Interview with Fernando Echeverria

I come from family tradition of leather craft. So I wanted to continue this heritage plus a touch of design.

Nobody can not be forced to be a designer.

I am specialized in leather goods, shoes and bags.

I don't consider myself as a legend, but to become one we should work for what we love not for fame.

Great designer's products are timeless.

A good design should fill all the requirements needed, no less and no more.

I would add good and responsible design, responsible good design helps real people because you are buying design but as well the producer will have to money to pay a rent, have food and not only make companies owner being richer.

I would love to be part of an airplane design team.

A collection of high heels for men.

Insist and insist, hard work and good connections.

Yohji Yamamoto, Pavel Janak, atd.

I love Pavel Janak a visionary who created timeless cubist objects.

I love Pavel Janak a visionary who created timeless cubist objects.

Never stop learning new techniques and visions from all around the world.

A medical doctor.

A designer or a creative can't make anything alone so I am lucky to have a family who believes in me.

Discipline, hard work and sometimes obstinacy.

Its hard to fight against the trends and against the mentality of how should things look like.

We are lucky to have now social media which make us to have a cheap way to show ourselves to the world, i think this is the way, interact with real costumers in real time.

I would love to start a community of young shoemakers in order to experiment and create.

Have enough income to help new designers.

People wants me not to change and keep my unique personal style.

Its time to question ourselves if we are really helping or helping to destroy our planet with the extreme consumerism we are creating.

Im excited about my new family of shoes that will be shown in the Prague Designblok 2018.

Design which involve normal people from the community and not only big corporations.

I would like to return to a time when the handwork was appreciated, and when we were buying less but more quality products.

The exploration of new bio materials.

Design is not a formula so Its hard to say.

I need to have clear what I want

Less quantity more quality

Unfortunately now trends and marketing set the designs.

Even in the hand work any design or object can't be done without tools so its primordial.

Photoshop, Autocad, Delcam, Illustrator

In my experience is fundamental but the use of colors varies from culture to culture so its very important to choose the correct one in the correct context.

Who made this , from where the material are coming from?

Hard work, money investment.

I believe in interdisciplinary cooperation.

My closest friends who will not lie to me only to make me happy.

I loved the language of objects.

With a lot of practice and observation.

Dali, Alfons Mucha

Famous is not a word I consider I am

blue, the Andes, turkey, spring, airplane, Airbus

I always remember how my best friend by accident broke a prototype I was working so hard it was his birthday so I couldn't say anything.

To receive a mail from a happy client, saying thank you.

Never I wanted to be an architect

Probably the dematerialization of objects.

Buy local and small producers.

Im part of a comunity of czech designers in the center of Prague called Botega SmetanaQ. My particular studio its a place where the exploration and experimentation is mixed with the traditional arts of the shoemaking, I consider myself not only a footwear designer but as well a contemporary shoemaker.

As its name says design, its the field of assigning shapes, colors, sensations, but as well assigning life to new creatures that will become a product and will contribute to make our lives better.

Although I am a professional products designer I have special connection with the leather crafts and shoes, maybe because Its a family tradition that I want to keep and preserve.

I do not have a specific favorite design as the world is working thanks of the design, I admire airplanes so how not admire the mythic Concorde, and in small or individual scale I can not avoid loving pieces of the Czech cubism likes the vases from Pavel Janák.

A calendar for the Ecuadorian National Airlines ( TAME).

I might seen like an old fashion or revel but there is not better machine, technology than the human hands sculpting, working with ceramics or shoes.

In the afternoon after my coffee with the view of Vltava River in Prague.

For me a product in my case shoes should be wearable, beautiful and very important with the quality to last.

I see the design as a product of the emotions not opposite, but of course design is great meditation and why not therapy for me.

Depends on the result but as I said before designs are a mirror of the designer emotions, and if they are good I consider them my child and sometimes its even difficult when somebody buy it.

Unfortunately I have the feeling that most of successful designs nowadays are salable because they follow the trends and marketing. In the romantic way a good design should transcend fashion or trends by its innovation and utility.

Each time I see a new design I imagine if it will finish in the garbage or a museum and then the answer is easy.

We are in a big part very responsible of the huge pollution and wasting problems we have. We misuse and abuse of the synthetic materials, making everything nice but disposable. Now we should come back to natural materials and create products that will last more, can be repaired and very important can be made locally and by human hands.

I'm not very optimistic, in one way we can see a new wave of local designers and small manufactures, but in the other way with the appearance of new technology like the 3D printing, design will be made at home but in the negative part we will use more and more plastic.

My last exhibition was in the Czech Design week and soon I will be Part of the Designblok 2018 in Prague.

My inspiration its easy to find its only question of have open eyes, is everywhere even in a small detail of a window at home, but of course the mother of inspiration is and will be the nature.

I do not like trends, so I consider my design as a mixture of my latinAmerican roots and visual memories with my life in Europe, I can say im eclectic.

I am Ecuadorian and 24 years of my 33 I had the good luck of living in a real visual paradise, with a extreme nature and a reality seen only in fantasy books. In the other hand I studied and I am creating from one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Prague, and in a country very rich in culture, so I think the results are unique and wonderful.

I am my own company, so companies provides me with materials mainly and I am open to cooperation.

I would say, risk and give more chances to new people.

My process starts making and objective and then trying to find the best solution for what I require, usually it comes by itself and If not I research for some similar solution in the nature.

Pressure cooker, bed, washing machine, oven, sofa

Waking up at 8, 30 min meditation, make some time for me and plan whats the day plan, make arrive to my atelier at 10, make my first coffee, work a bit, lunch at 14 and then second coffee, working until 7 or 8 pm, come back walking through the river home, make some RTX, relax and going to sleep.

Believe in your own and unique style, watch less magazines for inspiration but read more, and the most important take critics from honest people who wants you to improve, from others just let it go.

As a self employed the positive thing is the freedom of design and the negative is the constant insecurity of not always having enough clients.

The word to your customers is the most important.

patience, courage, do not be afraid to make a fool of yourself

Hammer, glue, cutter, ruler, tape, needles, thread, a camera.

If a person thinks that designing is a time consuming should find a different profession.

Each product is different in complexity , sometimes a design problem is solved in one second, or sometimes the solution takes a lot of time.

Can you make enough money to live?

Comeback to my country and work with local producers in the mountains.

Normal people who wants something special at least once in life.

i love the prototyping step.

Open my own shop and atelier in some European capital.

I must say In the design part i am the ruler.

Im very excited to be part of the most important design event in the Czech Republic and Central Europe. Designblok for this, I am developing a complete new collection.

You can contact me visiting my atalier in Prague, or via www.ferech.comInstagram: pragueinshoesFb: @ferboty

All is covered, thank you very much