The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 letter word FAIR ISLE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
F
A
I
R
I
S
L
E
More clues leading to the result FAIR ISLE
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "sort of design" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case sort of design = fair isle.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.