about fashion > Storyboards
Storyboards
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“A story board is a summary of your collection’s inspiration and theme. It’s a design tool that will help you remain focused and consistent as your line develops. It’s also a great communication aid when explaining your vision to others (retailers, media etc.). Magazine tears, fabric swatches, old photos, buttons, ribbons; basically any visual reference you desire are mounted onto a hard board. Be sure to give your story board a title, like a book or film” - fashionincubator.com
In fashion, this board will usually consist of a full colour illustration of a fashion figure or figures (male or female) wearing the garments being showcased. You should include a sizeable swatch of the fabric chosen, clearly labelled. You should consider your storyboard to be a pictorial representation of your clothing in full colour, along with technical renderings of each garment individually. I have gone into more detail on that in the technical drawings page.
-Sophie Lee
Individuallly, just the sketches can look dull and lifeless, very uninteresting. You need a well planned layout, a strong theme - and your ideas must seem commercially successful. Designers need to learn how to use many presentation techniques in order to enhance their artwork.
How to plan your presentation:
Decide on your objective, depending on the design brief - be it trends forecasting, a fashion design board, theme, etc. Depending on the target market, the brief and the purpose of the presentation, your storyboard should include the following:
* A fashion figure, clothed in your designs/or flat working drawings
* Swatches of your fabric (all fabrics used)
* Colour ways (palettes) all the colours used in your designs
* Trims used
* Photographs
Presentation Techniques
The presentation must be strongly themed, capturing the mood and should always have a title. This can be determined by the fabrics: Natural Linens, the season: Summer Blues, or the merchandise: Metamorphasis etc.
Stance: Choose the correct and appropriate pose for your templates when you start drawing, either classic, sophisticated, funky, moody or sporty etc.
Positioning: Don’t allow your fashion figure to look like its floating on the page, use shadowing. I prefer to use mounting tape to stick it to the cardboard - 3mm thick. It provides a drop shadow.
Figures: When using more than one fashion figure on the board, you may vary the size of them, this can look visually appealing. One large scale in the foreground, and the rest in the background can look amazing. You can even use one enlarged figure in the foreground and cut it in half, the rest can be smaller and full length.(when trying to illustrate the clothing on the upper half of course!)
Fabrics: You can cut the fabric with pinking shears (zigzag cut on edges)This looks professional. I usually use double sided tape on the edges to prevent the fabric fraying. You can also crumple the fabrics into little rouged balls and stick with double sided tape. I also like to window-mount it in cardboard, using a blade to cut out an inner square to reveal the neat swatch of fabric. Avoid this if the fabric needs to be able to be felt between the fingers.
Heading: The font should match the theme or era. Try to use the computer where possible.
Labels: Where necessary, print small descriptions and labels and stick it next to the relevant object. Eg: “Princess Lines” or “Full length coat”
Collages: Use anything you can find from magazines, your pc, tissue paper, feathers, foil, string, fabric etc. DONT go overboard, this can look messy.
Borders: Surround the storyboard with a contrasting cardboard frame, using different textures works well. Cut neatly, use ruled lines!
Backgrounds: If necessary, use plain or mildly textured/printed board as a background, dont allow it to drown the focal point - YOUR FIGURE.
Each fashion illustrator has their own style, I have sourced some storyboard and fashion figure examples from the relevant illustrator’s portfolios off the internet; please don’t copy any of their ideas or try to make templates from their drawings. Try to eventually produce your own fashion templates from scratch.
Storyboards are most often coupled with a mood board – an inspiration board containing a collection of pictures or colours, card and fabric that evoke an emotional response. Designers and pupils can use mood boards to decide on the right colours and convince others of their choice. You can make use of various mediums to create interest on the mood board: Buttons, ribbon, wool, sand, corrugated board etc.
I have put together some quick pointers for your storyboard presentation, you must use your imagination, be as creative as possible, but bear in mind:
- Always position your figure as the main focus:
-Andrea Allen
Top
- Don’t allow your board to become messy and unstructured in your endeavour to be creative- Keep it simple and focused on the theme and figure:
-Cindy Chu
- Use the correct fashion template for your theme, if its classic Victorian don’t use an outlandish figure template and if your theme is contemporary then use the appropriate pose:
-Louisa Olivencia
- Don’t forget to illustrate accessories, bags and jewellery, this creates a polished finish:
-Angelo Russica
Try to keep the figures symmetrically presented where possible, it keeps the eye focused (Storyboard Below) Using a larger figure amongst two smaller ones on the left and right can also look good. It will seem like the two smaller figures are in the background. Sometimes it’s effective to use the same figure for all the different outfits, creating a repetitive tiled effect.
-Diptri Irla
Always remember to have a main heading such as “Trends for Winter” or “Black & White” Dating your board will only make it short-lived.
-Justin Gloston
- Have your fabric swatches neatly cut out and decoratively arranged on your board, clearly labelled. Use sticky tape on the back of the fabric when cutting, this prevents fraying and gives a good end result. You can also use pinking shears to create a zigzag edge
-Theresia Fanda
- Don’t use too many unrelated colour varieties on one board, such as pastels and brights and neutrals - dirty and clean shades should be grouped together. There has to be a theme or collection of complementing colours, this is the general rule, unless you are specifically going multicolour in your designs:
-Annie Kim
- Buy paint sample swatches from the paint store, use those as a colour way - Don’t have too many things hanging off your board, as this seems untidy.
- Use as much detail as possible, draw in the texture, beading, trims, fabric print, weave and as much visual ornamentation as you can. Use shading and highlights for the skin and hair:
-Sarah Louise Petty
- Your technical drawings can be pasted on the rear of the board, or neatly pasted on the front, sometimes this can look cluttered
- Try to use computer printed headings and labels, but don’t forget to colour code, don’t just print out a black & white heading if it will clash with your board. Print the heading as large as possible without interfering with the overall look, a small floaty heading will cause you to lose marks. Use Microsoft Word to print them out.
- Use the foam double sided mounting tape to stick your figures down, as this creates a raised look – very professional, it gives your board a 3 dimensional look:
-Christine Dauguet
- Find bits of material, feathers, edging, embellishment or beads to stick on the board – anything that goes with your theme, keep this tidy and within the borders of your storyboard, nothing flapping off or hanging down
- ALWAYS stick to the requirements of your brief, the due date, amount of outfits required, theme etc. Use the correct board size stipulated (A2 A3 or A4) and try to buy rigid board – I like to use 1200 micron but you can use slightly thinner. The rule should be that you can rest it up against a stand and it won’t fold, and warp – not impressive during presentations!
- Have all the information regarding your board handy, your lecturer will ask you questions about fabrication, target market segment (sportswear, evening wear, ready to wear, couture etc) and you should know off hand. Fabrics are the most important aspects to remember, don’t just say “cotton” if its viscose cotton, cotton lycra or stretch cotton – be specific
- Bear in mind that everything you do from now on has to be showcased in your portfolio – so create the best boards possible, and look after them. Use a plastic cover when handing them in
