The Design Process: A Love Story

The Design Process: A Love Story
Hamid Shams 11-9-2020

Every piece that I design, tells a story. The everyday life is a source of
inspiration; from an autumn leaf falling loose from a tree, the smell of
freshly brewed coffee, or simply the rise and fall of the day, goes a long
way to spark yet another idea or an excuse for a new design.

Image 1: Sketches & Ideation

In my practice, to match the print of the fabric to the garment, I believe
that both must be designed at the same time and not be approached as
two separate processes or elements of making clothes. When I make a
new product, I think ‘big picture;’ every fabric that I design has its
purpose assigned to it from the very start.

Image 2: Painting & Hand-drawn Illustration

For this example, I have used watercolors with a medium-sized brush.
This specific print was merely a product of my imagination without any
reference photos or external inspiration.
Sometimes I come across a beautiful accident; an extra layer of paint or
perhaps the blending of two colours of wet paint, all of which can be
altered later through digital design.
The only place my mind doesn’t wander off to is composition; all of that
can be left to worry about later when I use Photoshop.

Image 3: Textile Design

After having scanned my design and adjusted the colours, I extract
snippets of the hand-drawn illustration. I then make a fresh new
artboard to put together my desired composition.

Image 4: Pattern Making & Fashion Engineering

I then ask my team at Pattern Studio to prepare a pattern for the

envisioned outfit, seamlessly place the textile design onto the technical
pattern and then send it to our print shop.

Image 5: Printshop

In dye-sublimation print, we use the latest technology to achieve
maximum color saturation, crisp lines and most importantly a timeless
product that does not crack or fade over time!

Image 6: Heatpress

In Pattern Studio, there is a wide selection of printable fabrics with a
variety of textures, such as the waterproof fabric that I have chosen for
this blog post.
Using the industrial heat-press, the design is transferred from the paper
onto the chosen fabric.

Image 7: Sewing & Final Production

The pieces are then sewed and assembled into what I first imagined by
our fabrication team.

Image 8: Photography & Marketing

We decided to take walk in the nature of beautiful British Columbia for a
photoshoot on a rainy day to show how our rain jacket would look in the
right setting. Each photo is taken with a purpose; some for our online
shop and others for our social media platforms.
What is valuable about this process is that our products are made to
order; that means that we are mindful of textile waste and what we can
do on our part to save our planet.