TALENTED young designers are making a footprint in the world of fashion.
Fashion enterprise students from Cleveland College of Art & Design are to have their work produced by a global shoe manufacturer after having their trainer designs chosen by a North East supplier.
Hannah Wilson, of Washington, and Megan Jackson, of Marton, Middlesbrough, are now hoping that their neon and snake print running shoes will make it into Wearside Footwear’s spring/summer 2014 collection to be sold throughout sport distribution outlets across the country.
Suppliers of quality footwear to many of the world’s best-known high street and mail order names, Wearside Footwear are firmly established as a premier supplier within the UK.
“We were asked to come up with a design for one of three types of trainers, off road, on road and running shoes, for a live client brief, using a variety of sole designs, materials and embellishments in our designs,” said Hannah.
“I chose to make a running trainer with an underwater theme, using a neon colour palette with scale and fin markings on the sides.
“The brief took four weeks from research to making the final nerve-wracking presentation to Wearside Footwear before I was told that they really liked my design and that there was a possibility that it could be used in their new range.
“If my shoe does go into Wearside Footwear’s new collection then I’ll definitely be getting a pair, in fact I’ll make my whole family get a pair, including the dog.”
Megan’s off road design was also shortlisted to be sent to the company’s factory in China to be made into a sample shoe.
“I gave my design a reptile theme with the texture and feel of snakeskin,” said Megan.
“We had to draw the trainers from scratch and use Adobe Illustrator programme for the styling before presenting our mood boards, advertising plans and final designs to the company.
“Throughout the process I never actually thought I’d have my design produced so I can’t wait to see it when it comes back from China.”
HE fashion lecturer Karen Peacock who led the brief on behalf of Wearside Footwear said: “This was our level 4 students’ first experience of a live client brief and being given just four weeks to complete it made it very intense as it really pushed and developed ICT skills with excellent results.
“They all worked to an extremely high industry standards using the CAD machine, which is what our clients expect, and Wearside Footwear was over the moon with the quality and fast turnaround of their work.”
For more information on CCAD courses contact (01642) 288888 or log on to www.ccad.ac.uk
