On The Town: World-Renowned Accessories and Shoe Designer Speaks at CCS

If you missed last night’s Toyota Lecture Series on Design at CCS, we have a recap for you today, but make sure to get on the mailing list so you can plan ahead for the next FREE lecture. Yes, that’s right, the lectures are free courtesy of Toyota, so we’ve successfully gotten rid of your expense excuse. You’re welcome.

Anyway, shoe designer, consultant and teacher Aki Choklat flew into Detroit from Florence to speak about his life. He started the presentation talking about his early childhood. Interestingly enough, he was born in Finland but left the country to come to the United States and study politics. He had a good job, nice place and didn’t have to worry about bills, but he wasn’t happy.

“There is no such thing as a wrong career choice because you can always apply those skills to something later in life,” said Aki. A series of events led him into the design world, and he has embraced it and used his other skills to help him with his eponymous label, his work as a consultant and lecturer at a number of international design schools.

His presentation was extremely thoughtful, with great imagery and a few short and sweet videos sprinkled in between. It really kept the audience engaged – I know we were hanging on every word he said. He spoke about different areas of design, including voids, shadows, conceptual thinking, fantasy, craft, spectacles and research. “I always encourage thinking conceptually because if we didn’t think conceptually, we wouldn’t be using computers, driving cars, etc.,” said Aki.

Once his presentation was over, he took a few questions from the crowd. Some people asked about his line with Finnish footwear brand Lahtiset, which is a line of shoes made of felt. We learned that felt shoes are great for winter, and take 8 days to make one pair of shoes. And then someone asked why he decided to come to Detroit to speak. He said that he had been reading a lot about Detroit lately. A couple of articles were written about Detroit in The Guardian Magazine and Modern Utopia, an Italian magazine, and he said he was interested to see the city, and remembered living in Williamsburg, New York when he was a young artist, and thinks Detroit is now the place to go for young creatives. “Detroit is the new New York,” said Aki.

To learn more about Aki Choklat, you can find him on Facebook, Instagram and, of course, his website. And don’t forget to check out the next design lecture at CCS!

Yes, he's a big fan of Detroit's own Veronika Scott!