My name is Luke Wightman. I’m an industrial design student and aspiring footwear designer. When I was a kid, sports were everything and I would be obsessed with the newest football boots or basketball shoes. When I first saw the sock tongue of the Nike Superfly, I was so fixated that I had to learn everything about them. This is when I decided that I wanted to be a footwear designer.

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What makes my skill set unique is the strong mix of technical skills and contemporary taste. Not many designers are able to both develop an ahead of trend design concept and then 3D model it in a multitude of parametric and polygonal softwares with manufacturing considerations. 

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My design philosophy is to design with intention. Often we are told at design school that “No idea is a bad idea” or to “Start sketching right away”. I believe that while working alone or collaborating, designers should first think deeply while reading and absorbing visual references. This is the way that you can move through dozens of ideas a minute and eliminate the garbage until you are left with a few calculated concepts that you can draw or present to your team. I find that when I am a few hours deep in this thinking process, the magic starts to happen and I can use bi-association strategies to create new-ness.

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