Hi , my frineds !
Here’s the stuff that I came up with for the KG’s Rising Suns theme .I wanted to make a signature shoe but for the team , not the player. I think Phoenix Suns are really deserving it with their game ! The concepts is all around one specific Sun , Arizona inspired upper with different soles , facing the needs of all the players in the team . All feedbacks and critiques are well exepted . Ole !
Wow. 100 page views and not one comment.
Let me be the first then.
Vents, I have always been a big fan and I still am.
This latest is both good and bad IMO.
Way back when, when I first saw your designs, they were so far removed from reality that they were just fantasies of what a shoe could be if anything was possible. There seemed to be no considerations for manufacturing or cost whatsoever. The designs were very pure.
Little by little, I see reality has become integrated into your designs and usually this makes the design stronger - because it looks as if it can actually be made and sold.
Your rendering style is better and better every time.
This time, I think this shoe is great. It is well planned and interesting to look at. There seems to be a lot of thought put into the function and a cross-platform type of feel to it that can work on different outsoles.
HOWEVER, I don’t think this is what I wanted to see from you. When I saw the silhouette you posted on the KG forums, I was eagerly awaiting another crazy impossible fantasy. This one just seems too grounded in reality and do-able.
So I can’t decide if it is good or bad. Long ago, someone may have told you to come down to earth and consider the practical side of footwear design. I am happy to say you have arrived and have succeeded in designing some viable products, but I don’t see the wild imagination I once did.
not so keen on the colours. thats just personal preference, dont know if you have to make the whole shoe purple and gold to go with team colours, id go alot easier with the purple, maybe on the trims.
the rendering style / technique you’ve got going is awesome. it reminds me of comic book artists, i love it.
I also really like the proportions and rendering technique, but I feel the design is over complicated and could be distilled down and refined.
a top/medial view would be nice to help explain the top/forefoot strap.
I also dont really see the idea of designing 1 shoe for a team then doing variations of just the cushioning. wouldnt the different types of players be better served by a different upper more specifically targeted to their needs as well? id rather see a family of shoes that has similar design elements making it a team shoe, with more unique technical and aesthetic solutions. just changing the top strap, some logos, color details and heel cushioning doesnt do it for me.
overall though, nice rending and approach. I too think the deisgn can be simplified a bit, and also challenge you to make something a little more “new” its good to pay attention to the realities of manufacturing, but for a portfolio piece, looks too much like something that already exists or even something from a few years ago. push yourself, i know you can do it!
R
i agree; still good just seems tame in comparison…though this design has a lot to look at…
Thanks for the replies , my friends !
Robin , Ade : To be honest , I feel the same way too . Just wanted to land on some ground with this one .It was all the idea of a Shox shoe in the begining … It was more like an exercise in PS than doing a special design in the end , these three were all by one sketch , scaned three times . In the end , it was fun , never did something like that before .
Richard : A challenge ? I like this one ! Next KG theme is FreeStyle , so lot of ‘new’ stuff will be toned down I think … I already have some ideas that gets me exited … A good sign it is ! He-He !
K.E. , Yo : Do you guys thing that such a rendering style will be accepted anywhere ? Because , beside tryed to make the shoe close to the reality , it’s not that photo-look-like style of rendering that I see on some folios .
Thakns ! Ole !
I know your question was for Yo % K.E., but I got to put 2 more cents in.
Your rendering style here is nice… and I liked your previous style more!
Sorry, I don’t want to discourage you from trying new things but I always wondered how you used to achieve that distinctive look with your shading. It looked almost as if you had fully shaded the drawings in pencil and then colorized them in photoshop.
I see some traces of the previous style here, but like the designs themselves, it seems to have lost most of the distinction of your previous works. If this were anyone else’s work, these post replies would be very positive and supportive.
You are not just anyone else though.
Can’t wait to see your freestyle entry.