Adding some colours: Oriental inspiration, trees, and water colour

Inspired by nature, Zen Gardens and lots of green, I started playing with acrylic paint over fabric. I roughly drew the outlines of leafs and some flowers, and started laying paint over the fabric. Then I used a very wet brush to create watercolour effect.

I am only beginning to experiment with this, and I am sure I will get better over time, but for the moment I am happy with the result, and it is definitely not "ugly".

Inspiration: Japanese gardens:

Working on my design:

Ideas I didn't like:

I didn't like the outcome, although the idea of circular patterns does catch the eye. I might try and use it on it's own and not as part of a painting.

Also, maybe because I didn't wait long enough for the acrylic paint to dry, the dots faded into the green and were not obvious. Maybe I need to try using fabric pen?

References:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_dph-M78Qek/hqdefault.jpg

http://housely.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/landscape-outstanding-china-garden-for-laptop-hd-800x533.jpg

http://antikleidi.com/2012/03/26/most-beautiful-gardens/

Inspirations, history and a little bit anthropology

How do I start researching? Should I explore some of the most popular shoe designers works? I would love to do that, as, after all, I am a woman, and in most cultures women and shoes go together, but as Nancy Sinatra say: the boots are made for walking, so I better start researching the early years of shoe development. 

1500 years ago, drawings of humans with animal skins and furs wrapped around their feet were found in a Spanish cave. The “ice-man” body, preserved for nearly 5,000 years shows that men of that time used to wear some sort of footwear. It seems like “shoes” have always been around in one form or another. But have they really changed much over the years?

The Egyptians used coiled sole sandals, similar to today’s flip flops. I am going to try and use the same idea, but instead of using papyrus bundles I will use Hemp, as it is also a natural and environment friendly material but mostly because it is far more available (and modern) than papyrus.

For my design, I chose to focus on Hanbok – the Korean shoes. While researching people’s needs, the need for aesthetics has arisen again and again and I find the Korean design highly aesthetic.

Hanbok usually refers specifically to clothing of the Joseon period and is worn as semi-formal or formal wear during traditional festivals and celebrations. In the past they were made with rubber, always in plain primary colours, clean cuts and design. In my work, I plan on preserving the use of primary colour, but I am hoping to explore some colour designs, all inspired by nature. Again, as the idea is to keep the design natural and ecological, some adjustments may need to be considered.

References:

http://www.footwearhistory.com/

https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Veldmeijer_a.pdf

https://gyopo.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/intangible/

Learn from people

After coming up with the initial concept, I turned into research. I immediately put aside the idea of traditional questionnaires and field marketing, and turned onto my favourite platform – Facebook.

As I am a member in several community groups, I posted an open question and hoped to get interesting ideas from people.

I noticed that some thoughts came up again and again: animal cruelty, environment friendly, comfort and design. As it turned out, most people relate Ecological shoes to comfort, but the majority also thought that comfort equals poor design.

   

As I am highly engaged with anti-cruelty and environmental friendly concepts, I can relate to the responds I got from people, and indeed, this was my first thought: producing a product that is in no way related to any abuse, suffer or exploitation.

My aim is now to come up with a comfort yet visually appealing design.

Design - mind map and some inspiration photos

Initial brief, vaguer than the previous ones, sent me out to the woods to look for some inspiration as my task is to look closer at my environment and develop a response to it.

I love the woods, that's why I chose to live opposite them. All I need is to cross the road and I'm in another world, surrounded by nature, animals and numerous shades of green.

After a long walk in the woods, it hit me: What can represent green better than Green Product? That made me think about environment friendly products to design.

After a long brainstorming, I chose to focus on Shoes, and not just ANY shoes, but Environment friendly shoes. So now is the time to sit down and think about the clients, their needs, what they like and don't like and many other thoughts, that I'm sure will arise the more I think about it...