Education Of A Good Fashion Designer

It's possible that you've started looking into the various schools of fashion design and have had the occasional second thoughts. Either they look too expensive or perhaps the courses look too boring.

Do you really need to learn about the history of textiles to be a good fashion designer? If you already know you've got the talent, and have been dressing your friends and family for a long time already, maybe you don't even need to go to school before you try to launch your career. Others have done so without formal schooling, so why not you?

There's no doubt about it. Some designers have indeed had brilliant fashion design careers just by pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. Except, of course, even though they worked hard, frequently their success came by serendipity and chance.

You've heard of the few successes, but no one knows the names of the vast majority who tried just as hard but never got the lucky breaks and never went anywhere. If you truly want to be a successful fashion designer, you need to think long and hard about how sure you are you'd end up among the few lucky ones.

Remember just how many successful designers, with obvious talent, attended fashion design schools. Someone like Byron Lars, who took the fashion world by storm in the early 1980s, was a brilliant talent, yet even with the schooling he had, he endured some low points in the 1990s.

His formal education as a fashion designer was undoubtedly what helped him keep going and return to a point of success. Consider his example and that of other successful designers, and remind yourself that in the very competitive world of fashion design, you need all the advantages you can add to your repertoire.

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How To Find The Best Fashion Schools

What are you looking for if you're hunting for the best fashion schools? It's likely that the first ones you'll think of will be those with the most prestige or famous graduates. But keep in mind that sometimes, being the most famous or, for that matter, the most expensive doesn't automatically mean it has the best fashion program.

While it's true that many of the prestigious schools do try to hire the best qualified instructors, it's equally true that you can usually find the same quality of teaching at other, lesser known institutions.

The best fashion schools for you will be the ones that actually offer the courses and degrees you need. For example, if you want to know the industry thoroughly but are in fact more interested in fashion merchandising than designing, then you will need a school that offers a merchandising program.

If you want to qualify for most jobs in the industry, you'll likely do better with a BA Degree rather than an Associates Degree, so the types of degree programs offered at these schools will become important as well.

What is paramount is that you find the school that will help lead you to the fashion career you actually want. Can they teach you what you need to know, and will you be able to learn it? Can you afford to attend?

For the majority of people, those criteria are the most important in discovering the best fashion schools for them. It may be a nice feather in your cap to say that you attended some famous design school in Paris, but in the final analysis, the really important thing is whether you know your stuff, and graduate as a good designer.

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Knowing About Merchandising And Fashion Design

Although the fashion design aspect of the industry is what the public tends to see in the media, in a way it's just the tip of the iceberg. While the designers are the ones that everyone else revolves around, their designs would probably go nowhere without a large, skilled support team.

This consists of people who understand the business side of the industry and, most especially, fashion merchandising. That's why someone who doesn't want to design the clothes but is fascinated with the industry can still find a career in this market.

The merchandising side of fashion design is really as important as the design aspect itself, and in the bigger design houses, it can be almost as exciting. Those who deal with merchandising sometimes need more knowledge about the industry than the designers themselves.

They need to have learned a great deal about fashion art in history, so they can spot trends and understand how they develop. These people do marketing, engage in negotiations, and sometimes represent a design studio to the public.

If you chart a fashion merchandising course rather than one that takes you into actual design, you may end up having more involvement with people than if you had become a designer and spent most of your time doing the fashion design in a studio.

Between studying the developing fashion trends in society, planning the publicity, and coordinating the design and marketing efforts of a studio, you could find yourself with an exciting career in the fashion industry.

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Giving Your Loved Ones Hanukkah Cards

During the Hanukkah season, people give their loved ones Hanukkah cards. The Hanukkah season comes in late November and December, which is on the 25th day of Kislev, according to the Hebraic calendar.

The Hanukkah holiday commemorates the victory won during the Maccabees revolt that made it possible for the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple. Hanukkah goes on for 8 days and people give each other a Hanukkah card on each of those eight days.

The cards come in varied themes. They may be for friendship, love, anniversary, birthday or any other topic that one finds suitable in his or her relationship with a loved one.

The miracle of Hanukkah story, which tells of finding the oil flask belonging to the high priest, is commemorated in the Hanukkah cards given and by eating food that is baked or fried in oil.

Families enjoy special meals and there are special songs that are sung during this time. A common song in Israel during Hanukkah is "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel," while countries that speak English love "Chanukah, Oh Chanukah."

According to Hanukkah tradition, cards are given out to family and friends during the Hanukkah festival. The cards come in different designs and themes. When choosing which Hanukkah cards to give to your friends or family members, you have a variety of choices to pick from.

You can send the card that best expresses your relationship with the person. The Hanukkah festival is about caring for others so choose a card that will strengthen bonds with the people in your life.

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Expressing Thoughts With Christmas Greeting Cards

This year, greeting cards may be the last thing on your mind as you stress over budgeting Christmas gifts for the kids. However, for as little as $13, you can show 25 of your closest family members and friends that you care about them this Christmas.

A mailed sentiment can really brighten someone's day, much more than an e-card or a phone call. The thoughtfulness and kindness of a holiday card is a timeless expression of appreciation that radiates throughout the whole holiday season.

Another type of Christmas greeting cards is the ever-so-economical free greeting; the e-card. There is lots in the way of quality with free e-cards these days, and most sites require a small subscription fee.

You can try www.egreetings.com, www.123greetings.com, www.incredimail.com, www.hallmark.com, www.americangreetings.com or www.bluemountain.com for some great selections of Christmas season cards. If you want to send a really funny Merry Xmas card, then try www.jibjab.com or www.officemax.com, where you can put the faces of your family and friends on dancing elves!

Business greeting cards are incredibly popular to thank high-rolling clients, build morale among employees or build stronger relationships. Some of the classiest holiday season cards can be found this Christmas season at www.thegallerycollection.com.

The more you order at these sites, the more you save. For instance, you can buy 25 premium cards for $49.74 or 500 cards for $474. Choose from snowflakes, winter scenes and other tasteful art gifts.

Box sets with 35 cards and 16 designs are available for $51.50. At www.artlinegreetings.com, and you can also find artistic greetings. At Artline, you can customize your own text and signature, ordering 25 cards for $58.75 or 100 for $162. You can choose cityscape, traditional holiday cards, recycled or charity cards as well.

Please Note: Prices may change without notice

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Broader Fashion Course In Design School

Those heading into a career in fashion may not decide to attend design schools devoted only to fashion. This doesn't need to be seen as a career-killing move because fashion is just one branch of the broader world of design itself.

Human creativity is exercised not solely in the realm of clothing and accessories, but extends into every other part of life as well. So a design school offering fashion alongside other types of programs might easily suit the person planning a fashion career.

One American institution that typifies this type of design school is the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Created in 1944, its very name suggests a recognition that fashion design can be accompanied by other types of programs.

There are art schools with fashion design as part of their curriculum as well. One might consider the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in England in that way, especially since it was created in 1989 by a merger of the Central School of Art & Design with the Saint Martins School of Art, and is part of the University of the Arts in London.

Some may feel that it's still better to study at a fashion designing school that devotes itself just to that aspect of the design world. This is a valid option, of course. But consider another rationale for combining many different programs into a single design school.

While the students taking different degrees will remain largely isolated from each other, there will still be courses they take in common, and they will still encounter each other in different ways. Each discipline is going to influence others, and as a result, every one of those disciplines will benefit from fresh ideas and outlooks.

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New Fashion Designers Making A Splash

Most people who watch the American fashion industry recognize certain familiar names of fashion designers. People know the work of Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne, Donna Karan and so on.

All have or have had fashion design careers that really took them places and essentially steered the course of American fashion for much of the past century. But one fact is pretty clear, as you look back.

The vast majority of these people are either a sort of generic white, or sometimes Jewish, but almost never is there any publicity about designers from clear visible minorities.

With fashion designers like Kevan Hall and Patrick Robinson, that pendulum is also finally swinging for black Americans in the industry. Hall has had his own fashion collection since 2002 and Robinson since about 1997, while Robinson is also the head designer for Gap, Inc.

Each has had a very successful career in fashion, and these and others in their ethnic community have been getting well earned recognition in the past few years.

It's about time that the accomplishments of fashion designers from visible minorities are recognized. Partly because they are minorities, they have had to fight some degree of racism and even family expectations to get where they are.

But even more than that, they should be recognized for their own fashion design careers, and not just because they come from a minority group. All great designers should be acknowledged for their accomplishments, no matter who they are.

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Improve Your Knowledge With A Fashion Design Course

A fashion design course teaches all the things you'd expect it would, as it covers everything from gowns and accessories to jeans, shirts and sneakers. It deals with clothing worn by the rich and famous and the not so rich as well.

But that's not all that people study when they're working on a fashion design degree. In fact, those things are actually the end result of a great deal of background study in other things, some of which are obviously related to clothes, and others which aren't so obvious.

Nothing in human society ever happens in a vacuum, and the same is true even of fashion. This means that anyone trying for a career in fashion design needs to understand the history and sociology of fashion trends.

They need to know the history of textiles and materials, and even the politics of fashion. A fashion design course provides this knowledge and then draws it into the present, teaching how it relates to marketing and the business side of the industry.

This is why it's important for a student earning a fashion degree to have as broad a program as possible.

Not only is it important to understand the past and how it affects current fashion trends, but the person taking the fashion design course also needs to be adept at using the tools necessary; not just to design fashions but to market them as well.

A well rounded program is absolutely crucial to a successful career.

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How To Photograph The Rose Garden

When you're trying to improve your photography, you have a lot of scope to learn in the rose garden. Whether you're doing larger shots in trying to capture the full rose garden design or if you're trying to learn to narrow the focus and take really clear and clean close up photographs, a place like this can provide opportunities for you.

As you learn to work with your camera settings, you will have beautiful subjects that won't be getting bored and walking away. You just need to remember a few tips for getting started.

The time of day and the type of light you have for your rose photography is another thing to consider. A slightly hazy day can actually produce some of the best photos in the rose garden, because it will cast subtle shadows.

On the other hand, taking photos first thing in the morning, when the sun has just risen, can result in shadows that are overly sharp and emphasized. So on a brighter, less hazy day, mid-morning tends to be the optimum time for good photographs.

Rather than just taking photo after photo, with little variation, you can create extra interest if you can take a rose photo now and then that has an added element. For example, you might capture a spider web glittering in the sunlight between two stems, or find a bumble bee at work among the petals.

Remember also that the rose garden is full of small movements and your own hands may not be steady enough to do perfect close up work. So you will find a tripod very helpful as well.

Follow every tip and give yourself all the extra advantages you can, and you will find yourself producing photographs of roses that make you look like a professional.

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Gaining New Skills With Design Schools

Does the idea of design schools include only the post-secondary institutions that concentrate solely on fashion or other types of design? Or can the concept be expanded to encompass other types of schools as well?

One high school in New York certainly assumes that fashion design programs don't need to be strictly limited to the higher echelons of education. It aims to educate its students in all aspects of the fashion world, while not shirking any of is other academic responsibilities.

This is not to say that the High School of Fashion Industries neglects the academic side of its students' education. Its fashion design programs are not a substitute for that important aspect of public schooling.

If you look at their website, they concentrate just as strongly on science and math, social studies, English and so on. This is not a school that tries to bypass what every student needs in order to function well in society. It just helps with some extra education for those students who might be eyeing design schools after high school.

If a student is keen for a career in fashion design, then this high school might be an ideal choice for them. Not only does graduation from this school give students a better chance of being accepted at good design schools, but it does so without sacrificing academics.

After all, the students will need a grounding in that sort of learning as well, to be good functioning citizens in society. This high school tries to help them achieve both their scholastic goals and their fashion goals.

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Reducing Stress By Learning To Draw

Some people believe that learning to draw can be an effective way to reduce stress. Unfortunately, many people turn to pills and prescriptions for medicine in order to gain control over the stress in their lives, and as a result they are often becoming unhealthier than they were with just being overly tense.

By choosing to learn to draw and paint, people are taking control of their problems rather than simply trading one set of problems for another.

Even if you don't consider learning to draw to be a full hobby, just drawing a little bit when you are feeling a bit overwhelmed can offer up positive benefits. Mainly you are distracting yourself from the problems you are facing.

Instead of running over all the issues you are facing, making them bigger and bigger in your mind, you will concentrate on the picture you are making, and this will help your brain relax from all the worrying and thinking it was doing.

There are many reasons to decide to learn to draw and paint, but one of the best gifts you can give yourself is managing your stress just by learning to draw.

As you can see, this simple activity can help you find balance in your life, give you breaks from busy periods, and teach you how to enter a meditative state that is far healthier than any stress reliving medicine you may have seen advertised on TV.

Take a look online and see what kinds of options you have to learn how to draw and to control the stress you may have in your life.

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Drawing Cartoons Using Simple Drawing Techniques

Cartoons have a long history, and people have been drawing cartoons for fun for just about as long. Most people who begin learning how to draw often want to learn to draw cartoons.

There are different reasons why, such as they are common images that everyone knows, they are pretty simple for the most part, and they remind us of some of the best parts about being a kid. Anyone who likes to doodle will often find themselves creating some kind of cartoon.

Drawing cartoons is also popular because they tend to be fairly easy to draw, and so for a beginner it is much more satisfying. If you are struggling to create certain images, it can be reassuring to be able to draw a complete image that looks very close to the real thing.

Cartoons tend to be based on rounded shapes joined together, and so they can usually be drawn with a minimal amount of effort, even for a beginner.


Drawing cartoons is a popular way for people to learn how to draw. They are composed of simple drawing techniques and will make those who look at your drawings be more interested in doing so.

As much as we may respect someone who can draw a very realistic looking picture, someone who can draw cartoons is going to be the one who is more popular. If you're not interested in popularity then this won't matter, but if drawing is a simple hobby for you, learning how to draw cartoon characters could be a lot of fun.

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Learning How To Draw With Interesting Fun Games

Learning how to draw doesn't have to be all about serious study. Instead, you can use games as a form of drawing practice.

Games can be especially useful for children who might not have the patience to sit and draw a complete image or a series of them without any incentive, other than the joy of completing a picture.

There is a huge range of games out there that you can try, some of them about how to draw online, some of them about how to draw anywhere.

For children and adults who have more ability, learning how to draw can come through speed games. Drawing techniques can become second nature through speed activities, and a lot of the over thinking can be eliminated.

This kind of game can of course lead to sloppiness, but it might also keep children with talent interested and focused on a particular skill of drawing. People can compete against each other, or just against the clock.

Learning how to draw through games can be a fun way to put some variety in drawing lessons, such as for a teacher who is teaching drawing. Drawing is often seen as being quite serious; as a true art.

But for younger learners who are not that serious about the action of drawing, making learning fun through a series of different games can result in a greater interest in the activity.

This could eventually lead to younger learners becoming more serious about their skill level.

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Taking Online Free Lessons To Learn How To Draw

Though the demand for individuals versed in technology has increased over the years, there are still a high number of people who want to learn how to draw, more than they want to learn how to master certain computer programs.

The great thing about drawing is that contrary to popular belief, you don't need to be an instant master to draw well. Anyone can develop their hand/eye coordination skills to a certain level just by working hard and practicing as much as possible.

One way to learn how to draw is by devoting the time needed for drawing practice. No matter how difficult or frustrating it may seem, like anything else, doing it over and over again will show marked improvement.

You can use free drawing lessons available on the internet, or take a class at a nearby school, or just teach yourself through different practice exercises that you create. Lots of practice, every day, will produce some results.

The way you learn how to draw can make the difference between seeing noticeable progress in a short period of time versus a longer period.

You definitely need to set aside time each day to practice different drawing techniques, but you should also explore forcing your brain to operate according to how you want it to, not how it wants to.

By implementing a specific strategy and timetable regarding your drawing practice, you will see a strong improvement in your drawing ability over a short amount of time.

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Using Different Shapes To Draw Animals

One way to draw animals is through the assemblage of different shapes. There are a number of different animal types out there, and so to learn how to draw a high amount of common animals will usually require the mastering of several different drawing techniques.

If you use shapes only, then you can learn how different animals are put together and gain a strong understanding of how many animals are built.

The next step would be to merge the shapes together to draw animals that have more realism to their look.

Just like an object that you draw with a pencil and then erase to remove overlapping lines, you can start with shapes joined together, and then erase the connecting lines so that each body part flows more smoothly into the other.

With drawing practice you can eliminate the boxed look and hard angles to create animals that are a good step closer to looking real.

There are many different ways to learn to draw and paint, but if you learn how to draw animals you will have a chance to improve your abilities in an interesting and fun way.
By working with the common shapes that everyone knows, you can manipulate them to create animals that look similar to real ones in form.

After that, you should have a good understanding of structure and can move on to more advanced ways of drawing a real animal.

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