Unleash Creativity and Design Without Limits, with Kornit
Could the fast pace of technology, with its quick and simple solutions, preserve the quality of traditional fashion? For the textile printing arena, the answer is a definite yes. Not only can it, today, keep traditional fashion art alive, it has the capability to mimic an aristocratic garment such as traditional Japanese kimono, dating back as early as the 17th century. Until not long ago, digital printing of complex design was limited to specific fabric types and required a time-consuming process of multiple steps. Such a process included pre- and post-fabric treatments, and a use of multiple machinery. Therefore, to print digitally a kimono with a pattern of eight parts was not realistic until a single-step Direct-To-Fabric digital printing solution came into play.
Featured in Which-PLM’s guest advertorial, Kornit shares how Textile Design students from Israel’s leading College, “Shenkar, Engineering, Fashion, Art” are benefitting from hands-on experience with Kornit’s technology. The ability of the Kornit Allegro to print any type of design with any type of technique and material has allowed students to invest more time on their designs, and unleash their true creativity.
Ira Estrin: Third-year textile design student at Shenkar, Israel’s leading College for Fashion and Textile Technology.
The Kornit Allegro roll-to-roll system, based on its NeoPigmentTM process, is the only true single-step printing solution and a game changer for the textile industry. Allegro’s all-in-one built-in unit solution enables the use of multiple types of fabrics, designing complicated pattern compositions, and achieving rich colors in one single-step print-line. Enter a new era of freedom. Freedom to design any pattern, on almost any fabric and transmit not only ideas but also spirit and emotion to a sophisticated garment such as the kimono. And the best part of it is that you can test your design and produce a sample with a single print run, as there is no minimum quantity in this printing process.
Textile printing is at its tipping point. So how do you leverage this defining moment in the industry into a positive epidemic and spread it like wildfire? A good starting point would be with the people that are able to drive this change. Start with the people that will take the fashion industry into the future. Introduce digital textile printing at their starting point – fashion academies!
Roni Lavitt: Third-year textile design student at Shenkar, Israel’s leading College for Fashion and Textile Technology.
Kornit and Shenkar, Israel’s leading College for Fashion and Textile Technology that combines engineering, design and art, have joined forces to implement Kornit’s printing solution in the Shenkar textile design program. Third year students were introduced to digital printing, its benefits and opportunities and got hands-on experience with Kornit’s technology.
The collaboration between Kornit and Shenkar has demonstrated how any design techniques, materials and patterns can be easily transferred into the fabric with a direct-to-fabric cut process.
Shenkar students went through several steps in this project. First, students studied the history of the kimono design, and chose their inspiration, color palette and theme. Then they started sketching the design with repetitive and non-repeat patterns and transformed their sketch into a digital printable file. After the design file was ready it was tested on multiple fabrics as sample prints to choose the best fabric for the final Kimono print. The final stage involved printing the Kimono directly into the pattern lines as a print to cut and sewing for a final Kimono garment.
The ability of the Kornit Allegro to print any type of design with any type of technique and material with one ink-set for multiple fabric types, including mimicking the hand feel of the original design, allowed the students to concentrate on their design without the need to accommodate technology constraints. Gali Cnaani, Co-Head of the Department of Textile Design at Shenkar, further explains: “The collaboration with Kornit enabled us to develop a shorter process for the students who could invest more time on their designs and then go straight to production instead of the long traditional six-weeks printing process.”
The Kimono project yielded a true success as both students and instructors were introduced to a new level of knowledge of what can be achieved with the Kornit technology and had the freedom to design any type of art.
Ella Amitay Sadovsky, who teaches geometry of textile surfaces and pattern design at the textile design department, points out that “the ability to incorporate the history of the kimono design with our techniques and design patterns and into the printing process was simple and fast. All the knowledge was transformed very quickly into the kimono cut”.
Tal Fisher: Third-year textile design student at Shenkar, Israel’s leading College for Fashion and Textile Technology.
Third-year textile design student Tal Fisher’s experience with this project demonstrates the impact the Kornit Technology can have on the choices future designers will have: “Seeing my design that I originally planned on my computer screen being printed on a large scale was really amazing. Kornit’s technology gave me the ability to plan a continuous and unrepeatable pattern on the whole kimono garment”.
When a designer is encouraged to go wild with creativity there are no limits to the design possibilities. Shenkar students created complex Kimono designs such as embroidering on leaf, paper cuts collage and embedded beads. The amazing part is that the printed fabric looked just like the original hand-made design.
If a sophisticated garment such as a kimono can be printed with the same quality as the traditional hand-made kimono – only quicker and easier – then what’s holding us back from printing any type of garment whenever we want and with any design we wish for?
Get a closer look at how Kornit changes the way people print on textile at www.kornit.com
[Stay tuned for the upcoming video on the Shenkar-Kornit kimono project!]
