If you were to stand at the intersection of fashion, marketing and footwear you would find Ruthie Davis. And she would be wearing great shoes. Picture tall heels with an edgy silhouette, a colorful fashion-forward sneaker or perhaps a combination of the two. Who says heels can’t have laces?

The shoes might even be vegan. Ms. Davis recently worked with designer John Bartlett on a line of leather-free shoes.

It has been a busy year for Ms. Davis, who has summered on the Vineyard since she was born (she is the daughter of the late Don Davis). She was accepted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America — the only shoe designer to get an invite to the trade association — and was named Footwear Designer of the Year by the American Apparel and Footwear Association.

Smile, in black and clear.

She designs custom shoes for Lady Gaga and Beyonce, and celebrities such as Halle Berry, Janelle Monae, Jessica Chastain, Sofia Vergara and Jennifer Lopez wear her designs on the red carpet.

“I’m making my dream come true, but it’s taken me a long time,” Ms. Davis said in a telephone conversation from her New York city offices. It was an evolution, she said. Although she loved fashion growing up, it wasn’t the end goal to become a shoe designer.

After graduating from Bowdoin College, she earned a master’s degree in business from Babson, focusing on entrepreneurship, before taking a job in Reebok’s marketing division. Ms. Davis’ first fashion love was a sporty one. An athlete herself, she was drawn to the bright, bold colors of running gear and beach, ski and tennis outfits. She moved up through the ranks at Reebok, and later became vice president of design and marketing at Uggs Australia. When the comfy fleece-lined boots burst onto the fashion scene many years ago, that was Ms. Davis’ eye at work.

Creating her own brand was an idea that had been simmering for some time, but it took a simple question from husband Innis Weir to finally set her on the path.

“There literally was an a-ha moment for me,” Ms. Davis said. “I had always had this vision. I had been planning it, sketching it out, I had done some of the work already.”

At the time, she was working at Tommy Hilfiger and was senior vice president of women’s footwear in design and marketing. The job involved a grueling travel schedule, and one evening Ms. Davis came home worn out. She and her husband began talking, and he pointed out that the next step up the career ladder would be president of her division — her boss’ job. Was that the job she aspired to, or was it Tommy Hilfiger’s job she wanted?

Ms. Davis said she realized that if she was going to jump off on her own as a designer, the time was right. She was able to get a consulting job with Tommy Hilfiger to ease the transition to solo entrepreneur, which made the leap less daunting. The Ruthie Davis brand launched in 2006.

When she designs for Lady Gaga, Ms. Davis uses Lucite to create transparent elements in the shoes. — Courtesy Ruthie Davis

It takes approximately four months to take a shoe from a concept to a final sample.

“As far as the idea, I’m thinking about it 24/7,” Ms. Davis said. She draws inspiration from her New York city surroundings, both people and places. Anything goes. A shoe that is part of her upcoming spring line was inspired by the Twitter hashtag #wordstoliveby.

Ms. Davis sketches a shoe and works with a small team to create a three-dimensional prototype. There’s a pattern maker, a form maker, a heel maker, a platform maker — all based in Italy, where Ms. Davis’ shoes are made. The process can take a couple of months, and once the team has created its final take, Ms. Davis gets the prototype back for more tweaking.

“I adjust it, move things around,” Ms. Davis said. “I kind of zhuzh it up with what I want. I’ll try it on my own foot.”

Only after the basic design is set do elements like material and color come into play. The first part of the process is like architecture, Ms. Davis said. The second is like interior design.

A sample shoe then gets made, which is sent to store buyers. And if they’re interested, the pattern goes into production. But footwear design is markedly different from apparel design in that a pattern must be crafted for both left feet and right feet, and scalable to sizes beyond small, medium and large.

“Sometimes you design for a size seven, and then it doesn’t look good in a size 10,” Ms. Davis said. “There are different types of feet, so I can’t just design whatever I want.” Her goal, she said, is designing shoes that “make lots of feet feel good.”

And look good.

A typical Ruthie Davis shoe is “clean, minimal, functional, sleek, sexy,” she said. She loves creating with high-shine leather or patent leather. She also works with leather in fluorescent colors.

“I like to juxtapose the bright colors against black or white,” she said. “That’s the sport element.”

When she’s designing for, say, Lady Gaga, she uses Lucite to create transparent elements in the shoes. If there’s something on the shoes that is translucent and clear, Ms. Davis said, it’s a Gaga shoe. Beyonce has a preference for (somewhat) tamer shoes nowadays, since she became a mother.

Ms. Davis’ own favorite shoe is her Henson bootie, which is a black wedge hightop sneaker.

“We’re the little guys, so we have to constantly innovate and be creative in marketing and in shoes,” she said. “To me that part of it is as exciting as the design part.” “I have a vision for the total outfit,” Ms. Davis continued. “It’s just going to start with shoes.”