Freelance Fashion Designer's Handbook

About the author xi Acknowledgements xiii About the website xiv Glossary xv Part 1 Setting up as a Freelance Designer Chapter 1 The Reality of Life as a Designer 3 1 Will freelance work be suitable for you? 4 2 Experience, qualifications, skills and abilities 9 3 Working alone, self-discipline and motivation 13 Chapter 2 Getting Started 17 1 Selecting a location 18 2 Working from home or in a studio 20 3 Buying equipment, IT and furniture 23 4 Creating your company profile and CV 25 5 Planning your portfolio 27 6 Choosing a working wardrobe 28 7 Identifying pitfalls and customer issues 30 Chapter 3 Getting Work and Getting Paid 33 1 Where to look for work and how to get it 34 2 Professional organisations 36 3 Sales techniques 38 4 Calculating your rates and expenses 39 5 Interview tips 43 Chapter 4 Estimates and Invoices 47 1 Calculating an estimate or quote 48 2 Invoicing clients 51 3 Travelling abroad with and for a client 53 4 What your client expects from you 54 Chapter 5 Financial Matters 57 1 Choosing an accountant 58 2 Finance and bank accounts 59 3 Income tax 60 4 Bookkeeping and accountancy 61 5 National Insurance contributions 69 6 VAT - do I need to register? 69 7 Pension provision 70 8 Employing staff 70 9 Health and safety 71 10 Insurance 71 Chapter 6 Legal Aspects 73 1 The importance of contracts 74 2 Writing a contract 74 3 Intellectual property rights, copyright and design rights 76 4 Keeping yourself safe from prosecution for breach of copyright 77 5 Confidentiality 78 6 Keeping up to date with UK and EU law 79 7 How to find an expert on law in the fashion industry 79 Chapter 7 Getting Paid 81 1 Chasing outstanding invoices 82 2 What to do when a client fails to pay 82 3 The small claims court 83 Chapter 8 Planning Your Time 87 1 The working day 88 2 Your freelance diary 89 3 Holidays and your year plan 89 4 Interruptions and distractions 90 5 How to stand your ground when unreasonable demands are made 92 6 Computer timesheets 94 7 Backing up 100 Chapter 9 Training and Education 101 1 Extra training 102 2 Seminars and training courses for the self-employed 102 3 Part-time teaching 103 Part 2 Preparing Work for Production Chapter 10 Design and Development 107 1 Research and trends 108 2 Working to a design brief 109 3 Concept and design, style or shape 110 4 The PANTONE(r) colour system 111 5 Colour palettes 113 6 Branding 114 7 Tickets and labels 114 8 Preparing roughs 115 9 Presenting your ideas to your client 115 Chapter 11 Presentation and Finished Designs 117 1 Using drawing software for presentation CADs 118 2 Phases of a project 118 3 Phase 1: Preparing presentation roughs 119 4 Preparing a CAD template for a client 122 5 Preparing a colour palette 123 6 Phase 2: Preparing presentation-standard A4 CADs 125 7 Phase 3: Preparing detailed garment specifications 133 8 Compiling the full technical package 141 9 References 142 Chapter 12 Sizing 143 1 Sizing issues 144 2 Access to current information 145 3 Why sizing is different for different companies 146 4 Charts for specific sizing issues 147 5 Creating Excel size charts 148 6 Flat measurements 150 7 Grade increments 151 8 Pre-production sampling and size sets 152 9 Tolerance 153 10 Creating a 'to fit' body measurement size chart 153 11 Creating a garment size chart 155 12 References 164 Organisations and Useful Information 165 Index 169