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THE FLOW OF IDEAS

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A few posts ago – SHOESTORMING – I mentioned Drillog – a beautiful new dip-pen.
Something about the pattern of the engineering and the flow of the ink down the nib to the paper inspired this sketch … mainly of the outsole, but the ‘flow’ could incorporate an aspect of the upper too …

 

As I was sketching it out, I was thinking about the ‘flow’ aspect, and of all the different directions this idea could go in.
A way to channel liquids away from a shoe ?
Or to encourage blood flow while wearing the shoe ?
A digital download of prose being flowed around the shoe ?

MOVING WORDS

Jenny Holzer‘s work came to mind … which I first came across at the Guggenheim in Bilbao over a decade ago, and then again at the Tate Modern in London just a few years ago …

A conceptual artist from New York, her work focuses on the delivery of words and ideas. Often in her signature medium of LED’s – the words and messages scroll down the length of the installation – and was one of the first artists to use information technology as a platform for political protest.

Finding unique sources of inspiration results in unique design, which helps your product stand out from the crowd.

Here’s a blend of all the above using some of my own poetic prose as the message.

 

SHOE STORMING

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I often pull out a blank sheet of paper and start brainstorming with a mind map – sometimes thumbnail sketches, sometimes words – mostly both. Usually at the start of a new project, but I’d not done one for a few weeks. Yesterday, during a sketch break, I opened Austin Kleon‘s latest newsletter and he was sharing his love of mind maps.
As I was in the middle of sketching some ideas, I thought I’d turn one of my shoe sketches in to a mind map, or maybe it should be called a shoestorm.

BROKEN RECORD – BUBBLE SHOE

I put on the Broken Record Podcast – Rick Rubin was chatting with songwriter Diane Warren – for a bit of background chatter to absorb as I sketch along.
The sketch started to remind me of some shoes I’d seen before – the moulded shoe brand Melissa had done something similar years ago – so I googled ‘bubble shoe’… but ended up following a different thread that caught my eye – landing on the Yanko design site reading about a shoe with outsoles to be made from recycled chewing gum.
Following my curiosity a bit further, I found a story about a new ‘dip-pen’ – called the Drillog – beautifully engineered, made in Japan, with a ‘drill-bit’ inspired design that allows the ink to gently flow towards the nib.
The flow of ideas. The flow of ink. Nice.