Starting 2026.

A scarf requires at least some semblance of a way to test the look and aesthetic of wrapping and folding a design around a neck. And with some surface level research through the immediate results on an AI powered internet, the results are disheartening. But maybe I am used to free templates and mockups sustaining me at only an infant stage of a design journey that probably now deserves something more, especially with the burden of a degree lingering behind me. The standard has risen, and with it some methods have sunk beneath what I now consider myself capable of, or at least where I define the line. That’s why I have decided to investigate methods of mocking up fabric designs in a way that allows me to efficiently test a design, without the use of AI. AI still leaves me puzzled as a methodology, and I cannot yet define the border that lies between tool and ideation. So for now I plan to stride forward in the hopes that my values and definitions will become more stringent as time goes on, especially if I plan to investigate contemporary non AI methods (scary 3D donuts and intensive material renderings most likely). Though my gut feeling is that I’ll probably fall somewhere in a position that could be compared to classical training in art. Learn the programs, and with the learning a deeper understanding of purpose and function could emerge, just like learning the basics of perspective or anatomy may not define what an artist would call abstraction when actually conveying an artistic purpose. I might be overcomplicating what is simply just a venture into new design programs, but for me, I see some potential value in defining my reasoning somewhat along the way. I would like to be the old man who can do it the old way for the sake of doing it the old way, and I think others can see the value in that.