This week we decided to take some time out with our ‘Children’s Footwear Designer’ Debbie Sutcliffe to work out just exactly what makes her tick and ask for her advice for the budding designers of tomorrow.
Please describe what you do?
My role consists of building a commercial footwear range for Wynsor’s and working with high street customers directly to find out exactly what they want as consumers.
Being a children’s footwear designer I cover boys, girls and babies footwear, with sizes ranging from new born to teen size 5. Throughout the year I work on both Winter and Summer season footwear, plus a large focus is on the Back to School range. There are many different types of footwear that can be covered throughout the seasons, including: boots, sandals, wellies, canvas, slippers and pram shoes.
For each new season I start by researching what is up and coming on the trend websites, conduct online research and take notes on what’s available during high street shopping trips. We visit UK cities as well as travelling across Europe to gather new and exciting ideas to bring back with us. In particular Paris is a great place to get inspiration for children’s shoes.
Once the initial research is conducted this acts as my bible for the season and is also the talking point for many meetings later with the further team at Wynsors. Throughout the year I will always keep an eye open for new trends which may pop up. When designing the new range, I particularly like to look for new ideas; from something as simple as a new styled bow to interesting fabrics and outsoles.
The children’s design team consists of 2 designers, a buyer and the buyer’s assistant, we discuss the best and worst of last year’s styles. This meeting gives us a clear idea of the styles that need updating and those that are still going to be popular staying as they are. New ideas, trends and styles from the researching trips are now added to the plan, allowing us to create small collections for each product area.
What is the journey from idea to completion stage?
My design work starts as a line drawing using Adobe Illustrator programme, using Adobe Photoshop I colour the design in, I then specify this in a CAD (computer aided design) form. A specification sheet consists of detailed information which informs the factory of how I would like the shoe to look – it’s important to be as detailed as possible especially as safety of children’s footwear is imperative. Once the specification is complete I email this to our factory in China where they create a sample of the shoe from using the design specification. A sample on average takes 3-4 weeks to make; during this time I work closely with the factory staff to communicate any issues or queries. Once the factory has finished the sample they send it directly to our UK office.
Tell us about a typical day…
My working day starts at 8am, so after making a quick brew I switch on my computer to go through my emails. Our footwear manufacturing factories are based in China which means there is an 8 hour lead ahead of UK time, so many of the queries sent the day before are answered the next morning.
After going through my emails I ensure that anything urgent is answered. My working day mainly consists of designing the range for the current season, but sometimes my day can be very varied. As I also design for high street customers my work load can be split between our general range and urgent customer work. Throughout the day I am constantly checking my emails between designing. Currently I am working on some exciting new brand ideas which could mean that one minute I am creating a new character and designing a new shoe box and the next minute designing an urgent design for a customer or selecting a material for a factory on email.
Before I finish work at 5pm I ensure that I’ve completed urgent work and sent any urgent emails enquiries where I would need an answer for the next day.
What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?
It is essential that you can work on both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, as these are the software used to create the designs. Hand drawing is also a great skill to have.
As a designer you need to be a good team player working alongside other designers and footwear buyers to decide on the design, but you must also be able to work well alone and using your initiative.
You need to be able to listen to feedback from others and be able to put these in to your work even if you don’t always agree with them.
You need to be able to multi task and divert your attention between different areas of work.
You need to be commercial and think about what the customer wants.
What do you love about your job?
Designing children’s shoes allows me to be creative using a choice of colours, materials and I can be experimental with the fun aspect of designing children’s shoes. I love designing and coming up with new ideas but one of my favourite parts of my job is receiving samples of my designs and seeing my design in real shoe form still excites me.
What don’t you like as much?
As a designer I want to put my own ideas and creativity into my work so when I am given a specific specification to do with no design input, it is the least challenging part of my job. It can also be disappointing when a sample received from the factory has been interpreted in a different way than intended.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into your line of work?
If you want to work in footwear design my best advice would be to practice hand, illustrator and Photoshop shoe drawing to build up a footwear portfolio thinking about materials, colours and details. Once you have started this you are already one step ahead of most of the competition.
Start by sending your work to footwear companies and agencies you are interested in working for and also those that are looking for designers. Even if you haven’t studied footwear design, the same design process applies as for clothing. It is important to be commercial when you are creating your designs and think about the customer you are targeting and not just your personal preference.
You need to learn not to take negative criticism personally, as a designer you will get a lot a criticism which is sometimes hard to hear.
What makes the retail design industry exciting to work in?
There’s always something new and exciting happening, even if this doesn’t apply to my area, it keeps me on my toes and looking out for anything I have missed. Working on a commercial level means I get to see my design in store and even out and about of children’s feet!
Do you have any motivational words for people aspiring to become designers in this competitive industry?
Always believe in your own work! As how can you expect someone else to like what you’ve done if you don’t believe in it yourself. Don’t be afraid to get your work out there for companies to see it. What harm can it do!
Work hard and you will achieve your dreams!
