Corporate Custom Design Tartan with Brand Colours - Your Questions Answered
Custom Tartan Design with Logo & Brand Colours: Your Complete Guide
Can you create a custom tartan that matches our corporate colours? Will our logo colours translate to woven fabric? How do you handle precise brand requirements?
If you're considering a custom tartan design for your organisation, charity, or brand, these are likely the questions keeping you up at night. The good news? At Great Scot, we've spent over 30 years perfecting the art and science of translating digital colours, logos, and strict brand guidelines into authentic Scottish tartan—and we've never failed to deliver a design our clients love.
Why Custom Tartan Design Requires Specialist Expertise
Creating a bespoke tartan isn't simply about picking colours from a chart. When you have specific brand colours, logo requirements, or corporate identity guidelines, the challenge becomes more complex and more interesting.
The Digital-to-Dye Challenge
Your brand colours are represented by HEX codes (#FF6B9D), RGB values, or Pantone references. These are precise digital instructions that create colour through light on screens and ink on paper. But tartan weaving works entirely differently.
When we create custom Scottish tartans, we're working with:
- Natural wool fibres that absorb dye rather than reflect light
- Traditional dyeing processes are governed by chemistry, temperature, and time
- Weave structures where multiple colours interact optically
- Different fibre types (wool, silk, cotton, cashmere) that each absorb colour uniquely
- Variable lighting conditions that change how colours appear
This is why you need specialists who understand both worlds, digital colour specification and traditional textile production.
How Great Scot Matches Your Brand Colours to Tartan
Our custom tartan colour matching process has achieved a 100% success rate across all our bespoke designs, including three custom charity tartans that were registered on the first application. Here's how we do it:
1. Deep Discovery: Understanding Your Colour Intent
Before we mix a single dye, we need to understand what your colours mean:
- Corporate identity tartans: Which brand colours are non-negotiable? Which can flex slightly for optimal weaving?
- Charity tartans: What does each colour symbolise? (Our Pink Ribbon Tartan uses multiple pink shades to represent breast cancer awareness and hope)
- Heritage reconnection projects: Are we matching historical colours or creating something new that honours tradition?
- Logo-based designs: Which elements of your logo should translate directly, and which should inspire the overall palette?
This discovery phase ensures we're not just matching colours, we're capturing the essence of your brand or cause.
2. Professional Colour Translation
Our master dyers translate your digital colours into dye recipes using:
- Spectrophotometry for initial colour analysis
- 30+ years of experience with how colours behave on different fibres
- Knowledge of traditional Scottish dyes and modern colourfast alternatives
- Understanding of optical colour mixing in tartan setts
We create multiple dye samples on actual wool yarn, not digital simulations, but real fibres you can touch and view under different lighting conditions.
3. Physical Sampling & Client Collaboration
We send you physical yarn samples and discuss with you:
- How the colour will shift once woven into the tartan pattern
- How it appears in daylight vs. artificial light
- How it works alongside the other colours in your design
- Any adjustments we recommend based on weaving expertise
This is a collaborative process. Your feedback guides refinement until we've achieved colours that honour your brand while working beautifully in woven tartan.
4. Registration & Production
For all that will be officially registered, we handle all complex documentation and threadcounts with the Scottish Register of Tartans. Our 100% first-time approval rate speaks to the quality and authenticity of our designs.
Then we move to full production with our partner family-owned mills across Scotland, maintaining quality control at every stage.
Why Organisations Trust Great Scot with Brand-Critical Tartans
Proven Track Record with Strict Requirements
- Fast, Efficient Design Process
- Patient, thorough & skilled team
- Quick initial consultations to understand your vision
- Unlimited time available for sampling and iteration
- Clear communication at every stage
- Realistic timelines (up to 12 weeks for full production if new weaving is required)
Authentic Scottish Heritage
We're not another print-on-demand service. We're the UK's second-biggest buyer of traditional woven tartans and tweeds, working exclusively with family-owned Scottish mills. We design our own tartans for our own projects so we see things from your viewpoint too. ts important to us that our tartans and tweeds are:
- Woven traditionally by master weavers using time-honoured methods
- Made in Scotland at historic mills with unique specialisms
- Ethically produced, supporting rural Scottish weaving communities
- Built to last with proper finishing and quality control
Complete Service from Design to Distribution
We often hear "Oh, we hadn't thought of that!" Well, rest assured, we have.
We handle everything, and we won't leave you stressed or unsure.
- Collaborative design and colour matching
- Registration with the Scottish Register of Tartans (100% success rate - 1st time)
- Production with quality-controlled weaving
- Global distribution support for organisations needing tartan products worldwide
- Ongoing availability, your tartan becomes part of our permanent collection - exclusive to you alone.
- Support and free consultation through packaging to the press.
- We'll create video footage of your tartan being woven, so that the story of your tartan can be fully memorialised.
Common Questions About Custom Tartan with Brand Colours
Can you match our exact Pantone colours?
We can get remarkably close, and often achieve what clients describe as a "perfect" match. However, we're always transparent: dyed wool on woven tartan will never be pixel-identical to a screen or print colour. What we can guarantee is a colour that captures the spirit, tone, and brand essence you're after, and that looks stunning in traditional tartan.
We have very strict brand guidelines. Can you work within them?
Absolutely. We've worked with corporate clients, heritage brands, and charities with exacting requirements. We'll show you exactly how your colours translate to textile before any commitment, and we'll iterate until you're confident it represents your brand properly.
How long does a custom tartan design take?
Design can be as quick as one week. Full production (if weaving new stock) takes up to 12 weeks. We'll give you a realistic timeline based on your specific project.
What if we need products made from our custom tartan?
We offer complete product creation: kilts, scarves, ties, blankets, upholstery fabric, and more. We can also support you with global distribution if you're using tartan for fundraising, corporate gifts, or retail.
Will our tartan be exclusive to us?
Yes. Always. We will discuss exclusivity arrangements with you and, based on our extensive experience, recommend a structure which will give you full control of your tartan whilst maximising its protection. For charity tartans, we typically register them in your organisation's name, and you benefit from ongoing sales through our platform.
Industries We Serve with Custom Tartan Design
- Charities & Non-Profits: Create meaningful fundraising tartans with symbolic colours (like our Pink Ribbon and Ukraine Forever tartans)
- Corporations: Brand-aligned tartans for corporate gifts, events, or heritage storytelling
- Educational Institutions: School and university tartans with official colours
- Sports Clubs & Associations: Team tartans incorporating club colours
- Heritage Brands: Reconnection projects linking brands back to Scottish textile roots
- Family Clans: Modern interpretations of family colours and heritage
Start Your Custom Tartan Design Journey
If you have a logo, brand colours, or specific requirements for a custom tartan, we'd love to help you bring that vision to life. With decades of experience, partnerships with Scotland's finest family-owned mills, and a 100% success rate in registration with the Lord Lyon, we're confident we can create something you'll be proud to wear, gift, or sell.
Ready to invest in a brand asset that appreciates in meaning and value over time? I'd love to chat.
Please email us: margo@greatscotscotland.com
Visit: greatscotscotland.com
Located in Scotland, in the heart of Scottish textile heritage
Why Choose Great Scot for Bespoke Tartan Design?
- Extenive international branding incorporating Scottish textile expertise
- 100% success rate (first application) in new tartan registration
- Exclusive partnerships with family-owned Scottish mills
- Fast design process, as little as one week
- Complete service, from design through global distribution
- Ethical production supporting traditional weaving communities
- Proven colour matching for brands, charities, and organisations
Your brand colours deserve authentic Scottish craftsmanship. Let's create your custom tartan together.