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FOLLOW-ALONG Tech Pack Project - Day 2 - Why build Tech Packs?

Carlina BriscusoCarlina Briscuso Posts: 143 Gerber Staff 💛
edited July 2018 in YuniquePLM

Now that you have your tools installed (if you missed it, scroll to see yesterday's posts regarding Gerber Technology and Adobe Illustrator tools you'll want/need) ... we're ready to get to work!

But, first, let's talk about why we're doing this project.

Why are we doing this?? Because we want our brilliant ideas to be brought to life CONSISTENTLY over and over no matter who is cutting / sewing / constructing / finishing the garment.

We're doing this project to learn how to build technical specification packages (Tech Packs) for our products so that they can be produced CONSISTENTLY by others (our children, grandchildren, contract sewists, a factory overseas, ourselves tomorrow after we've slept or otherwise forgotten how and why we've designed the product a certain way, others).

While there is no "wrong way" to document and communicate the details of your designs, some ways are more effective than others.

Keep in mind the goal of a good tech pack: a complete stranger who has no contact with you to ask questions should be able to understand/follow what your product is, how it is made, and how it should fit, all by looking through your tech pack.

Think of your tech pack as a recipe, like you'd find here for how to make a cake, or complex dish: 


* it has a picture or two of the completed cake, 


* a listing of the necessary ingredients and quantities needed to make one cake,
* a listing of recommended tools, appliances, utensils, dishes/pots of specific dimensions, 
* instructions for how to mix the ingredients in a specific order and may have pictures to show what it looks like at each step,


* instructions for baking including times and temperatures, 
* instructions for how to test to confirm the cake is done cooking, 
* instructions for how to finish the cake, 
* instructions and pictures showing how to apply further icing or other decorative touches, and 
* how to care for the cake (refrigerate, do not refrigerate, cover, etc).

Tech packs for your products are very much the same as a recipe and could consist of your (clean, clear, legible) hand drawn sketches of the product, photographs of a sample of the product, sketches or clear photos of closeup details of visible stitching, seams (inside and out), hems, trims, label placement... EVERYTHING a person would need to know if they were going to make this product. Our goal is to eliminate QUESTIONS about the product or how to produce the product.

To help you stay on track, download the attached Illustrator file containing perfectly sized and named artboards for you to use in organizing your images for each style.

ASSIGNMENT: analyze your style and think about how you would describe it as a recipe.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about the different images to help communicate style information.

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0 Gerber Staff 💛
    Hi,
    May I suggest to use a template.
    When using a template: it is possible to setup artboards/libraries, and copy it for a new project. 
    When creating a new file, use "new from a template". So this template is safe and can't be rename by mistake.
    In the template, it is better to have the minimum of artboards and add some others when needed in your Illustrator file.

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