Header Logo DSK Internation School of Design

International Footwear Designers inspire students. Designers from PUMA, Adidas, Camper and Newfeel were in the city recently. As part of its intensive master classes in footwear design, DSK Supinfocom International School of Design at Manjri invited four senior designers from PUMA, Adidas, Camper and Newfeel to share their expertise in footwear designing with their students. "Footwear is an amazing product to develop. It requires a lot of knowledge in many different fields like sketches, user experience, hard and soft technologies," said senior footwear designer Olivier Lambin, who works for Oxylane in France. He added that they were here to see if there is any potential talent. At a recent press conference, vice chairman of DSK Supinfocom Shirish Kulkarni said that designers are looking for possible tie-ups to provide students with international opportunities through internships, projects and placements. Sharing her experience, senior footwear designer for Camper in Spain, Kaja Bartel said, "The facility in Pune is a place to keep an eye on as far as talent is concerned. I was amazed by the creativity and ideas the students came up with during the week-long workshop that we conducted." DSK Supinfocom is the first international school of design in India, which has a mix of European teachers, Indian and French students, said head of studies, Industrial Design, DSK SIC, Philippe Vahe. "We are here because many companies started arriving in India and they needed Indian designers," he said. Talking about the master classes, Vahe said that the week was devoted to focusing on specific design requirements of footwear design, electronic products, car body, interior car design, colours and trims. "Our classroom is more of a studio than a classroom," said Vahe. Giving an insight to footwear designing as career, Florence Rohart, who works as a designer for Adidas in Germany said, "I have no idea about what they pay a fresher in India, but in Europe, a footwear designer gets a starting package of anywhere between 25,000 to 40,000 Euros per year. There is a lot of potential, but it all depends on how creative you are." She also said it was hard work all the way and it takes between four months and two years for a designer to conceptualise a footwear design, finalise the product and reach the market. Defining the role of a footwear designer, Thomas Murphy, who works for PUMA (Germany), said, "A designer's work is always linked to the consumer's needs with reference to colour, the feel of the material, the shape, the texture and the overall comfort." DSK Supinfocom International Institute offers courses in animation, gaming and industrial design, accredited and acclaimed by Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Valenciennois (CCIV) from France. Rajesh Rao.