It’s been a little while since we have heard from our friend Alan, but worth the wait! What a great article with a great message for us all!! Sometimes we can forget that things don’t just magically appear out of nowhere and it is so important that we take the time to ask the question, “what was your inspiration?” or simply a “why”. If we remember to do this rather than simply react, we might realize that the product we are evaluating actually makes sense. After reading this, I hope Alan writes for us more often!! Great work!! Eat your heart out Will….looks like Hush Puppies has someone who might just give you a run for your writing money! haha -Julia

Give it Time

Do you ever have those moments where you see things in a new light?  Or you become aware of something that you already knew about, but it has never directly affected you before?

 As a design student, then professional, and full time lover of all cool things, I have many times been faced with having to accept a new version or updated design  (we all are subject to this whether we are into ‘design’ or not).  Many times it’s a new car that has come out, or it can be a new logo from a well-known company.  Sometimes that change is met with instant approval, kind of a eureka moment that makes us wonder “why wasn’t it like this all along?”  Although other times it is met with instant disapproval, with kicks and screams as our eyes and brains demand a return to what’s familiar.

Over my first few seasons here in the footwear industry I have had many bouts with this situation.  As a designer I get to let the concept come together before my eyes, if a line or pattern seems too different or odd I can change it, if it seems too familiar I change it.   Then I have the first samples that come in, again giving me time to consider this design, small tweaks are made and the 2^nd prototypes come in, leathers are chosen and the same “is it right?” questions are asked.  Long story short, I see the shoe a lot, and explore the many possible ways it might look, and even after all that there are still instances where I might not like it at first but then it may grow on me over a week or so.

Switch gears to a line meeting or a sales meeting; Sales reps and other business team members are shown the shoes for the first time and undoubtedly will form their knee jerk reactions to what they think.  No doubt taking into consideration last seasons line, current competitor product, personal tastes, etc.  Again, sometimes it’s positive and sometimes negative reaction.  At first I was naive to the fact that I had all the time in the design process to let the product grow on me, it was not given to me in finished form when I first saw it, so I would wonder why they couldn’t ‘see it’ when they had a negative, or less than warm first response to the product.

The point here is that seeing anything for the first time that is new or different will almost always create this yes or no reaction, and our first instinct to this is not always right as its based on familiarity and conditioning. 

The 2^nd and most important part if this equation (that I had not always been cognizant of) is time.  We work for the future; designs are laid to paper over a year before they will ever exist on the market, so there is usually a missing step between what is being shown and what is on the market currently that further leads to the disconnect in design.  Its not always just another shoe that fills in this gap, its consumer behavior, attitudes, shifts in fashion, music, politics, and design that can take place over a 12 month period that can be the moving target for designers.  Very much like the duck hunting analogy, we don’t design at where the target is, but where we think the target will be.  Although in duck hunting its less than 1 second from when the trigger is pulled to when it reaches its target, not a lot of time for suspense and fear of failure to build; in footwear design its about a year, so I have learned to become comfortable with the fact that sometimes someone may not be confident that my shot will hit the target when I pull the trigger….

That’s ok, give it time.

-Alan

www.hushpuppies.com