What Does a Designer Look Like?
Greetings Designers,
How did that feel?
Do you consider yourself a designer?
What does it take to qualify?
Well, what is a designer? I have often found myself explaining to people that they are designers. It's a title that is fraught with status and hype.
A designer is simply a person that curates. If you choose a photo from Pinterest and say I would like this made, but with this fabric....and make the skirt fuller and the sleeves shorter. You have just become a designer. For real.
Wait, what? Doesn’t a designer need to know how to sew?
Nope.
Designers very often don’t know how to sew or how to make a pattern. They don’t need to be the person that executes the design, they just need to be the person that looks at the work and says, “Yes, this is what I had in mind”, or “Mmmm...Let’s bring up the hem on one side and give it a contrasting thread color.” They don’t even have to know how to draw an image! They just have to know how to communicate their idea to those that can execute their idea. To people like....well, like me and my team.
Once I worked for a large company as their technical designer (a designer name for a pattern maker) . There were design meetings where all the designers met and the owner would look over the latest samples and give feedback. At one meeting he looked exasperated and said , “I don’t want it to look stupid.... It needs to be more “designey”. And then, while the eyes of his team of designers grew large with confusion, he left. If I had the JEAJA Design Vocabulary Sheet back then I would have said, “Hey, no need to be a dick, here, check out this link and build your design vocabulary.” Luckily for you, there’s this resource and countless others out there to help you communicate your amazing ideas.
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A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
If you can’t sketch, find reference photos of what you have in mind. You can use several to convey your concept. ie: I like this collar here and this sleeve in this one, etc.
To bring your vision into complete clarity, we can do a sketch from your input. This allows you to get a preview of your design and speeds up the process considerably. It also allows you to give a thoughtful review and make revisions before your design is realized.
See, you don’t have to be Vincent Van Gogh…
to create a work of art.
We offer flat sketches - a front and back rendering of your design. These sketches are a detailed and accurate representation of your garment. It is most often used as a part of the Tech Pack to communicate the design, construction, and stitch details of your garment.
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STORYTIME
Some years ago, I attended a fashion show at a shop that carried my line. I was introduced to a customer who regularly bought from my line and looked forward to anything new that I put out. She was introduced to me as “Your best client”.
I couldn’t help seeing the shock and, well...disappointment in her eyes.
“Wow”, she said. “You’re not how I pictured you.”
When I asked her how she pictured me, she seemed to be at a loss for words. I’m sure for fear of insult.
Maybe she was thinking “younger”, “cooler”, maybe “larger” (I design for a variety of body types although I am on the smaller side) ...who knows. I caught her a couple more times that night just sort of staring with puzzlement at me. The shop closed shortly after that party ( the rent tripled after their lease ended) and “my best client” never sought me out.
I still wonder how she had imagined me.
How would you want the designer of your favorite clothing to look?
Some time later, I made a trade with a hairdresser: a haircut for a JEAJA Tay Tay Top). She ran her own salon for many years in SF. Let me tell you, anyone who can keep a salon running for years in SF has mad skills.
“So what are we doing here?” she asked me in the mirror, scissors poised holding a hank of my hair.
“You know”, I said, ”Just make me look like a designer.”
She thought for a second, her eyes lit up and she was off.
Snippetty, snip, snip, snip.
An hour in she let out short exclamations, “Oh! I can’t stop!”
Another hour later, “Don’t you love it?!!”
I did not.
But I’ll tell you what, I did a better job hiding my idea of what a designer looked like than “my best client”.
My BFF said, “Oh! Jane Fonda, Klute.”
“I was thinking Biker Chic with a mullet.”
“Yeah, that too”, said my BFF.
I mean, what was I thinking? Make me look like a designer?! I came out with the image of what my hairdresser’s idea of a designer is. And for her, she was right on the money.
So...what does a designer look like? Look in the mirror. And don’t ask the person with the scissors standing behind you!
