People want customizable clothing for a whole variety of reasons; birthdays, anniversaries, family trips, special occasions, important events, school uniforms, company merchandise…the list goes on. There are plenty of companies out there that are willing to print customized designs of pretty much any and every shape, size, and description onto the clothing of your choice, however what about when you want to create something of your own? Settling upon a design that suits you and your needs isn’t always an easy task.
Luckily there are tools out there that can make your journey of designing a whole lot easier. After all, coming up with the perfect designs for clothing mock-ups shouldn’t have to be an overly difficult or arduous task. So whatever your needs – from personal use to company branding – let’s take a delve into the world of clothing mock-ups and look at some of the most useful design tools out there that will help you get the most bang for your buck.
Pencil and Paper: Start Simple!
There’s a lot to be said for this classic method of design! There’s nothing like sitting down with a blank sheet of paper and sketching out a whole range of designs that can be used to create your clothing mock-ups. And here’s the thing, pencil and paper are so quick, easy, and simple that it seems almost too obvious and many people shun this rudimentary tool and begin their design journey elsewhere. But don’t dismiss this basic solution because it’s a tool as old as time with a proven track record!
Nothing is set in stone, un-doable or un-erasable, and no matter how many mess-ups you make you can always just very quickly and easily make changes and set yourself back on course. You can go through a wide variety of designs making quick ‘n’ dirty edits as you go along until you’ve nailed down something that is perfect for you. Once you’ve hit upon the design that you’re happy with then you can draw yourself a fully detailed ‘master’ copy that can be approved or signed off on, and ta-da – you’re good to go digital!
Graphics Tablets: Art With a Technological Twist
When it comes to creating line art on the computer then a top tip would be to get your hands on a high-quality graphics tablet. There are plenty of amazing options available to you, and you’re really only limited by your budget. Using this techno tool you can transfer your initial pencil and paper idea onto the screen. The handy stylus gives you far more control and flexibility than a standard computer mouse.
Using the stylus just like you would an ordinary pencil, you can draw, edit, change and manipulate your image in a variety of ways. This allows you to have the same kind of control as you would on paper – but on the computer screen!
Adobe Photoshop/Paintshop: Bring Your Designs To Life
Let’s start out with the supremely well-known and ever-reliable Photoshop. This isn’t the industry standard for no reason! When it comes to useful tools that will help you create your clothing mock-ups Photoshop can pretty much do it all. It is versatile and intuitive, and while you aren’t able to export your designs as vector files (files that will never lose quality no matter how much you scale them up) you are still able to create designs that should be totally usable and effective when creating clothing mock-ups.
There is an alternative: Adobe Paintshop does allow you to do many of the things you can do in Adobe Photoshop but with the added benefit of being able to export your designs as vector files. It comes down to personal preference, and of course, your design needs should always dictate which tools you use, but where you might take issue with Photoshop, Paintshop might be able to make up for that shortfall. Both take a little getting used to, and they do say that practice makes perfect, but both programs are valuable tools to have in your clothing mock-up designing arsenal.
Krita: A Cheaper (Well, Free) Alternative
Okay so Adobe Paintshop and Photoshop are good, but they are on the pricey side. If you’re not going to make regular use of them then it might not be the best tool for you. So what about a free alternative? Enter Krita! Krita is an open source freeware that anyone with a computer can download and use. It’s essentially a streamlined amalgamation of both Photoshop and Paintshop, and while Krita might not have all the bells and whistles of the aforementioned programs, it DOES have most of the key elements you will need when it comes to creating the perfect designs for your clothing mock-ups.
Krita, as with Paintshop you, is unable to create vector files, however, when it comes to creating clothing designs this doesn’t have to be too much of an issue. As long as the image you create in Kirta is of a large enough size, the loss in quality, if you need to scale up the design, will be negligible! As a free alternative to its heftily priced competitors, Krita is a wonderful tool, and perfect and highly useful stepping stone into digital designing for clothing mock-ups.
Finding a Design Mockup Site
Once you’ve got a complete design then you’re going to want to find some mock-up templates to position your designs on. There are many different sites out there where you can transfer your designs onto clothing templates to see how the design looks in situ. Is it too big, too small, need a little something adding here or there…these are all things that seeing your design on a mock-up template will be able to tell you. Simple yet effective!
So there you go. Yes, there are some big words and things that might take a little getting used to, but practice makes perfect, and once you get your head around all the steps then you’re going to be designing high-quality, eye-catching designs for your clothing mock-ups.
Fashion designer -DepositPhotos
