Melanie Redeker Email and Phone Number

Teaching Footwear Design to students at Cordwainers.

My role at Mercury has been constantly evolving over the past 11 years, which has been varied & challenging. Below are just some of the areas I have worked on:-* Training junior designers.* Range planning.* Designing girls & ladies Pineapple licence range/Mercury stock range and MTO ranges.* Seasonal colour pallets.* Comp shopping & shop reports.* Sketches & CAD renderings (using Adobe Illustrator).* Designing out-soles and checking blueprints.* Designing uppers/trims/screen prints & embroideries.* Specification sheets via the Prima system.* Various constructions: Cemented sports/injected sports; wellingtons & canvas/vulcanised canvas/baby shoes.* Working closely with our China offices, factories and trading companies.* Travel to the FE, NY & Europe.* Liaising with our customers, ensuring that we design suitable products to meet our deadlines.* Visiting Material Markets, out-sole & trims manufacturers in the FE.* Finding new areas to work with - to broaden ranges.* Visiting trade shows in Europe and the FE to source new factories and to get inspiration.

* Designing the sole for the girls' first-walker, tiny, infants & older girls ranges.* Creating the colour pallet with the Design Manager.* Selecting commercial, yet slightly different leathers.* Designing suitably age-specific embellishments - embroideries, appliqués, embossing, screen prints & metal trims. * Sketches and renderings of my designs.* Giving clear instructions to the assistant designer for the specification sheets.* Closely liaising with the on-sight workshop team for new last shapes.* Working in partnership with the technical team.* Regular progress meetings with the Design Manager and Design Director.* Fitting courses and Gore Tex meetings.

During my time at OPS I worked on the Children's M&S Account. My responsibilities included the following:-* Regular meetings with the Children's footwear buyer at M&S, Baker Street.* Mood boards/trend predictions/colour pallets and shop reports.* Designing a suitably structured children's range, ensuring that the design, quality and high technical standards are met, whilst working closely with the technical team.* Designing the children's BTS range as well as the children's sports licence products.* Seasonal shopping trips to Europe.* Regular trips to factories in the FE and Bangladesh, whilst working closely with the sample rooms, ensuring that the samples meet very high standards.* Presentations to M&S.* Fitting sessions at M&S.

Junior Designer for the children's M&S and Dr. Martens youth ranges. During my time at Pentland Shoe I had a very thorough grounding for the technical side, as well as on the design side of shoe design and manufacturing.* First trip to the FE after working for only 2.5 months.* Designing for the children's M&S Range, which included their structured/sports/licence & BTS ranges.* Designing for the Dr.Martens girls youth range.* Shop reports & comp shopping trips.* Colour pallets.* Trend prediction.* Regular trips to the FE - ensuring the samples meet expectations.

I moved to London and this was my first footwear job after finishing my design degree. The job was based in a factory and it only lasted several months. In that short period of time, the role gave me a very good grounding in the footwear industry. Below is a list of the areas covered:-*.Designing ladies slippers for M&S.* Specification sheets.* Making my own samples to take into M&S.* Usages.