FMP Evaluation

1. How has your research informed your final outcome and why has this been important?

My research has informed my final outcome massively, my initial research on the footwear market as a whole gave me an understanding on whether my idea for the FMP was relevant and would work. The primary research of surveys gave me key insights into what the younger generation want in shoes e.g. sustainability being important, whilst research into how footwear brands market their brand gave me inspiration for the final outcomes. Due to sustainability being a big part of my project, I researched many different materials in order to hand pick the certain ones I wanted for my shoes and those are the materials that are present on the final outcomes. Without the in-depth research, I completed on sustainable materials, I would have not picked the most eco-friendly materials therefore meaning my shoe wear brand and final outcomes would be weak.

2. Can you name an important artist/designers/creative/writer that have focused and supported you to make a change in your work?

One important brand/designers were the owners of the shoe wear brand Notwoways, throughout my entire project I have used them to help influence my brand. One main reason why this is the case is because their brand started recently (2019) and have already been very successful for example, their first shoe release sold out in 63 seconds. Due to how new the brand is, I could relate to their brand, whereas the bigger brands like Nike and Adidas that have had thousands. Tinker Hatfield was a designer that influenced me throughout the project as well due to his impressive portfolio and ethos. He designer the majority of the Nike Jordan’s, created EARL (Electro adaptive reactive lacing) and was once quoted by Phil Knight (Nike founder) to have ‘saved Nike”. One key way in which he influenced me was through his design process and the way he went about designing a shoe. He would start of by doing many pencil sketches then getting feedback and adapt every detail if need be until he had the final product which he only released if he was happy with it. His meticulous design process shaped the way I went about designing my shoe.

3. What changes would you make to improve this outcome and why?

I would overall make the trailer shorter as 5 minutes is too long in my opinion, however I had to include a lot of information within a certain time. I could have maybe created a range of trailers for example have a condensed version but still have the longer version as well. With the still poster, I don’t believe I could have created a much better image as I had to include so much visual information in one image e.g. all the possible variants.

4. How has Covid impacted the production and planning of your work? What did you to do to resolve this?

Covid has had a huge impact on my project throughout, one key example would be the first couple of weeks. The first week of initial research would have been done a lot differently, I would have gone to shoe shops to gage a large variety of shoes and maybe would have gone to a factory that made shoes to understand the shoe manufacture process better. In order to collect a variety of different shoe designs, I asked my friends to send me pictures of their favourite shoes in order to see what my target audience liked. I also ordered shoe magazines in order to get access to a range of shoe designs and information. My final outcome of the trailer would be better as I could have got footage of factories to use as a background for the scenes, instead I utilised my route into university to collect a range of shots for the trailer e.g. the underground. This didn’t relate as much to the overlaid text as possible, but still showed the dingy/dirty aesthetic I wanted.

5. How has experimentation in a range of materials and processes (please state) impacted your project?

Experimentation has been a huge part throughout my project, with my project being creating a shoe wear brand, I have had to experiment a lot. One section of the project where I experimented in a range of materials, was when I was designing the look of the shoe. I started that process by completing six three-minute pencil sketches of shoe side profiles and the same for the birds-eye view. I then used colour pencil to add colour to these sketches, this allowed for a more finished look and gave the shoe designs more character. I then did four digital sketches, taking longer these (5 minutes) to create more refined designs. Throughout this process of experimentation, I have taken certain design elements from each sketch to then finally move forward with one of the four digital sketches, this sketch is what my final outcome is based off. The final design of the shoe has been built from all the previous work with experimentation.

6. What led you to this final outcome and why?

My final outcomes are a poster and a trailer for the shoe wear brand that are on the brands Instagram. I decided to display my outcomes on a social media platform (Instagram) as it is the best way to reach my selected age group (16-25) due to its easy access and global reach. I decided for one of my outcomes to be a still image poster as it does not take up too much of the viewer’s time when looking at it and it promotes sustainability e.g., no print media. I made the trailer as I believe a poster or just images alone could not tell the whole story of my brand. The video has allowed me to tell the story of the brand and create a great promotional tool. In order to keep the viewer interested throughout, I have tried to limit the amount of blank backgrounds so instead used footage I have collected. I also used up-beat heavy based music as well as sound effects to help keep the viewer engaged.

7. How have you contextualised your project, what environment, brands, clients and audience etc. has influenced the design work and why?

My audience has influenced/contextualised my design work throughout the entire project, I started the project by creating a survey to gauge what 16-25 year olds desire in their shoes and what they would want. 22/25 cared about sustainability within trainers, 21/25 like customizable trainers and 25/25 believe comfort is important. Through those results alone, my final shoe uses sustainable materials, is comfortable e.g. I had to make an adjustment to the tongue of the shoe to make it linin instead of bast fibres as they are not very comfortable and the shoe is customizable. The overall ethos of the brand/shoe is a shoe that replaces every shoe, you only need this one shoe for any occasion as you can adjust the shoe through the custom elements to change the look of it. The best way to promote sustainability within the shoe wear market is reducing the amount of shoes people are buying and this shoe answers that as after buying my shoe, you don’t need any others.