Friday, September 20 2024 – Sunday, September 22 2024
10:00 am – 7:00 pm each day
ExIT Shoes — 800 NW 6th Ave STE 207, Portland, OR, 97209
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This is shoemaking workshop about shoe design and pattern making. You will learn the basics of drawing footwear designs and how to turn those designs into patterns. We’ll cover the names of shoe parts, elements of design, and techniques for creating designs based on lasts. Patterns for the upper are based on the last itself. You will learn how to make profiles from lasts and create pattern templates from the profiles. We will draw and cut the patterns using paper. Cutting and sewing leather (known in the trade as clicking and closing) is covered in the Footwear Materials and Upper Construction workshop.
The techniques covered here are not only suitable for making your own shoes, they are the standard methods used by professionals everywhere – from small shops like mine to large production factories.
From Design to Patterns
There are many ways to sketch shoes. I will teach my favorite approaches to design sketching and how these help create designs that can be made. Learning how to sketch conceptual footwear ideas and bring them into the bounded space defined by shoe lasts is part of the larger design process. Regardless of how you design, creating footwear is a journey from 3D to 2D and back again. Like the pattern template pieces used to define the shapes, most materials for shoes start out flat and are later assembled into a three-dimensional objects. Like projecting an accurate map of the world, this is no simple task!
The Secret Geometry of Shoe Lasts
Shoe lasts come in many different shapes and styles. Many lasts, if not most, are built according to guiding geometric principles. This information is hiding in plain sight. Some basic rules of thumb and a measuring tape can help reveal important proportions that are essential to making well-fitting and good looking shoe designs. There is a lot to know about shoe lasts, but we will cover only the parts needed for design and pattern making. Consider taking my class on Lasts and Sizing if you want to understand more about lasts.
NoD, 2D, 3D
Do you love working with computers? Do you hate working with computers? Do you sometimes love and sometimes hate working with computers? There is a place for everyone along this spectrum. We don’t have to be constrained by one method or another. In this class I will teach analog and digital techniques that I use for footwear design and rapid prototyping. You will learn techniques for quickly, cost effectively, and sustainably producing footwear design prototypes. With these methods you can go beyond illustrative designs to create actual pattern pieces that can be cut and tested.
Analog — more than just tape
You will learn an analog approach to obtaining last properties through measurements and the results of taping and flattening exercises. This will then be put into a geometric framework that will help you adjust properties of fit, appearance, and function, with the knowledge that what you create will fit your last. I start all of my designs this way and find it both fun and relaxing. It requires very little in the way of tools and materials. You can make all the designs you like and move on with your life, no computer required!
2D Digital Hybrid
The geometric design framework provides a guide to help produce good looking and functional designs. It imposes very few constraints on the kinds of footwear designs you can create. I will teach you how to scan, import, convert, and organize the parts of the analog footwear pattern template so they can easily be revised and printed for cutting, testing, and evaluation. The 2D drawings will be validated against the analog originals to make sure the scale is correct. I prefer the free and open source Inkscape program for 2D vector drawing, but the techniques are not unique to Inkscape. You may use whatever vector drawing program you’re comfortable with.
3D Digital Hybrid
The same principles used to create the analog geometric design framework can be derived from digital last models. I will teach how I scan lasts and use Rhino to obtain measurements and key elements of lasts for my design process. I will cover trimming and remeshing digital models, the nuances of flattening techniques and how to then transfer those to Inkscape to create a digital equivalent of the analog design geometry. To put this a different way, we will focus primarily on 2D design, but we will get there using 3D techniques.
What should I know ahead of time?
No prior experience with footwear design is required, but any and all experience is welcome. Familiarity with vector drawing would be helpful for the 2D digital portion. Familiarity with viewing and manipulating 3D meshes would be helpful for the 3D portion. Some knowledge of Grasshopper would be helpful too, but not essential. My plan is to expose you to all of these techniques and to let you focus on the methods that speak best to you.
As an introductory course, we will focus on “low” shoes – shoes with a top line typically below the ankle – like the Derby, Oxford, Pump, and Sneaker.
What should I bring?
Bring your ideas and sketches. Please bring along any drawing tools you like to use. I will also provide the necessary drawing tools. If you have a physical last you would like to use, please bring it along, or I will provide one for your use in class.
To participate fully in the digital components, bring your laptop already loaded with Inkscape or your vector drawing program of choice and Rhino for the 3D component. If you also have a digital model of a last that you would like to use, please bring it along, otherwise a digital last model will be provided.