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Originality Wore on Feet
Foreigners in China
Erick, 43 years old, comes from London, England, used to be vocational worker in an insurance company, ran shoe shops and shoe factories, now makes a round trip between China and Europe, trading in China.

Originality Wore on Feet

When even Chinese are diffident about their design, come and listen Erick’s opinion, he knows more ins and outs about it than us.

Chinese designers are commonly held as lacking creativity, both in foreign and domestic designing circles. What a stupid opinion it is in my point of view! Creativity is a part of our natural disposition, possessed by everyone. The difference only lies in the extent how it can be brought into play. It is irresponsible to lay the blame of designing problems simply to the designers’ lack of creativity, instead of going deeper to its real reason. According to my observation, many of my Chinese designer friends are quite excellent; their works are not inferior to those of western designers.

Mr. Wang might be the first designer I knew in China. Since he has gone abroad to study, his life and hobbies are westernmost, we didn’t have much barrier in communication. Soon, we became good friends. Sometimes he complains that Chinese customers’ concept advances too slow. After a new design comes out, producers will always make some changes on it, towards easy and producible directions. Some designers’ new concepts can not put into production in Chinese shoe factories. He usually tells me that Chinese designers do not lack creativity; they only have no chance to show their talents.

As far as I am concerned, design is not a simple matter which can be explained easily. Many factors, such as individual character, life experience, educational background, social environment and technique standard, all influence a designer’s level.The designing process is very complicated, even it is for a pair of shoes. Designers have to compose its general shape, and then draw it by professional software. During this process, they have to bring many factors into consideration, for example, prevail colors this year, the material and the style. All these require them to collect a great deal of information. As to those high-heeled shoes, they have to think over engineering principles that how much weight human body can undertake. All designers should understand that, a good design of shoes, demands good-looking appearance, what’s more important, it should be comfortable. Designers’ task will be solving problems rather than creating problems. National famous bands such as “Clark” of England and “Aibu” of Denmark always stick to this principle; Chinese designers should also keep this in mind.

I like some younger Belgian designers very much. Comparing to French and Italians, their design are fresher and less luxurious. Their designs are powerful and unstrained. Most of the time, the inspiration comes from a seaside holiday or a glimpse of streets. They held their work more as an art, less of a skill. But I find that no matter in France, Italy or Belgium, designers share a commonness, that they always keep a young heart. A 40 years old designer friend of mine, likes web language, new –born generation’s cartoon; his rooms are filled with all kinds of inspirational odd dolls. I think a young heart is just the real reason they can keep new designing concepts and creative inspiration all the time.


   埃里克,34岁,英国伦敦人,曾在保险公司作业务员,开过鞋店和制鞋工厂,现在常年往返于中国和欧洲之间做鞋类贸易。

穿在脚上的创意
    当国人自己对中国的设计也底气不足时, 听听埃里克的意见,他了解的原委比我们还多。

    现在的设计界,不光是外国,也包括中国设计界,都普遍认为中国的设计师缺乏创造力,在我看来这是一个多么愚蠢的观点。创造力是一个人天性的一部分,人人都有,只不过能够发挥的程度不同。不去分析深入的原因,只简单地把设计上出现的问题全部都归咎于设计师没有创造力,这是一种不负责任的说法。据我观察,我的中国设计师朋友中就有很多相当出色的,他们的作品丝毫不比欧洲设计师逊色。设计师王先生差不多是我来中国之后认识的第一个设计师,因为他有留学国外的经历,生活和爱好都已经西方化,我们之间沟通起来障碍不打,很快就成了好朋友。有时他会抱怨中国客户的设计理念提升太慢,一款新鞋设计出来以后,生产商总是会做一些修改,往简单处改﹑往便利生产的方向改。设计师的一些超前理念,拿到中国的制鞋厂却无法生产。王总是对我说,中国的设计师从来不缺创造力,只是很多时候得不到相应的施展机会。

    在我看来,设计部是一个简简单单就可以说清楚地事情。有很多方面的因素,比如个人性格,生活经历,教育背景,社会环境,技术水平等等,都影响着设计师的设计水平。设计师们首先要在头脑中大概构思出这款鞋的大致模样,然后再用专业的设计软件绘制。在这个过程中,设计师要考虑很多因素,比如,今年流行什么颜色,说明材质,什么款式。这些都要求设计师大量收集流行情报。对于细高跟的鞋,还要考虑人体承重的工程力学原理。所有的设计师都应该明白,一款好鞋,不仅要外观漂亮,更重要的是穿着舒服。设计师的任务永远是解决问题而不失制造问题。这一观点,英国的“克拉克”﹑丹麦的“爱步”等国际著名品牌都是始终坚持的,中国鞋业的设计师们也应该牢记这一点。

    我非常喜欢比利时的一些年轻设计师,他们的设计比起法国和意大利人少一些奢华,更多一些新鲜。他们的设计天马行空,不受约束。很多时候,或者是街头的匆匆一瞥。他们也更多地将自己的工作当做一种艺术而不是技术。不过我发现,不管是法国﹑意大利还是比利时,欧洲的这些设计师都有一个共同点,就是童心未泯。无论多大年纪,他们始终对这个世界保持着好奇心。我的一个40来岁的设计师朋友喜欢用网络语言,喜欢那些新生代的漫画,房间里总有各种充满了设计感的新奇小玩偶。我想童心大概就是他们一直保持新鲜的设计观念和创作灵感的原因吧。




 

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