Digital Techniques: The Missing Chapter(s)

I am an open source type of instructor. Once I finished creating the online course, Digital Techniques for the Fashion Business, and the graduate level course, which was somehow just called Digital Techniques, I made it available to grow. The international student and online learning market was booming at the time, and more sections were being added.

I should also call this the 10-year soft anniversary of this course. There are features that are no longer, which I think were so important in building a tangible portfolio, building community, and understanding a production time line. I will lament it here.

One thing was this process book that I had students build upon as a classroom portfolio. I have a mind to re-implement it since students nowadays post their work online and feel like they don’t need to show up to class.

Another is this missing chapter called Geometric Vector Graphics, where students analyzed perfume bottles and logo forms while learning to use basic shapes.:

Not to mention, how to use the otherwise unwieldy Pen Tool in Illustrator by analyzing Organic Forms:

This is still on the course’s syllabus but isn’t present at all in the current course: “Build original patterns and flat sketches in Illustrator.” This is the missing key that helps student create flats in the first place: by analyzing an existing garment:

Students used to print their final Look Books at a local digital press and needed to be aware of the time line for completing steps in order to pick it up to make the final course deadline. They were so proud of their finished project and got to present and pass it around.

Even printing Mood Boards and Concept Boards on tabloid paper in color enabled students to leave their computers and gather around these boards. Students would pin up their work side by side and step back and see all of their collective efforts populate a wall. This enabled folks to see how it would look from a distance vs. close up. They learned how to fill what was sometimes the awkward silence of processing their initial impressions and putting them into words.