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Businesses around the world are demanding higher productivity from their employees. The United States has reached all-time high labor productivity as we get 4 times more work done then our grand-parents in 1950.
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Technology has contributed to most of our productivity. With software, information communication, data processing, and automated control, it has made us a smart and sophisticated workforce to our value-added enterprises.
But, with more than 4 million software, browser extensions, phone & tablet apps to choose from, it can get overwhelming. In this blog post we will suggest 15 apps that will make your work much easier, faster, smarter and profitable. In short, better ROI (Return on Investment).
These apps are divided into 5 categories that will walk you through all stages of building a product. These stages include sources for fashion inspiration, applications used for product design, product development apps, manufacturing and marketing. So this is basically the A-Z guide for your entire product development process.
Fashion Inspiration
What is the very first step of the product design? It is getting inspired by something! It doesn't necessarily have to be a piece of clothing, it could be a mood board, movie or a piece of art. Here is a list of our suggested sources to get inspiration from.
WGSN
WGSN is a trend forecasting platform. It constantly monitors how consumers think, feel and behave. Their experts help brands stay relevant by predicting the products, experiences and services people will need in future. WGSN's network of industry experts, provides inspiration to a community of over 43,000 product designers and thought leaders in 32 global markets.
Price: Free registration
Art Authority
Art will always be a biggest source of inspiration in the fashion world. The Art Authority app lets you browse over 100,000+ paintings and sculptures by 1,500 of the Western world’s leading artists from ancient times to today. Their visual library is easy to access and use for every designer.
Price: $4.99
Vogue Runway
Take inspiration from other designers' collections! Vogue Runway is an app created by the world's leading fashion publisher. And it offers unlimited access to the world’s latest collections. Their archive contains over 1 million runway images from over 12,000 fashion shows including the new ones and old from way back to 2000s.
Price: Free
Other apps for fashion inspiration: Pinterest, Business of Fashion, Instagram, The Hunt.
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Design
Fashion design includes sketching an initial idea and technical specifications. The old-school method of sketching on the paper is outdated. These apps will help you sketch your designs fast and customize them on the go.
Adobe Illustrator
Fashion and technical designers use Illustrator to draw flat sketches (or functional sketches) with callouts for construction and styling details to put them in tech packs so your team and manufacturer can easily understand and follow.
If you are new to illustrator then there are some great resources available. You can join free webinars and training classes from Fashion Classroom or Sew Heidi.
Price: $29.99/month
Sketch
Adobe Illustrator has dominated the world of creative software for decades with so many features BUT only until 5 years ago when Sketch was launched.
In a nutshell, Sketch has almost overtaken Adobe Illustrator in the graphic design world. Why? because Sketch is fast, intuitive and has lots of Plugins. There's so much development by third-party developers who continue to create some really smart plugins and keep extending the functionality of Sketch.
Besides, The simplicity and ease of use in exporting and managing assets in Sketch make it an excellent fit for young/up-and-coming designers.
Price Itube studio 7 4 0 56. : One-time licensing fee $99.
Pret-A-Template
Pret-A-Template is your digital sketchbook. It allows you to sketch your designs on iPhone or iPad. They offer over 500 templates to choose from, including bodies and details like shoes. Select from predefined skin, hair and makeup color pallets for a quick success.
Price: Starts at $5.99
Other apps for fashion design to consider: Sketchbook, Corel Draw.
Product Development
Product development includes the following stages: design, planning and developing salable products. It involves processes of getting your fashion products ready to manufacture.
Techpacker
Tech packs (or specification sheets) used to be the most time-consuming tasks and every fashion designer will tell you the endless frustrations of creating flat sketches, condensed wordings to fit in a format, amendments and repeateds Row
Finding a manufacturer specific to your product categories is hard. And finding a good one is even harder. You can start by asking around for references however it could be time-consuming. So if you are specifically looking for a manufacturer in the USA with crowd-sourced reviews then Makers Row could be useful. They have a fairly decent list of about 3,900 apparel and accessories related makers that are clearly sorted by categories and rating.
But then, many products still can't be produced locally in the USA and what if you are looking for lower manufacturing costs and a greater number of manufacturers to choose from then Global sources is a good resource as they put a lot of effort into listing factories that meet higher standards compared to its direct competitor Alibaba (another listing website).
Price: Starts at $35/month
Graphic Design Mac
Swatchon
Swatchon is a wholesale fabric platform based in Seoul, South Korea. It ships to 52 countries and has 100000 fabrics to choose from online. This platform works with brands of all sizes allowing them to place an order as small as 3 yards, or up to 500,000 yards.
Price: Free for ready-to-wear businesses, $500 prepayment for everyone else.
Higg Co
Higg Co is a technology company that focuses on building tools that power sustainability measurement. Higg Co helps brands reduce energy use, combat audit fatigue, and safeguard those who work in the supply chain. Higg Materials Sustainability Indexallows designers to create custom materials, and understand their environmental impact.
Marketing
When the product is manufactured it's time to sell it! Using the following apps you will be able to build a website, create line sheets and market your business.
Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows you to easily set up an online store and start selling. It lets you customize your storefront, accept credit card payments, track and respond to orders — all with a few clicks. It powers over 350,000 businesses and over 1,000 Enterprise Plus customers.
Price: 7 Days free trial, thereafter US$29 per month
Brandboom
Brandboom is a wholesale e-commerce platform to create clean Line sheets, get orders directly from retailers & receive payments in simple steps. After setting up your line sheet, you can directly send a link to your buyers and showrooms so they can book directly and can also pay. This will avoid so many back-&-forth communication and missing critical SKU/sizes etc.
Price: Free with limits and thereafter US$79/mo.
Garmentory
Garmentory is one of the top online marketplaces existing right now. It is an ultimate source of indie boutiques, emerging and contemporary designers. By setting up a store on their online platform Garmentory gives brands access to thousands of customers around the globe.
Boutiques and brands can submit their application on Garmentory website and start selling after it's approved.
Other marketing apps to consider: Afterpay, Like to know it, Faire.
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Adguard 2 4 3 (718) nightly 13. macOS is one of the most popular operating systems in the world. If you just bought a Mac, you may need some apps that are very easy to use to help you edit some photos or even create some great icons or logos on your Mac.
So, here are the best 15 graphic design apps for Mac:
1. Icon Plus
If you are looking for an app that can help you create or modify an icon or logo then we recommend you try out Icon Plus. This app comes with some amazing features like combining images and text for creating fabulous logo designs. You can also edit existing graphics for obtaining great user interfaces. You can download it from the Mac App Store for just $4.99.
2. Gravit Designer
Gravit Designer is one of the most complete apps in this business. This app can be used for all sorts of design jobs (app icons for example) and even animations and presentations. You have to pay if you want to use the PRO version of this app, but the free one is really excellent too.
3. Inkscape
Inkscape is a very useful design tool which you will find on the Mac App Store. It focuses on the SVG format and it offers some special features that are not available with other apps such as alpha bending, markers and cloned objects, all for free.
4. Krita
This one is pretty cool. Being in development since 1999, Krita is a great painting tool that comes with different types of brushes and with advanced filters that will make your work easier. You can download this app for free.
5. GIMP
If you are searching for a free app that is very similar to Photoshop you should download GIMP. Even if it’s free you can use the full suite of tools like painting tools, clonning, correction or selection.
6. Image Tricks
If you are the type of person that likes to play with images and edit them, this app is perfectly suited for you. As the name suggests, Image Tricks gives you the possibility to apply a multitude of different photo effects on your pictures, all for free.
7. Comipro Plus
Comipro Plus is the creation of a Japanese company but it can be used by english speakers too. This app was made for the cartoon enthusiasts and enables them to create various modern comics. You can get this app for free from the Mac App Store.
8. Scratch
If you have a passion for animations you have to download Scratch. This app is very easy to use and you can create animated stories or small games just for fun. This application is completely free.
9. DAZ Studio
If you want to create 3D programs where you can use 3D objects, people and animals this app is perfect for you and you need to download it immediately. You can download DAZ Studio from the Mac App Store for free.
10. ArchiCad
If Google SketchUp isn’t enough for you and you need a 3D design app with more features, then ArchiCAD is the app for you. This tool allows you to bring your ideas to life in 3D, all for free.
11. Adobe Ilustrator CC
This app is one of the best in the business, it helps you create some great graphic designs for websites, video games or apps. It also comes with a state-of-the-art digital illustration tool. Even if it’s not cheap, this app is a must-have.
12. Canva
Canva is a great app that can be used by both begginers and professionals, by both individuals and teams. Canva is an app that lets you create professional graphic designs very easily. It offers you access to over a million graphics or images.
13. Corel PaintShop Pro
This image editing software is an easy to use tool for anyone. It comes with a lot of features that help you create graphic designs or improve your photos and it is very similar to Photoshop. It might not be free, but is a very useful app.
Graphic Design Apps For Mac
14. Piktochart
Graphic Design Software For Mac
If you are looking for a very easy to use infographic maker, Piktochart is exactly what you need. It comes with a large library of themes and templates that help you customize your multimedia projects, all for $12.50/month.
15. Venggage
This app is pure gold. It helps you tell your stories and present your data. It is especially created for marketers and it helps you create whatever materials you want.