Who hasn’t been caught up by circumstances that led to difficult if not impossible deadlines? In our business, it often seems routine. But perhaps even more so in the retail apparel industry where today's fashions are tomorrow's memories.

So it was with Neve, a high-end, fast-moving apparel design company specializing in ski and lifestyle fashions. Founded in 2002, it's a rapidly growing player in the highly competitive fashion industry—and to continue that growth it must get its latest lines in front of buyers at just the right moment—or a competitor will.

Images are everything

Catalogs must be prepared months in advance; in this case a 48-page, perfect-bound catalog and a smaller, digitally printed “image book” designed to keep the brand and images of the coming year's lines in buyers' minds.

Including more than 400 digital photographs shot in Colorado, the catalogs depict bold, colorful new designs—a Neve trademark look. But 400 location and studio shots take time, deadlines are difficult to control and, along with tight schedules, most of it to be done between Thanksgiving and the New Year holidays—it was almost asking for trouble.

A production partner saves time

Amy Quinlivan, a Minneapolis-based freelance art director specializing in retail and apparel, partnered with GLS Companies to get the job done. It was challenging. Early on, shoot deadlines were missed so efficient production, including fast color correction on hundreds of digital images, would mean the difference between success…and a mess.

Utilizing GLS’ MediaPlatter asset management system, the images were uploaded directly from Colorado to GLS servers where they were converted to CMYK, proofed, then rendered in low resolution and archived.

Next, because color is crucial in fashion, Amy reviewed the proofs, annotated them and sent them back to GLS where color correction was quickly implemented.

Ralph Tuff, the GLS account executive on the project, explains that the asset management system automatically replaces any low resolution image with its high resolution counterpart when the layout is finalized. That meant Amy and her production designer could access the low-res images online and work with small file sizes. “It was really slick,” Amy says. “We had lots of changes…so working with low resolution images was a real time saver.”

Technology, but teamwork too

Applying technology to the workflow was crucial, but teamwork was also essential. One night, during a Minnesota blizzard, Amy called urgently needing a PDF of the final layouts for her client. Driving was impossible but Ralph was able to contact another GLS team member who remotely logged on, got the files, created the PDF and delivered them online—within forty-five minutes.

At another point, the need arose for a run of about 500 of the small brochures. They were needed within five days. The job got done in four. Yet another nail-biter came days before going to press: Amy temporarily lost her production assistant to a family emergency—GLS people stepped in and worked directly with Amy to get the job done.

“We really were a team,” says Ralph “…our staff worked shoulder to shoulder with Amy and there was some serious teamwork going on.”

Amy agrees. “GLS was very keen to do whatever it took to meet the very tight timeline,” she says. “It was a wonderful experience, even fun. What I mean is, it was a good bunch of people that had to jump in and just get it done, and their attitude was really helpful!”

To learn more about Neve, see their website at www.nevedesigns.com. Learn more about Amy Quinlivan at www.amyquinlivan.com.

Success Stories

Neve Fall And Winter Apparel Catalogs Beat Tight Deadlines With Asset Management And Teamwork

Success Stories:

Devil in the deadlines

Images are everything

A production partner saves time

Technology, but teamwork too

Neve Fall And Winter Apparel Catalogs Beat Tight Deadlines
With Asset Management And Teamwork