This collection documents the RISD Global 2016 Wintersession travel course Northern Europe Shoe Design: Perception, History & Prototyping as well as the resulting student exhibit. Alongside fabric artist and RISD Senior Critic Kathleen S. Grevers, Apparel Design students travelled to Northern Europe to study the creative cultures of Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. While abroad, students used the experience of footwear design as a way to more deeply understand and expand their own personal design process through the practice of creative introspections inspired by Da Vinci's methods as well as from Northern European history, design practice and cultural aesthetic.

Students engaged in a series of studio, factory, museum and gallery visits where sketchbooks were used as visual and reflective journals to practice insightful daily exercises to advance their design process and footwear designs. The final student shoe designs represent the influence of these explorations, and the manifestation of an expanded design methodology.

Wintersession Shoe Design 2016 Exhibit Photos