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It is becoming increasingly normal for

retailers and branded apparel compa-

nies to use digital communication as a

means for both the design and develop-

ment process and the merchandising

process. This leads to a critical need to

be able to accurately define color at the

beginning of the design process andthen consistently and accurately com-

municate color throughout every stage

of design, development, and merchan-

dising, both internally and externally.

As such, we must acknowledge the

need to control color throughout the

entire apparel process requires taking

into account many factors: observers,

illuminants, color standards, display

devices (monitors, paper and/or fabric

printers), production needs, consumer

marketing (catalogs, Internet), etc.

COLOR DEVELOPMENT

The color development process for

apparel retailers and branded apparel

companies will vary greatly depending

on the organization and emphasis at

each company. Selection of colors to be

produced for a season may be a trend

or a design function. Once the colors

are selected, a standard for each color is

produced in sufficient quantity for dis-

tribution to suppliers who must match

the color to the satisfaction of the re-

tailer/brand. This is referred to here asthe color approval process, which entails

at a minimum the following steps:

Send standards with appropriate

instructions to selected suppliers for

color matching.

Receive lab dip submissions from

suppliers.

Evaluate lab dips for color match.

Approve or reject with comments to

supplier.

Communicate with designers when

acceptability of color submissions is

in question.

Track progress of color approvalsand administer the lab dip process.

Consistent Information Needed

Once production orders are placed, the

same organization may receive and

approve production lot submissions.

Depending on the retailer/brand organi-

zation, responsibility for the color

approval process may be assigned to

individuals within the design depart-

ment or to individuals in other depart-

ments. These departments are given

various names, including color office,product integrity, quality control, qual-

ity assurance, or color management. In

some cases, the color approval process

may be outsourced to testing labs.

Concurrent to the color approval

process, design and development must

begin for the graphic design, textile

design, and silhouette design. It would

then seem logical that the same color

standards that are initially communi-

cated

exter-

nally to

the suppliers

for color match-

ing should also be communi-

cated internally for the design processes.

Traditionally this has been done via

small swatches that are then either en-

tered via spectrophotometer into thedesign CAD systems and/or matched

visually via RGB on the CAD. In every

case the same process was being initiated

at least two times in two different chan-

nels within the same company.

With the advent and acceptance of

digital color measurement devices in the

first step of the process, it is now possible

to communicate this initial digital color

information to other steps of the process.

Ideally, the color should be communi-

cated at every step throughout the follow-

ing stages of the product life cycle: Design

Development (including information

concerning the status of lab dip

approval)

Sampling

Sourcing

Merchandising

Production

E-Commerce

Catalogs

By Jill M. Simmons, Lectra USA Inc., New York, N.Y.

DIGITAL DESIGN &

DEVELOPMENT FOR

COLLABORATIVECOLOR COMMUNICATION

3DS FOR

3CS

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Retail

This necessitates coherence between

several different color spaces, color

profiles, and output processes. Devices

in RGB, devices in CMYK, devices

with unique color spaces (i.e., textiledyeing), etc.it is a mind-boggling

proposition. However, there are great

strides being made in this direction.

For the purposes of this article, I will

focus the discussion on the display and

manipulation of color on garments

through texture mapping technology

and 3D rendering.

Spectral data from color standards

are communicated to the design depart-

ments using the information collected

from a spectrophotometer to create a

palette. This spectral data is not trans-

formed for communication, but must be

converted into RGB for monitor display.

Most important is that this display RGB

does not affect printing or output as we

will introduce monitor and printer pro-

files in order to calculate the overlap-

ping color spaces between various de-

vices. For communication to other parts

of the process digitally, we will commu-

nicate in sRGB, CIE-Lab, and/or spec-

tral data depending on the process.

Display and Communication

of RGB

Software packages may not communi-

cate RGB the same way, resulting in

two different values and two different

displays for a single color standard.

sRGB is a standard interpretation of the

RGB color space and enables colors to

be communicated correctly between

software packages. It is a device inde-

pendent color space and will not affect

the display of the colors on various

devices (monitors, printers) when you

use monitor profiles.

Display of Texture MappedImages

The appearance of color is only par-

tially controllable by the new technolo-

gies in place. There are many more

subjective items in the textile and gar-

ment design process.

For example, there is often little em-

phasis placed on the type of lighting used

within the CAD design environment.

Also, a designer will now receive the

color palette from the color standards

creator, but they should not be able to

tweak this color. Here lies perhaps the

most important issue it is not in a

designers makeup NOT to change

things.

Ultimately the color will be applied

to the texture of the fabric for visualsimulation (i.e., a 3D yarn must be col-

ored before being used in a woven fabric

or a knit will be piece dyed with a

color).

The influence of this texture on the

color can greatly change the appearance

of the color in which case, the color that

the designer originally asked for is not

really the color that they intended. Add

to this the application of the colored

textile fabric to a photograph that has its

own unique lighting scenario, shadows,

etc. for merchandising purposes.The intent is that this merchandising

photo will then be communicated either

in the paper form of a catalog or elec-

tronically via the Internet. It becomes

imperative that the color displayed in the

photo is consistent with the product that

the end consumer will finally receive so

as to minimalize any returns to the re-

tailer due to color.

Although there are some challenges

with how the image is to be displayed in

the merchandising process, it can be

clearly shown that there is a value to

allowing a design and merchandising

team to communicate in the medium

where they are most comfortable: visu-

ally. If this is done early in the process

perhaps even before lab dips and/or

productionmany colors may never be

developed due to a lack of knowledge ofhow the color will look on a particular

texture.

CONCLUSION

As technology progresses it will be

necessary for color management sys-

tems to converge with design, develop-

ment, and merchandising systems in

order to properly take into account the

observer, illuminant, and textures when

displaying texture mapped images and

3D rendered garments. This can then be

used to predict the store display.

Authors Address

Jill M. Simmons, Lectra, 119 W. 40th

St. Fl 3, New York, N.Y. 10018-2531;

telephone 212-704-4004, ext. 261; fax

212-704-0751; e-mail

j.simmons@lectra.com.