ABSTRACT
The fashion industry is one of the most overcrowded and competitive industries. Fashion companies have become mini publishing empires, often employing their own graphic design teams and producing not just invitations to fashion shows, but ‘look books,’ catalogues, press mail-outs, magazines, advertising and even Christmas cards. For any fashion house, a well-designed, universally recognized logo is the key to commercial success. The logo becomes its own currency, whether printed on a T-shirt, embossed on a wallet, packaged around a face cream or, of course, sewn into an item of clothing. Van Beirendonck sees graphics and fashion as so inseparable as to include graphics as part of the fashion degree for students at the prestigious Antwerp Academy of Fine Art. Graphics have become an integral part of any fashion house; in some cases, the graphic designer or art director is also the fashion designer.
