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Aaron Read

University of the West of England

Product Design BA / BFA

I love learning. I always find myself wanting to engage as closely as I can with whatever project I am working on. Whether it's with people, materials or nature I want to understand every facet. I recently graduated from the University of the West of England with honours in Product Design. In recent years I have gained a strong interest in ceramics and material design and am excited to see where it goes.

Website

Sprout: Fashioned by Nature

Category: Footwear

Competitions: Fashion Competition [Now Closed]

This project aims to challenge our current habits of consumerism through bespoke grown biodegradable footwear. Marketed towards children. Sprout acts as an education tool, teaching children how to grow and look after plants, then creating a useful product that is adapted to their constantly growing feet. The process is simple: Trace around your child’s feet, take a picture of the paper and send it to us, from there we create a pair of cork sandals perfectly fitting their foot shapes. with a unique branching pattern on the base. Next is the fun part, the child gets to grow the textile used for the upper strap, the growing process takes 12 days and using our reusable seed trays it couldn’t be easier. Just keep the tray topped up with water and in direct sunlight. Finally, slice the root textile off and sandwich it between the sole and the upper sole of the sandal. after that your child is free to be as creative as they want, dying it and painting it to really make it their own! This not only lets the child have the creative freedom they need and deserve but it sets in better habits towards what we wear, challenge current thinking and sewing seeds for a brighter future.

Working with our partners at Arts Thread to develop lifelong learning and career opportunities for students of fashion and design. Our partnership provides the opportunity to compete on a world stage, participate in industry led workshops, set up an outstanding portfolio and gain access to the resources that will kickstart careers in fashion and design.