Why design limitations are good
If you don’t know where to start with your designs, or are pulled and pushed in all directions so you end up with your designs not looking like they are from the same brand, or you have so many ideas that you go from one design to the other without finishing anything. Then you need to put some limitations on your designs.
You would think that by putting limitations on your design it would be harder to design but the opposite is true.
By being able to design anything you end up designing nothing or end up changing your mind continuously. So you need a style/strong brand design to get you started.
I still use this ethic even when designing patterns - even though I don’t follow the season times (eg spring/summer) I do design in collections - I give the collection a name and decide what it is about, by doing that, I have put the limitation on colour or shapes so I’m not left wondering what direction to go in. And anything new that pops in mind that I want to do I can confidently put that design idea into a future collection knowing that I will be able to review it later and not start and stop what I am currently working on.
There is a further limitation to the ones I’ve already placed on myself which is a link back to being inspired by vintage swimwear - so this is usually my starting point on all designs.
As well as designing in collections knowing who your customer is will put limitations on your designs - for example for my own label I design for the bigger cup market so straight away that has ruled out some fabrics and some styles of bra cups. Age too, or disposable income can limit your designs.
The mistake when designing is to think you need to appeal to everyone - your designs will be weak and your ideas won’t get pushed very far.
Adding limitations makes your brain push for ways to solve the problem you have placed upon it.
Even if your limitation was ‘how can I design the most beautiful lingerie ever’ that limitation would look at design and fabrics.
Even when I would work with buyers for the high streets, even though they could technically want me to design anything for them, they had limitations on their designs - cost, demographic of consumer and trends.
The London bra and Sydney brief, from the collection ‘Tomorrow’ which was a collection based on clean edges, dark materials and yellows and golds to represent the sun settting/moon rising.
Whatever your limitation is when you design something new, look over your designs to make it covered the brief (pun intended). So have a think what limitation are you putting on your design?
Colour? Fabrics? Style? Trends? Inspiration?
I promise when you limit your availability for designing you will become a better designer.
If you wish to pin this article to come back to it , please pin below
If you are wanting to know more about lingerie design, check out the book below.
