Burberry and digital production agency Koffeecup have teamed up to develop a new software that is revolutionising fashion design and engineering. The application merges gaming technology and design to significantly speed up and simplify the process of placing prints onto garments.
The new software places a two-dimensional print onto a 3D product template, immediately showcasing how the finished product will look and providing real time instant feedback. The use of 3D is now embedded in Burberry’s merchandising model, enabling a more sustainable, creative and efficient process, and has become a staple tool in the process of print engineering.
Using the application has reduced paper usage at the design stage by two thirds. Reaching an accurate sample with fewer iterations also has the potential to cut factory waste, supporting Burberry’s sustainability agenda of innovating to reduce excess material.
The first products designed using this new technology are now available in store in the Pre-Fall 2020 collection.
Mark Morris, Senior Vice President of Digital Commerce at Burberry, said:
“This new software is a great example of digital innovation and cross-functional collaboration. Our internal 3D development team, who built the successful games B Bounce and B Surf, saw an opportunity in how their technology could streamline a part of the product design process. Our collaboration with Koffeecup enabled us to bring our idea to implementation and we are thrilled with the result.”
Thomas Michelou, Managing Director at Koffeecup, said:
“It has been a pleasure to work closely with Burberry to deliver this project and see first-hand how the print placement application has improved their creative process. At Koffeecup, we saw this as an opportunity to leverage technology that is usually used in gaming development and apply it to the luxury fashion space. This pioneering shift from gaming to design allowed us to move towards generating a real-time visual experience that resonated well with our creative audiences. We are very excited about the software’s potential for development. Looking to the future, we see the possibility to incorporate artificial and virtual reality to extend the software, which is a very interesting prospect”.