Fashion can be defined as popular trend or style in clothing, lifestyle, hairstyle, footwear and accessories. While the term can be used in many of the contexts described, it common use is in clothing (McRobbie 3). From the rococo and baroque fashions of the 1700s to the hipsters of the 1960s, fashion has undergone remarkable evolution. Although clothing pieces are themselves works of art, addition of graphic arts tends to increase the level of attraction. The 18th century, a turning point for fashion, witnessed the use of simple graphics in clothing that exemplified their uniqueness. Floral patterns and animal depictions were common (Olsen 121). However, the industrialization and modernization of Europe during the industrial revolution, gave rise to formal wear. Formal clothing, were worn during office and were meant to create an official and professional look. Throughout the 19th century, there was little distinction between formal clothing and ordinary wear. However, the post-world war cultural changes in Europe were characterized by a more independent and self-determined fashion that did not follow conventional patterns. The hipsters or hippies as they were often referred to, set the stage for the adoption of street wear as a distinct fashion from the traditional formal clothing (Miller 67).
The modern fashion industry is a multi-billion industry. The fashion industry’s growth has been largely propelled by its ability to constantly change. In the UK, statistics indicate that in 2017, the value of the fashion sector to the economy rose to a staggering 32 billion pounds which represented a 5.4% increase from the previous year (Sleigh par. 1). The British Fashion Council head Caroline Rush attributes the growth to the increasing competence of the UK designers, growth in manufacturing and online retail. Furthermore, statistics indicate that the industry compares favourably with the financial sector by supporting more than 890, 000 jobs (Sleigh par. 1). While different aspects of fashion including foot wear have contributed to the significant rise in the sector, street wear has dominated modern day fashion, a feature that is supported by the ease with which these garments can be worn with other formal clothing. Bovone (375) argues that one unique aspect of street clothing is its ability to satisfy a wider market segment. Unlike formal or designer wears, street fashion is not restricted to a select consumer class. Therefore, street wear is essentially driving its own growth and may, in the near future, out compete designer clothing (Bovone 378). Without the restrictions of formality, street wear and certain designer clothing are becoming liberal in the use of art in their designs. T-shirts, tank tops, shorts and even trousers now feature beautiful artworks (The Fashion Law par. 3). From illustrations to indiscernible yet beautiful patterns, these new trends are gaining popularity. In fact, global sales in street wear have significantly grown. According to a report by Bain and company, in the Fashion Law, the sale of street wear as personal luxury goods, increased by five percent to 309 billion dollars globally (The Fashion Law par. 1).
The sales improvement can be attributed in part to the integration of graphics in street wear. High end designers are introducing aspects of graphic design into some of their fashion pieces (The Fashion Law par. 3). This new trend is a shift from the typical designer wear that bears hallmarks of a formal look. As a result, a new market for high end designer and street wear has managed and is so far proving successful (Bovone 372s). Just how important is graphic design to fashion? This paper looks at the contribution of graphic design to the fashion industry, and discusses the relationship between the different design styles and how the market perceives these styles.
Importance of Branding
For any business, branding plays a crucial role in ensuring its success. A businesses brand creates a perception of a product on the customer’s mind. As a marketing strategy, Wigley, Nobbs and Larsen (246) argue that branding informs the customer about the product, why they should buy it and what sets the product apart from competition. Unlike other businesses, a fashion designer’s brand is dependent on the visual appeal created by the clothing pieces sold. Therefore, these clothes need to be unique, attractive and up to date with the trend (Posner and Scott 29). To achieve this effect, fashion houses have adopted the use graphic arts and designs into the main designs. Formal, designer or street wear, all bear some form of graphic design that gives it a unique characteristic that seeks to appeal to a specific customer base (Wigley, Nobbs and Larsen 246). For instance, a tank top with a tattoo design might appeal to young millennials, a turtle neck with a country club embroidery on the chest, may appeal to a sub-urban country club member, and a T-shirt with clever caricatures of common cartoons appeal to kids. If such graphics are embedded onto high end materials, the result is high end street wear that is guaranteed to boost sales. Graphic design is the use of text and pictures to pass message (Thompson 46). In fashion, the success of a particular graphic lies in its ability to use elements of communication and visual art to tell a story or passage a message (Barnard 12). Therefore, the graphic design styles focus on the following key aspects: Communication design, information design, and the use of visual language.
Information and Communication Design
Information Design
Information design is broad term that describes methods of presenting information, such that it is easy to understand and interpret (Albers and Mazur 8). Information design is an important part of communication and graphic design as it touches on the actual message. The international institute for information design (IIID) defines information as the creation of message content by defining and planning the message contents, determining the environment where the message will be presented to ensure the satisfaction of the message recipients (IIID 1). The entire premise of information is ensuring that recipients of a message only receive information that is relevant or meaningful (IIID 1). Fashion design, although largely visual, implements aspects of information design in their designs. Fashion is not only the pieces of clothing worn by an individual, but is also an expression of emotions, interests and desires (Barnard 23; Bovone 372). For instance, dark classical suits and ankle length trousers define a confident man, while brightly colored casual wear indicates an individual with a vibrant personality. Therefore, fashion designers are essentially communicating through the garments they create.
Communication Design
Communication design is a broad concept as it involves several disciplines. Essentially, communication design deals with the use of media and other visual elements to pass a message to the target audience (Albers and Mazur 29). Although communication follows the basic communication pattern of source-message-medium-recipient, it emphasizes on development of the medium to ensure that the message is succinctly and concisely delivered to the recipient (Barnard 13). Thus, communication design utilizes aesthetics to create media content and pass a message, or communicate an idea. Furthermore, communication designs improve the level of interactivity between users and the message. As Albers and Mazur (45) contend, such an approach enables the designers to have a firsthand assessment of the efficacy of their design and make the necessary adjustments. Therefore, the communication design would focus on: the content of the message, form of the message, audience, and the context (Thompson 112). Therefore, applying the concepts of communication design to branding and marketing, the level of success is determined by the designer’s ability to understand current market trends, analyze these trends, to come up with a uniquely dynamic brand.
Communication design is especially useful in the fashion industry. The sector is a fast-paced world, where currents trends come and go at a remarkable pace. Furthermore, Eckert and Stacey (12) contend that fashion design is visual discipline, emphasising more on what the clients see than what they read about. Therefore, a fashion company’s brand is determined by the fashion pieces whose design attract the most clients. As a marketing strategy, using the correct design while communicating about the products, fashion companies are able to capture the interests of potential clients (Wigley, Nobbs and Larsen 249). Thus, these companies focus and invest in publicizing their brand image or message through appropriate communication designs.
Contents of the Message
For communication design to work, the designer needs to take into consideration; what message is being communicated, who the target audience are, what the message looks like, and the context within which the message is created and disseminated (Albers and Mazur 63). These aspects, when considered from a fashion design perspective, are necessary in creating a new brand or conducting a rebranding exercise. The first element, the content of the message, entails the information that the fashion designer wants to communicate. Borrowing slightly from information design, communication designers take care not to over sell the brand by providing more information than is required by the audience (Wigley, Nobbs and Larsen 256). For instance, a clothing company releasing a line of T-shirts with monster energy drink logo illustrations (with copyright considerations) would opt for a simple line to describe the product. A good example of such a line would be, “Unleash the monster. Be the monster!” although these does not say much about the hoodies, it is catchy and would attract customers who are loyal to the Monster brand.
Secondly, a design is only as effective as its simplicity, clarity and aesthetic value (Barnard 4). Therefore, whereas most graphic designers tend to focus on complicated designs, they are not as effective at communicating as simpler designs. The human mind is a complicated organ capable of processing large quantities of data with near simultaneity. However, research has shown that the mind works best when presented with concepts, ideas and problems that are clear, easy to follow and solve (Thompson 132). Therefore, referring to the monster energy drinks, the designer chose to include a human hand holding the monster energy drink logo. The T-shirt now looks more aggressive. However, the similarity between the hand and the claw like image may confuse the customer and even remove attention from the logo, which is supposed to sell the T-shirt.
Audience and Context
Another important consideration when coming up with a communication design, is the audience and the context in which the message is communicated. The audience refers to the recipients of the message, i.e. to who is the message intended, or who will the message benefit the most (Barnard 10). In this regard, designers in the fashion industry need to understand who would wear a particular piece of clothing, when they will wear it and how they will wear it (Bovone 371). For instance, the monster branded t-shirt is appropriate to young people (millennials) looking to express themselves, whereas a couture dress, mimicking classic Marie Antoinette’s 18thcentury designs, would suit a high-end designer wear customer attending a charity ball.
The context within which the message is communicated is also important.According to research by Eckert and Stacy (3), the context created by fashion designers is dependent of the visual environment and the memories that the clothing is to revoke. As such, fashion pieces are only as valuable as the experience they present and the memories they leave behind. Therefore, in addition to designing the garments themselves, communication designers also focus on presentation of the garments. An example would be releasing the Monster branded T-shirt. Just displaying these clothing on a display window may not attract as would an event sponsored by the parent company, Monster. According to Badgaiyan and Verma (540) impulsive buying is an intrinsic behavior that is not only propelled by internal factors, but also the setting that an individual finds him or herself. Therefore, by creating the appropriate environment, the probability of improving sales increases significantly.
Message Medium
Lastly, any communication process is incomplete without a medium. Basically, a medium refers to any channel through which information is conveyed ((Albers and Mazur 33). There are numerous communication media, each with its own unique advantages. In fashion, print and electronic media are typical. For effective communication to take place, it is important to select the right channel to not only convey the message but also fit into the context of the message (Thompson 23s). Thus, a well-crafted graphic design may fail to communicate if it is conveyed through the incorrect channel. Over the years, fashion magazines have had a dominating role in fashion communication. Magazines such as Vogue, InStyle and Vanity fair, cover latest trends in fashion wear, events and promotions. However, the increasing influence of social media platforms is slowly edging out magazines. Although most of these magazines have an online presence, they are unable to match or surpass the following that social media has. Therefore, current trend is seeing communication designers preferring social media, as channel to showcase designs and reach majority audience.
Visual Design
Communication and information designs are complemented by visual designs. Visual design refers to the use of visual language to express an idea. Visual language involves the use of colors, patterns, and other visual elements to communicate. Fashion is a visual industry that appeals more by what is seen than what is heard or written about (Aspers 41). Therefore, visual language forms a key part of graphic design in fashion as it brings out the aesthetics of a clothing, improves brand image and shapes consumer opinions (Scott 65). In fashion, photography is an integral part of graphic design. “A photograph is worth a thousand words.” Essentially, photographs are open to interpretation and provide the designer with an opportunity passing a primary message and leaving it to the interpretation of the viewer. Consequently, photographs with models displaying different garments are common in fashion magazines, blogs and social media platforms. Every aspects of these photographs convey specific messages about the design, purpose and inspiration behind the clothing on display.
Visual designs are important for creating and maintain a company’s brand essence. In the past, fashion labels invested heavily in the maintenance of their brand essence. From the selection of models, brand ambassadors and marketing strategies, fashion labels ensured that each image, photo, poster or caption defined and represented the brand. However, the advent of social media is changing the perceptions of brand amongst companies with companies choosing short term brand success over longer term customer loyalty. In the modern technological world full of social media, individual and corporate popularity is gauged by the number of followers on Facebook or the likes on Instagram’s. This change in perception has led fashion companies to bring celebrities on board as brand ambassadors or models. Although these moves translate to a boost in sales, it is a poor strategy for the long term. For instance, if a television celebrity becomes the brand ambassador for a sport clothing line, he or she may attract her fans and social media followers to buying the garment. However, if these sport clothing label would have used an athlete, the brand image would have had a better, longer impact with the consumers, who will identify with brand through the athlete and what he or she is representing.
Visual designs also entail telling tales or portraying storylines through unique fashion pieces. Such tales are common in exhibitions and runway shows focusing on specific themes. According to Eckert and Stacy (5), creativity and innovation are critical are important elements in any fashion design or concept. Furthermore, a fashion design is effective if it isolates thought and evokes memories. Thus, the concept of story telling in fashion is gaining precedence and fashion labels are adopting this strategy in their design and marketing. Thus, in exhibitions displaying both street and designer wear, care is taken to provide context that exemplifies the clothing over the surroundings (Eckert and Stacy 5). Thus, a typical exhibition would be intrinsically simple at first glance, but a closer look would reveal a design process that sets the clothing as top priority. However, runaway events have taken the idea of fashion tales and storytelling to an unprecedented level. Examples of such tales include the runaway events created by Chanel, Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen (JCI 1). These runaway events showcased different story telling strategies: creating a sense of time and place, showcasing a fantasy, or simply doing something the audience did not expect. Although these shows were captivating, they served to build the brand, creating a loyalty and consequent improvement of sales.
Conclusion
In conclusion, street and designer wear are dominating modern fashion. Although street wear was intended to cater for customers in all income brackets, they are becoming a staple of high-end wears. Improvements in the designs, especially the inclusions of new graphic designs set these clothes apart and add to their appeal. Graphic design involves the use of texts and pictures to describe a particular theme. These designs create a unique brand image for a fashion label, and is an incentive for customers to purchase and adorn the label’s designs. Graphic designs have three aspects: communication design, information design and visual design. These three factors work to create a unique designer garment that answers a customer’s particular want or need. Information design involves the design and planning of the content of a message. Essentially, information design is the creation of the message that a fashion design will communicate.
Communication design is perhaps the most important. Communication design focuses on the dissemination of the message itself. Therefore, an effective design integrates and takes advantage of the relationship between the content of the message, the medium, audience and context. Visual design, on the other hand, utilizes visual language to develop themes and create a brand essence. In this regard, photography plays a key role, as designers use the abstract nature of the photos to allow open interpretation of designs by the clients. The increasing influence of social media as a marketing strategy has enabled fashion to gain new audience however, this gain has come at the expense of brand essence. Thus, fashion labels’ choice of models and ambassadors is eroding this essence as the selection aims to attain short term success rather than longer term customer loyalty and retention. Fashion tales and Storytelling through fashion is an upcoming trend. This new approach not onlycaptivates the audience but also exemplifies the designs by taking advantage of the stage setting, themes and the designs to win over clients.
Works Cited
Albers, Michael J., and Mary Beth Mazur, eds. Content and complexity: information design in technical communication. Routledge, 2014.
Aspers, Patrik. Markets in fashion: A phenomenological approach. Routledge, 2012.
Badgaiyan, Anant Jyoti, and Anshul Verma. "Intrinsic factors affecting impulsive buying behaviour—Evidence from India." Journal of Retailing and consumer services 21.4 (2014): 537-549.
Barnard, Malcolm. Graphic design as communication. Routledge, 2013.
Bovone, Laura. "Urban style cultures and urban cultural production in Milan: Postmodern identity and the transformation of fashion." Poetics
34.6 (2006): 370-382.
Eckert, C. M., and M. K. Stacey. "Designing in the context of fashion–designing the fashion context." Designing in Context: Proceedings of the 5th Design Thinking Research Symposium. 2001.
IIID. “Definitions.” International Institute for Information Design, https://www.iiid.net/home/definitions. Accessed 1 December 2018.
JCI Institute. “Runway Tales: How Storytelling Creates an Unforgettable fashion show. JCI Institute.com. 2015. Accessed September 4, 2018 from https://www.jcinstitute.com/runway-tales-storytelling-creates-unforgettable-fashion-show/
McRobbie, Angela. British fashion design: Rag trade or image industry?. Routledge, 2003.
Miller, Timothy. The 60's Communes: Hippies and Beyond. Syracuse University Press, 2015.
Olsen, Kirstin. Daily life in 18th-century England. ABC-CLIO, 2017.
Posner, Harriet and Scott, Williams. Marketing fashion: strategy, branding and promotion. Laurence King Publishing, 2015.
Scott, Grant. "Teaching Photography as a Visual Language." Witness (2016).
Sleigh, Sophia. “The UK fashion industry is worth £32 billion to the UK economy, says British fashion Council CEO.” Evening Standard, 13 September 2018, https://www.standard.co.uk/fashion/uk-fashion-industry-32-billion-uk-economy-british-fashion-council-caroline-rush-a3934781.html. Accessed 3 December 2018.
The Fashion Law. “Streetwear is helping to boost revenues in the fashion industry.” The Fashion Law, 26 October 2017, http://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/streetwear-is-helping-to-boost-revenues-in-the-fashion-industry. Accessed 3 December 2018.
Thompson, Bradbury. The art of graphic design. Yale University Press, 2018.
Thompson, Neil. Effective communication: a guide for the people professions. Macmillan International Higher Education, 2018.
Wigley, Stephen M., Karinna Nobbs, and Ewa Larsen. "Making the marque: Tangible branding in fashion product and retail design." Fashion Practice
5.2 (2013): 245-263.
