It's here! the Travel Sketchpad.

Never allow another idea to escape you again with our new Travel Sketchpad. Pop this baby in your purse, car, or backpack and jot down ideas wherever the inspiration may hit you.

Head to our 'store' to get yours...

Follow your path...

Thanks FIDM's Fashion CLub, for including us in your June Gallery- 'Follow Your Path...'
We love that our new little sketchpads got to come along on this gorgeous outing!

Coming Soon...

Our sweet new baby!

Fits in your purse for on-the-go sketching

Cute ribbon tie

And three different page layouts!

The Fashion Club Rocks!

 

We really enjoyed being a part of the festivities at the 'Fashion Club'  Pre-party at F.I.D.M.  

Check out more party coverage on FashionClub.com. There are 3 pages, enjoy!  

Guest Post...

Today we are hosting Aneta Genova from the brilliant blog Bobbin Talk
Aneta has an amazing eye, and is a fashion powerhouse.

My all time most favorite store windows are the Bergdof Goodman windows.
Smart, whimsical ideas are always paired with stunning clothes and intricate workmanship.
I love seeing how the design ideas develop from an idea and a sketch to a completed garment and then land on the windows of a store window, each telling a different story.
I'd love to see how you developed your design ideas on a Hokey Croquis Sketchpad, and what is the story of your finished garments?

All photos by Aneta from Bobbin Talk.

SewStylish

We love that we're featured in the Spring 2010 issue of Threads' Sewstylish Magazine. The magazine is jam-packed with amazing how-to's, inspiration and tips, a must read!

Love this Tutorial for making a Marker Bouquet

You Will Need:

• 12 assorted ProMarkers
• Adhesive Tape
• Thick garden wire
• False leaf sprig
• x3 False flower sprigs 

Step 1 :
Select your 12 ProMarkers. In this example we have picked: Sunflower, Tulip Yellow, Buttercup, Leaf Green, Grass, Cornflower, Bluebell, Plum, Orchid, Dusky Rose, Pink Carnation and Fuchsia Pink.


Step 2 :
Visit your local garden center and choose a leaf sprig, two complementary flower sprigs and a white flower sprig for your bouquet.

Step 3 :
Cut lengths of thick garden wire slightly longer than your flower stems.

Step 4 :
Bend the top section of the wire at a 90 degree angle to the full length of the wire. Tape this to the marker cap. Then rotate the marker, guiding the wire around the cap. After several turns bend the wire so the Marker sits straight up. Repeat this for the rest of the Markers.

Step 5 :
Next, arrange your ProMarkers and flowers until you are happy with the bouquet. 

Step 6 :
When you are happy with your arrangement; hold the bunch at the base, take a wire (positioned on the outside of the bunch) and wrap around all the stems to hold your bouquet together. To neaten the bouquet, take a pair of wire cutters and trim the ends of the stems to the same length. 

To finish off the bouquet, take a piece of square wrapping paper, place the bouquet at an angle, roll the paper around the bouquet and fasten in place with a small piece of tape. Alternatively, if your garden center provided a celophane bouquet wrap with your false flowers, simply place your bouquet inside the wrap. 

 

N.E.E.T

 

http://www.neetmagazine.com/

Paper Fashion with Hokey Croquis present;

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

March's steamin' contest!

Have you heard about Boudoir photography? It's a crazy-hot new trend, growing all around the country.
An opportunity for woman to get fashionable, sexy images of themselves. While a boudoir photo shoot is usually set up as a gift for a significant other, it quickly becomes so much more than that, leaving women feeling great about themselves and their bodies.

We've been lucky enough to team up with KNP Boudoir, the Tri-state area's hottest boudoir photography studio to offer a prize that's just on fire. KNP will give A Classically Beautiful Boudoir Session, which is a 45 minute photo shoot. The prize will also include an 8x10 print. This all totals $185 Value!

All you've got to do is hop over to the KNP website for a peruse, and then become a fan of KNP on their facebook page.
{of course you should leave a comment so we know how you got there!}


KNP Boudoir is all about real women seeing how beautiful they really are. The photos are sexy and sophisticated with fashion flair and a bit of edge, a boudoir photo session is great for a significant other or a girls night out, so get facebooking!




This contest is now closed,
Congrats to Rachael Eagens, our lucky winner!

Great Tutorial on our pads from M+J's Blog.

Thanks M+J for this fun tutorial! Always really rewarding to see our pads in action...

Selvedge feature

Fab Feb Contest

The Croquis is a boutique fashion illustration company providing made-to-order sketches. You can commission a piece for a wedding, birthday, anniversary, or even as a gift for yourself. Explore their products, learn about their process, and view examples at www.thecroquis.com.

The Prize!

The Croquis will be doing a custom fashion illustration portrait of one lucky prizewinner, The winner will upload their photo to be illustrated, and one of The Croquis’ New York City based, traditionally trained fabulous fashion illustrators, will render the custom croquis illustration of you! (or whomever you choose)

The final piece will be in your choice of black or white studio frame, 16"x 20"

For a chance to win:

• Become a friend of The Croquis, on Facebook and tell them what makes you so chic.

The best response will receive the beautiful and glamorous gouache croquis package!! Valued at $250.

This contest is open worldwide, from Feb 1^st Through Feb 28^th at 3pm PST.

Contact Info:
www.thecroquis.com

Twitter
http://twitter.com/thecroquis

Adorable Flickr

Have a look at this sweet Flickr spot;  It's a group of people who illustrate what they wear every day!

What did you wear today?

Images below are by Mo(Art) Deanna Staffo.

Shop Till You Drop, Aussies have taste!

Lights... Camera... FASHION!

Lights…Camera…Action…

You’re going to love the contest we’ve put together for you this month. We’re giving away three fashion in the movies themed gift baskets. Each contains a wonderful Hand Sewn Felt Mouse ornament of a fashion Guru, corresponding DVD Movie, and tin of Gourmet Popcorn to accompany your private screening.

But first, to enter; you’ll need to be your own movie director. We want to see you in action, getting your ideas on to paper. Preferably our paper. Set up your camera, and capture yourself doing what you do best- recording those fab design ideas you have swirling around your head. Here’s an example of an inspiring demo movie Katie Rodgers did for us; You do nothave to use a Hokey Croquis Sketchpad for this, you can download our templates in our ‘Freebies’ section and use them or draw your designs freehand.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be in the running to WIN:

1. e-mail a link to your movie, your name, mailing address and daytime contact details to contest@hokeycroquis.com. Also include a line telling us where how you heard about Hokey Croquis, your age, hobbies , job and aspirations.

Conditions of Entry
The 3 Winners of the Fashion icon gift baskets will be judged according to their presentation and their design content. Judges are looking for creativity and talent as well as a great sense of Fashion!

• Entry is open worldwide.
• Enter as many times as you like providing each entry is unique and original.
• Entries may published online at the discretion of Hokey Croquis Inc.
• Entry closes 31st January 2010 at 10am.
  

The 3 competition winners will be announced on the Hokey Croquis Blog and notified via email.

One White Dress

The Hokey Croquis Contest on the One White Dress Bridal site is coming to a close.

It's been really fun seeing these brides put together their dream ensembles, and we loved hearing how they find Hokey Croquis sketchpads to be such an indispensable tool in planning their big day,

Here are some examples of the entries we've seen so far, you can view the rest here;

Enjoy...

“The number one accessory for all fashionistas, designers and stylist - Hokey Croquis, paper inspiration for the new creed!”

“Hokey Croquis to me is somewhere I can feel free to express my creative side although I am no Picasso.”

 

“Fashion designers of the world – the Hokey Croquis really is what it’s all about.”

 

 

“Fashionflat Sketchpads are an endless piece of stationery that allows ones dreams to become a reality”

 

Fashion Students Online reviews Hokey Croquis...

We sent A.J at Fashion Students Online a pad, to hear her feedback-here's what she came up with, thanks for the great review AJ! Hop over to Fashion Students Online to pick up great news, tips and tidbits.



I was contacted by Tamar Daniel of Hokey Croquis and asked if I would be interested in reviewing the Hokey Croquis, a pre-printed notebook to be used as a tool in fashion design. I had run across the website a couple times before and was intrigued so I took Tamar up on the offer.

Despite it being December and the fact that I live on a different continent to the company's offices, the book arrived quickly. I was impressed. The book arrived in a plain padded white envelope and inside the envelope the Hokey Croquis was actually wrapped in gold and brown striped wrapping paper. Very classy. Plus it served to keep the book from getting scratched upon my vigorous opening of the envelope.

The presentation of the book itself is quite nice. It's coil bound so that you can flip the pages completely over and has a stiff thick cardboard front and back. Both the front and the back are embossed with shiny gold designs and there is a ribbon closure so that you can be sure the book will not flip open by accident and ruin your pages or drop additional pages you've loosely inserted as part of your research.

When you open the book up you get an instruction sheet explaining how to use the book and giving you a brief lesson on what a fashion flat is and why fashion designers do them. In addition to the instruction sheet you will also see a little package of stickers (who doesn't like stickers?). Their purpose is that you can put your initials on the front of the book without using pen and there are also some non-letter design stickers for you to use also.

I try not to ever take myself too seriously, so this is what I came up with: 

Now for the book itself, what IS the Hokey Croquis, anyway? It's always best to go to the source for these types of questions and on the Hokey Croquis website I found the following quote:

"Musicians pull sheets of staff paper when they want to score a tune. Mathematicians use graph paper or number lines. Architects and interior designers have their own specialty gear as well. But fashion designers use a cumbersome mix of tracing paper, light boxes and other tools to create fashion sketches that can ultimately be transformed into chic clothing."

Boy is Tamar right on that one. Doing technical illustrations by hand is a real pain. It's not hard but it's a pain. The standard method is to take a template of a human body, at realistic proportions and to put a piece of paper on top of it. You then use a light box so that you can see the template through the top sheet, or you use paper which is thin as the top sheet so that you can see through it to the template below. Then you draw your technical flat on top. This will give you the right proportions and a clean finish. But it is a pain. Sometimes that paper slips and then you have to start again. Plus, wouldn't it be nicer to just have ONE tool, rather than multiple sheets of different thicknesses and possibly a giant box just to make a flat drawing?

So you might be wondering "Why can't I just photocopy the templates and draw on them?" And the answer to that is, sure, go ahead. No one is stopping you. But here's the thing, professional flats can not show the template, only the clothing. Not only does it look bad and can be distracting, but all those lines could make it difficult for the patternmaker (the person who desperately needs your flat to be accurate) to see the seam lines clearly. Plus thick lines can make it difficult for you too! Especially if you are not a pro at drawing flats yet, which I'm guessing if you're reading this that you aren't...sorry for the assumption but I'm right, aren't I?

The lines on the Hokey Croquis are thin and light. In fact I had to darken the photo that I took quite a bit so that you could see it clearly on the computer monitor...I really need to learn how to use my camera better but that is another topic entirely. The Hokey Croquis claims that the lines are light enough that they will not show up on a photocopy. This means you keep your Hokey Croquis with all of your original flats and produce copies, minus the lines, for your portfolio and to give to patternmakers and other professionals you are working with. If you really must give out the originals the pages are perforated so that you can rip them out with clean lines and avoid the messy look that spiral bound pages would normally give.

Probably the most important feature of the Hokey Croquis is that it uses thick paper suitable for pencil, pen, light paint or markers. This is the number one reason that I would choose to purchase it rather than use the other methods I described above. This allows you to do coloured flats and to use the notes area or the blank opposite pages for colour research. You would only be able to use this thick paper for a flat if you were using a light box, which can be extremely limiting (namely limiting your creative location to only where there is a box you can use).

I'm feeling less than artistic today so I decided to yank an image off of the Hokey Croquis website rather than draw my own. Plus, let's face it, their photography rivals mine in so many ways. In the image below you can see how the Hokey Croquis is meant to be utilized. The garment is drawn on top of the light figure, both the front and the back. Then in the notes section fabric samples are collected, design details are noted, buttons and other trims are glued in or drawn, the title of the garment is there (or style number if you prefer).

Now, you might be wondering "uh...but I want to design, I don't want to do flats" and what you probably are not aware of is that many designers design on the flat. They do it for many reasons:

1. It could be faster if their drawing skills are not very good
2. It saves time because the flats are already done. Every garment which will go into production needs a flat done no matter how beautiful the illustration is or how clear the sketch is.
3. Many (most?) designers in the real world are not very good at art and while they may be able to read their sketches, noone else can. Designing on the flat is the only way for many to be able to communicate their ideas.
4. The vast majority of designers are working at companies which have a set of styles and silhouettes repeated from season to season. All they do is find the new colours and change small style lines. It doesn't make sense to do pretty fashion sketches during the design process for these types of companies because most of the design being done is not in style but rather colour and fabric. It is a waste of the company's resources to pay it's designers to draw when they could be sourcing fabric and using flats to communicate the style-line changes they have decided to implement due to the current trends and customer research.
5. Usually the only person that really appreciates the sketch is the designer her/himself. Some designers find their ideas flow better to draw a person in their clothing, in poses and situations relevant to the target customer but if a designer is not working for themselves, they may do only their initial ideas via sketch and then move to flats for the finalized designs which will be shared with others on the team...unless of course they're the head of a big company where they have an assistant and another person dedicated to flats. In that case the designer usually does what they want.

Either way, chances are very high that at some point in your career, you will have to design on the flat so you might as well learn how to do it now and the Hokey Croquis is a great tool. I definitely recommend it. And I recommend it for those who design by sketching but need to produce flats to share the designs in a professional way with others, or to include flats in their portfolio. The Hokey Croquis sells for $15USD and it's my personal opinion that considering the high quality of the paper, and the fact that is a pre-printed speciality item it easily rivals blank sketchbooks which sell for the same price (or more!).

Now to be fair, it's important to always cover the negatives of every product. In my opinion the only negative would be that there are only 40 pages. This is limited by the thickness of the paper and the price point which the product needs to meet for consumers to be willing to spend money on it. I wouldn't recommend the Hokey Croquis for sketching if you are not really focussed about what you want to draw because you can go through 40 pages pretty quickly and you probably won't use more than half of the designs anyway. But then again that's not really the point of the Hokey Croquis, it is more for people who have whittled their designs down and know which flats they need to produce or for those designers who are experienced and focussed and won't waste. It would be my advice, if you are concerned about costs, to keep a Hokey Croquis for your good flats and to do all your rough work on loose paper...much the same way most of us do not use our $20 sketchbooks for doodles and playing around but rather for proper researching, collaging, and working through our relevant and applicable ideas.

Fabulous gifts, inspiring ideas...

Tis the season to be gifting, and though we're all inundated with well meaning gift guides, for what it's worth- here are some goodies which induced squeals of delight here at HC Headquarters...

• For the aspiring, professional or hobbyist Designer, how about this specialty set of markers from Letraset. They come in 24 delicious shades, and would work beautifully with your Fashionflat Sketchpad!

      

• An Infinity scarf is a snuggly, fresh take on a traditional present. We particularly like Ash and Dans' range of embellished styles.

                       

• Solid Perfume is just the thing for a Jet-setting mate, as you can take it in your hand luggage, and it's spill proof. The adorable packaging on these Pacifica scents is just an added bonus!

                                                                               

Well, we were pretty overwhelmed by all the great entries we received,
But the winners are {drumroll please}
Schaumin, Daniel, Tory, Veronica, and Mandy.

Congrats to all our winners and thank you to all our contestants!
Winners will be contacted separately.

Happy new year everyone, and watch this space  for our adorable January contest.

This Dress at left was our favorite entry by Schaumin. Isn't it cute? and we adore the shoes too. You can visit her blog here;




See you in 2010 designers!















Holiday season is upon us, and whether you’re attending fabulous parties in your most ravishing cocktail dress, or just wishing you were - we’re itching to see what wonderful party dress designs you can come up with! 

The only criteria we have; you have to design the dress yourself, and it has to be a dress (not a two piece, not a pant suit).
Go ahead and send your original designs to us at contest@hokeycroquis.com for a chance to win one of five Hokey Croquis Fashionflat sketchpads. Our innovative Fashionflat Sketchpads are just the thing for anyone who loves dreaming about their drop-dead-gorgeous party wear. We created the Fashionflat Sketchpad to help both pros and would-be-designers to present inspired designs effortlessly- so no matter what your skill level, we’d love to see what you’ve got!

To be in the running to WIN:
1. e-mail your image, (in a single attachment) your name, mailing address and daytime contact details to
contest@hokeycroquis.com
2. In the body of your e-mail include one sentence telling us what you like about the Fashionflat Sketchpad.
Conditions of Entry
The 5 Winners of the Fashionflat Sketchpad will be judged according to their stylish fashion sense and their accompanying description of Hokey Croquis. Judges are looking for creativity and flair as well as a great sense of Fashion!
* Entry is open worldwide.
* Enter as many times as you like providing each entry is unique and original.
* Entries will may published online at the discretion of Hokey Croquis Inc.
* Entries close 31st December 2009.
The 5 competition winners will be announced on Hokey Croquis and notified via email.