Quidditch for muggles.

Upon creating my designs I felt like I was limiting myself. I went through my previous blog posts seeing whereabouts I might be able to improve my design. Whilst scrolling down I remembered about the runway show I posted about when dealing with transformation with clothing. I posted a runway video of Alexander McQueen and a certain shoe used for this runway caught my eye. It was original, appealing and unique. 

Looking at this shoe I felt inspired and decided I could use it for my concept shoe design. All I needed to do was improve it and go round it. The design caught my eye straight away. I loved it's shape and thought it would fit my final piece nicely. Therefore I started coming up with a few sketches and finally decided on the shape I wanted to use. [See Below]

I finally decided to go along finishing off my concept with the design above. Original, new and fun. Finally having been inspired by Alexander McQueen's design, it was time to move onto the next step. Adding film/media into my concept design. I decided to go with Harry Potter more than the Life of Pi for my final piece. I chose to go along this path because I myself being a fan of harry potter will be more interested and motivated to create something with a better outcome along this film and not another. I also thought people might be more appealed to the design I had in mind for this piece along the lines of Harry Potter. 

Whilst doing research I came across a car many people are familiar with and one of its latest designs made by designer Jeremy Scott. The Smart Car. Looking at his design gave an idea which I could add onto my shoe design based on Harry Potter inspired by this car's unique look. 

For the above sketch I applied the inspiration I got from the smart's design; the wings. It gave it a sleek look and flow throughout the shoe making it more aesthetically pleasing. 

I then altered it based on the ideas I got from the Snitch in Harry Potter. The wings I drew on the shoe for my final concept design were inspired by The Golden Snitches wings, giving it a more serious look. 

''Quidditch is a fictional competitive sport in the wizarding world of the Harry Potter Universe. It is an extremely rough but very popular semi-contact sport, played by wizards and witches. Matches are played between two teams of seven players riding flying broomsticks, using four balls and six elevated ring-shaped goals, three on each side of the Quidditch pitch (field). In the Harry Potte runiverse, Quidditch holds a fervent following similar to the position that association football holds as a globally popular sport.''

'' In the films, the wings on the Snitch are gold. The winged Snitch is enchanted to hover, dart, and fly around the pitch, avoiding capture while remaining within the boundaries of the playing area.''

 [Wikipedia, 2013]

Fresh Start

Whilst looking back on my work I was still quite confused as to how I wanted to proceed with my concept. I took a look at my blog with one of my unit tutor's, Ms.Sharon Abela. She liked the idea however thought it might be a bit too cliche'.. a bit too mainstream. Looking at it over again, scrolling through my work I agreed. Even though it was a good idea, it wasn't anything new. the design and inspiration might have been original but the way I went around designing the shoe wasn't; So it was time to look back and reflect and see where I can improve my work. My initial idea for my concept design was to come up with an original sneaker which I would like myself. Thinking it over I thought it would be best to design a woman's shoe; a design which in my opinion will be able to open up more windows when it comes to the design. With a woman's shoe there is much more to portray and I think I can express my creativity better. Looking at my previous research, not only within this unit but also in that of my other tutor Ms.Vella, I took a great liking to the signature shoe of Christian Louboutin. A classy shoe, loved, wanted and appreciated by many fashionistas and fashion icons. They're simple, yet elegant and look better than many other rival designer shoes; matter of opinion of course. I initially got inspiration from the shoe on the poster of the film 'The Devil Wears Prada'. Simple, elegant, and it portrays the title in the shoe itself.

[Photo taken by Me]

IMDb, 1990-2012. The Devil Wears Prada. [online] Available at: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/> [Accessed 16 December 2012]

COW

''COW Theo van Doesburg, aesthetically transformed Subject, 1917, Bauhaus-Archive, Berlin.''

Here, Van Doesburg manipulated a picture of a cow from a pencil drawing to one of a more abstract design. He first went along a similar style of Picasso (cubism) and then (last picture) ended on a style very similar to that of De Stijl (Neo-Plasticism). The jump from one picture of the cow to another was referred to as an obsurd one. It is there to point out the importance of abstract art and its significance. 

The first picture is there to clarify the last picture, as it might not being as evident as the other two what the artist is trying to portray. Having them next to eachother also creates a great contrast between the different styles of art. The first picture is more traditional and it is easy to interpret as it is obvious to the eye what the painter is trying to portray whereas in the other stages it might not be as clear as they are 'leaning' more towards modern art. One wouldn't normally think to portray a cow in such a way as the last picture. The different pictures/stages are showing us different ''intentions and effects. however strange they may be''.

pereirdasilva, 2010, COW Theo van Doesburg. [online] Available at: <http://pereiradasilva.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.htm> [Accessed 18 November 2012]