The most fundamental aspect of being a designer and expressing their work beings with a very visual and yet almost intangible aspect of design called sketching or fashion illustrations. Intangible in the sense that unlike a dress form and fabrics like muslin, silk or satin, that can actually be touched and felt illustrations are drawn onto paper to get a better idea of the garment being made. Without the aid of a sketch it would be hard to explain to the buyers, manufacturers or clients that they are getting exactly what they asked for or something very close to what they imagined. Design schools like IIFD focus on sharpening this ability of designers so that when they enter the industry and take on different assignments or become a part of a team that creates exquisite design ideas, they can too. Most fashion designers after Fashion Designing Courses are either gifted in this specific area or take up art at a very young age so as to be adept at understanding color compositions, shading and 3D affects that highlighting a handmade drawing provides.
CAD: Computer Aided Drawings/Designs:
With the massive growth in the business of fashion today as well as graphics taking over handmade work, CADs or computer aided drawings are what designers and fashion houses (like Zara or Forever21) that produce in bulk depend on. So what the need of the hour now is CAD patterns that give a more precise and defined result. Fashion Design Course centrally focus on these softwares to make student perfect.
Handmade Illustrations:
But there are still many believers in the market that would disagree saying handmade illustrations can be manipulated more easily. It is necessary to grasp that handmade drawings are what students build their foundation on towards becoming successful designers and the more they excel at it the further they can go with computer aided illustrations. Many fashion designing institutes asks students to go for a hard practice of handmade illustrations and sketches before jumping directly on CAD based designs.
Quality/Freedom of Design:
A hand-drawn style provides authenticity to the illustration as no two designs in this case can ever look exactly the same. We can’t forget the importance of illustration in fashion designing as uniqueness is a vital factor in fashion, without CADs the mass production and recreation of popular designs wouldn’t be conveniently possible, but today thanks to advancements in technology it is. Famous design houses that create one of a kind apparel and couture wear still tend to go back to handmade illustrations and hence pay their artists quite handsomely. Similarly, CAD designers with excellent credentials and appropriate skills that are a fit for any good company nowadays get paid large packages of around $60,000 per year in the United States and almost 6 lakh in India.
Conclusion:
At the end of the day it all comes down to the type of requirement to be fulfilled via this extremely artistic yet technical medium. Both are responsible for the creation of some masterful work by the best designing minds in the world, even though CADs are considered more for the younger generation. Fashion Designers after professional Fashion Designing Course, well into their prime have adopted this method not only professionally in their day to day illustrating but also have taken to polishing their CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop skills by getting tutored at good schools. Finally, it is about how real and life like computerized designs can make things look versus the tactile feel of paper that any faithful artist or patron of art would appreciate. So join the Best Fashion Designing Colleges i.e. IIFD Today!
