How Does Laser Designer Work?

FAQs

• Why do laser files take so long?

To make a laser file by hand, you first have to photograph an inspirational target garment, then open the photographs in image editing software, often Photoshop.Then, you have to trace out each detail – every whisker, chevron, starburst, and worn area – by hand, taking special care to keep the highlights and shadows in a range that you know works well with the laser to give a realistic-looking effect. This takes a long time! (it also requires a lot of skill and experience)

• How does KolAi’s platform help?

KolAi’s AI Designer takes in images of a worn-in garments and automatically returns authentic-looking laser designs to mimic the wear on those garments. All that painstaking work of hand-tracing the whiskers and used areas and carefully balancing the highlights and shadows is done automatically with the platform.

• How does KolAi’s platform work?

KolAi’s platform is powered by software that was trained using the latest machine learning algorithms with a database of thousands of existing laser designs. The existing designs were created by hand by laser design experts. Our A.I. studied this database, learned how the experts create their designs and how to mimic that process for jeans it hasn’t seen before.

• Will KolAi’s files work with my laser?

Yes! The platform outputs basic raster files (for example .bmp or .png formats) so you can use them with any brand of laser machine.

• Does KolAi replace my laser designer?

No! Our AI is really good at mimicking the wear patterns of existing vintage garments. However, design teams often don’t want to just mimic existing garments, they have specific feedback and changes they require – remove this whisker, make this chevron straighter, add abrasion to the knee, etc… All of this can be done with KolAi’s Design Tools, but a laser designer is still needed to make these changes and tweak the output of the AI when necessary.KolAi’s platform doesn’t replace laser designers. Rather, it’s a tool that makes their jobs easier and multiplies their productivity. So, they can create 10 designs in a day instead of 1.

• Are KolAi’s files easy to edit?

Yes! Once you have a base design to work from, it is very easy to make adjustments as the files can be downloaded as image files (BMP, PNG, JPG, etc) or Photoshop files (PSD). With the release of KolAi’s Designer 2.0, editing can now be done from within the platform since we added a suite of professional editing tools (akin to Photoshop).

Founders

But really, KolAi Designer has been a long time in the making.Kyle and Aydin first met in 2015, at a laundry that was adjacent to the offices of 7 For All Mankind. Kyle was there as part of a presentation on innovation for the 7FAM leadership team. Aydin was head of laser development at the laundry.By this time, Aydin already had 15+ years of experience in the denim laser industry. He started his career with Laser Systems Technology – one of the first laser companies in the world focusing on apparel – building and fixing the lasers. But, as a naturally creative person, he gradually transitioned to creating laser designs for denim.Kyle didn’t know it at the time, but he would spend the better part of the next 5 years learning about and innovating with laser denim design. He worked for Lee and Wrangler Jeans on transformational innovation and helped develop new applications for laser, including denim finishing designed to visually contour the body – the “Body Optix” line that became popular for Lee in Asia – like makeup is used to contour the face.Jack and Kyle met in graduate school (both are PhD’s in cognitive science) and Jack ended up working for VF Corporation on data analytics and shopper insights. He ran huge, multi-store experiments for Vans and The North Face and became well acquainted with big data and machine learning.Working so much at laundries with laser designers, Kyle saw how slow and painstaking the process could be and thought there must be a way artificial intelligence could be used to speed things up. He kicked around ideas with Aydin and Jack (and other colleagues) for years, but it wasn’t until 2021 that they put in a concerted effort to build something and KolAi was born.After more than a year of work, we built a tool fusing Aydin's laser design experience with the latest advances in machine learning and we are proud of our final product.Contact us if you'd like to try it out.

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