design.

And the colours could appear equally, or they could appear in a specific proportion. It depends on how the organisation typically displays the colours. If the original is, say, a crest, the tartan designer would need to see it.

I quickly Googled and found an association in Stamford CT which has a logo using those very colours. In that, the white appears on a red field, and the yellow appears on a blue field.

Here's a very quick crude sketch based on those colours. Adding a black line here or there increases its "punch". Also two shades of blue could be used to make it nicer.

[416 Rigby]

The official U.S. Coast Guard tartan is just a slightly modified Hamilton tartan, honoring Alexander Hamilton, who proposed the idea for the Service back in 1789.

[OC Richard]

For those that have designed a tartan, is it ever OK to base a tartan on another tartan?

It happens all the time!

Sometimes the changes are subtle, so that the original tartan and the new variant are tricky to tell apart.

Examples are the California tartan and the West Virginia tartan.

Some tartans are favourites for this sort of treatment, the champions probably being Royal Stewart and Black Watch, both of which had variations done to them as far back as the 18th century.

For example when the Gordon Highlanders were raised they took Black Watch and added one yellow line to match the yellow facings of their red jackets.

There are dozens of variants on Royal Stewart, with black, blue, tan, grey, etc backgrounds.