Collaboration?!?

Me and (name withheld) are going to work on clothing design, mostly T-shirts but including some hats and such.

Basically we'll design them together, then I send him my files and he will be uploading, modeling the shirts and screenshotting. He will then email me the images and I will edit them for the vendor. I don't know yet if I have to use my vendor or if he can use it (permissions should be set properly, but maybe the script is wrong?)

I might have to work on the hats myself because I have a better idea of how to "build" them.

In a collaboration, only one person will usually get credit, so it is essential that you both decide that the name appearing on the product is unimportant as long as you both get your fair share of the profits.

Both parties need not be in the same group, but it really helps especially if you're developing/selling on group-owned land.

How did you split up the design work, Betha?

Hi Heather

This was a tough question for me too when I first collaborated with the City Girls. In that case, Mistress would draw out a design and we'd split up the work. The last time on Flux, Mistress layed out the basic outfit and I then took the files and amped them up in lightwave, did minor shading work etc, and I also made the shoes. Launa took the job of doing the hair and eyes.

With Nephilaine, she would have a drawing of her design and we'd decide on colors, materials, etc. We'd decide who was doing which piece and go from there, it's basically the same idea. As far as dividing up the work, just go by what you feel you can do well. In my case it's been good to divide by categories. For instance Neph may take a top and pants and I take the corset, or I do an outfit and Neph take the lingerie underneath, etc. It's also great because if you get stuck on something you've got help right there . Sometimes all you need is a fresh look from another perspective to figure out what's wrong.

In all my collaborations I've had fun. It's motivating to me and I've learned alot from everyone I've worked with. Good luck with your project!

Oh, we just work on interesting designs seperately and whatever we like best will be sent back and forth until the design is finished. Typically, I'm the one with a lot of ideas but haven't the time right now to make them.

For collaboration on the same item, (i.e. two people designing one thing), it can only be limited since he and I are hundreds of miles apart. It helps that he and I have different ideas so we don't mind each others' pomposities.

I'd suggest, since it's often lots of fun at the end of such ventures speaking from personal RL experience, that you put something down in writing that you both agree too...

Start-ups are fine and dandy, just like any other relationship, endings can be rocky and there's arguing over the cats, the children etc... and it gets messy.

Even something silly and simple: we're going to alternate the creator (i.e. the person that uploaded), even if we produce under a good joint name, so if we split up we each own 50% of the products and it's randomly assorted so whoever gets the best seller got lucky could be a nice thing for you to have agreed to NOW so come the end, if it does come, there's one less thing to argue about.

Something that says what you're bringing and what you're aiming to achieve is nice too, even if over time you deviate away from that initial document. Depending on the number of projects and speed of turn around something similar for each project might be achievable too.

Collaborations are excellent, a lot of really good work comes out of good colloborations in my experience, but planning for the ending to be neat never hurts the ones that are going to fly and thrive and is never bad to have for the ones that aren't.

Hi HeatherDawn !

Though I think this is not the kind of collaboration you're looking for, Ambergris Baphomet and I have a collaboration agreement as well, where I deliver the textures I think she might be able to use, and she turns them into these hawt awesome clothes

We have made an agreement defining who gets credited for what and payments, and it works like a charm .

Just my 2 cents