Yes... the tartan was designed and copyrighted and is owned by a little old gentleman in a nursing home. Frugal Corner had gotten permission to sell it. Scotland Forever (who had been selling it for YEARS not knowing it was actually copyrighted) eventually contacted the copyright holder and got SOLE permission to weave and sell the tartan (and Frugal Corner's rights were revoked). As I stated above, the owners of Scotland Forever are VERY nice people and good business people and are now the only ones with the permission to sell the Texas Bluebonnet tartan.Originally Posted by Tobus
As an FYI, the register is indeed flawed for MANY tartans that are copyrighted / restricted. Many of ours that were registered before the creation of the register had to be amended to show the restrictions (I had to call / email them and ask for it b/c it wasn't shown properly).
Yes, that's how many designs started. People just liked the designs and picked them based on that. That being said, it's much easier to get people "emotionally involved" in a tartan if there's a REASON for the colors / numbers chosen. I would respectfully disagree with you having seen many of our (own design) tartans sell. Heck... you'd be surprised how many people call up asking for the "343" tartan when they mean our Firefighters Memorial. It has 3 red, 4 red, 3 red stripes for the 343 firefighters that died on 9/11. That's symbolism that means a LOT to every firefighter I know.
But all the authentic traditional Scottish clan tartans were basically created that way, weren't they? Someone picked a sett because they liked the way it looked, and then someone else (in most cases) randomly assigned it to the clans. Now they have huge significance, not because of the meanings of the colours, but because of their adoption by a group and the subsequent association with that group.
I would agree that creating a new tartan and hoping to make it achieve that level of significance is more difficult today without that history behind it, but I don't think the majority of people are picking their tartans based on colour symbolism. There's no doubt that you have authoritative experience in designing and marketing tartans, and I certainly don't mean to challenge that experience, but as a consumer, I can't think of anyone who said to himself, "oh wow - that tartan has red for bravery, so I must have it!" It seems to me that people buy tartans because they either like the colour scheme because it looks good, or they want to associate with the group it represents. In other words, what makes a tartan design popular is either its visual appeal or its adoption by a group. Assigning philosophical significance to the different colours of the tartan seems to be more important to the designer than it is to the consumer. Obvious exceptions would be school colours or other tartans where the colours already have significance, and the tartan is designed around them.
That being the case, I would think the first step in making a new tartan popular is making it look good. When the members of an organisation adopt it or take to wearing it as their own, then the identity component starts to kick in. But if a tartan starts off ugly and never gains approval by the group it's supposed to represent, it will go nowhere.
Just food for thought, and hopefully an interesting conversation on the subject!
There are also the Irish County Crest tartans which have their colors to reflect the colors in the crest for each Irish county. They have 'symbolism' which makes sense for them based on the collection (Irish County CREST tartan collection). It's not as 'corny' as some, but there is still meaning.
I also wholeheartedly agree that for a tartan to take off, it must look good. The colors can be brightened or softened (unless like you said it's a school color or something) and certain things can be done to make a tartan more or less appealing. I'll re-state what I did above as well... when it comes to this new design (the Lone Star State tartan), I think they missed the mark.
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