30 Computer as a design tool

Vinutha N.P

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Introduction:

 

The fashion industry has come a long way, currently it values 2 % of global GDP which makes it as the largest industries in the world. Compare to initial days, usage of computer technology has increased in today’s fashion industry. Computers were introduced in fashion industry well before 1980. Initially it was used rarely because of the cost incurred; later computers became most essential for designers. In current scenario technology has become very essential for designers as its plays an important role in the field like designing, production, database, marketing etc.

 

Most of the fashion design schools however, still teach traditional design methods, including manual flat pattern construction, draping and line drawing. No doubt that learning of these methods do essential for basic understand, but Cutting-edge on education also focuses on computer aided methods of curriculum. The industry is more accredited to the technologies that are being taught to students to draw the designs, to market, or to teach. Designing a particular fashion line is no longer a timely process for students, as computer technology plays a vital role in order to be successful.

 

Computers software are now widely used to create virtual images, create sketches and attach them to virtual models.3 Dimensional views will help us to analyse the actual design which will help us in saving time and money to develop final output. Designers are persistently using latest technology to replace old manual skills to create woven textures, drape models to create patterns, adjust sizes and even determine fabric colors.

 

Objective:

 

At the end of this lesson you will be able to get a clear idea of the following topics

  • Briefly describe the usage of computers in fashion design industry.
  • Equipment’s for setting up the fashion studio, key factors that make a studio to run successfully.
  • Hardware requirements
  • Software’s used in fashion industry and its benefits.

The use of computers in some of the fields associated with fashion:

 

Fabric Manufacturing:

 

Various prints like motifs, ethnic, floral, geometric, abstract, plaids, checks and polka dots are being used in all garments and accessories. Though all these prints are common in public life, its usages differs across locations while designing the aesthetically pleasing multiple sizes output as per the taste of the people. In today’s world with the help of software we can create various designs and save it for future, instead of starting from the scratch each time you start the design. In principle other than designing it has become a practice to use computers in different departments of manufacturing units like Product life cycle & Enterprise Resource planning.

 

Designing:

 

Computer plays a crucial role in imprinting the ideas of designers while designing a garment. The process of designing begins with the brainstorming sessions like preparing virtual color board, theme board, design board etc. These boards are easy to edit on software as compare to papers and colors. In Virtual design we can carry out real time correction before producing the final out. Currently designers are using various software’s like: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, In Design, Corel Draw, Poser to come up with more creative designs.

 

Production:

 

Production process in fashion design is very crucial as it is the backbone of the industry. Without production none of the design can reach their reality and the feasibility of the product can be defined after the product comes in hand. Without proper production for creative designers it is extremely difficult to reach of the mass audience. In the beginning production was a simple process and limited to local tailoring. As the industry grew awareness among common people also improved, this lead to increase in demand and variations in designs. Thus production process entered into an automation world where the technologies are playing a major role in its growth. Various software used in production process includes Lecta, Optitex, Gerber.

 

Management:

 

Fashion management have constantly coming up with different ides to reach out the customers to sell their final products. As customers are prone to various designs & taste, this forced our industry giants to collaborate with foreign brands to reach out customers. Management invest more time in inventory, logistics, price range, visual merchandising, forecasting and much more. This collaboration has led to employing skilled labors who can adopt technologies in their day to day life to manage huge assortment. Major software used by management people are Microsoft Project Management, Open Proj.

 

Setting up of designing studio:

 

A designing studio is platform for designers to engage in creating, designing and developing new products. There is no correct way to set up a design studio. Every studio has its own culture, way of working, processes and experiences.

 

Equipment’s for setting up a designing studio:

  • Clothes, dotted pattern papers, art equipment’s are best suited for design work like scale, curving scale, fabric and paper scissors, Blunted and pointed tracing wheel.
  • Furniture and work benches,
  • machines like home sewing and industrial sewing machines, industrial surges, super lock machines, industrial iron pressing tools
  • Computer equipment, portable devices ,
  • Presentation boards and screens.

Size of the design studio:

 

The size of the design studios depends on the number of designers working in a design studio.

 

Studio can be categorized into 2 types:

  • Single individual who work as a freelance designer set up in their own home or in a small room. Home is the best option, with relatively low running costs and no rush hour.
  • Group of designers vary from two or up to 1000 members in a large studios apart from designers the other staffs like technicians, administrative staff will also be part of the work.

Key factors to set up the design studio:

  • Stop planning, do something: Start with small things to get going and take action every day to move closer to your goal to set up the studio.
  • Check out your credits: If you know about your design talent, reflect it in your pricing structure by getting the expert advice for setting your rates, controlling cash flow, balancing the books and forecasting your finances,
  • Add some inspiration: Whenever designer feels down or lacks energy, the environment around them will fail to pull out a great design. Keeping inspirational books, DVDs or images will definitely help designer to boost them and get back to work. It really helps when you are blank, and you can see how other people have handled their own work. A routine should be pinned next to the desk to keep them in check.
  • Don’t forget storage: We definitely need some space to put all your raw materials and finished products to be in safer part .Make sure you have protected all your materials in one particular place so that you can easily get it whenever you require.
  • Be transparent: Don’t try to hide the way you work – make it your selling point. If you work with collaborators then highlight the fact that you have built a team of specialists for a project; A transparent brand has much more of a chance of being trusted.
  • Mentors: You need trusted people to give you the right advice. As a founder of a studio, there is no one within the organization to give you advice on a day-to-day life. Hiring mentors can give you right advice at right time to run business, though they don’t have to run a design studio themselves – in fact it is very useful and effective practice in this generation. One of the best things we can do is to identify our weakness, and then found experts in those particular fields.
  • Clients: If you are going to set up a design studio, then you need greater audience to design for. It is important to find the right clients and build a relationship. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all model. Aim to build an understanding of what a client hopes to achieve from the projects you work on together. This helps to ensure all parties are clear on the ultimate aims for any design work.
  • Comfortable workspace: Health and safety issues are paramount, most important is major regulations,. A good part of your time is spent in the studio, so treat it like a working canvas by having comfortable working culture.
  • Standing out: There are thousands of design studios, so why would a client work with yours? It is vital to be clear on your brand, offers. Clearly communicate that the value you will bring to clients. This way they will appreciate the benefit of working with you. Don’t worry about comparing yourself with other like businesses. Spend most of your time to communicate your brand to potential customers.
  • Advertisement: Designers can’t do everything for themselves. You may need other people and companies to work together to execute most of the projects. Using technology you can work with experts across globe that can bring their knowledge to your business. Those experts will help you in promoting your brand in this location through promotions.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:

 

Personal computer

 

Tools required for Fashion Design, Drawing, and Pattern Drafting:

  1. Graphic for iPad
  2. Apple Pencil
  3. Adobe Illustrator
  4. Sketchbook
  5. Accumark Pattern Design Software
  6. CAD Systems
  7. Inkscape

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:

 

CAD

 

Computer-aided design or “CAD” is fast becoming the future of sketching in the fashion industry. Computer-aided designers in the fashion industry use computer software to create sketches and other designs used to create clothes, accessories, shoes and more. An integrated suite of software includes pattern design, grading, detailing, marker layout and CAD drafting. A practical and affordable pattern making software system is ideal for home based or commercial businesses.

 

Features of fashion design:

  • CAD saves the Designer time during the design process
  • Allows the designers to develop even newer design ideas
  • Shows prototype and makes it easier for the designer to make a change before producing the final design
  • Allows the designer to view in 3 dimensions

Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop are most commonly used CAD (Computer Aided Design) software programs in the fashion industry due to their versatility and affordability.

 

Adobe Illustrator

 

Adobe Illustrator is advanced vector-based software. The image is not composed of pixels, but rather of mathematical constructs to create vector graphics. In Illustrator, a line is composed of two dots connected by a computer algorithm, instead of just a line of pixels. Because of this, Illustrator is used often to create logos or designs that may be printed or displayed at different sizes. When the image is zoomed it gives clear and sharp image. A vector graphic will never lose its quality if it’s scaled up or down. Illustrator will also give you a better print output since it’s not resolution dependent. Illustrator drawback is that it can’t be used easily to modify images that are already created, since there are limited filters in editing tools. This software could also be accessed over mobile. This is not just used for clothing design but it has a capability to replicate the work get done by Photoshop and CorelDraw.

 

In adobe illustrator we are able to do:

  • Master use of the Pen tool
  • Sketch industry standard fashion flats
  • Add bitmap graphics to vector files
  • Design your own vector graphics
  • Quickly render sketches with color, and fabric patterns
  • Trace, modify, and recolor drawings.
  • Create Presentation boards with text, background, and shadow effects
  • Select the best combination of techniques to complete any project efficiently.

Adobe Photoshop

 

It is well renowned for incredible photo editing capabilities. Photoshop, being a raster graphics or bitmap graphics application, it interacts directly with the pixels that compose the images. This makes it a great program for modifying already existing images since it can do virtually anything.

 

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most commonly used programs in the fashion industry because it allows designers to complete important tasks in fashion design.

 

Using Photoshop, fashion designers can Computerize fabrics and hand drawn sketches.re-color textiles, create textile design repeats, Render garment sketches with fabric patterns, clean scanned images, assemble CAD presentations, add dimensional shading, Generate color combinations, Create Presentation boards with text and shadow effects. When zooming the image it gives blur and shaded edges of the image.

 

Another great benefit of Photoshop is that you can have complete control of your projects, since you can edit your graphics pixel-by-pixel.

 

In adobe Photoshop we are able to do:

  • Easily correct colors in scanned fabrics, photos, or images using Color Balance
  • Create precise selections with freehand brush strokes using Quick Mask where other selection methods fail
  • Save selections, modify at any time, and preserve for future use. With the Channels palette and Alpha Channels, you’ll never lose a tedious selection again!
  • Clean scanned hand sketches in one quick step with the Levels feature
  • Quickly clarify details in garment scans using Levels
  • Get the precise colors you want in your artwork using RGB color values
  • Apply your knowledge of RGB to any CAD design software, digital cameras, and scanners
  • Render garment sketches with pattern swatches using Layer Mask

Some other software are available in market is as follows,

 

Digital Fashion Pro:

 

Digital Fashion Pro is a software solution that allows people to create their own fashion designs using garment silhouettes, digital fabrics and techniques to create professional fashion sketches Users can create ripped jeans, handbags, T-shirts, shoes, dress sketches and many more with the system. Users can also put their finished designs on included body models to get a real feel for how their clothing will look on a person. Digital Fashion Pro is used by schools, fashion companies, designers and aspiring artist.

 

SnapFashun:

 

SnapFashun is a kind of software for the fashion industry. As a teaching tool SnapFashun quickly and easily teaches students the indispensable tools of Illustrator that the fashion industry requires. All SnapFushun libraries contains thousands of sketches that can be ‘snapped’ together, manipulated, altered and resized, so user can develop their own designs for portfolios, trend board, mood board, pattern cards, concept board, line sheets and more. SnapFashun is the perfect teaching tool for all fashion classes and programs

 

Optitex:

 

It is a most versatile and reliable software that not only analyzes the texture of the fabric but also provides a tool for graphical collaboration. It delivers the designs in a fraction of seconds according to your creativity.

 

Digital product solutions for the textile industry is joining EFI, a leading Optitex, provider of integrated 2D, CAD and 3D developer of end-to-end industry specific solutions that enable digital transformation across domain.

 

These solutions will expand EFI’s growing textile ecosystem and enable leading brands, retailers and manufacturers to set new standards for time-to-market, on-demand manufacturing, cost efficiency and automation.

 

Summary:

 

Earlier the Fashion Designing was an art that basically work on hit and trial methods. Now everything is weighed and calculated carefully before starting the production by computer. This helps in prior allocation of the raw material, manpower and machines etc. The sketches that are made by hands were treated as final output, as the usage of technology has been increased in the new method of designing, the final design will be in the form of proper digitized sketch which can be sued in the final outcome. This helped the designers to ease their work as any alteration in the order can be easily made through. The use of computer and its technology in fashion has now become the forefront in education curriculum as well. Because of technology Designer were able to cut down on the time and money in designing final product.

 

A design studio is a platform where for designers to engage in creating, designing and developing new product. Designers can’t do everything themselves. They may need other people and companies to work together to execute most projects well. This is where management people come into picture. Who can help designers by providing right advise at the right time.

 

CAD or computer aided design refers to the technique of using computers for the creation or modification of designs and primarily used to enhance the productivity of the designer or to improve the quality of designs.CAD eliminates tedious manual editing by providing a variety of editing tools.

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