Now here’s a little something for all you Fashion Designers out there…

Most designers have heard of Photoshop and Illustrator, but I have discovered that few are aware of any other nifty applications available, that not only have a fit for fashion but are also either cheap as chips or better still, free. Admittedly, many of these tools are originally aimed at the graphic design world, but as tools I have been working with, for in some cases years, I have found them incredibly useful for the fashion world too. For the past few months I have been sharing these with Fashion Designers I’ve met on my travels and all have been pleased as punch with them, so for your viewing pleasure only, here are my top picks….Enjoy!

SnagIt

SnagIt and I have been bosom buddies for many years now and it’s a friend I wouldn’t be without. SnagIt it’s a simple application for capturing any part of your screen and saving it as an image file.

Key features:

• Can capture whole screen or just a part of the screen by dragging a box over area you want
• If you can’t fit it on the page, SnagIt auto-scrolls capturing everything in the window
• Can edit any image you capture, resizing and adding annotation such as text and arrows
• Can send captured images by email, IM or Skype with the click of a button

Why it’s useful for fashion designers…

So you’re browsing a website with the latest catwalk images, or on WGSN and just want a single image, part of an image or a selection of images. With SnagIt you no longer have to print screen then crop out the piece you want in Photoshop, or have to right click on every single image you want on a page. And if you don’t have/use Photoshop, not only will SnagIt capture any part of the screen you want, you can also annotate the captured image instantly then save/print an image to add to a mood board.

http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp

Price: Free trial / £37.95 / $49.95

Pixie

Pixie is a dinky little app whose usefulness far exceeds its size. Incredibly quick and simple to use, Pixie will tell you the RGB/CMYK/HTML/HSV reference of any colour you hover your mouse pointer over.

Why it’s useful for fashion designers…

Ever seen a perfect colour combination in a picture and want to know what the colours are so you can recreate them in your favourite art applications? Well Pixie’s your man. Yes you could screen grab and launch Photoshop to extract the colour information but this is somewhat longwinded and not even an option for those not using Photoshop.

http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.php

Price: Free

Adobe Kuler

Adobe Kuler is an online application for creating and sharing colour themes. With an online community that has created thousands of complimentary colour themes, it’s a fantastic resource for colour inspiration.

Key Features:

• Experiment quickly with colour variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community
• Save/view  your own colour themes
• Integrated into the Adobe Creative Suite (incl. Photoshop and Illustrator)
• Create colour themes around a base colour
• Create palettes with colour rules, i.e. complimentary, shades
• Numeric values for the HSB, RGB, CMYK, LAB, or HEX colour models

Why it’s useful for fashion designers….

Great for experimenting with colour for either collections or even make-up and styling ideas. The colour rules are great for finding colours that work well together and the access to other user’s themes provide excellent inspiration. Again this is great for those that don’t have access to or work with the behemoth art applications.

http://kuler.adobe.com

Price: Free

Aviary

Now if all of the above sounded exciting then Aviary will knock your socks off. Imagine all the previously mentioned tools all combined into one seamlessly integrated suite of online applications. And I mean all of the previously mentioned tools, including Photoshop and Illustrator, for Aviary is the mother hen of online creativity. All named after birds (hence Aviary), there’s an app for everything, from vector art and pixel manipulation to screen capture and colour pickers, Aviary has it all.

Key features:

• Phoenix – Image Editor. Like Photoshop, rich editing tools such as brushes, magic wands, blends and layers. From basic image retouching to complex effects, Phoenix has all the key features of its desktop counterparts.
• Peacock – Effects Editor. Like Photoshop filters and plug-ins. Even has a plaid editor so useful for creating fashion fills.
• Raven – Vector Editor. Like Illustrator – vector art. Includes, path, curves, objects, stroke, fill, and layers.
• Falcon – Image Mark-up. Like Snagit and Pixie combined. Use Falcon to quickly capture images and web pages from your browser and crop, resize or mark them up. Includes colour picker.
• Toucan – Colour Swatches and Palettes tool. Like Adobe Kula.. Choose up to 20 colours per palette using colour association rules or an uploaded image.

Why it’s useful for fashion designers…

• Well where to begin? The Aviary suite is all hosted online so you can access it from anywhere with an internet connection and because it’s hosted you don’t need the processing power on your machine. With the increasing popularity of net books, Aviary is perfect for those who want to be creative on the go. So you’re off doing a shop report or at a show? Well no longer do you need to wait until your return to start creating and sharing your ideas, or lug around a machine capable of running the desktop apps. Although Photoshop and Illustrator have more overall features and power, I bet most fashion designers don’t utilise them to their full potential. Aviary has all the key features to enable you to produce fashion flats and prints and compared to Photoshop and Illustrator the learning curve is not as steep. And then there’s the price. Whilst Photoshop and Illustrator will cost your company thousands to kit out the design room, you can access Aviary and use all the applications free of charge, the only downside with the free option is your files are public, however if you want to create private files its only $24.99 a year!

http://aviary.com/

Price: Free/$24.99 per annum

And just in case you were doubting the power of Aviary, here are some creations that have been produced in the suite…