Sample Fashion Project: Color
On this particular project, I just hand drew a border using a ruler, a black prismacolor, and a marker. However, in more recent projects, I like to have a more cohesive background theme made from my computer. Either way is definitely fine, just as long as your project maintains some semblance of unity.
If you have made your mood board in such a way that it has some color theme, this might be a good place to start when choosing your overall color palette. However, it is also good to consider the colors that you consider to be "trending" at the moment, which you may have discovered via a trend forecasting subscription, a visit to color collective, or from a survey of several floors of bloomingdales.
When choosing a color palette, you want include a few important things:
1. Neutrals:
While neutrals may or may not be exciting to you as a designer, in order for a line to be saleable, there must be neutrals. Neutrals are sort of the bead and butter of any fashion business. Well, at least the ones in which I've worked. I usually like to have a separate section for my neutrals, as you'll see here at the bottom.
2. Color Levels:
You'll see in the right hand column of this page that there are three levels of a sort of blue/green/teal color. This really should be demonstrated in more places in this color palette, but it's not necessarily mandatory to have for all colors. The thinking behind having levels of color (say, darker and lighter or more and less saturated versions of any given color) is that if you are to have a print, you'll need more than just one level of color. Additionally, you'll want to use varying strengths of color throughout your stripes, plaids, and solids as well. This keeps the collection from looking flat.
3. Pop Colors:
One of the most-used "buzzwords" in a fashion office, in my experience, is "pop of color." Sometimes I think if I hear about color pops one more time, I'm going to ask someone to find a thesaurus. However, it's important to note that this, at least right now, is an integral part of any line. In this particular color page, the pops of color are on the left hang side. You'll see in the "thumbnails" portion that these are used in conjunction with the darker blues as well as the neutrals in order to add a little life to the looks.
When you've finished choosing your colors, make your poms or color swatches, and attache them to your page. Add names that you think fit with the overall theme of your collection, and add them underneath. Names aren't necessary, but they're a nice touch.
Stay tuned for more of this project tomorrow!
