high high fashion boots i designed...

[Dr. Shoe]

dear dr. shoe (never thought i would say that...)

of course i designed them.

design is the process of layout/draft/conception/styling/composing!

that's exactly what i did with those boots from scratch.

think of a car designer responsible for the body. he doesn't have to worry too much about the engine.

and even if the craftmanship of a shoedesigner involves the art of making them possible/wearable - though i'm really not sure about that. i never said i could do that and i never said those were possible to build.

i'm not so sure that so many people could what you call 'draw' a shoe in a visual/photorealistic way like i did. cause i had over 3 years education in that visual field ; ))

and besides i wonder about the huge amount of discredit you meet with new posters.

but nevermind...

Of course he does. Kids draw pictures of cars every day but there is no way they could ever work. Kids draw shoes too, freehand on paper with crayons.

Your boots will not work. If you were to make them exactly as you have drawn them, you will never get them on your feet. For one thing the arches are far too severe and the long-heel lengths are completely wrong. You have also made a classic mistake up the cone of the boot too but since you're such a hot-shot shoe designer you will know all about this and will put it right at once.

A designer has to by definition know how the thing is going to be made . Imagine an architect designing a building without any idea of how it's going to be built, what would happen then?

Is it something special about footwear?

People successfully do things they have not been formally trained to do every day.

And back on topic, I like the boots very much. I do believe the heels are higher than I could successfully manage, but if they were sold, I'd be tempted to try them.

It's not the height of the heels, it's actually getting your foot into the boots in the first place that's going to be the challenge.

[bootmebaby]

Regardless, he should take the design he created to a shoemaker and work out the details of "making it work"...come up with a prototype to test, then sell the hell outta them to us!

[roniheels]

They look pretty and I admire your creativity.

[Webhawk]

does soembody know, how christian louboutin startet his "designer" career?

[wxman25]

i like them alot but i would need a zipper on the side to get them on

[Dr. Shoe]

Regardless, he should take the design he created to a shoemaker and work out the details of "making it work"...come up with a prototype to test, then sell the hell outta them to us!

That would be a good idea. Take the pretty pictures to a designer.

does soembody know, how christian louboutin startet his "designer" career?

Yes, he went to college for a few years to learn how to design shoes and then he worked for someone else (Guiseppe Zannotti I think) for a couple of years before striking out on his own in 1991...

[Dante]

well, what comes up to my mind here is the following pic from rené magritte called The Treachery of Images, which is sort of what i understand as the essence in this "dispute" here. at the end of a shoe design process one would expect a shoe or at least a shoe prototype that you are able to wear to some extent. i think the expamle with the architect fits quite well, same would be for industrial designers.

on the other hand. it's great that people show of their creative output, which i really appreciate. so we should not be too picky. at the end it is a well made picture/sketch of a boot. fine for me. well done.

[loco1]

well, what comes up to my mind here is the following pic from rené magritte called The Treachery of Images, which is sort of what i understand as the essence in this "dispute" here. at the end of a shoe design process one would expect a shoe or at least a shoe prototype that you are able to wear to some extent. i think the expamle with the architect fits quite well, same would be for industrial designers.

on the other hand. it's great that people show of their creative output, which i really appreciate. so we should not be too picky. at the end it is a well made picture/sketch of a boot. fine for me. well done.

good point dante.

maybe i should have put it this way:

here are some images (of boots) i designed.

[bootmebaby]

So loco1, have you decided to try and bring your designs to a shoemaker to make some prototypes? IMHO, you should do it, just to see if it is worth doing...you never know, your shoe designs may become the next fashion trend and make you a nice chunk of change. I think they are beautiful designs and I for one would love to wear something like those that make my foot arch to the extreme (once they were made to squeeze my foot in)

[Dr. Shoe]

well, what comes up to my mind here is the following pic from rené magritte called The Treachery of Images, which is sort of what i understand as the essence in this "dispute" here. at the end of a shoe design process one would expect a shoe or at least a shoe prototype that you are able to wear to some extent. i think the expamle with the architect fits quite well, same would be for industrial designers.

on the other hand. it's great that people show of their creative output, which i really appreciate. so we should not be too picky. at the end it is a well made picture/sketch of a boot. fine for me. well done.

Exactly.

They are great boots with some wonderful ideas. The point I was trying to make was that a picture is just the start of the design process. Really though you cannot really design anything unless you already have a last unless you're planning to carve one. Even then you will probably (should) carve it before you start drawing.

The next stage would be to carve a last prototype and then get it made as a pair. Next you need to make the patterns, this is where the skills come into play.

When starting out Christian Louboutin would not have been able to afford to have someone carve a last for him so he would have had to have used a stock one. He would not have been able to afford to hire the services of a pattern cutter (most charge £1,800+) so he would have had to do it himself, and you cannot do that without the know how. Next the leather has to be clicked and skived and this is a skill in itself which used to be taught with a 3 year apprenticeship. OK, someone at the factory or shoe workshop will probably have done that as part of the prototyping.

If I was working for a shoe maker I would be expected to make the shoes from inception right up to the finished prototype.

[Dr. Shoe]

good point dante.

maybe i should have put it this way:

here are some images (of boots) i designed.

Possibly. I would have just said: "Here are some pictures of boots I've drawn."

[chris100575]

I love the non-platform version! I'd like a pair in black please, ideally with the zips up the back.

[Trolldeg]

Exactly.

Even then you will probably (should) carve it before you start drawing.

You think Manolo Blahnik had lasts for these drawings?

http://www.shoes-addiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/manolo-blahnik-sketches.jpg

[benno]

Give the guy a break. He came here and showed you all some pretty good skills and some people complain about his terminology.

Show me a shoe designer that really, truly crafts shoes and I will be astounded.

High fashion footwear is all about drawing something in your pretty Parisian or NY or London studio and getting Italian or Brazilian or even Vietnamese workers to cobble them together.

As an example Celine is a gifted shoe designer and works for some big name brands, but she only draws them and then gets them made. Her Blog is cool. Have a look...

http://theshoegirl.blogspot.com/

I design how websites look, I then hand my pretty pictures over to people that know the dark engineering art of coding.

I could design a car and then get a team of engineers to make it. Marc Newson designed a car for Ford but he didn't make the prototype. He was a small but damn vital part of the process.

http://www.conceptcaronline.com/concept-cars/concept-car-59.php

As you were.

P.s I love Marc Newson

[Dr. Shoe]

You think Manolo Blahnik had lasts for these drawings?

http://www.shoes-addiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/manolo-blahnik-sketches.jpg

Those are not designs, they're stylised pictures of shoes. The design process comes afterwards or in many cases before.

I'd say that he had the lasts and probably drew some "proper" pictures before drawing caricatures of his designs. He also would have had the heels and probably put the last on the heel before drawing it. This is exactly what we did at college.

[iggy_ze]

I thought the first thing you took was the last. Ian G

[Dr. Shoe]

Give the guy a break. He came here and showed you all some pretty good skills and some people complain about his terminology.

Show me a shoe designer that really, truly crafts shoes and I will be astounded.

High fashion footwear is all about drawing something in your pretty Parisian or NY or London studio and getting Italian or Brazilian or even Vietnamese workers to cobble them together.

As an example Celine is a gifted shoe designer and works for some big name brands, but she only draws them and then gets them made. Her Blog is cool. Have a look...

http://theshoegirl.blogspot.com/

I design how websites look, I then hand my pretty pictures over to people that know the dark engineering art of coding.

I could design a car and then get a team of engineers to make it. Marc Newson designed a car for Ford but he didn't make the prototype. He was a small but damn vital part of the process.

http://www.conceptcaronline.com/concept-cars/concept-car-59.php

As you were.

P.s I love Marc Newson

I really don't mind someone showing off pictures of boots and they're really good too but I spent 3 years living on beans, spending my life savings and generally living in poverty to put myself through college and here comes someone who thinks they can do the same job!

I have made a few shoes in my time and every single one was designed from the concept picture to the finished article. This included cutting the patterns, making the mock-up and making the finished article from scratch. Most proper designers will do all of this because you cannot design something unless you have a good idea of whether it would be possible to make it. This is why it takes 7 years to qualify as an architect.

High fashion footwear is all about drawing something in your Parisian or NY or London studio and then making the patterns, writing the spec sheet, then the closing sequence and sending the whole package off to the factory.

Celine might call herself a designer but she is a stylist really (and a very fine one). Other people turn her drawings into designs. Kate Moss calls herself a designer too but all she does is describe what she would like and the designers at TopShop make it happen. The same goes for Victoria Beckham, do you think she actually designs shoes for Gina? Of course she doesn't.

Website design is a little different because what you draw is the finished product, in much the same way as desktop publishing. Coding is the engineering part of the process.

Again, you couldn't design a car you could conceptualise it, style it or draw a pretty picture of a car but you will not be designing it. To design a car would mean that you would be planning where the engine will go, where the radiator would be, the type of seats and the layout of the dashboard. You would have to specify the type of struts and the location of the shock absorbers. This is too much for one person which is why you nearly always have design teams.

I like Marc Newson too!

[loco1]

I really don't mind someone showing off pictures of boots and they're really good too but I spent 3 years living on beans, spending my life savings and generally living in poverty to put myself through college and here comes someone who thinks they can do the same job!

I have made a few shoes in my time and every single one was designed from the concept picture to the finished article. This included cutting the patterns, making the mock-up and making the finished article from scratch. Most proper designers will do all of this because you cannot design something unless you have a good idea of whether it would be possible to make it. This is why it takes 7 years to qualify as an architect.

High fashion footwear is all about drawing something in your Parisian or NY or London studio and then making the patterns, writing the spec sheet, then the closing sequence and sending the whole package off to the factory.

Celine might call herself a designer but she is a stylist really (and a very fine one). Other people turn her drawings into designs. Kate Moss calls herself a designer too but all she does is describe what she would like and the designers at TopShop make it happen. The same goes for Victoria Beckham, do you think she actually designs shoes for Gina? Of course she doesn't.

Website design is a little different because what you draw is the finished product, in much the same way as desktop publishing. Coding is the engineering part of the process.

Again, you couldn't design a car you could conceptualise it, style it or draw a pretty picture of a car but you will not be designing it. To design a car would mean that you would be planning where the engine will go, where the radiator would be, the type of seats and the layout of the dashboard. You would have to specify the type of struts and the location of the shock absorbers. This is too much for one person which is why you nearly always have design teams.

I like Marc Newson too!

this is going to be the last time is respond to this.

i wonder why you persistingly accuse me of saying i was able to build those boots.

read it slowly and carefully: I NEVER SAID THIS!!!!!!!

the term to design in germany does not neccessarily involve the technical aspects as you describe them.

i read a little about it and found out that in the anglo-saxon area the term to design includes them.

that's why i was backpedaling. (i guess you read that, didn't you?)

but you're still hackling me on that issue.

i studied photoengineering and mediadesign. so a lot of years at college for me as well.

but in the next step you do the same you accuse me of.

not paying respect to the profession of others.

this was definitely not meant to be my visual masterpiece.

i did it just for fun in quite a short time.

but saying in a roundabout way i was drawing like a child...

i don't think those pictures and my studies deserve that.

and again:

all this was supposed to be as you call them "pretty pictures of boots".

totally detached from the possibility of making them work in real life.

but to me this is becoming more and more psychologically interesting why

you totally neglect what i was writing and keep going on and on....

besides: do you have a doctoral dregree?

[yozz]

Don't get too upset. It seems that the discussion has arrived at the level of justification why there was a reaction about words at the beginning. In short: we are at the meta-level now. One of the problems with native English speakers is that their tolerance w.r.t. the use of the language is far less than that of nonnative speakers among themselves. Some time ago there was a nice article about this in either the New Scientist or the Scientific American (I forget which one) under the title "Who owns English?" Let us just keep it at that you drew some very nice pictures that were appreciated by many and that some people didn't need the very high heels to stumble, but just stumbled over your words. Cheer up. Y.

[Trolldeg]

I really don't mind someone showing off pictures of boots and they're really good too but I spent 3 years living on beans, spending my life savings and generally living in poverty to put myself through college and here comes someone who thinks they can do the same job!

So this is really just a case of you trying to show off with all your shoe-design knowledge?

Website design is a little different because what you draw is the finished product, in much the same way as desktop publishing. Coding is the engineering part of the process.

You obviously don't know web design.

[Dr. Shoe]

this is going to be the last time is respond to this.

i wonder why you persistingly accuse me of saying i was able to build those boots.

read it slowly and carefully: I NEVER SAID THIS!!!!!!!

the term to design in germany does not neccessarily involve the technical aspects as you describe them.

i read a little about it and found out that in the anglo-saxon area the term to design includes them.

that's why i was backpedaling. (i guess you read that, didn't you?)

but you're still hackling me on that issue.

i studied photoengineering and mediadesign. so a lot of years at college for me as well.

but in the next step you do the same you accuse me of.

not paying respect to the profession of others.

this was definitely not meant to be my visual masterpiece.

i did it just for fun in quite a short time.

but saying in a roundabout way i was drawing like a child...

i don't think those pictures and my studies deserve that.

and again:

all this was supposed to be as you call them "pretty pictures of boots".

totally detached from the possibility of making them work in real life.

but to me this is becoming more and more psychologically interesting why

you totally neglect what i was writing and keep going on and on....

besides: do you have a doctoral dregree?

Why are you flaming me for?

You said you designed the boots and I said that you drew pictures of them. If in your own mind you think that this is the same thing then that's fine, it comes down to a matter of semantics.

As I have said all along, they are wonderful pictures in their own right and are quite possibly masterpieces. For what it's worth they are as good as a designer would turn out but they are not designs. A design is a blueprint from which an engineer has to work. In the footwear world the design is what the factory would use to make the shoes, they cannot do this from a picture.

To be honest, yes I do resent it when someone tries to say that they design shoes without any background or knowledge of what they are doing. It's a bit like someone telling an architect that they've designed a house but then show them a picture of a house and nothing else. It's a bit like someone saying that they're an airline pilot having played "Flight simulator" on their computer.

No, I don't show off my knowledge of footwear design, I just point out that there is much, much more to designing shoes than just drawing a picture of them.

I don't have a doctorate, just a First Class BA Honours degree. The "Dr. Shoe" thing is just a nickname like Loco1...

[bootmebaby]

Ok Ok...we know that they are drawings...put all the other junk behind us. Very often in anything that requires the making of something, a drawing is what you start with. Loco1, if you want what you created in a drawing to be real life, take them to a cobbler/shoe designer (if you do, it might be a good idea to ensure that you are protected with your design...meaning the cobbler shoe designer can't steal your concept for themselves). I can tell you from just reading all the positive responses to your drawings (including Dr. Shoe's...he did say they are very nice) that you should pursue making them into reality. Sure there will be some costs involved, but those costs could be offset or absorbed by the shoe designer in that they can share in the profits that could be made off of the final product. I believe that this can be accomplished and that you could turn a profit with this. I usually don't speak for others, but I think many people here would buy them if they were available.

[spikesmike]

OOOOHHH hell yes. Make them available. I am size 13 US- 11 UK -45 EUR. Mike.

[Tech]

Doc, these modern times, "designers" are often very different in their own right to "developers", especially in the website business. It happens all the time, where a designer, will create a beautiful website, to look at, but has no concept of how it will all be coded, or work, thats not their job, and often you find there are fantastic designers (The artistic work) who are crap at any development, and fantastic developers who cant design a tin of beans, but could make it do anything you like, and often in the internet business, the 2 have to be able to work together... Sometimes, you might even come across a great developer, who also has fantastic design skills too, but dont rain on his parade here... He did actually "design" a wonderful boot to "look at" from an art perspective, but as you say, he didnt claim it was any sort of blueprint, he just designed it. Design has lots of different meanings, and doesnt always mean "Designed with a view to it working like it looks", just that they created something appeasing visually. Design work these days is very visually focused, so dont take his coments the wrong way.. Oh, and no, its nothing like claiming your a pilot if you flew a simulator, you would have to be a real idiot to claim something like that

[Dr. Shoe]

Well, I have the lasts to make them so how about I take these pictures and produce some patterns?

[Tech]

Well, I have the lasts to make them so how about I take these pictures and produce some patterns?

Now were on the right track. Instead of arguments, we have collaboration

Hell, those would be awesome if really made.....

What do you reckon the costs might really be doc?

[bootmebaby]

That would be awesome Doc to see what you come up with

[loco1]

Well, I have the lasts to make them so how about I take these pictures and produce some patterns?

that would be a wonderful idea!

[hh4evr1]

If they can be made. Who ever has selling rights should sell them as mens boots and see if it starts a trend.

[bootmebaby]

Well, I have the lasts to make them so how about I take these pictures and produce some patterns?

that would be a wonderful idea!

Looks like the two essential parties are on board to make this happen...I, and I bet all of us, look forward to seeing the progress and process of making this happen:nervous: