CORPORATE TARTAN DESIGN
A bespoke tartan design that tells your story and sets your brand apart.
Corporate tartan design is a unique and powerful way to showcase your brand’s identity. At Houston Kiltmakers, we specialise in creating bespoke tartans for businesses, charities, and special events. Once designed, your tartan can be crafted into kilts and accessories by our team, but it can also be applied more widely, serving as a striking element in uniforms, branding, campaigns and even non-textile uses like vehicle livery and stationary. After registration, your tartan becomes your intellectual property, giving you complete control over how it’s used.
Head Designer
Ewan, our fourth generation of Houston Kiltmakers, is one of Scotland’s leading tartan designers. Growing up in the family business and working in the industry for over 20 years, he has built a deep understanding of what makes a truly great tartan.
As Head Designer, Ewan has created bespoke tartans for organisations across the world, helping brands strengthen their identity through Scotland’s most iconic fabric. His work has been commissioned by global names such as NASA, Barclays, Domino’s, Aldi, Skyrora, and the Robert Burns World Federation.
Passionate about innovation, rooted in tradition, Ewan believes a well-designed tartan can capture the spirit of a business and transform it into a powerful, lasting symbol of integrity.
Designing a tartan for your business is a unique way to enhance your existing brand and connect with your customers. It is a lasting investment that can boost corporate events, press coverage and brand identity. We can also create bespoke gifts to complement your tartan.
THE PROCESS
Step 1 – The Design Brief
We begin by working with your brand colours, exploring different proportions and combinations to build the foundation of your tartan design.
Step 2 – The Design
Our team will create a range of unique draft designs. These will be refined and developed in collaboration with you until you are completely satisfied with the result.
Step 3 – Tartan Registration
Once your tartan is finalised, we ensure it is both distinctive and original. We then register it officially with the Scottish Register of Tartans, giving you exclusive ownership.
Step 4 – Weaving the Cloth
When you are ready to place a weave order, you can choose the cloth weight and decide how the fabric will be used.
Step 5 – Creating Your Products
Your tartan can be crafted into anything from kilts and ties to bespoke gifts such as hip flasks, scarves, dog accessories etc. It also serves as a powerful tool for branding, events, and marketing, with full rights belonging to you.
We create unique corporate tartans that capture your organisation’s character, register them officially and weave them in your chosen colours. With over 50 years of experience, Houston Kiltmakers has designed and woven bespoke tartans for clients across the globe. We’ll work closely with you at every stage to craft a tartan that reflects your personality and stands the test of time for generations to come.
EXCLUSIVE CLIENTELE PORTFOLIO
BOEING
We recently worked with the team at Boeing, designing their tartan to celebrate the company's connection to Scotland. This beautiful tartan and the cloth went on to be made into kilts & accessories for the Boeing team.
This exciting collaboration allowed the new tartan to perfectly represent the brand's logo & signature colour scheme, Boeing blue. The dedication to this project led to an exceptional tartan that is innovative and integrates seamlessly with company branding.
NASA EUROPA CLIPPER
This tartan was created to commemorate the development, launch, operations, and scientific endeavours of the Europa Clipper project, which aims to study Jupiter's icy moon, Europa. It also honours the many hundreds of people worldwide who are part of the project team.
The primary scientific objective of the Europa Clipper is to determine if there are habitable environments beneath Europa's icy surface. The mission was designed to explore the characteristics of Europa's ice shell, the ocean underneath, and its composition and geology.
The colours of the tartan are inspired by images of Jupiter and Europa, symbolising the ice and dust on Europa's surface, the diverse hues of Jupiter and the vastness of interplanetary space. It was launched in October 2024.
DOMINOS
Ewan designed this tartan for Dominos Scotland. The final design, with equal parts Dominos blue and red, along with white and black accents, draws inspiration from their iconic logo.
This striking design was woven into cloth and made into kilts to celebrate the opening of a supply chain of stores in Scotland.
Crafting this unique tartan involved numerous drafts before arriving at the impressive final design, which serves as a great asset for Dominos branding. It was a long process to get right but looked incredible when made into the Kilt.
LONDON NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY
This tartan was designed for London Northeast Railway. This tartan featured colours that represent the places and communities along the LNER route, from the Scottish Highlands to London.
The predominant colour is blue for Scotland, with other colours including red for England, white for the white rose of Yorkshire (LNER’s historic headquarters), purple for the heather of Scotland, green to represent the rolling hills and beautiful scenery of their destinations and silver-grey tramlines to convey the steel tracks of the railway that connect the people and places along the whole LNER route.
It was unveiled at Edinburgh Waverley station on 31 July 2019, to commemorate the launch of LNER’s Class 800 train ‘Azuma’ on its Anglo-Scot services, which commenced the following morning on the iconic Flying Scotsman service that departed Edinburgh Waverley at 5.40am on 1 August 2019.
BARCLAYS
We worked with Barclays Clyde Place to design this tartan in honour of their new campus within Glasgow city centre. Barclays has opened a new state-of-the-art campus in Tradeston, Glasgow, aimed at driving innovation and collaboration.
The campus will house Technology, Operations, and Functions Teams, creating high-value roles and supporting the local economy by utilizing local suppliers.
The tartan is based on the state-of-the-art campus bringing in their buildings signature colours and a grid like formation to resemble the city & campus. The colours are intended to represent ‘Leaf Green’ for Glasgow, ‘Turkey Red’ a colour championed by the cotton dye workers of Glasgow and ‘Soot Black’.
GEORGE LESLIE
Ewan & Ken designed this tartan for George Leslie Civil Engineering, a local business founded in 1964 based in Barrhead. George Leslie specialises in various areas of civil engineering and has contributed to significant projects in the Glasgow area and beyond.
The tartan incorporates the brand colours of grey, black and orange. It serves as a unique and striking branding element for the company and is an excellent conversation starter at corporate events.
ALDI SCOTLAND
Aldi Scotland is the Scottish division of Aldi, a global supermarket chain known for offering high-quality products at low prices. Aldi Scotland focuses on sourcing a significant portion of its products locally from Scottish suppliers, supporting local agriculture and businesses.
This tartan was commissioned to be used on products to signpost their proud support of Scotland’s larder and link to locally produced products specifically from Scotland. The colours are centred around their ‘Best of Scotland’ blue, and features colours used in the Aldi logo.
This tartan is instantly recognisable & fitting to Aldi’s existing brand identity and can be found on a selection of their products.
Allen Associates
Allen Associates are a Scottish process design engineering company specialising in the delivery of projects across the distilling sector. Their tartan allowed them to feel connected & committed to their industry sector.
Visiting whisky distilleries made them realise that there are certain connected sights, colours and smells. The distinctive copper captured their imagination and being synonymous with Scotch whisky. The design uses a copper-coloured thread as part of the weave. The tartan is dark grey to reflect the dark rain clouds that deliver the water from which, in part, all whisky is born.
The design features fine lines of copper Lurex threads to suggest the distilling of whisky, we worked closely with Allen Associates to develop the design and liaise with the weavers to incorporate a copper-coloured metallic Lurex thread. This tartan really captured their brand status & symbolism as a company this was a beautiful tartan when woven.
CELTS OF HUNGARY
This tartan was designed for a group, Celts of Hungary. The colours are intended to represent the background of the members: Blue and the green are for the Celts, the Scottish, Irish and American members with Celtic roots; red, white and green are for the colours of the Hungarian Flag and represent the group’s time living in Hungary.
They are very passionate about their heritage and wanted a tartan to resemble how important it was to them. This tartan went on to be made into kilts and furthermore into ladies’ accessories & trews.
More Corporate Tartans Designed by Houston Kiltmakers
BOBBA!
Corporate Design In-Depth Process
Step 1: The Design Brief
The first step of your consultation is setting up a brief, this allows our designers to fully understand what you are looking for.
We will supply you with a tartan design brief for you to fill out, so this will be submitted along with any relevant images. - Inspiration can come from anywhere, logo, event, brand colours and so many other variants. This will then be reviewed by our head designer; Ewan MacDonald.
You’ll then be invited for an initial consultation, in store, by phone or video call, whatever suits you best. Here we will discuss your ideas, timescales and what you are trying to convey with your design. We will hone in on the finer details such as colour, sett/ pattern of the tartan as well as get a better understanding of the options of what can be achieved with the tartan.
We can post out lots of samples of some of our previous designs and also classic tartans so you can get a good idea of colours, patterns and weights of fabric.
Step 2: The Design
After the consultation, we will get to work using our specialist software to bring your design to life.
You will then be contacted with initial design ideas for you to review. This can be a very hands-on part of the process, with lots of feedback both ways. Let us know what you like/dislike, and we will always offer suggestions to ensure your tartan is truly striking and exactly what you envisaged.
We will re-draft until you are happy. We want to make a tartan that has a wow factor and reflects your vision & brief.
Once you have decided on a final design, we will then have yarns dyed and a printed CAD of your design. This will give a better idea of how your design will look.
Step 3: Tartan Registration
You will then choose a name for your tartan, and we will officially register it with the Scottish Register of Tartan in Edinburgh.
Any new tartan must meet the criteria of the Scottish Register of Tartan act of 2008. It has to be unique, no similarities to any designs already logged on the register. It can sometimes take a bit of work to register, but we will make sure you have a unique design.
When it comes to this process, we have an easy-to-follow guide with all the important information you will need. This process can take up to 2 weeks, as the keeper of tartans will need to ensure it is unique, then will need to be approved by the panel before it can be registered.
We always insist on this process, as this protects your intellectual property and ensures your tartan is exclusive and cannot be woven without your permission. Once the tartan is registered it's your property to do with as you like and if you have it woven by us, we will make sure to send a sample to the tartan register for them to hold in their secure storage for future generations, so tartan does not get lost.
Step 4: Weaving The Cloth
Your cloth can be woven in the following:
Heavy-Weight 16/17oz - The Authentic tartan weight, good for Gents kilts. Used mainly for kilts but can also be used for jackets and upholstery etc.
Composition: 100% Pure New Wool, Weight: 490/500gms per linear metre. Width: 1.5m.
Medium-Weight 13oz - Used for kilts, trews, ladies kilts and skirts, ties, bow ties. A good all round weight of cloth, you can make anything and everything out of this cloth weight.
Composition: 100% Pure New Wool / Weight 400/410gms per linear metre / Width is 1.5m.
Light-Weight 11oz - Great for accessories such as ties, scarves etc as well as ladies billy kilts.
Composition: 100% Pure New Wool / Weight 320/325gms per linear metre / Width is 1.5m.
Tweed 16oz - Used for kilts, jackets and upholstery, hotels etc gives an authentic look.
Composition: Pure New Wool, Weight 475/310gsm.
Cashmere Lambs wool 15oz - Used for kilts, and as a luxury fabric. This is an opulent weave, very sumptuous, the next level, ask us for samples and prices.
Composition: Pure New Wool / Weight 475/310gsm.
Brushed lambs wool 15oz - Used for scarves, rugs and blankets (Minimum weave one full bolt).
Composition: Pure New Wool / Weight 475/310gsm.
Polyviscose 11oz - Used for uniforms and some accessories. Machine washable and a budget material
Composition: Polyester/Viscose mix, Weight: 375/250gsm.
The minimum amount of cloth required for any of these options is 13m, the cloth will have a width of 1.5m. It can also be made stainproof as well as being made fire-resistant for use in the workplace. Minimum weave for brushed lambs wool is 65 metres.
Weaving can take anywhere between 3–5 months, depending on how busy the mills are. You can weave as much as you need, and we are happy to store cloth for future use also.
Your tartan will last a lifetime as long as you look after it.
Step 5: Creating Your Products
This is when your vision starts to become a reality and is by far the most exciting part.
We begin to bring life to the project you have worked on for so long. We can make a variety of products, listed below are some of our most popular;
· Handstitched and machine stitched kilts
· Argyll Trews, Fishback Trews, Trousers
· Waistcoats & Jackets
· Ladies kilts, skirts
· Kids Kilts
· Accessories such as ties, bow ties, hip flasks, sashes, stoles, wraps, shawls
· Teddy bears
· Dog Accessories – Collars, Leads, Bowties and Bandanas
· Your tartan can also be used to inlay jackets and other items of clothing
· Upholstery items
We offer much more, so if there is something you are looking for that isn’t listed above, please don’t hesitate to contact us
CONTACT US
You can reach us by email at [email protected], or by phone on 0141 889 4879.
Visit us in person at:
67 High Street,
Paisley,
PA1 2AY
