Turn your apparel ideas into production-ready technical illustrations.

Developing Your Idea

Ask Yourself These Questions!
Here are important questions to keep in mind as you brainstorm ideas for your garment design:

1. What problem do you want to solve?

2. How are you going to solve it?

3. How is it different from what's already on the market?

4. Who is your demographic?

5. How much would you pay for it?

Please provide one to two paragraph answers for each question.
Share Your Brainstorming in the Classroom
Combining your answers for the previous questions with any images of existing garments/inspiration, please share your work with the rest of the students in the project tab. This should start some pretty cool discussions amongst all of you!

Intro To Drawing A Garment By Hand

Download the Male and Female Croquis Patterns
Below are links to male and female croquis. Be sure to save them somewhere you can easily access to print them out. These will help you create garments with accurate human proportions (if you are designing garments for humans, that is!).

Male Croquis PDF

Female Croquis PDF
Check Out These Tips For Drawing A Garment
Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you draw out your design:

Know when to stop. If this is your first time drawing a garment, don't be pressured to create an elaborate design. Sometimes, the most effective technical designs are the most clean and simple.

Don't be afraid to copy. Look up "[Garment] Technical Flat" on any search engine to see examples of the garment you're designing. It doesn't hurt to get a feel for how others style their technical designs.

Practice makes perfect! Don't expect perfection on your first try, but don't give up either! The more you familiarize yourself with silhouette shapes, the better for your workflow.

Cleanliness is key. Designing an idea can get disorganized pretty quickly, so finish your design on a clean piece of paper. Tracing your final design to a fresh piece of paper is not only easier to present, it's much more self-gratifying.

Have fun and add variety! A blank croquis is essentially a blank canvas. Practice designing garments for different occasions, ages and genders; don't limit yourself to just one style.
Draw Out Your Design
Decide what type of garment you want to explore. Button-up? Dress? Socks? Funky arm sleeve? It's up to you!

Using the croquis, start sketching your garment with a pencil. You will see that just by getting the proportions right your garments will start looking pretty realistic!
Clean Up Your Sketch and Share
As I brought up in the "tips," it will be useful to clean up your design by tracing it in a permanent marker. This will also help when bringing the design into illustrator.

Once you have cleaned up the design, please share your work with the rest of the class in your project tab!
Sketching Challenge
Optional: Once you finish drawing the original garment you intended to design in Unit 1, draw a garment for the opposite gender unrelated to your original. For example, if you designed a men's button-up shirt first, practice drawing a women's dress afterwards.

This will help you learn more about the different proportions for each gender.

Intro to Drawing Garment Flats in Illustrator

Download the Croquis Illustrator Files
Below are links to male and female croquis. Be sure to save them somewhere you can easily access through Adobe Illustrator.

Male Croquis PDF

Female Croquis PDF
Scan Your Garment Sketch into Illustrator
Take your cleaned up sketch from the previous lesson and upload it to Illustrator. This will allow you to trace the garment sketch using vectors.
Create the Silhouette of your Garment Using The Mirroring Method
Once you understand what details to mirror while building your technical flat, the more naturally this process will occur to you. This ability to anticipate details you know you'll add in the future is where looking at a garment or at your preliminary sketch comes in handy. Unlike when you first drew your garment, think ahead towards the final piece, instead of simulatenously by adding details as you go.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you illustrate your garment:

Create your canvas. Design a full silhouette before adding details. Unless you can accurately anticipate what your final product will look like, it'll be easier for you to add to your design after creating a base to work off of.

Design it your way. I'm not enforcing "my way or the highway" here; there's no single correct way to illustrate a design. If you have a technique that suites you, feel free to implicate it! Adding personal flair to your designing process is what makes your garment uniquely yours.

Try again and again. It doesn't hurt to re-do a technical flat. Re-illustrating a garment you have already completed may reveal several new techniques that you didn't possess the first time around.

The Internet is your friend. Search for examples, find quick Illustrator tutorials, or spam me (mickey@betabrand.com) with questions. Don't let confusion or lack of direction deter you from finishing your design!
Add Details to Your Garment
Here's where you can have some fun. Once you've created the main pieces of the garment, you're free to add the details that will bring your design to life.

Download the following design asset PDF as seen in the video: Design Assets

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you add details to your garment:

Stitch, please. Showing stitch lines help make a design look more realistic. Speaking from a production standpoint, it helps to immediately see how a design is constructed so adjustments or planning can occur quickly.

Use different stroke weights. Varying stroke weights between the outer silhouette and details of your design will help make details stand out. As you can see in the example below, you can distinctly differentiate between what's a draping detail and what's a construction detail.

Design something that makes sense. I would never want to limit your creative ability. However, if you desire to see your garment become a reality it's best to design something that's feasible.
Apply color to your flat
This process may vary depending on how you constructed your design. Assuming that you're already comfortable with Illustrator, I'm confident in your ability to add color to your work according to your own method. So feel free to add color based on a technique you are already familiar with.

Here are a few methods you can use to add color to your technical flat:

I used closed shapes. This is the method I demonstrated in the video. Closing your shapes as you work is probably the biggest favor you can do for yourself during the early stages of designing. Simply click on what shape you'd like to color, and change the Fill Color. Depending on the details you add, this method should be relatively stress-free.

Is your design "fill-less?" In other words, are you having difficulty coloring in your design? Try selecting your entire garment using the Selection Tool, go to Object > Live Paint > Make, and use Live Paint to add color.

I used a stroke-less shapes and added strokes over them. This is also a helpful method if your design is intricate and you'd like to simply click on an entire body of color to adjust it. In this case, I suggest you select a shape that contains the color you want to target, go to Select > Same > Fill Color (or whichever option suits your needs).

Polishing Up & Final Touches

Create Your Think Tank Illustrator Design File
All photos submitted to the Think Tank must be 940x550.

To create a new project for your design on Illustrator, follow these instructions.

Go to File > New...

Match your New Document settings to the image below (circled values are what's necessary):

Number of Artboards: 6

Width: 940

Height: 550

Orientation: Landscape
Showcase Your Garment Design
Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you prepare your design for the Think Tank:

Share your design with a friend. After seeing a design from inception to illustration, the garment becomes second-nature to you. Showing your design to a friend and asking them questions will give you a different perspective on how to prepare your design before presenting it to a wide audience.

We Adding a slide dedicated to fabric, buttons and other special details is not only adding substance to your design, it's visually engaging. Even something as simple as showing texture can make an illustrated garment look exciting.

Bring your design to life. If you feel comfortable doing so, add a slide demonstrating use of your garment in everyday life. This could be in the form of a doodle, a photograph, or a mood board of inspirational photos.

You tell the story. Are you convinced that your design will improve man-kind? Tell us all about it! A special story behind your design helps to shape the identity of the garment.

Keep an open mind. Allowing your design go public can be scary and reactions will vary. No matter what the critics say, receive comments proactively, and use suggestions to adjust your design for the better.

Ready to submit your design? Hooray! You're all set and ready to go. Follow this link to submit your work: Think Tank.
Done Submitting Your Design?
Congratulations! You've just submitted your very own Think Tank design. I speak on behalf of Betabrand when I say that we're very excited to review your submission and look forward to being friends.

For any questions, comments, concerns, philosophical questions or tasty recipes, feel free to contact me through email anytime at mickey@betabrand.com, or follow my Instragram profile @zhmickey.

Come by and say hi! We're located at 780 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110, and follow us on our Instagram: @betabrand_hq.
Share Your Work with the Students in the Class
In addition to submitting your work to the Think Tank, share your hard work with the students in the class. You can upload jpegs or PDFs. Let's all give some feedback and high fives to each other via the comment sections!

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