Trusting the Technology: Your Questions Answered
As the fashion and apparel industry navigates the digital era, the conversation around digital color technology has never been more relevant.
Digital color technology is not new. It has been around and utilized by brands and suppliers for decades. Some teams, however, still have difficulty letting go of a physical/visual process.
With AI and digital workflows reshaping every stage of design and production, we’re seeing more questions come up about how to trust the technology enough to make the switch.
Let’s answer a few of the most common questions we’ve gotten lately:
1. Can digital color workflows fully replace physical approvals, or do we need a hybrid approach?
Yes, physical approvals can be replaced by digital color workflows.
This is true for solids, prints & patterns, whites, and textures. natific software and services were developed for this purpose, and are in use at some of the largest global apparel and footwear brands.
Some supply chains, however, choose to maintain a hybrid model to start while they adjust to a different workflow. That’s a good way to start minimizing physical touchpoints while gathering data.
For a digital process to be successful, the people involved at both the brand and the supplier must embrace a process change and have an understanding of how to use the tools available to them.
2. When in the digital process should we prioritize color accuracy, and should we expect designers to get involved?
Color accuracy can and should be prioritized as early as possible, and this starts with design. If designers are able to select a feasible color palette, headaches down the line can be eliminated.
Imagine knowing that your colors can be matched on the selected materials even before sending them out to your supply chain.
No more endless sampling rounds or surprises in production.
The natific Virtual Color Library (nVCL) has over 17,000 shades for designers to choose from – all pre-vetted for feasibility. Or, for your existing color library, Voodoo Feasibility software can provide a report that shows how your colors will perform based on your specific parameters.
3. Why should we trust digital color technology to evaluate color over a veteran colorist’s eyes?
No matter how many years of experience a colorist has, all people see color differently based on a number of biological and environmental factors. The benefit of measuring and evaluating color digitally is that it allows us to work with spectral curves – to turn color into numbers.
This means more accurate color and a faster, more efficient process.
The role of a colorist is not eliminated when moving to digital evaluation. They simply gain the capacity to solve a different set of problems.
What other questions do you have?
What roadblocks do you face in your color process? Let us know what you’d like to hear about next.
Contact us at support@natific.com