The Akwa Guide · Start Here

Choosing your creative surface

Akwa gives you six ways to start a design. They are not six versions of the same tool. Each one begins from a different kind of idea, and picking the right one takes a minute and saves you an hour.

The question to ask is not which surface is best. It is: what do I already have?

The short answer

• You can say it in words. Start with Describe.
• You would rather decide than describe. Start with Custom Design.
• You can see it and want to rough it out. Start with Sketch It.
• You want to illustrate it properly, on a croquis. Start with Illustrate.
• You know the construction before the picture. Start with Block.
• You have a reference image you want to change. Start with Annotate.

If none of that is obvious yet, use Describe. It is the shortest path to something real, and everything else is easier once you have a first design in front of you.

Describe

You write the garment in your own words and Akwa designs it.

Say what you would say to a tailor you trust. "Wide-leg indigo denim trousers with architectural seams, drawn from a Bogolan register." Akwa structures that into a brief across silhouette, fabric, origin, occasion and trim, then renders it.

Choose it when the idea lives in language rather than in a picture. It is also the right place to start if you are new, because it shows you how Akwa reads intent, which makes every other surface easier to use.

Custom Design

The same idea as Describe, taken one decision at a time.

Instead of one sentence, you direct the garment choice by choice: silhouette, style origin, fabric, embellishment, colour, climate, skin tone. It is closer to configuring a couture piece than to writing a prompt. Slower than Describe, and considerably more controlled.

Choose it when you know what you want and would rather decide than describe. If a Describe result keeps coming back nearly right, this is usually the surface that fixes it.

Sketch It

You rough out the shape and get a design back.

The canvas is empty, and the drawing is meant to be quick. You are communicating shape and construction, not making a finished illustration, and Akwa reads it as design intent rather than as artwork. What comes back is a rendered piece plus the brief a tailor makes from.

Choose it when you can see the garment and drawing is faster than describing. A shoulder line you cannot put into words is usually a sketch, not a sentence. Do not spend an hour on the drawing; the drawing is the instruction, not the deliverable.

Illustrate

You illustrate the garment properly, on a croquis, and keep the work.

This is the surface for fashion illustration rather than quick communication. You draw on a croquis, so proportion and styling are part of the process, and the work stays editable: layers, colour regions, fabric swatches, saved versions, front and back views. Nothing is flattened into a picture, and nothing is interpreted until you ask for it. The drawing remains yours, and the AI waits to be invited.

Choose it when the piece deserves more than one sitting, or when you want to try three colourways of the same silhouette without losing any of them.

Block

You assemble the garment from its parts.

Block gives you a curated couture library: silhouette, shoulder, neckline, drape and volume, fabric, ornament, occasion. Choose a fan-train gown, an architectural shoulder, a corseted sweetheart neckline, duchess satin, beading at the neckline, and Akwa composes those decisions into one coherent piece.

Choose it when you think in construction rather than in images. It is the fastest surface for anyone who already knows the vocabulary, and the most forgiving for anyone who does not draw.

Annotate

You start from a reference and change it.

Upload an image, then mark directly on it: a different neckline here, longer through the back, swap this fabric, add ornament at the cuff. Akwa honours the silhouette you referenced and applies your changes.

Choose it when the idea already exists somewhere and your work is the edit, not the invention. This is how most design actually begins, and there is nothing lesser about it.

Sketch It or Illustrate?

This is the choice people hesitate over. The clearest tell is what is under your hand.

Sketch It gives you an empty canvas. It is a conversation: you rough out the shape, Akwa answers, and the value is in the answer.

Illustrate gives you a croquis. It is a document: you illustrate on a fashion body, and the drawing itself is what persists, with its layers and versions intact, ready for you to return to.

Use Sketch It to find the idea. Use Illustrate to draw it properly.

What you need on your plan

Illustrate is open to every signed-in account. Draw, save versions, work on colour regions, as much as you like.

Sketch It, Block and Annotate sit on the paid plans (Tailor Pro, Studio and Atelier). The reason is simple: each of those surfaces renders a garment, and every render carries a real generation cost. Illustrate does not render until you explicitly ask it to, so drawing there stays free.

Describe and Custom Design run on the standard design flow, including the free tier, so you can produce a complete design and tailor brief without a subscription.

Where to go next

Once you have a first design, two pages are worth your time: Getting the best results for the prompt craft that tightens every render, and Choosing fabrics for the silhouette-to-fabric rule that prevents most disappointing outputs.

If you would rather read about why Akwa is built this way at all, Procreate vs Akwa explains what a drawing is for here, and why the garment, not the picture, is the destination.