by Lauren Ritchie
Developing a unique design and a clear aesthetic impacts the branding of a company. For every scale of business, having a design that can be recognised as your own is an important challenge and not an easy one.
Developing
Unique Designs
Never before was so much visual information available for anybody who is looking for inspiration. Designers all over the world share their creations on a large scale via the internet and on social media. Also, a lot of information from the past has become available as many historical archives are made accessible online by museums and other collectors. Beside this, in the hat industry, a growing number of hat makers and milliners share the techniques behind their signature styles by teaching them in masterclasses all over the world and online.
Being surrounded by so much visual content and knowing how to make these beautiful signature styles yourself makes it a challenge to stay away from copying while at the same time using all this knowledge to create your own style.
Where do designers with clear signature styles get their inspiration from? Milliners and tutors Carole Maher, Eugenie van Oirschot and Ian Bennett give some insight into their design processes, while Cloud of Hats discuss their strategy to turn copying into original designs.
Carole Maher
Whereas a lot of milliners have an image or an idea in mind when they start designing, Carole Maher takes her inspiration from new materials. Especially materials that are not normally used in millinery trigger her imagination. Her interest started in 2007 while she was still learning the tricks of the trade at TAFE college in Sydney. “I was looking at the inside of a shoe and wondered what that material was that they used to create the innersole. I realised these materials could be useful in millinery. I contacted worldwide manufacturers of thermoplastics and asked them to send me samples so I could experiment with it. That was the start of an ongoing search for new materials.”
Whenever Carole sees a quality in a material, she gets excited and comes up with all kinds of designs and purposes for it. Next, she might find out that the material is a bit limited for what she has in mind, so she talks to the manufacturer to discuss if it is possible to adjust it. The material needs to be safe to use, and could need to be a bit softer, or stronger, etc. The manufacturer will either develop an adjusted version of the material in cooperation with Carole that’s more suitable for milliners, or she figures another way around the limitation.
Ian Bennett
Ian Bennett is aware that the option for inspiration is always around him. Having enjoyed the process of drawing from a young age, he records ideas with a biro pen and sketchbook.
Being open to the opportunity to see inspiration is important for Ian’s
creativity. He has found himself drawn to flowers in exploring their growth and
62 | the hat magazine #81 62 | the hat magazine #81
Carole (right)
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