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Behind the Scenes With a Technical Designer
By admins | June 23, 2009
Today we have another often overlooked arena of the fashion business, technical design. For those of you not in the business, a technical designer is not someone who works in IT but rather handles issues relating to measurements, fit, patterns, and more. Below is our interview with Morgan, a FIT graduate who moved from Tennessee to NYC to become a technical designer. She currently works for a large multi-billion dollar company as a technical designer and has been kind enough to share her experience with us. Now, before we get a bunch of emails and comments from designers on her answer to #2, yes, we know many designers do their own specing and communicating with factories. Part of what is so interesting in hearing from all of you is, while we all have similar positions at our offices the structure and responsibilities can vary greatly from company to company. We are thrilled to feature today one of the hardest working divisions in any apparel company, tech design. Anyway, a big thank you to Morgan for sharing her insights with us!
What is your educational background and do you feel it helped prepare you for the fashion industry?
I went to the Fashion Institute of Technology. I have an Associate’s Degree in Pattern making Technology and in my 2nd year concentrated in Technical Design. I have a Bachelors Degree in International Trade and Marketing for the Fashion Industry. Both of my degrees prepared me for the fashion industry & my technical design career. I use skills from my pattern making degree daily, and since it was only a 2 year program I chose to do ITM for my bachelors which gave me a broader education on all different aspect of the industry. FIT no longer offers Pattern making Technology because they are working on offering a 4 year Technical Design program, so I think that will be even more beneficial for this growing field.
You are a technical designer, for those not familiar with the title, what exactly is a technical designer?
The easiest way to explain what a technical designer is, is they are the liaison between the designer and factory. Since most apparel is now made overseas, the Technical Designer is responsible for working closely with the designer & conveying their ideas to the factory overseas with flat measurements, construction, and pattern corrections from the first sample to production.
For a young person wanting a career in tech design, how would you recommend they proceed?
I think the first step if you would like to make tech design a career is enrolling in a pattern making or a technical design program. Every day as a technical designer you are working with patterns, making corrections and fitting samples, so it is very important that you have a good understanding of patterns and correcting patterns after fittings. I would also recommend taking sewing and tailoring classes to become familiar with the construction inside different garments. Technology wise it is important to be proficient in computer programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Photo shop, Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook. Any knowledge of pattern programs, such as Gerber is also a big plus. However, the best education is through experience so intern, intern, intern as much as you can.
Can you describe the basic day-to-day responsibilities of a technical designer?
For every company and depending on your position, the day to day responsibilities of a technical designer varies. Basic responsibilities include; Going over sketches with designer, producing flat measurements & general construction from the sketches, specing garments, conducting fittings, correcting patterns based on fitting corrections, creating tech packs (which include corrections, construction, measurements, trims, etc.), conveying all corrections, issues, and details to overseas vendors as clearly as possible.
What is your opinion of the working conditions in the fashion industry/garment center and is there anything that you would like to see companies improve on?
I work for a very large company, and I think the conditions are pretty good. I have great benefits, I work in a clean, spacious building, and the hours are typically 9-6. Technical Design can be very stressful, lots of deadlines, and there have been nights I have stayed until 10:00. It is really about time management and organizing your work. One complaint of the fashion industry I have as a whole is the amount of waste that almost all fashion companies have. I would really like to see the fashion industry and garment center work on being more eco friendly. I think if the fashion industry could move in that direction, it could make a huge impact globally.
Having moved to NYC from the south, what was the experience like and how have you adjusted to the Big Apple?
I moved to NYC when I was 18 from Tennessee, right after high school, and I had never visited NYC before, so the experience was crazy at first. I immediately fell in love with New York and FIT. I had a great time and met great people. I think not being from NYC made me more motivated to work harder and push myself to be successful in school and in my career because I came here with no connections or idea of where to begin. I started working as technical designer my junior year of college, so I was working & going to college full time. It was definitely a stressful time, but worth it, and I think not having anything handed to me has really taught me to work hard every day to advance in my career, and these days just to keep my job.
For those not familiar with the technical side of fashion design can you generally explain the difference between a technical designer versus a pattern maker, tailor, spec tech, etc…?
The technical designer, at my company, has to basically be proficient in patternmaking, tailoring, specing, flat sketching, etc. As a technical designer your job is to give as much information as possible from a designers sketch to the overseas vendor so that a sample can be created and through several fittings, an entire line produced. To me, the general difference is that technical design isn’t one specific focus, but a combination of all of these jobs, and a technical designer must be proficient in each area.
What is the one thing you wish you had known before entering the fashion industry?
Honestly I wish I had known more about technical design and the process of creating apparel. During my pattern making degree, there were only 3 technical design classes which were all very broad on the subject. I became interested through those 3 classes and took a job the following year, which is where I really learned the most about technical design. I think there are very few people, including fashion students, who understand the process it takes to create one garment. Outlets such as this blog and technical design programs in school are the beginning to really teaching people there is more the fashion industry other than designing and merchandising.
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Topics: fashion industry, production | 17 Comments » 
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June 23rd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Finally a fashion blog acknowledging that there are people other than fashion designers that make this industry run! Thank you for this!
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. In any case
I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
June 24th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
9-6 Lucky girl, our TD is more like 9-8 and often 9-11!! We are totally understaffed but with the budget tight they won’t hire. I want Morgan’s job :-)
June 24th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
wow… for some reason i just thought the designer did all this.. but it makes sense. as a graphic designer, people often asked if we could make a website (by ourselves) but technically… not possible for most of us anyway.
really cool interview!
June 24th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
@TJ24: Haha. That is only what some days are… but during busy seasons, it is definitely more like 9-8 or 9-11! It just depends on the season! We have been fortunate enough to not have too many cut backs on the tech design dept.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Hi Morgan,
that’s really interesting that FIT has a 4 year tech design major. i was a bachelor in general fashion design and sort of stumbled into the technical design field when i came to NY for my first job. I later attended FIT for the 2 year draping certificate which i thought was a really great program to supplement work. best of luck!
June 25th, 2009 at 5:52 am
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June 25th, 2009 at 5:54 am
[...] 39th and Broadway: Ever wonder who really determines how your clothes fit? An interview with a technical designer [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I love the insight you give into the garment district. Sounds like an interesting job!
June 26th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
[...] 39th and Broadway: Ever wonder who really determines how your clothes fit? An interview with a technical designer [...]
June 27th, 2009 at 6:12 am
[...] 39th and Broadway: Ever wonder who really determines how your clothes fit? An interview with a technical designer [...]
June 27th, 2009 at 6:39 am
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June 29th, 2009 at 7:34 am
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July 17th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Hey Morgan, your career sounds like alot like mine. Do I know you? Your name sounds do familiar. I swear I’ve worked with you. Do you work for WM?
July 17th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Being a TD is quite stressful and frustrating sometimes, because we’re always the ones to blame when a style is not selling. And of course, when the style is doing well the design team gets all the credit!
I know all you TD’s out there agree with me!
September 14th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Fossil is looking for a Technical Designer to join the team! For more information please contact me at ojeffers@fossil.com
October 12th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Thank you for this blog- as a (plus size) tech designer, I appreciate any assistance in explaining the importance of my job!