Part of the project ‘shoe？toys’, 2016.
Inspired by children’s activity that they push and pull their parents’ shoes on the floor to amuse themselves. This kind of activity is similar like they play push-along toys which satisfy their interests of moving things, so I decided to design a set of push-along toys which has the education meaning of a whole family.
This set of shoes has three roles: child, mom and dad. Those roles are distinguished in different colors and shapes. The ‘children-shoe’, is painted mustard yellow to show the innocent and fresh feeling. ‘Mom-shoe’, red to show mom’s role in a family that is the combination of enthusiasm and calm when facing her family. The curved shapes shows the mother and I chose wedge heels for construction. For the ‘dad-shoe’ I used black and royal blue to emerge the reliable and gentle feeling, and at the same time, these straight lines reinforce the strong feeling in form. Similarly, I made bearings and holders connected well to make it flexible and easy to control which could give children better physical motor skills and body developing.
Materials: rubber wood, veg-tan leather and painted finish.
© Jinhua Gao
