Hello, we are Gabriella, Julia, Emma and Isabeau.
From left to right:
Gabriella
Hi, my name is Gabriella. I’m 14 years old. I live with my parents and two brothers in a small village, mostly older people live here. My hobbies are tennis, dancing and hanging out with my friends. (I’m the girl on the left).
Julia
Hello, I’m Julia. I am 14 years old. My hobbies are watching Netflix & eating & cooking. Some of my favorite foods are chicken nuggets and pancakes. (I’m the second girl from the left).
Emma
Hi, I’m Emma and I’m 14 years old. I live in Klazienaveen with my parents, two brothers and my dog (Bruno). I like to draw/paint, shopping, bake cookies and hang out with my friends. I like being creative and that’s why I wanted to choose this topic. (I’m the second girl from the right).
Isabeau
Hi! My name is Isabeau and I’m 14 years old. I live in a semi-detached house with my parents and two older sisters. My hobbies are playing handball, watching Netflix and spending time with my friends and family. I love fruit and other food. (I’m the girl on the right).
Summary's
What have we done so far?
Julia, one of the students in our group, emailed a few ecological shops. We weren’t able to visit any art galleries or ecological
shops due to COVID-19. That’s why we improvised and decided to email a few of them. This gave us the chance to get
answers from shops further away from us. Most of them emailed us back with very helpful answers. Gabriella, another
student in our group, called some ecological shop owners. One of them brought us in touch with their designer. He was
very kind and eager to help us with our research.
Gentleberg shoes
Our first interview:
What is the process of designing and creating your products like?
Matthijs: ‘I have no experiences within the shoe industry, so I googled for information. After a good amount of research,
I decided to create some samples. I sketched them first and sent the drawings to a shoe designer. I focused most of my attention
on the shoe last. When the last was finally finished, I sent them to a shoe manufacturer in Italy. Together with a few of the
materials I chose, they made a sample and I changed it to my liking. That’s when the creating of the actual product starts.’ In which ways do you advertise your products?
Matthijs: ‘We mostly advertise through social media, such as Instagram and Facebook. We’ve tried advertising on billboard campaigns and vegan magazines as well. ‘
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced creating the designs?
Matthijs:‘Normally you should start designing by your taste, but I might not like the same products as my clients. You need to find the balance
between what you like and what would be best commercial wise. I love a lot of colour in my shoes, while my clients prefer one coloured shoes. Another challenge is finding the right quality. A shoe gets worn daily. You need to have the best quality to prevent damaging.’
Which skills are needed to win those challenges?
Matthijs: ‘Firstly, you need time, because hasty decisions always have a bad result. You need time to test your product by, for example, letting your friends and family test it. Their feedback can help you with designing the product. It is an exciting moment because you want good feedback. Negative feedback could be helpful too for making your product even better. A negative comment belongs to it. Your belief in an idea is enough to try it.’
Do you have any tips or ideas for
Matthijs: ‘Do not give up! Even when other people might react hesitantly. If you believe in it yourself, you should just do it. Rather regretting something then not have done it. For ideas: think out of the box!’
Matthijs helped us a lot and we’ve learned a lot from him.
Yumeko
This is a summary of interview 2:
What is the process of designing and creating your products like?
Angelique: ‘Designing goes through our designer at the purchasing department.
In which ways do you advertise your products?
Angelique: 'We use social media and our website.’
What are the biggest challenges you've faced when creating the designs?
Angelique: ‘We need to plan a year ahead. The question is: will this be a trend? Will this sell or not?’
Which skills are needed to win those challenges?
Angelique: ‘A good knowledge of what is going on in the design industry and extensive trend analyzes.’
Do you have any tips or ideas for us?
Angelique: ‘Look good at fashion articles and look around you. From the simplest ideas, you might create the best inspiration.’
Yumeko had a very busy schedule, that’s why their answers are shorter than Matthijs’.
Our video
video-2020-12-16-18-24-19__1_.mp4 | |
File Size: | 7779 kb |
File Type: | mp4 |
The blueprint
This is the same blueprint as we showed in the video. We decided to make a flower pot and watering can. As you can see we put the materials of what we are going to make it of next to it. We’re all going to use the waste we’ve got at home. We all love the theme that we’re going for it matches our assignment very well.
What we made ourselves
Because of quarantine we decided to split up our tasks. This is the pot I made. It’s made out of cardboard and tape. I decided to decorate it with paper, little drawings and washi-tape. To top it all off, I put a fake plant in it. Made by Emma :)
I made these flowers to fit with Emma’s pot. At first I looked at pictures from flowers. Then I cut them in the shapes I preferred. To make the stem I rolled up paper diagonal and turned them into a straw. I used an old used book to make everything. Made by Julia.
I made this watering can. At first I cut the cardboard in the shape of a circular box. Then I made the lid to fit on it. I once found a rope close to my house. That’s what I made the rope parts from, together with some plastic. I glued most of it together with an used candle that I heated again. To decorate it I used a few used tissues. Made by Isabeau.
The conclusion
In conclusion; We had a nature/gardening theme. We chose this theme, because it fits the term ‘ecology’. Because of quarantine we decided to split up our tasks. We FaceTimed a few times to give feedback to each other. We are happy with our results. We’ve learned a lot during this project. We now know more about ecological shops and we even learned how to make ecological products ourselves.
The comparison
We found out that the materials they used are very different from ours. They used leaves and coconuts and things you can find in nature. We used old food packaging, cardboard and materials we found in our trashcan.
We also stuck to a theme (gardening) while they made creations very different from each other. We think they were very creative and came up with ideas we wouldn't have thought of.
We also stuck to a theme (gardening) while they made creations very different from each other. We think they were very creative and came up with ideas we wouldn't have thought of.