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In the fashion industry, working with a factory is a day-to-day process for entrepreneurs. That’s why fashion education covers communication.

“I do daily chores as a designer,” explains fashion expert Angela Gao. “To ensure that your samples and products are being produced on time, you need to be in touch with your factories on a daily basis.”

Bigger design houses, Angela explains, usually have a design development department that can handle these tasks. Angela is an entrepreneur, however, and she does this work on her own. Many fashion designers do the same.

For Angela, whose factory is in China, this means figuring out the time difference and choosing the best times to call her factory agent. She makes sure to call during times when both she and her factory agent are working.

When Angela calls her factory agent, she follows up on specific items and designs. She may ask if the factory received her latest design specs, for example.

The agent answers her questions and tells her about any issues with fabric, potential delays, and more. The agent will also tell her when things run smoothly. During this conversation, Angela also asks for updates on production dates and shipping.

In addition to receiving updates from the agent, Angela may also provide some updates of her own, if necessary. For example, if she changes the style of a garment, she’ll let the agent know when the factory can expect her updates.

Other conversations can include email. With email, Angela can send design specs and tech packs. Email also lets Angela communicate without worrying about the time difference.

In any case, direct communication is key for fashion entrepreneurs like Angela. Both phone and email conversations help Angela maintain her success. This way, Angela can avoid surprises and stay up to date on her design production.

The start of the footwear production process comes after you either receive an order from your vendors, your retailers, or your customers. Once you receive an order or a projection, that’s when the production officially starts. Once you have the order in hand, you have the quantities or number of units you’re looking to go to production with and you can start to negotiate pricing.

When you have footwear pricing solidified with the factories and the customers, it then heads into the next stages of production confirmation. At that point in the footwear business, you have a sales sample you’ve been showing and selling to the customer. Next, you need to provide either a confirmation spec or a technical spec of exactly what will go forward to production.

This means, if anything changed from the sales sample, you would have to communicate that to the factory or the supplier prior to them starting production. If you need an outsole to be softer, if you need a lining to be a different color or a lacing to be a different quality, you would have to call that out. The confirmation sample should reflect every change that you have made along the way.

A call out is really something that either comes from the customer or comes from yourself as the designer, the sales team, or someone who has intimate knowledge of the product and footwear education. The call out is something about the sample that you’d like addressed and resolved before production begins. Whether that’s a color, simply a comment that the execution could be improved, if the outsole could be more flexible, or if the padding in the sock compresses too much. Anything that is called out to the factory or the supplier of the footwear should be discussed and confirmed prior to actual shoe production.

In the past, footwear production management meant hand-drawn shoe sketches sent back and forth to Asia. It was a time-consuming process requiring a 16 hour flight from New York to Hong Kong and then into Southern China. Luckily, the footwear business has been working behind the scenes, communication channels are easier, and footwear education has advanced greatly which means increased efficiency and sustainability.

Increased efficiency and innovation means 3D printing, digital design, and sample development often shortens production and lead times. You can now ship tech packs back and forth digitally from designer to developer in Asia to perfect your designs.

These footwear production advances over the last five years also means reduced costs on producing a ton of samples and then figuring out what samples people want to move forward with. From there, placing an order, getting that product in, and trying to ship it across the ocean are the next steps.

Finding distributors follows if you don’t own your own retail space or if you’re not doing direct consumer. Depending on the type of shoe, this could take a year to 18 months to complete all of these steps: your footwear idea to concept, design development, all the way to production, and finally to the retail outlets.

The process of taking a shoe from an idea to the retail floor is more efficient today, but still a relatively lengthy process. There will be constant developments happening and regular communication back and forth with your factory partners in a variety of different stages of the shoemaking process. It all depends on the type of shoes you want to design, the type of customer you want to sell to, and ultimately where in the world you can find availability and capacity on both materials and production.

The important segment when you’re managing production with your design team is the tech pack. In the footwear business, the tech packs are beautiful technical drawings. First started by hand and then finished in Adobe Illustrator, the tech pack is what builds your footwear collection. It’s how you break down your collection and all of the sizes you’ll be offering. In shoes, for example, it’s your mid-soles, outsoles, cushions, labels, and your aglets on the laces.

It’s all in the small details of producing your product, from what material you use for the linings to where your logo goes. Your tech packs, sometimes loosely referred to as spec sheets, is really an international language suited for the factory. The production people will refer to tech pack and are able to understand how the product needs to be made.

The tech packs specify how styles are made and what materials are used – they are like a contract with your factory. You are going to inform the factory of every single detail in that shoe, from material, to mid-sole, out-sole, sock lining, lining, type of stitch, type of thread, logo placement, straps, laces, and fabrication. Is it welded? Is it stitched? Is it molded? All of your footwear education information is in the tech pack and what you don’t put in there will not be added by the factory.

Any information you don’t put in your tech pack, somebody else is going to come up with what’s missing. In online footwear education, you’re taught to make sure that everything’s in there. If you don’t include the thread color, you will wind up with whatever thread color’s on the machine. So you do need to be very specific and thorough with your tech pack to ensure the best results.

Technological advancements are revolutionizing the way we travel. We use technology from the moment we leave until we return. Many of us will think of Facebook or Instagram when considering what motivates us to travel. We’ll recall these lovely destination accounts. They inspire us with photographs of places we’d like to visit.

To begin, we must then arrange our vacation after we have the inspiration to travel. We may use airline or travel agent apps. We may also use apps like Tripit, which compile all of that information into one easy-to-understand bundle, so we know where we’re going and where we need to be.

Next, when we’re looking for the best deal, we might use price comparison websites such as Trivago.

Price comparison websites are interesting models because they don’t book the room for you. They only provide you with a pricing comparison. Then, as you click, you will make a reservation with the company you just selected. Trivago makes money in a variety of ways. Every time you click, the individual who actually finishes your booking receives a commission.

Finally, when we return, we may write a review. Travel reviews are critical since they have the potential to impact others’ future travel decisions. TripAdvisor is by far the most popular travel review app, and it has lately expanded its services to include travel bookings.

The entire wheel of travel, as we call it, is surrounded by technology. It’s with us virtually the whole time. Because technology has changed the travel industry, there are now professional opportunities for people we didn’t have before.

Consider how Instagram influences our travel decisions. Influencers are paid to post specific photographs or posts and videos about properties or places. Google Guides might also be an excellent way for people to review and influence the visits of others.

Another area where technology has helped people develop their own company ideas and become a part of a community is reviews. When you consider Google Local Guides, it’s an excellent illustration of how individuals leave ratings that affect where other people go. Someone may hire you as a result of the reviews you’ve published. This may lead to professional opportunities in the future.

Brand storytelling is more than simply sharing the story of your brand’s history from the beginning to the present. Whether you are trying to renew interest in your company or getting a new company off the ground, brand storytelling is as essential to any business as making sure you send the correct orders to the people who made them.

So, if telling customers or potential ones a sequential history of your brand isn’t brand storytelling, then what makes brand storytelling different? And why is getting telling the brand story in a certain way crucial to the success of any business?

What makes brand storytelling unique from laying out a timeline is that it elicits an emotional reaction and creates a connection with people when done correctly. These people will hopefully turn into new customers.

Most importantly, your storytelling must be authentic if it is going to resonate with others. When you think of David Yurman, of course, you will think of jewelry, but you may also feel as though the artist created the particular piece just for you. David Yurman’s brand storytelling reminds you that artists first and foremost are what leads the brand—designed to be both stunning and unique each piece is a reminder that artists show and care about the brand. That type of almost purely visual storytelling, along with written storytelling, allows the brand’s artistic roots to shine through, resonating with artists and art lovers alike.

As humans, we all need to feel understood, to know that someone out there empathizes with us as we empathize with others. While not every person will identify with every brand, the brands you will remember are the ones that tap into that innate human need to connect. If your brand storytelling is relatable and one that people can identify with, even feel a part of, you are doing something right.

Don’t fret if telling a story with visuals or your words isn’t your first choice of jobs to do within your company. You have options to help ensure adherence to the last aspect of your brand storytelling – consistency. It’s imperative to keep the feeling your brand’s storytelling evokes in people the same across all media platforms, from digital, print, and television to influencers you may choose to enlist to promote your products.

A company can choose who tells its brand’s particular story. If it is your company, you will feel that connection to your story. Whether you can convert that into marketable media or not, public relations (PR) professionals and PR firms are there to help. They will extend the reach of your story, acting as liaisons with media professionals who will put your brand and storytelling in front of a wider audience.

Brand storytelling is multifaceted; enlist help when you need it. As long as it remains authentic and consistent, people will identify with it and with your company.

Choosing the name for your fashion brand can be a surprisingly complicated process. While it may initially be simple to come up with a name you love, you also need to perform your due diligence to ensure it’s not already taken or trademarked. When Lafayette 148 New York first started out in 1996, they underestimated the process of securing their name and brand.

Their name, chosen because it was their street address in iconic New York City, was challenged three years into business by a French department store with Lafayette also in their name. Lafayette 148 already had a few stores, branding, and stationery in their name at this point. Luckily, their trademark infringement claim was denied since the department store did not have a brand presence in the U.S.A.

After winning the U.S. trademark case, Lafayette 148 New York expanded their fashion business into Canada and also won their trademark. The process of securing and protecting their brand name was one country at a time and involved costly legal fees. In their case, they must always include the numbers and New York in their name.

When deciding on the name for your fashion brand, it’s smart to look up any potential names on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website and see if they are already a registered trademark. If not, you can apply for a trademark in your specific category as well as secure your website domain and social media handles.

Many people choose to use their own name or initials for their fashion brand. Using online fashion education and noting what makes your brand unique or what words describe your aesthetic can help you come up with a classic name that accurately conveys your brand.

In the head space of the consumers and the industry, brands have a front door. The front door that makes the first impression on the world. This is the name. Coming up with a name that’s going to resonate is super important for your brand. It should be something that people can remember. It should be a name that’s going to stick around.

It’s a mystery why some brand names resonate and why some don’t. We can ask, how did this brand become a huge brand and this brand not? Ultimately, determining why some names stick is hard to kind of quantify. How these brands endure has to do with what’s behind the name. Names are certainly important.

When naming a brand, it’s important to consider a number of factors. If you are starting a brand that you want to have a global scale, you have to consider how the name will translate. For example, you have to ask yourself how this name will translate into Mandarin for a business in China, which is a really important market. Ask yourself: How is this name going to project around the globe?

Thinking about a brand and the name for it can be tricky. “There are certain things that I love for my personal aesthetic. For example, I love genericness, but at the same time it has to be searchable, it has to be found in the world. Like for example, there’s a music group called Men or there’s another music group called The Internet. And I think that’s so fun, but at the same time, it is impossible to find, and it’s not really but it is. Then also, I think personal connections again, make the most sense,” says [INSERT SPEAKER HERE].

 “Design is at the heart of everything that drives the fashion industry. Without design, we don’t have a profession. We don’t have an industry. It’s fundamental. It’s core to everything that happens,” Explains Tim Marshall.

But there are many people that work in the fashion industry who are not designers. They participate in all sorts of different ways through marketing, styling, editing, and so on. You may want to be participating in the fashion industry from one of these other positions. Wherever you are, you absolutely have to understand design because it’s absolutely fundamental to everything that happens in the industry. If you don’t have that understanding of design, you’re going to struggle to be convincing to the community you’re a part of.

Design itself is a process by which the things, the artifacts, the clothing, the objects in the world are created. Where they come from, how they’re generated, what their point of view is, what their attitude is. It’s encapsulated in the actual design process. The design process is what brings together all of the elements of what is it made from? What does it look like? How is it manufactured? What price point is that aiming at? What customer or client will it be appealing to?

“To be a designer takes a unique blend. It’s something that we like to profess at Parsons is this unique blend of having a great deal of confidence about your identity, your visual style, your visual language, and your design process alongside a certain humility because a humility is not just about you as a designer,” Marshall says. “You have to understand your customers or your potential customers. You have to understand their lifestyles, their values, their attitudes, and what they’re aspiring to.”

That also takes a certain kind of displacement of yourself. You have to understand more about society. The way people are living, the way their lives are evolving, and their very complex ways to make sure your designs actually connect and resonate with that audience and customer base. Without that, it’s simply your own self-expression, which doesn’t necessarily find an audience. That may be interesting for you, but it will not be successful.

If you’re in any other part of the industry, you’re not going to be a designer, but you have to understand that point about design. Whatever role you’re playing in the industry, you have to also make sure that design essence, that fundamental point of view that the designer is expressing, is then connecting through to the customers and clients in every other dimension. Through its communication, through its marketing, through its styling, and so on and so forth, and the economics and marketing aspects of it as well. It all has to come together and integrate into a whole package of different elements that then makes it a highly successful brand or highly successful design.

Understanding fashion media and how media represents the work that you do as a fashion designer, or how you participate in the styling and marketing of fashion, is really at the heart of the whole industry. People only know about your work through media. They don’t understand your brand from direct experience. They only understand it through a magazine, blog, video, or on a runway. Generally speaking, the vast majority of people will be experiencing your brand through some form of media.

Understanding how your fashion business or design work is being represented in this two-dimensional form – whether it’s on a screen or page, can help you determine what works for your particular brand. The attitude and demographic of the publication should be the right fit visually and language-wise for your brand for it to make the most impact. Getting the right visual language for your design, your brand, and putting it into the right media context that represents your audience, customer base, and approach is crucial to your success.

This can mean many different things depending on where you’re starting as a designer and the design attitude is of the brand. It may be a lot of images are basically very indexable. Many fashion education websites that are merchandising clothes directly will be very descriptive. In other contexts, in more cutting-edge magazines, they might be representing the fashion where the clothes aren’t the main focus. The point is the whole attitude, mindset, demographic, or community with similar values to your brand. The clothing fits into that, but it’s not necessarily the only driving force.

Online fashion education can help you pinpoint which media outlets are a fit for your overall brand audience and aesthetic. Understanding the media context and how it works with your brand is vital to sharing your work with your desired audience.