“Hi we need some costumes made up for a promotional event next week. We have some designs but the client isn’t happy with them, are you able to send us some designs of your own, and then get them made up for us? We have put aside a budget of xx”
I was doubtful that something so exacting could be confirmed and made within a week, but I submitted an illustration. They approved, paid the deposit and we went ahead.
A few days later after sending in some progress photos they said “Oh no! the colours are wrong!”
I had taken my pantone swatch into the fabric store, and assured them the colours don’t show accurately from iphone to computer screen but they were not reassured.
Well, I said, for xyz budget, I could get the whole costume printed out with the exact pantone colours and make it up that way. “If we had known, we would have gone that way!” they said.
My problem was, I had submitted a design to fit their budget, and hadn’t made suggestions outside of that, thinking they wanted to stick to what they had told me.
I reveiwed the situation, sent in another quote, took in the cost already spent, taking it as a lesson in communication, and off we went on another tangent.
What happened was, I drew my pattern peices into the computer and got them printed up with the colours and patterns exactly as I had designed them. Seriously, I designed the hats and jackets and pants, and sketched them exactly into the computer. It took a bit of concentration late into the night, but I got there, and was really happy with the result. 15 metres of fabric got pushed through and printed up literally overnight, and BAM were cut and sewn up other the next couple of days.
The hats were backed with foam to give them some stucture, and the logo was backed with a type of plastic for the bow tie and attached it to elastic.
The costumes were finished by 10pm the night before the gig. Luckily one of the stilt walkers literally lived a block away from the shop, and I dropped the finished costumes to him on my way home.
Painting the living statue suit was the most fun.
The paint was treated to make it flexible for movement, so it wouldn’t crack and went hell bent for leather after every layer dried, layering and layering until i got the effect I was after. That was really fun, I loved doing that.
