Orientation of a Design
Every customer who comes to our business to create a pattern, a sample or a specification has a different end goal in mind. The design brief process helps us understand what that goal is for you.
Whether you run a boutique design house, or a large company producing sportswear for major retail stores, particular areas of the design process will be important to you so we use the design brief to save you time, heartache and money.
What to bring: When you meet us for the first time, bring a sketch, maybe some measurements, maybe a garment and sometimes a pattern to work from. We’ll use the meeting to talk about these, and discover which of these is the most important to you, and how they fit together. We’ll ask questions such as:
Do you need the end garment to look EXACTLY like the photo or sketch you first bought in?
Do you need the end garment to fit the same way as the pattern you have bought in?
Do you need the measurements to be as close as possible to those you bring?
Do you need the end garment to look and fit EXACTLY like the original garment you bought in?
Most likely, the measurements won’t give the look of the sketch, the design won’t match the measurements, the pattern may not reflect the design, or the garment may be a very bad fit (in our eyes). To save your time and money we need to know how much leeway we have to create the end result you need.
This might be sounding odd to you: you may have heard other pattern makers and designers talking about a ‘spec sheet’ that does a lot of the talking. That’s another way of working, which we don’t prefer.
Design oriented pattern starts with a sketch and a chat: we create the pattern, make a garment, try it on a fit model – maybe we go back and forth a few times to perfect the fit – and only when the fit, look and feel are perfect do we make the spec sheet. A spec oriented design follows a different path – the pattern is created using pattern making knowledge but using spec measurements. It is very hard to solve fit issues and design issues with this method.
We don’t like starting with a spec sheet because unless you’re running a huge fashion house with a precisely defined spec list, you’re not getting the full range of service from your pattern maker. We believe that if you are going to spend the money to use a local pattern maker, you should get your money’s worth and use the design knowledge we can bring to your design! A good pattern maker has a very strong sense of design, they should know how low and wide a neckline should sit or a hem line should be. These are the design elements we work hard to master over the course of our careers, and they are a big part of what you are paying for.
If you would like to know more or if you have a question you would like us to find out about, please email us at info@sampleroom.com.au or simply make a comment on this post.
Until next time…..Happy Designing!