A curated programme of surface pattern designers whose original work we print on demand, by the metre, shipped worldwide.

You earn a royalty per metre on every print sold. We handle fabric sourcing, printing, QC, fulfilment, payments, customer service, and the platform. You design and curate.

Three reasons:

• Curated, and mutual. We choose the designers we work with carefully, and we want designers who choose us back, a partnership from the get-go, with a studio of your own.
• One flat royalty, nothing to pay. 15% of Net Sales Revenue on every metre printed, the same on your first metre as your thousandth. No subscription, no listing fee, no rate that shrinks once you are in.
• Twenty years of trade behind the print. The same mills, the same QC, the same fabric we've shipped to brands across Europe and Asia, now under your designs.

Surface pattern designers with original work, independent studios, illustrators, textile designers, and pattern makers. Whether you're early in your practice or established, what matters is the work itself and how it sits with the rest of the programme.

We're not looking for any one style. Our partners range across botanical, geometric, abstract, traditional, contemporary, monochrome, and high colour. What we look for is coherence, the sense of a studio, not a one-off.

Head office in Melbourne, Australia. Operations in Shanghai and Hong Kong, where we spent twenty years building the trade network, supplying garment makers, brands, and wholesalers across Europe and Asia.

Printing and fulfilment run through our trade operations. The Design Partner Programme is administered by The Fabric Shop Pty Ltd, an Australian-owned company based in Melbourne, and royalty payments are made under Australian law.

A small intake each month. We open registration on a rolling basis and review new partners in small batches. We would rather grow the programme carefully than dilute the studio mix.

If we are between intakes when you register, we will tell you the timing for the next round when we reply, and hold your registration on file.

Through the Register Your Interest form on Studios. Three steps:

• About you. Name, where you work from, how to reach you, your studio links.
• About your work. Portfolio links, a short note on what you make, and any context that helps us understand your practice.
• Review and send. A look-over before you confirm.

No. There is no subscription, no listing fee, and no joining fee. You earn 15% of Net Sales Revenue on every metre sold. Nothing comes out of your pocket to be part of the programme.

Three things, in roughly equal weight:

• Original work. Designs you own, not licensed in, not redrawn from another source, not generated by AI.
• Coherence. A sense of a studio, not a one-off. We're looking at how the work hangs together, not chasing a single hit pattern.
• Craft. Designs that read well at scale on fabric, repeat structure, colour confidence, and detail that survives the print process.

We're not looking for any one style. Our partner mix spans botanical, geometric, abstract, traditional, and contemporary, what we keep watching is how the next addition relates to what's already there.

We aim to reply within seven business days of receiving your registration. If we are in the middle of an intake batch, sooner. If we are between intakes, you will hear back with timing for the next round.

Not being selected this round is usually about timing and how a studio would sit alongside the current mix, rather than a judgement on the work itself.

Yes. There's no waiting period. If you've made new work, share it, even if it's been six weeks since the last registration. We keep prior registrations on file so it's not starting from scratch each time.

Your own space on PrintLab: your collections, your bio, your studio identity, your designs in your order. Each Design Partner has their own studio, built on the platform but curated by you. Customers browse by studio, by collection, or by individual print.

The platform chrome (the navigation, the fabric configurator, the cart) stays consistent across studios, that is how customers move between them. Inside that, your studio is yours.

Yes, within a system that keeps the platform navigable:

• Studio identity: studio name, bio, profile image, accent imagery (banner, portrait, supporting tiles)
• Collection structure: how you group designs into collections, the order they appear, featured pieces
• Design order: within a collection, the sequence is yours
• Studio bio + studio note: the editorial text on your home tab and individual collection pages

What stays consistent: the typography system, the fabric selector, the configurator, the cart, and the chrome, so customers always know how to move through the platform.

We do. The whole operations layer is ours:

• Photography. Lifestyle and product shots of fabric, including how your prints appear on each compatible base.
• Marketing. The Mill, our newsletter, plus social, site editorial, customer email, and platform campaigns.
• Print + QC + fulfilment. Every metre printed, checked, and shipped through our trade network.
• Customer service. Orders, samples, faults, claims, returns.

You design and curate. We do the rest.

From the moment you complete setup, studio ready, your first designs uploaded, your first collection live, we review within 24 hours and open your studio to customers. You'll get an email when it's open.

Setup states in your dashboard: In setup · Go-live · In review · Live. Each step shows what we're waiting on, what's pending review, and when customers can see your studio.

JPG, PNG, or TIFF, in RGB. Design your repeat tile at 300 DPI, at the real-world size you want it to print, a 20 cm tile built at 20 cm, not a small file stretched up later. DPI only counts paired with a size. Each file can be up to 50MB.

If a file lands below that, we resample it to 300 DPI at your stated size on upload, but resampling cannot invent detail that was never captured, so it prints softer, and it limits how far customers can size your repeat up with the scale tool on the product page. Build at the largest size you would want it printed and you keep the full range, crisp.

For repeats, set up a seamless tile (straight or half-drop) and upload the single tile, not multiple metres. A full prep guide, with suggested repeat dimensions for each base fabric, lives in your dashboard once your studio is set up. If a file won't hold up, too low-res, a broken repeat, or the wrong colour mode, our pre-press team flags it before publishing.

Yes. Colourways sit within a single design upload rather than as separate designs, so a customer sees one design and chooses the colourway on the product page. Upload the tile for each colourway at the same size and specification.

Closely, with the natural translation between screen and fabric. A screen emits light and fabric reflects it, so colours shift a little in print, and the same design reads differently across bases, since each fabric takes ink in its own way: a natural fibre absorbs more and prints a touch softer, a synthetic prints more vividly. The most saturated screen colours, intense neons especially, sit beyond what ink can reach and settle to the nearest printable tone.

Our pre-press team reviews every file before it publishes, so anything clearly off is caught before your studio goes live. For anything you are unsure of, order a swatch of your own design and see it on the base you have in mind before it goes live. See it, feel it, then decide.

Yes. Your designs stay yours. We licence them from you to reproduce on fabric for customer orders, to display in the PrintLab catalogue, and to use in marketing of the platform, and that licence ends when you take the design down or leave the programme. Your copyright never transfers.

The full position is in the Design Partner Agreement, signed when you join the programme.

Studio designs must be your own original work, created by you, not generated for you. We don't accept AI-generated designs in PrintLab studios.

This isn't about the tools you draw or paint with. The line is simply whether the design is genuinely your own creative work.

If a design looks generated rather than made, we may ask to see your working files or process history before it goes live. It's part of how we keep the library something designers and customers can trust. The full position is in Section 5.4 of the Design Partner Agreement.

No. Your Original Design Files, the source artwork you upload, are never used to train AI models, ours or anyone else's. That protection is written into the Design Partner Agreement at Section 4.8.

The marketing renderings we produce, your print shown made up on fabric, in mockups, and in lifestyle imagery, are a separate matter, and may run through third-party advertising and social platforms in the ordinary course of promoting the platform. Your source files stay out of any AI training.

Yes. Our licence isn't exclusive. The same designs can live on other print-on-demand platforms, your own e-commerce, or anywhere else. We won't ask you to take them down from existing platforms when you join us.

What you can't do is upload designs that someone else holds the rights to, that's a separate matter, covered by the originality and IP warranties in the Design Partner Agreement.

Any time, from your dashboard, with two exceptions. While a design is In Review you can't edit, replace or delete it, so contact us and we'll return it to draft. And where a design already has orders placed, you can unlist it from sale straight away, but deletion waits until those orders are fulfilled or cancelled.

We stop accepting new orders for that design within one business day. Customer orders placed before the takedown are still fulfilled, and you still earn royalties on those orders, we don't cancel committed customers because of a takedown.

If you need the design out of marketing assets (existing email campaigns, social posts, and grid content) earlier than the natural campaign cycle, email designpartners@thefabricshop.com and we'll prioritise replacement.

15% of Net Sales Revenue on every metre printed featuring your design. Flat rate: the same 15% on your first metre as your thousandth, with no volume tiers and no introductory rate that lapses.

If you are registered for GST in Australia, that 15% is GST-inclusive.

Yes. Swatches earn the same 15% of Net Sales Revenue as metres.

We do. Retail prices are set at the platform level, per base fabric, and stay consistent across every studio, so a metre of a given base costs the customer the same wherever they buy it and whoever designed the print. It keeps pricing fair and predictable, and it means you never have to set prices or compete on them.

The retail price the customer actually paid for the printed item, excluding:

• Taxes (GST, VAT, sales tax, any other government-imposed tax)
• Shipping and handling charges
• Customs duties and import taxes
• Refunds and chargebacks
• Discounts applied at the time of sale (promotional codes, sale pricing)

How a customer pays isn't a discount. Gift cards, store credit, and loyalty balances all count in full towards Net Sales Revenue.

Monthly. Royalties accrue across each calendar month, are calculated at month-end, and paid within 30 days of month-end, provided your balance is above the minimum payout threshold.

AUD $20 minimum payout threshold. Balances below this roll over to the next monthly cycle until they pass the threshold. The threshold exists to offset transaction fees on small payouts, it would otherwise eat your royalty.

Australian Dollars (AUD). International partners receive AUD via their nominated payment method, currency conversion costs and receiving-side fees are your responsibility, and vary by payment method (see below).

Three options, choose in your Earnings dashboard, change any time:

• Wise, recommended. Available worldwide, with the lowest FX cost and the quickest receipt. All we need is your email or Wisetag, Wise asks you for bank details the first time you set up, then it's quick from there, and you keep most of your payout.
• Direct bank transfer (EFT). Australian and New Zealand partners only.
• PayPal. Available worldwide. Convenient, but PayPal's currency conversion and transaction fees apply, these aren't typically the cheapest for cross-border payments.

You can change your payment method any time from your dashboard. Changes apply to the next payout cycle.

No. We show your payout in AUD and pay it in AUD, you don't need an Australian bank account to receive it.

If you're paid via Wise, you can choose to receive the funds in your own local currency: Wise converts the AUD at the mid-market exchange rate at the time you receive the payout, applying its own small conversion fee. PayPal also converts, though usually at a less favourable rate (see the payout-methods question above).

No royalty is payable on a cancelled, refunded, or charged-back order. If a royalty has already been paid out on an order that's later refunded, the amount is clawed back from your next monthly payout. It's shown clearly on your dashboard, both the original order, the refund event, and the deduction line on the next payout statement.

Verified faults, where we issue a reprint or replacement at our cost, don't reduce your royalty, because the customer hasn't been refunded.

Australian law requires us to withhold tax on royalty payments unless you provide documentation that establishes your tax residency and (where relevant) your eligibility for a reduced rate under a treaty between Australia and your country.

Tax documentation is collected through your dashboard before your first payout. If documentation isn't current, payments are made at the maximum applicable withholding rate.

Royalty payments to non-resident designers are subject to Australian royalty withholding tax, an Australian government tax on royalties paid from Australia to a recipient overseas.

30%, the default withholding rate on gross royalty payments to non-resident designers, applied unless a lower treaty rate applies and you've provided the documentation to claim it.

We withhold the tax at the time of payment and remit it to the Australian Taxation Office on your behalf. You receive the net amount.

If your country has a Double Tax Agreement (DTA) with Australia and you're entitled to the treaty benefit under that DTA, yes, the reduced rate (typically between 5% and 15%, varying by country) replaces the 30% default.

To claim, file a treaty declaration in your dashboard with your foreign Tax Identification Number (TIN) and a declaration of residency. It's your responsibility to ensure the claim is correct, we rely on the information you provide. If your country isn't listed in our DTA picker, you remain on the default 30% rate.

We're not in a position to advise whether you qualify for a treaty benefit in your specific situation, speak to a qualified tax adviser in your country of residence before claiming.

Depends on where you're a tax resident:

• Australia. Your ABN (businesses) plus your GST registration status. If you don't supply a valid ABN, the default top-rate withholding (currently 47%) applies until you do.
• Non-resident, claiming a treaty rate. Your foreign Tax Identification Number (or local equivalent), a declaration of tax residency, a completed treaty declaration in your dashboard, and a current Certificate of Residency from your tax authority. The Certificate is what unlocks the reduced rate, without a valid one, the 30% default applies. Most Certificates need renewing each year.
• Non-resident, no treaty / not claiming. The default 30% default withholding applies.

You complete this as a step in going live. The dashboard walks you through exactly what your country needs and saves it for future cycles.

If you're registered (or required to be registered) for GST in Australia, your royalty is paid GST-inclusive. The 15% already includes any GST on your supply to us, and we don't add a separate GST amount on top.

Each month you issue us a valid tax invoice for your royalties. We do not run a recipient-created tax invoice (RCTI) arrangement, so raising the invoice is your responsibility, and we pay the GST-inclusive amount against it. You remit the GST component to the ATO and handle your own GST reporting.

Your royalty is not lost if an invoice is late. The balance stays in your account and is paid in the next cycle after we receive a valid invoice.

If you're not registered for GST (and not required to be), no GST component arises, your royalty is paid as calculated, and you issue an ordinary invoice with no GST.

Australian designers only: GST is an Australian tax. If you're a non-resident designer, GST doesn't apply to your royalties, see the withholding questions above instead.

Let us know within 30 days of any change, new country of residence, new TFN/ABN, new treaty position, or expiry of a residency certificate. Email designpartners@thefabricshop.com; we'll reset the tax section of your dashboard so you can re-enter the details and submit, the same way you did at setup. We don't edit your tax record by hand, you update and confirm it yourself.

If documentation lapses or becomes invalid, we revert to the maximum applicable withholding rate from the next payment cycle until current documentation is provided.

After the end of each Australian financial year (30 June), we email you an annual statement. It shows total royalties accrued, total paid out, tax withheld in aggregate, and the rate applied. Useful for your own tax filing, in many countries the Australian tax shown can support a foreign tax credit claim, though whether and how you can claim it is a matter for your tax agent.

No. We can tell you what we withhold, the rate we applied, and the documentation that supports it. We're not in a position to advise you on your obligations in your country of residence, on whether your treaty position is correctly claimed, or on how your royalty income should be declared on your local tax return. Those are matters for a qualified tax adviser in your country.

From your dashboard, under the design's settings, unless the design is In Review or already has orders placed. See "Can I take a design down?" in Designs & IP for how those two cases work.

Email designpartners@thefabricshop.com with the reason. We stop accepting new orders on your studio within one business day. The full pause, including royalty reconciliation on orders already in flight, completes within seven business days.

Existing orders continue to be fulfilled. When you are ready to come back, the same email opens it up again.

Email designpartners@thefabricshop.com to leave, there's no self-serve option in your dashboard, because leaving has knock-on effects on in-flight orders and royalty reconciliation we'd rather handle directly. We stop offering your designs for new customer orders within one business day. We may continue to fulfil customer orders placed before then, and you'll still earn royalties on those.

We will not try to talk you out of it. The Design Partner Agreement is terminable by either party with notice, and the licence you grant us ends with it.

Royalty balances above the minimum payout threshold are paid on the usual monthly schedule, subject to applicable withholding tax. Balances below the threshold at the point of termination are paid in full within 60 days, again subject to withholding.

The annual tax statement for the part-year is still issued after the next 30 June. You don't lose access to your statements when you leave, we'll provide a final export of all payout records and statements, on request.

They come off PrintLab. Your studio page closes. We may continue to use marketing assets already deployed at the time of departure, existing email campaigns in the queue, social posts already published, archived editorial, until they retire in the ordinary course of campaign refresh.

The natural retirement window for marketing assets is typically no longer than six months. If you want specific assets retired sooner, email designpartners@thefabricshop.com and we'll prioritise removal.

Your copyright was always yours. The licence you grant us ends with the Design Partner Agreement. The only thing that continues is the marketing already in circulation, described above, and it retires on the cycle described. Nothing else survives.