Apparels - combination of complexity

I was again going through the products map and stumbled upon apparels design. How could strategic design processes give value for an apparels company? Started to figure out the design processes used and realized that the design is quite often purely focusing on the usability/usable details and not so much perhaps on design language itself, at least on heavy duty backpacks etc.

How could a design language become the driving force for apparels design? Of course, in heavy duty goods, the design language seconds the usability and durability, but perhaps one could go through this sort of language that actually supports the features. Using certain forms on openings and vents and also using som semanthic forms to guide the user through the inevitable complexity. Some sort of layered design language could perhaps be the best option. Topped with some great concepts, a good product for a design company to offer!



However, I made some sketches, too.. just fast with ballpoint and markers..

On the elven cars design language again

I made just a sketch on the elven design language. Perhaps it could have been even more exaggerated.. Really into looking at this kind of surface complexity management now. Making mixture of different surface speaking the same language.

Design process and the relation to marketing

Design processes are important as tools for making design systematic and easier to follow by clients and manage by participants in process. The process descriptions (processes?) are, however, on certain level the same and in this sense perhaps useless in marketing purposes.

I have heard that usually a process should be available to be seen by prospecting client, but I still assume other things, like consultancy reputation and previous clientelé (project outcomes) actually do the trick in consultancy selection. Therefore one could think that "the same - process" could work.. Processes as spines are also important for the actual designing and scheduling, but in some discussions I have learned that the actual process can actually dramaticly differ from the one presented in marketing material. What is the reason? Another tricky thing is actually the support from government that is in some cases given to creating the "tools", but later resulting in not using them.

I have created this kind of a design process draft that would present questions to be answered, instead of going into scheduling the design process. It then should be set with the client regarding to the need of different process particles. If the time spent on a certain section is the same, things that you do are the same and the tools used are the same, but only processes are different, is the process genuine then??

simple, non organized draft

Of course I relize that creating procedures is important for quality and maintaining the workflow is important for efficiency, but some differentiating and new leads perhaps needed? This is also a thing that could need some research done. And yes, my website needs one, too.

The gender of products

I have lately been doing concept creation on a steam iron and also discussed it also over the net at core 77. One important thing that came up, was the gender of the product. How does it show? Since I had taken my group of interest these young guys moving out of their home for the first time and buying their first iron, what would be the design language and feature combination they liked the most.

where does the fine line between a female product and male design go? My answer was on this one to go with the usability, add some nice features and create some "gadget-feel" to the iron, make it perhaps more interesting to the technology-oriented guy to operate. Also the styling should go with the flow of normal male products, from razors to premium cars and in this case take some from powertools. Perhaps these metal finishes and some rugged details could do the trick. If you wish to see more of the on-going design process, click here.



However, I think that creating a clearly gender oriented product is hard and supposedly in most cases the product would be accepted by both genders. The design acceptance is, after all, related to time and the overall aesthetic family that is depicted from many front end product families.