Enhance Your Creativity: The 5 Creative Phases of a Fashion Designer

As a designer I notice the rhythms and patterns within products, fabrics and nature. I love finding the beauty in the detail, whether that is a creative process, or even in a person!

I also notice the creative phases that I go through when making a beautiful product. I wanted to share the five creative phases of a fashion designer to enhance your creativity. These five creative phases apply to all artists including fashion designers, florists, songwriters and photographers.

I truly understand how difficult and discouraging the creative process can be and so I have been gathering my thoughts on 'the how to's' behind my creative processes and I've nailed it with these five phases. These are tried and tested phases that I've used to launch my latest product range which includes a Christmas collection and my latest travel accessory bags.

The five creative phases

1. Notice the distractions - allow sensory impact. Often life is full of distractions and we quickly ignore them and carry on with our busy lives. As a designer I've been encouraged to allow an idea to impact me through the five senses and work out why it captured my attention. Pay attention to what is distracting you because it may well just be the next idea for you to develop!

2. Draft ideas - find multiple perspectives. Often we think our first idea is 'the one' and try and develop it too quickly. My experience of designing ranges at ladies fashion companies included creating product samples and digital designs. I learnt that the first idea improves with collaboration. Simply capturing those earlier ideas is helpful to progress the creative process, so it is not wasted time. Starting is critical to the creative process, but persistence is vital to producing beautiful and elegant products.

3. Embrace vulnerability - get feedback. The best work can always be improved, but not unless others get the chance to provide product development advice. I understand the fear of sharing a new design or product concept with others and I don't like hearing negative feedback about my products. Despite this, I've learnt that great ideas are developed through conversations, particularly when coffee and chocolate are involved. My horse shoe heat packs are a perfect example of professional collaboration between a medical practitioner (Dr Woollam) and a fashion designer (yours truly) - and what an outcome! We've sold hundreds of these heat packs now! In fact, I'm often surprised how quickly people can guide the creative process to a better result simply by asking for a few direct comments or suggestions to a product.

4. Get used to late nights - refine and revise. I'd much rather R & R that involved rest and relaxation, however refining and revising products or concepts prior to launching them leads to greater market impact. I've learnt after launching a new range of products this Spring (in preparation for Christmas) that little adjustments to a product can often take a long time! And as a mumpreneur they don't seem to happen in daylight hours, but require the stillness of a late night, with minimal distractions, except for chocolate and a cup of tea!

5. Strive for presentation excellence - get a high quality team! To deliver an amazing product to market, the final result in the creative process requires a large variety of skills, usually across multiple disciplines and several artists. I believe in the saying 'you get what you pay for' when it comes to professional service, and I love paying for excellent photographs and website functionality to present my products in the best possible way! A dingy photo, or poorly branded website can waste and destroy the moment of a product's launch and it's first impression. After the dozens, even hundreds of hours that go into creating each of my new products, I don't want to allow that first millisecond to be tarnished and wreck the impression of this new product.

As a designer, the first impact a product makes is vital to establishing the expectations of style, quality and even pricing! To deliver presentation excellence, get experts on your team, and pick people who believe in your products and align with your brand values. Then, trust them to deliver high quality results. At this point I have to give a quick shout out to my beautiful friend and photographer Stef Thoms of stefaniethomsphotography.com. I love her enthusiasm and passion for her work and totally trust her vision! She has captured our products in a delightful, elegant and authentic manner. I'm thrilled to have worked with her over the last two product range launches! She goes over and above to deliver exceptional images like this one - what a beautiful image!

In summary, the creative process requires a drop of inspiration, a bucket load of perspiration (hear chocolate!) and a highly skilled team to guide and develop a creative concept through to it's final launch to market. I hope you find the courage to continue creating and can take the time this week to be distracted and then get busy with your creative endeavours. You can do it!

Love,

Krystol