Congratulations on starting a new career in fashion design! You are following your passion, and betting on yourself to succeed. You may feel excited, overwhelmed, nervous, or all of the above. And that’s okay! To help you get started and feel more prepared, there are several apps you should check out. Lucky for you, we have compiled nine of the best apps to help you as you begin your fashion designer career.
As a fashion designer, keeping up with technology trends is important. Your potential customers, the fashion community, and your creative inspiration can all be found online. Apps have been created to make this easier! Here are a few apps and their descriptions to get you started.
1. Alfred App
The Alfred App, created for Mac, provides a simple, easy way to find your files. While this may not seem revolutionary, it will save you tons of time searching through your files to find what you are looking for.
The app is free to download on your computer, or you can pay for the powerpack which gives you additional capabilities. You will be required to set up your preferences with the app so that a shortcut will take you to the spotlight search page.
Once the app is all set up, you will use the shortcut that you have set up, type in your search term(s), and ta-da there is the file you are looking for!
2. The Matboard
Now that you have your organizational technique down, let’s talk about inspiration. After all, creativity is an area where you thrive!
The Matboard app is similar to Pinterest because it allows you to search, save, and organize work that inspires you. Using this app you can set up mood boards for all of your different projects.
3. Art Authority
The Art Authority app is another inspiration-focused platform. It contains over 100,000 pieces of art including paintings and sculptures. All art on the art authority app is easy to sort through by using specific filters. Get inspired by centuries of art without leaving your computer!
4. Corel Draw
Corel Draw is a design app that allows you to create, save, and edit all of your designs. This intuitive platform is also accessible from any device (computer, phone, tablet) making it convenient to work from anywhere!
Fashion designers typically use this software for sketching or creating mannequin images for designs. You can get a free trial of the app and try it out for yourself before committing to purchasing it.
5. Sketch
Sketch is a relatively new vector graphics editor. Using sketch you can build your own designs, edit them, and easily share with clients or collaborators.
Sketch is a great app if you plan on frequently sharing and working with other parties during your design process. This app allows you to leave comments and share links that others can open without downloading any additional software. The licensing fee for Sketch is a one-time payment of $99.
6. Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is one of the original creative design programs for fashion designers. The app can be used to generate flat sketches, freehand sketches, or tracing patterns. It is easy to use and very popular among fashion stylists.
Illustrator allows you to make comments and notes on the style design so that the pieces can eventually be put into a tech pack. You can use Adobe Illustrator on Mac or Windows, and you can access a free trial before paying $29.99 a month to use the app.
7. Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce site perfect for selling your latest and greatest designs. Once you have a product to sell, you can set up your online store. You can personalize the store and easily create functionality to accept payments and track orders.
It is easy to use and it works well with other platforms. If you plan to sell independently, Shopify is a great place to start. You can get a free trial of Shopify before purchasing for $29 a month.
8. Instagram
This may seem like an obvious one, but Instagram can be an essential app for starting your career in fashion. Not only can you use it for inspiration, but also to connect with other talented people. By noticing trends and traffic on Instagram you can better tailor your own designs for the audience of clientele you want to reach. Instagram is also a growing platform for marketing and sales.
You may choose to have a personal Instagram account for your fashion brand, or you can create a page for your business to gain attention for the brand. The best part? It’s free!
9. Business of Fashion
Beyond the technical apps that are available, there are also business and news apps to consider. Staying up-to-date on what other designers are doing around the world and trends in the industry is crucial for your business.
The Business of Fashion app collects all major fashion-related news and information and displays it all in one place. It may not be enough to have great ideas and designs—fashion is also a business. And without knowing what the community and your competition are doing, you may be at a disadvantage.
Fashion trends and technology are constantly evolving, and so you should too! You can register for Business of Fashion for free and get access to five articles a month. If you want complete access, you can pay for the membership which is about $20 a month.
Start Your Fashion Designer Career Today! With your talent and the right tools, you have everything you need to start your fashion designer career.
To get the most out of each of these apps, you can also check out online tutorials to get to know all the useful features they have to offer. Remember that organizational and business apps are just as important as creative and design apps if you want to succeed in the fashion business.
Interested in more articles about fashion and the fashion industry? Check out our other blogs!
Carol
Information sourced by the author for luxuryactivist.com. All the content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.
