Remake & Remodel - The final design ideas part 2

You can find part 1 of my designs here. After discarding my heel designs I decided to focus on sneakers as I think eventually I'd like to go into sneaker design (Hello Nike? I promise I'll treat you good, I won't leave you for Adidas like Kanye did!).

I explored different ideas for the sole, the stitching, laces, materials etc before I settled upon my final design. My final design ended up being the bubble platform, I then had to create a 3D prototype of an element of that particular design which will be in the next post!

You can see more of this project here, more of my uni work here, and more of my illustrations here.

 

Remake & Remodel - The inspiration

Most design subjects at uni require you to show your ideas through colour boards and mood boards. Here are the inspiration boards for my Remake & Remodel project. As you can see, my main inspiration came from bacteria and the simplistic 3D shapes of DNA. I wanted to combine the bright, business of the bacteria with simple and futuristic shapes.

You can see more of my uni work here.

Lizzie and Jaqueline - Two more designs for Yull Footwear

As I'd explained in my previous Yull Footwear post, I entered a British themed footwear competition at Yull. My first design was based around the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly, these two are more regal and feminine. I think these fit the feminine and classic Yull Footwear style really well. I wanted to name them very british names, so Lizzie is named after good old Queen Liz. And Jaqueline is a female version of the Union Jack.

You can see more of my shoe designs here.

High Top Bootception

Yo dawg, I heard you like boots, so I put boots on your boots so you can wear boots while you wear boots. Before you class me as insane from reading the last sentence, read this.

These designs are based on my High Top Boot pattern, because who wouldn't want shoes with shoes on?! They're inspired by Dr Martens, my fav kind of boot. I did these for my portfolio when I found out I had an interview for London College of Fashion, I also got the opportunity to show them to the lovely people at Dr Martens when I had an interview for their factory internship. I'm really happy with how these turned out. I love combining classic shoe designs with busy patterns. I think the lilac ones are my fav but I am a little bit biased towards anything lilac.

You can see more of my shoe designs here.

Laura Manfre Shoe Design Collaboration

A few months ago, when I was preparing for my uni interview at LCF I started setting myself more design tasks. Other than painting my own shoes I hadn't really designed since studying Fashion years ago.

I've been a fan of Laura Manfre's work for a long time. When Laura said I could use her illustrations on some of my designs I was delighted, I think her kitsch watercolours adapt wonderfully to fashion design.

Here's the outcome of our collaboration, all watercolour illustrations are by her, and the shoe designs are by me. I'm especially happy with the brown cowboy boots. I'd love to expand on that design and do some brogue and satchel designs in that style one day. I think they look like they'd be right at home on the irregular choice website ;)

Portfolio In Progress

Remember my post on Tuesday about Dr Martens and LCF? Well, I've been crazily preparing my portfolio for the last few weeks. I'm hoping to get some decent pictures of my portfolio soon, but for now, here's some of the work in progress.

My first attempt at live trace. I draw the Dr Marten on some paper, scanned it then used live trace in Adobe Illustrator

 

Here's a sneak peak of a collaboration I'm doing with one of my fav artists - Laura Manfre

A big fat shoe update

Pictured: Dr Martens Hincky Boot

Well, it feels like it's been a century since I last wrote a personal post. I've had a busy few weeks and because of that the blog has been a little neglected. I'm now getting back into the swing of things and have a few outfit posts/recipes/DIY ideas planned for the next few months!

At the beginning of the year I announced that I had big plans for my future with shoes and shoe design. One of my big goals this year is to learn how to make shoes (or at least begin to learn), It's been an ambition of mine for a long time. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE painting shoes, but it would be amazing to be able to design the whole product.

The first few weeks of 2013 were spent scouring the internet for short courses to learn how to make shoes. The ones I found were all based in London, and I couldn't learn nearly enough through one course to build a business on or base a career on. So there has been a little change of plan!

In February I found out about an apprenticeship scheme at Dr Martens! I love the Dr Martens brand, they make such fantastic shoes with a great attention to quality and functional design. Working for Dr Martens would be my dream job! So I went ahead and applied.

A couple of weeks ago I got to visit their English factory and see them making the "made in England" shoes, which was so interesting. England used to have a great trade of shoe making, so it's really refreshing to see a big, worldwide company keeping up the tradition.
Last week I was invited back for an interview and some tests, I should find out this week if I got the job. As I write this my stomach is churning with nerves!! I want this job so much.

Before I applied for the Dr Martens job, I'd also applied for the place on the shoe making course at London College of Fashion. Check out the shoes the students produce, they're freakin amazing. Last week I had an interview there and it went so well, and they accepted my application! I love the course leaders there, they're so enthusiastic about design, knowledgeable and very friendly. The course itself is like a dream come true. I'll get to learn everything I ever wanted to! I can't wait to get stuck in. It's a 2 year course with a view to doing a third year and getting a degree. They have so many competitions available to only LCF students and great contacts in the industry, it really is an amazing course.

Of course if I get the Dr Martens job I'll be taking that and putting uni on hold for a while. I don't think I'd be able to turn down the job of a lifetime!

The last couple of days I've finally been able to breathe again, I spent the last few weeks as an exhausted bag of nerves, constantly working on my portfolio and getting more and more worried about my interviews. It's great to finally get back to spending lots of cuddle time with the dogs & Tofu again (and Ash, of course).

Happy Floral Brogues

These brogues were inspired by the wonderful work of Takashi Murakami. I've been working on some Takashi inspired designs for my shoe design portfolio, so it was a great help to paint some shoes inspired by his work too, since I seem to be finding painting on shoes much easier than actual designing at the moment.

If you'd like your own pair of customised shoes, email me at ponychopsshop@gmail.com or contact me at my Etsy Shop.

The Original Skull Brogues

These were my first set of skull shoes! I was inspired by rockabilly style. I still love these colours together, what's better than bubblegum pink and mint green?

The Original Mushroom Brogues

These were the first pair of mushroom brogues I ever did. I don't think I'll ever get fed up of doing mushrooms. Especially mushrooms with smiley faces.

I love the colours on these brogues, I'd love to do this colour combination again!

These ones are already sold, email me at ponychopsshop@gmail.com if you'd like your own customised shoes!