My friend in Portland said something about pockets that made me rethink my whole design process.

We were grabbing coffee and she pointed at her own dress, saying, 'I don't care how sleek it looks, if I can't fit my phone and keys, it's a sculpture, not clothes.' She said she'd passed on three dresses that month just for that. I'd always focused on the silhouette first, but now I'm sketching with functional pockets as a starting point, not an afterthought. Anyone else had a simple comment totally shift how they approach a design element?

3 comments

3 Comments

oliver21mo ago

Doesn't this kind of thing happen everywhere once you start paying attention? People buy stuff to use, not just to look at, and if it fails at the basic job, it's just a weird decoration. Seems like designers hear that one blunt truth and it finally clicks what actually matters to the person holding their wallet.

leelewis1mo ago

My entire design portfolio from art school is basically a museum of things you couldn't actually live in. I made this beautiful coat with perfect lines, and the pockets were these tiny, useless slits. My mom tried it on and asked where her tissues would go. It was a fancy tube for a person.

anthonymurray1mo ago

My art school chair design was a sculpture that actively hated the human spine.