The development of design ideas in the early apparel design process: a pilot study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the apparel design process by asking how a designer applies perceived information from visual sources and develops concepts through the exploration of design elements and principles. A stimuli-based design experiment was conducted with a professional designer as a pilot study. It was observed that preliminary visual units, termed small concepts, gradually evolve during the early design stage. Since this process is critical to continue the entire idea development, this paper focuses primarily on the detailed observation of the early design process, in which the designer perceives visual elements from a source-of-inspiration image, immediately transfers them to clothing design-related elements, explores variations in shape and placement by applying design principles, and finally develops small concepts. These small concepts become the basis for the later development of more complex design ideas. Understanding this design knowledge and relevant strategies will trigger creative idea generation and shed light on teaching the design process to apparel design students.