10/20/09-10/21/09

It must of been a long week because for the life of me I can't remember what I did on Tuesday. I know that Josh showed me a few things about beanies. I think that I worked on a few colorways for one of the backpacks in the fall 10 line up. I'm not positive that they were a big hit with Josh. I'm still trying to figure out the look that is the Element company look. On Wednesday I fixed a few things on the backpacks and then moved onto something new. Josh asked me to come up with a cad for some Element headphones. The picture attached is what I ended up with. I'm pretty excited about the end result and I think that Josh liked it as well. I guess I'll see how it was taken by the higher ups come next week.

Vocabulary: Jacquard - the name stems from the inventor of a certain loom. It refers to the technique the loom produces.

10/13/09

I was only able to work on Tues this week. I've been feeling a little under the weather. I thought that I'd be working on the pack cads today that I started last week but Josh had a few other things for me to work on. There were a few SMU's he had me work on. First I needed to change a few design details on the Puerto Rico backpacks I worked on last week. Nothing that big, just a few tweaks. After getting that file squared away I worked on two hat SMU's. One for Tilly's and another for The Buckle. It was a new process for me, a little different than working with backpacks. I had to think about how the printing would line up with the panels and bill along with other embroidery applications. I also had to design with the client in mind. The target customer for Tilly's is different than one for The Buckle. Josh helped me nail down some designs to play with and by the end of the day I had about 5 designs for each SMU to show.

10/06/09 - 10/07/09

This week was pretty much about the Puerto Rico SMU packs. I spent both days working on multiple designs and colorways for 2 different sized packs. The larger backpack was, for the most part, an allover print with a large "tree" logo applique on the top half and some sort of Element logo on the bottom pocket. I played around with colors and the allover print to come up with maybe 5 different designs with 3 colorways each. The smaller packs consisted of a logo placement with a screen print design. Again I came up with about 5 different designs with 3 colorways each. After finishing the designs I printed up what I had and then sat down with Josh to evaluate what I had come up with.
Josh was pretty up front with what I had. It was nice to get honest feedback. He said that I might be guilty with a common problem with most new designers and that was over designing. About half of my designs were scratched due to over designing. The other half needed to be to be changed due to improper logo usage or color tweaks. So back to the drawing board! I followed Joshes suggestions and by the end of Wednesday we had about 20 backpack designs to show the client. It will be fun to hear the feed back from the client. Attached is one of the backpacks that was initially over designed as well as having an old logo that couldn't be used...but I liked it and thought I'd show it.

Vocabulary: Tech Pack, a.k.a. Cad - A file (usually .ai) that details the design, specs, and colors of a certain product.
Matrix - A file (excel) that has a run down of the products dimensions, notions, fabric and other information needed to make product.

9/29/09 - 9/30/09

Another 2 days this week. Tuesday Josh approached me and told me that there was a SMU* that needed to made for their client in Puerto Rico. I guess they have a client that buys a good size supply of product every year for Puerto Rico. Josh gave me 2 backpacks that fit the price point and told me to design a similar pack and then come up with a few design options on that pack. Creative freedom! Creative freedom is a little harder than I thought. Ha! It took me most of the day to come up with a pack design. I haven't ever designed something on Illustrator that needed to be produced in 3D later. It was a little hard to visualize the design. I drew the front view first and then realized it couldn't be made as I started drawing the side view. I'm sure with practice that will be easier to see. A backpack, after all, is basically just a bunch of different shaped squares. At the end of the day I had the pack done and also had 2 basic designs in the works. Nothing I was that excited about, but a good start.
Wednesday I went in hoping to get some feed back on what I started the day before but Josh was out, having a personal day. As I arrived I was able to talk a little with Paul. Paul is the shoe designer at Element. I have an interest in shoe design so it was nice to pick his brain a little. He mentioned that he had a background in industrial/product design. The thing he pointed out was kind of what I was talking about in my earlier blog... understanding the manufactures process for making the shoe. Paul let me look at shoe he designed and gave me a few websites to check out that he liked. Good stuff.
I ended up working with Heather most of the day. She had me work on the girls backpacks for the SMU for Puerto Rico. She was a lot more structured with what she wanted than Josh was. Josh just said go for it while Heather gave me two already designed packs to work with. She also directed me towards a bunch of graphics to use on the packs as well as certain colors she wanted to see them in. It was actually a helpful process. She gave good feedback about the stuff I produced and pointed out that SMU designing is a little different than normal products designed for Element. SMU is designed for a customer with their needs in mind vs. my own creativity.

Vocabulary: SMU (Special Make Up or Special Mark Up) - a product produced for a specific customer, independent of the normal line produced.

9/22/09 -9/23/09

I worked twice this week. Tuesday I worked with Heather in the morning. She needed a little help getting some revisions done for Kathy's approval. The revisions were all with the Summer 10 backpack line. I worked on those until after lunch where I then did my first sketch up of a backpack for Josh. I titled this design pack 1 because I'm not sure how they pick names for their new designs. I also knew Josh would have me doing 2 more designs the next day (pack 2&3). I enjoyed doing these 3 designs. I used Illustrator for the designs. I'm finding that a strong understanding of this program is key to this job. I don't know if I understand the processes used in making the products but by using Illustrator I can conceptualize the design, which might be more important at this point. I think to better understand the process of making a product I'd need to visit the manufacture...and I don't plan on visiting China soon. This brings up an important point though, I think its a good idea to have a close working relationship with the manufacturer to understand the limits on the design process. Limits mostly meaning the price to produce it. Most things can be produced but not always at a cost effective price. Understanding that the more you embellish your design the more it will cost and this plays a part in the market you might be targeting. Not many "skaters" will pay over a $100 for a backpack. 3 important factors to consider, 1. keeping in mind the budget while designing. 2. understanding what you're designing will cost. 3. Knowing the manufacturer, their limits and cost.
Anyways, back to my week. I guess on Wednesday I worked on the other 2 packs. I also did a basic outline for a beanie. At the end of the day Josh had me work with some labels. I was giving a bunch of packets that included approved label designs that had attached sew outs of those label. What I did was attach the sew out to a print out of the label. These print outs were then going to another manufacturer for competitive pricing. Its always good to look for the best deal! Before leaving that night Josh let me grab a few shirts from the sample been. Hook Up! Thanks Josh.

Vocabulary: PU - polyurethane. I feel like I should of known this one but I didn't.