LEARNING LAUNCH

CHALLENGE

It’s the beginning of the year and a lot of events will be holding in Nigeria requiring people to dress as  occasion demands. However, fashion lovers are at loss to what styles to make as they want to stand out  unique, different, classic but not trendy while others want something new and catchy so they can be the  center of attraction but they don’t know where to find such styles. The fashion designers are locked to  the catalogues and magazines for style suggestions and may end up creating existent trends or left to  themselves when clients say make something nice that I don’t have.

SELECTION

With the above challenge I chose the learning launch technique, being a creative fashion illustrator it  brings to bare the various areas to be considered from the idea to the specific persons requiring this  proffered solution to finding out if the idea meets the need and possibly if it is better than the current  alternatives. This tool was also chosen as it affords me the opportunity to empathize with the  clients/customers and no aspect of this tool process is a waste as long as you are learning something.

APPLICATION

I commence by creating an idea of an online gallery of unique fashion illustrations. Considering that the  fashion industry is dynamic and fashion lovers crave uniqueness in pieces and outfits, creating an online  gallery would enable fashion lovers, designers, seamstresses a haven to get pieces that are tailored for  them.

Fashion lovers cannot have anything short of the best as its believed that you only have once to make a  first impression a lasting impression. With this in mind I set up a hypothesis to test – that “all fashion  lovers and designers need an online fashion galley”.

I asked fashion lovers what their problems were and I gathered that 60% of people in our sample  population wanted unique styles that will wow their viewers while 28% of the population size wanted to  go with the trend, as long as a celebrity has worn something in that regard while 12% wanted to just look  good and comfortable. It was glaring to all that at one point or the other they want a pool of fashion  illustrations they can pull from especially now that many businesses are online and people are always on  the go.

I asked designers what their problem was and it was getting alternative sources for styles other than the  catalogues and magazines, that will wow their clients and suit their body shape. Some designers wanted  to create their own lines and would love to interface with a platform that will enable them source for  illustrators to work with.

The assumptions I had about the sample population loving fashion, wanting creative styles and designers  wanting to wow their clients were all confirmed but the emergence of other needs of the fashion lovers  and designers posed that more value proposition is required and expected from the solution we thought  to bring from the onset.

INSIGHT

Beyond the need for unique styles both for fashion enthusiast and designers, there exist other needs  which I did not envisage at the beginning. I discovered the need to generate more clientele for the  designers, the need to showcase their art, the search for illustrators to work with by designers, the need  to get more fashion illustrators to be on the platform I’m creating and the need to add incentives to  promote viewership and patronage while providing creative solutions. These new insights were as a result  of the test conducted from our sample population.

I have learnt that as the experience and research went on, the ideas kept changing or expanding. I had  the opportunity to work with a team of business strategist, software developer, designers and fashion  lovers as well as critics. As intriguing as it was, it was a learning curve for me.

My perspective to Design thinking with regards to this the challenge I have had to test has been broadened  and made me realize that I can unwittingly throw away all kinds of opportunities for innovation before I  even get started if I adopt too narrow or too conventional a definition of the problem.

APPROACH

Having been through this learning curve I might want to ensure continuous churning of creative  illustrations by getting other fashion illustrators to work with me. This they can do and earn from it too.  That way they can bring value to the table. This also ensures that unique styles illustrations are in constant  supply.

Other than just illustration and creating an online gallery for fashion lovers as well as designers, I would  love to ensure that a convenient payment method is infused into this work. This will reduce clients’  complaints as was gathered from the sampling to be one of the challenge we might face.

