Sketch Fashion Flats by Copying Path Segments. This first sketching technique will show you how. Online Fashion Studio. Sections of this page. Is it easy to sketch a flat for a skirt design properly? Still, it could be a challenge because flats in fashion design must be accurate. This book designed to help designers: How to Draw Fashion Flats: A practical guide to fashion technical drawing (pencil. 2016 Agu 2 - Free templates, tutorials, courses and online training for fashion designers to teach them essential industry skills like how to sketch fashion flats & layout line sheets in Adobe Illustrator, how to create tech pack templates, how to be a freelancer, and how to get ahead in their fashion design job. Or you can just buy my templates: to be a fashion designer? Can't draw well? Watch this video series on flats!UPDATE: H.
The idea of the perfect tech pack means how detailed you can be when it comes to illustrating your design requirements for the factories.
This includes design sketches, materials and of course all of the specifications of a quality techpack. You'd be surprised at how just a neatly detailed sketch of a design alone can do all the explanation, as it's usually easier for people to follow visual guidelines.
Making sure you have a complete garment or accessory sketch before starting your tech pack is essential. The fashion industry program of choice is Adobe Illustrator. It's ideal to create vector sketches with rich detail that work perfectly for tech packs. The beauty of developing vector sketches is that you can modify it over and over again to create new styles.
No matter how experienced you are, putting together a good tech pack takes time. Evidently, a more complicated style can take longer to complete than a simple one. Still, creating an accurate sketch can help expedite the process and spare you headaches. Here are 3 important tips you might must consider when preparing your sketches:
It's All In The Details.
Be thorough and don’t skimp on details. Omitting parts of your sketch will only make your job harder when it comes time to explaining your design to the factory. This means every seam, dart, stitch and button must be in place. Typically, a solid line on a garment represents a seam line and a dashed line represents stitching. Don’t point to a detail in your techpack and its not actually visible on your sketch!
Forget the shortcuts. If you are creating custom embroidery, beading layout or print for your product, draw each and every little detail for your factory to follow, it will pay off! It's better to invest the time now than to receive a sample that you cannot use and waste more time. Develop detailed templates (i.e. the inside lining or label placement of your garment) that you can use in many tech packs later.
Include multiple views
For garment sketches, it is typical to have just a front and back view but remember, you may need to add additional sketches to show the inside of the garment and/or how parts of the garment function. For accessories, it's important to have multiple views as it provides a better understanding of the design. For example, if you are creating a tech pack of shoe or a bag you will need a front, back, side and sometimes even a top, bottom and ¾ view.
Keep It Simple
Creating a sketch for a tech pack can be very different from the type of sketch needed for a presentation. Tech pack sketches do not need much movement or shading, as it can be distracting. Black and white sketches can be easier to understand and provide a clear representation of your design.
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Further reading:
Welcome to our crash course in fashion flats! Come and take a deep-dive into the world of fashion with flat sketches, also known as tech sketches, line drawings and design development sketches (DDS). You'll be an expert by the time you're done reading this!
It All Started in The Caves
Since the dawn of man, humans have sought out ways of communicating, sharing ideas, practices, customs and beliefs. The scribes, painters and stone cutters of ancient Egypt (3200 BC—30 BC) were among the first 'commercial' artists, working as paid or conscripted artisans for the Egyptian nation-state.
With the development of the modern fashion industry in the 19th century, designers started using technical sketches to communicate their design ideas so teams could work on them.
What's a Flat Sketch?
A flat sketch is a two-dimensional technical drawing which illustrates a garment with basic solid lines. It's like a 'blueprint' of your fashion design —much like an architect's blueprint for a house before they can begin to construct it.
The word 'flat' refers to the way that they are drawn: imagine the garment is lying flat on a table so that you are viewing all the details from either the front or the back.
Aside from front/back views, some brands will include drawings of details or the side views to show how panels travel around the body or how sections of the garment should be constructed.
Why Flat Sketches are Important
As an essential part of the garment specification sheet or tech pack, they give your pattern-maker and your manufacturer's sewing teams all the information they need about the technical components of a piece. How else will they understand your vision
Difference Between Flats and Illustrations
A fashion illustration captures the mood, proportion and color of your design, it's more of an interpretation of your idea. Whereas the technical sketch helps translate the garment into something 'universal' which a whole team of people can understand and work on.
A fashion illustration is transformed into a technical sketch to create a 'blueprint' for the pattern and construction of the garment.
Creating Fashion Flats: The Essentials
1) Include multiple views of your garment
Sometimes just front/ back views are not enough for a factory to understand your design requirements. Ideally, you should include side views, inside and other details to show how the garment should be constructed.
2) Be as Detailed as Possible
Develop templates that are detailed so you can use them later in other tech packs. Remember that with Techpacker you can save design details inside cards to be used again as needed.
3) Keep it Simple
Add details as explained above but don't overcomplicate things either. Wifi hdd for mac. Avoid shading and use plain black and white sketches to clearly represent your design.
Read more about how to ace your flat sketches every time!
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Tech Developments to The Rescue!
Tech flats used to be hand-drawn using rulers and black felt tip pens and indicated the scaling of the original design sample measurements.
Today, most brands use Computer Aided Design (CAD) technologies that enable virtual true to life prototypes, instead of real samples. However, CAD technology isn't cheap and has a steep learning curve. Which is why most designers prefer Adobe Illustrator to create their flats.
The Technical Designer
There's actually someone who only specialises in technical flat drawings. In fact, their role should be to link the Design and Production teams. They are essentially the engineers of fashion.
Funnily though, no two Technical Design jobs are ever the same. To learn more about all the things tech designers can do check out this article. The learning opportunities in this field are endless!
Watch ▶︎
Here's a video from this insightful post by the University of Arts, London that we highly recommend for you to get on the right track doing flats!
Interesting Resources
→ Free fashion flats in Adobe Illustrator format and tips on how to create flats
Designer Nexus (You need to sign up for free first!)
→ Check out this designer who looked into creating a Web-based Design Support System for Fashion Technical Sketches. Her idea was to enable users to design realistic garments in the form of technical sketches over the internet.
Fashion Design Flat Sketch Online
What's next?
Fashion Design Flat Sketch Online Editor
Once you have your flat sketches ready, it's time to add them to your tech packs and send over to your manufacturers so they can get started to turn your idea into a product.
In 3 simple steps, Techpacker allows you to add all your flat sketches as cards, make comments and send PDF-ready tech packs to your manufacturers in the blink of an eye!
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