Palouse Apartment

I had a great time with this project! As you've seen, I've been redesigning certain parts of St. Elmo's Hotel in the Palouse. I started with the kitchen and the bathroom of the two bedroom apartment, and finally got to design the entire one bedroom apartment on the second floor.Above are the four posters I created for my final presentation. They're quite simple even though a lot of work went into this project. The first two posters were the main ones that I presented, with the second two being there for support. The floor plan and the way a person functions and uses a space is the most important part of the project. My back up posters merely had supporting elevations of the exterior of the building, some perspectives of a space we didn't focus on, and then the process work on the last poster, including my parti, concept model, and last two projects.

When we presented I had some really great and some not so great feedback. I was particularly complimented on the fact that I kept the wood from the original building (from the 1800's) and try to modernize without renovating everything. Unfortunately, a lot of people did not take too well to the curved walls. I personally thought they fit great with my concept and it was not something you saw from everyone. There were definitely ways I could have done it better (the bathroom plan worked better in the two-bedroom than the one-bedroom layout) but you always learn that once you're done. I also wish I could've added a patio onto the room. My favorite part of this was how my concept developed as I worked. When I started the project everything seemed overwhelmed by my idea of warm colors. But when I got to the full apartment layout I tried to return to the natural materials of my concept (wood, glass, and metal) and leave everything their natural colors with their natural textures. I believe it mixed well.

Here is a 360 view of my volumetric model. As you can see, I tried to have a very open floor plan with plenty of open space. Most of my furniture is built in, minus the living room set. Most other features are pretty self explanatory. There isn't a great view into the bathroom or den space however. Although the den space is small it has all glass walls so that it still feels open and a part of the living space while still providing a private place to work.

Designer Meeting

Over my thanksgiving break I sent some of my apartment designs to an architect, Denny Funderburg, at Aspenwood Home Design. I sent them over email because I could not arrange a time to meet with him in person unfortunately. We are still in contact even a week later about different ideas for the project. My apartment design incorporates a lot of curved walls and big open spaces. For the most part he liked my ideas, but there were still quite a few things we discussed. It is much harder to discuss ideas and get a creative flowing conversation going online however. There were a few issues discussed about having a curved wall into a closet and how that would affect the doors (because that may not be possible, or at least not without added expense). My bathroom design also appeared to be a little too long and narrow. Overall, Denny said he'd like to see a few more walls go up in the design, or at least a better balance of space sizes, but I think I prefer my open space plan with all the smaller rooms together on the north side. At this point, I think I will end up keeping most of my ideas as they are, whether or not they seem possible. It would be more practical to make a few of these changes but in order to stick to my concept I think it would be better off as it is.

(More to come later!)

Hybrid Drawing

I don't think I have ever been this proud of my work! For once I have created something that I personally love. Not that I don't love most of my other work, but usually I love it for the client's needs, not for my own personality and style. Here I actually got to try out a combination of classic and modern, two of my favorite themes put together. It inspires me and I think it's a great start to developing my own designs.

There are so many features that were thoroughly thought through. The ceiling is incredibly high, so I used a dark ceiling to make it feel less substantial. The columns are square with corinthian capitols, to put a new twist on the old style. All the furniture is mismatched, but typically have classical structures whilst being painted and upholstered with modern techniques. Surrealist art hangs at the back, two copies of the same painting. This creates a sense of classic symmetry even though it's modern art. The wall encasing the fireplace is black glass from floor to ceiling, as well as the wall set back behind the reception area. The reception desk itself is set at an odd angle intentionally to throw off all the symmetry happening in the background of the space. Chandeliers are of the classic style, but made of turquoise glass. Along the walls framing the reception and behind the front seating area are irregularly inset lights, with turquoise glass gems hanging from random corners. And of course, the men depicted in the picture are members of the band 30 Seconds to Mars.

The most exciting part of this whole design though was trying to find web images that fit with my drawing, and giving them certain effects. The fire glows, along with all of the lighting and you can see reflections in both glass walls. It was an awful process for me and my lack of computer skills but absolutely entertaining once I got going with it. I love the outcome! =]

Bathroom Design

To complement my kitchen design, here is my final bathroom design! I think the poster turned out much better. You can actually read it this time and understand what's going on. Personally, I think that's a huge improvement. This project seemed a lot more difficult than it was while I was working on it because I had so many other things to do last week. I finished this poster up over a period of three days (however the process work before hand took at least a week, if not more.) I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. I consider it a huge personal success. Once again, I have problems with the fact that I would never live in something like this, but hopefully someone else out there would like it! It's still a design for the client, no matter what. I'd love to design my dream home someday soon though. I would work a lot better if I was actually excited over what I'm doing. Other than that though, I don't really have much I'm disappointed by here. The tiles in the Plan Oblique were ridiculously tough to draw, but I still did it. I also accidentally cut off part of the name block, but what's done is done. I know I drew it right regardless! I'm just not the best at putting it all together on a computer. Computers and I have always been enemies which worries me when I finally start learning how to design with programs. Hopefully it'll go better than expected, just like this project!

Study Tour Visits

One of the first stops on our study tour of Seattle was Knoll. Knoll specializes in office design, such as office chairs, desks, filing cabinets, meeting rooms, and so on. I absolutely loved this firm. My mom works in insurance, so my whole life I've been visiting her in different offices around the city and every last one of them sucks. To be honest. My mom has been crammed in the middle of tall cubicles, which no one likes. She has been put in a private cubicle with a nice view, but it was so large and walled off that it felt depressing. Currently, she has a beautiful office, but you can barely fit one person in the hallway leading to her door. So when I visited with my boyfriend, the three of us standing in the doorway did not feel comfortable at all. Why is it that offices are so hard for designers to create?
At Knoll they showed us a thousand and one different ways I could improve all these offices for my mom. I loved the chairs they were designing specifically for how people work, not how diagrams say we sit at desks. They designed all the walls lower so you can see across the room while standing, but also feel like you have private space when sitting and working. They also designed several open desks, for collaborative work, which I find extremely important for my mom since she has an assistant who is currently stuck in a cubicle that is walled off from my mom's office. Knoll really understood how people work and how they want to function, rather than how we're told to. Designing for people is huge to me. If an item is technically correct but doesn't function in a way that people use it for, then it can never be considered a success.

 

Another site we visited was the Home of the Immediate Future, presented by Habitat for Humanity. I already know a LOT about the organization since I've volunteered for them and studied them so many times. So I didn't really learn much here. We also weren't allowed to tour the second floor which was really disappointing to me. I found the building interesting nonetheless and I loved that they considered how to move around functions of the house in case a family has different needs. Many of the rooms of the house could swap with each other. What I disliked the most about this house was the fact that the fridge was under the stairs. It was a clever use of the space but did not work very well for the future function of the home. I also tried opening and closing the fridge to see how it would take up space and I cut my finger open pretty badly. Of course, the home was not finished at the time, so the untreated wood was not the nicest material. But even then, when they finish the walls, people are still at risk of crushing their fingers with this odd set up. May not get a nasty cut, but not fun either way. Habitat for Humanity has done some wonderful things as far as providing affordable, lasting homes, but they still have a way to go with creating a space that understands the function of people.

Urban Sketchers

In Seattle, we spent a good amount of time walking around Olympic Sculpture Park. Everything we sketched took on some unnatural, abstract shape, right in the middle of a natural environment and buildings. It was really difficult for me to sketch something like that!

The above picture was the last one I did. The sculpture is called "The Eagle." I don't really see an eagle, more like a mutated elephant to me. But still. This was extremely difficult to draw because I don't personally understand the material that it's made of. I've never worked with metal and tried to form it, so I have a hard time imagining how it is supposed to be folded. I put so much work into trying to get the sculpture correct that I neglected the foreground and accurately depicting that. I like it a lot more now that I've had time to look away from it. The color I added after I returned to Pullman and I think it really made the sketch better. It isn't much, but the emphasis on the sculpture changes the whole balance. I think next time I will go inspect the sculpture before I attempt to draw it. I had no idea what the details were from my distance and I think that really hindered me.

 

This drawing was my first one actually. (Maybe I should have put these in the right order!) These were really interesting structures. From where I was sitting they look like small individual "wave" forms. But when I finished this sketch and walked by the sculptures to the other side, they reminded me of giant viking ships. I wish I had put a person in the drawing to show the scale. But I felt puny once I walked next to them, which you can't really get a feeling for from this perspective. However, the sketch itself was fun to create. it was interesting to try and create a three dimensional wave. The walls that framed the sculptures, as well as the building and shrubbery really made a great composition. I had fun trying to represent everything proportionally and accurately without making my plant life into solid scribbles. I think overall this sketch was a success!

Job Shadow

I had a great time at my job shadow! I spent Friday, September 28th with Alyse Zimmer from Build Urban in the Fremont area. She gave Grace and I a tour of the firm (which had a spectacular view of the water for the record), and then gave us a quick look at their most recent project plans. It was so nice to see how an interior design degree can be used in the real world! And everything they were working on I understood for the most part!
Later on they took us to pick out materials for their next project (after stopping by one of the sites they already built). We went to a place called Great Floors in Seattle and spent the rest of the day there. It was amazing to see the design process in work. Not only worrying about the color schemes, but also the price and green quality of the items. We haven't had to work with a budget yet so it was interesting to see the designers discussing everything. It was actually a very energizing atmosphere seeing people zip out of the room and back again with a million more samples to try out. I couldn't even express how much fun I had!
The most interesting part to me was to find out that Alyse was working more as an architect than a designer. I'm more interested in the architecture part personally, so it was cool to see that that option is still available to me if I graduate with an interior design degree. Her firm was so small that there was one owner, two accountants, an architect, and Alyse, the "designer." I think I'd like to work in a company like that. It was the best job shadow I could've asked for!

Finding Home

In a project to design an apartment complex for a client, Seth Anawalt, I started with the kitchen design. My kitchen is inpsired by the magnifying glass concept posted about previously. I chose the warm feelings that represent all the good feelings you have at home. The rest of the design was a little more difficult to figure out. I tried to focus on a circular traffic pattern to reflect the round magnifying glass. The counter heights varied to show how the magnifying glass changes the size of objects. Also, all my materials are glass, wood, and metal; the same materials you'd think of when you picture a classic magnifying glass.

Unfortunately, I don't think I did the best of reflecting a magnifying glass in this project. It was originally supposed to incorporate more circles and lines (as shown in the light fixture and bar stools), but I ended up getting rid of most of those features as I worked. Some things just didn't work out the way I wanted or I thought they looked better without those features.

Overall, I think I made a beautiful kithen for our client. It is not my personal style, but meant to work for our clients wishes and the future users needs. I think if I had done something with my own style it would have turned out a lot better because I would have put more energy into it. Another big problem with this project is that I had so little time to get things done! I have work and so many other classes that even with good time management it was just impossible to do without staying up all night at least once.

In the future I think I'll try to put a little more of my own style into my designs. It is always best to please the client, but if I don't put my own personality into a project what's going to make me stand out?



 

Roll With It

To experience what it would be like in our world from a different perspective, I borrowed a wheelchair for an hour. Big surprise! Almost nothing designed in our world today was easy to use from a wheelchair! I thought getting around town was difficult enough without the hindrance of being on wheels. A quick tour of the main buildings I'm used to walking around and I knew something had to be changed.

So here I am, starting my tour in the bathroom of all places. I may look silly, but getting that wheelchair in the stall was quite an achievement for me! It took more than a few forward and backward pushes to get there. Plus trying to even get on the toilet? Not going to happen. So I just left.

After washing my hands (for no purpose other than to see if I even could) I tried to dry off. The sink was a little difficult to reach the knobs, but the paper towels were impossible. Being short already, plus being in a low wheelchair, I simply couldn't do it. How many people have to actually deal with these problems in our world? Maybe that's why we never really see a lot of the handicapped out and about; we just make everything difficult for them. I'd rather stay in a home built for me than have these issues on a daily basis!

Once again, at the local coffee stand. What if I spilt a drink on myself? Too bad, it'll stain my clothes. Napkins were beyond my reach as well, when normally I could have as many as I wanted in seconds. Reaching and stretching for minutes couldn't get me a napkin.

Doesn't look like much does it? Believe it or not, there is a slight decline in elevation leaving the building. And it leads to a much steeper hill onto the main road. I was not expecting this when I finally made it down the ramp (which was difficult enough), so I started to just roll away! Definitely helped with the arm muscles though. Had to put on the breaks and barely caught myself.

When I made it into the kitchen next door, well. It wasn't very helpful. All the drawers were at eye level! I couldn't see a thing inside of them (unless I craned my neck over it). The overhead cabinets and the counter itself were not even considered. Nothing in there could have been used except for the lowest drawers. Not even the freezer over the fridge was accessible.

Lastly, getting through doors was a tricky problem. I didn't expect this at first, but I found myself flinching as I rolled through every doorway, scared I was going to get my fingers crushed. Wide doorways look silly to me usually, but now I get why they're so important! Everyone would have to wait for someone trying to maneuver through a door like the one below. I would be so embarrassed if I held up a bunch of people for something as simple as that.

Accessibility is a much bigger problem than I thought it would be. I believe in all public places, we should work on making things more accessible for people with all disabilities, not just for those in wheelchairs. However, my only hold back is that I don't believe homes should be required to meet the same needs. Homes should always stay private and be designed for the user themselves, not for who may or may not visit once in a lifetime. But again, in public, commercial spaces, everything needs to be designed for everyone as best as possible. There are people out there who are embarrassed, frustrated, and even incapable of making a contribution to our society because of these issues with design. We lose valuables workers and creative minds because someone may be stuck at home.

A sketch of the fridge from eye level. Clearly I cannot reach the freezer up above and could not even get the wheelchair close enough to reach the back of the shelves without kicking everything in the door.

Home







   Home is a tough thing to describe abstractly. I found a poem, appropriatly titled "Home" and did a study on it. Every line of the poem described different aspects of home such as "home is where the family gathers." It was a simple poem, but representing each line was a little tougher. I did a few thumbnails (1st through 4th image) for each line of the poem, all trying to convey the ideas I was presented with. Some of my favorite lines of the poem went along the lines of home is a place you will find one day, and another that was something like home is a place where your defenses fall. I took a few ideas from both of these sentences. To represent finding home, I chose to abstractly represnt a magnifying glass. I thought it would nice describe a search for something while also creating contrasting geometric shapes, and the magnifying part would create an interesting enlargement and shrinkage of objects. My final parti (5th image) is a simple 2D concept having to do with a magnifying glass. Then the real trouble came in.

   I think I have a real strength with abstractly representing my ideas in a 2D format, but 3D is where I have difficulties. I can never see my drawings as have multiple planes, I tend to think they just look pretty as is. So when I had to take my parti to the next level, I was stumped. I think this is going to be one of my new goals for myself, to work on representing things in 3D. I have a lot of troubles with going from drawing to model. One of my first concept models below (6th image) was off of a different idea than the magnifying glass. The 6th image was how I tried to represent your defenses falling away, as stated by the poem. I liked the idea, but it seemed so simple and basic. So I created another concept model (7th image) and tried to represent the idea of the magnifying glass. It had different sized circles and lines right? Well in the end, I combined them into my final idea (last image). The spiral and different sized lines stayed, but I incorporated the "falling away" idea by adding a few more dimensions. I kept nice, solid, warm colored lines at the top of the spiral, and had the short, broken, dark colored pieces falling away and gathering at the bottom of the spiral.

   Overall I thought this was a great way to combine my ideas but I still wish it had been a bit more intricate and complicated. I didn't have much time to work on this however, so all of this is really whatever came to mind first. It was nice working like that because I didn't have time to overthink it or be picky about what I created. I had to trust myself and hope that I would create something I liked.

   Although it seemed like a lot of work at the time, I think I learned a lot from this experience. It threw me straight into making ideas and producing results. I'd never really pushed myself to do that before. The time frame I had to work with insisted that I kept focus at all times and rarely took breaks. I feel like this gives me a better understanding of what I'll be working with in the future because not all design is just a problem and coming up with a solution whenever I feel like it. Everyone has schedules and deadlines they have to meet and now I get to work with that sort of pressure. I'm very satisfied with the work I produced when I was so stressed about it. Looking back, it feels like a success and a good learning process, even if I didn't feel that way at the time!

 

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Case Study

This was an interesting project to start. I wasn't entirely sure what to do as I'd never done a case study before and now I was making my own and finalizing it on a formal poster. In the end, I started to like the work a bit more than I did at first. I was frustrated when I didn't know what to do but the subject of the work was interesting. I like seeing how other people approach design challenges so it was fun to learn about a design and the requirements they did or did not meet. The poster itself went through a few different phases. At first the background was too dark, but it was lightened significantly. Then I switched the type from paragraph format to bullet points so I had a bit of a spacing issue. I think the final product of the work really is nice. My only problem that I would fix for next time is a more formal font. I think the title font is a little too childish for a "professional" case study.

Journal

Over the course of this semester, I've created a lot of sketches. Now I'm finally putting it all together in a sketch journal. My cover for the journal is below. I chose one of my favorite sketches, of the Seattle Public Library as my cover. It may look a little sloppy, but that's the point when it comes to drawing for interior design. It's a simplistic drawing because it was only meant to study the perspective of the exterior of a building. So, that means it was perfect for a cover about interior design!

Below is my final reflection of the journal. It is included in my journal, as shown below. If you're curious, the sort of writing shown below is called drafting lettering. We use it for almost everything in interior design, so I've gotten used to writing like this. If you know me, you'd know that this looks absolutely nothing like my actual handwriting though!

"Over the semester, I believe my drawings have seriously improved. I really enjoyed branching out with new mediums and paper types. One of my favorite sketches was #8, the hardware on black. Not only did I enjoy the challenge of making the drawing visible, but I also enjoyed identifying all the hardware in my dorm before I started sketching. The sketch assignments really helped me start to see more things around me. Now I pay more attention to lights and shadows, positive and negative space, and forms and textures. I can now appreciate almost everything in my built environment. I feel that my drawings reflect this awareness as they became more detailed."

A Lot of Sketches!

A quick sketch of my dorm room. A plan view and perspective view. On a napkin with ballpoint.

Multiple views of a chair in my study lounge.

Didn't scan very well, but a light study of shadows in the corner of a room.

Dissection of fruit. A whole orange in the back with a sliced orange and apple leaning against it. Also didn't scan very well....

A drawing of Shadows, from A7X.  I took this picture at a concert and proceeded to try studying human figures from it. However, a good portion of his legs are all made up because he was standing behind a speaker.

This scanned surprisingly well! I did a study of a door handle in colored pencil on black paper.

Sorry, you can barely see this one. It is the negative space around a chair. I should have drawn it darker though.

A study of the same corner, twice. One with line weights to establish values, the second one colored in tones to express values.

Process Poster

  The accumulation of all my work so far! Finally I have put it all together. From the very basic box sketches to my very own concept model. It's taken a lot of work and I've almost felt like giving up, but it was worth it in the end. It was interesting seeing how it all ties together. The first part of this was, of course, to pick my artist. Michael Parkes has been one of my favorite artists since the very first time I walked into my best friends house! One of Parkes' paintings was hung in the entryway and I've been captivated by it since.
  After I picked my artist and did a little research on him I picked a nature object that reflected his work. But of course his work is only people and animals. Plus any nature that falls under the category of earth, stone, water, or wind. How could I choose from that? So I picked a swan feather in the end. He uses a lot of swans in his artwork.
  Now I had to put it together! All my previous research and other projects I've posted (particularly the line project) had to be compiled into one idea. My 2-D Concept Sketch is what I came up with. (There are also a few other ideas on the poster).
  Lastly, I finally made it 3-D. This was the part that made me really want to give up. I have never been very good with any 3-D artwork from what I've experience. 2-D is my comfort zone! So building this model gave me a lot of difficulty. I feel a little disappointed with it because I wanted it to be more abstract and creative, but in the end I think it's a great display of my artist and my past work. It really wraps it all up, even if it isn't the crazy project I expected.
  Hope you enjoy!

My First Resume

My very own resume! I'm very proud of this and yet upset with it at the same time. I personally love the design and I think it expresses who I am fairly well. The background is a stretched version of a thumbnail sketch I posted earlier, if you recognize it. I also incorporated the logo from my latest post. Because the logo is so large and catches the eye so well I thought it would be best to make my name smaller so as not to crowd the page. I'm a fan of negative space. The colors I thought were particularly great for representing who I am since I use those colors regularly and also wear them regularly. The yellow made me nervous so I chose it for the section with the darkest background. I'm hoping it isn't too painful to read. I kept the colors and the unusual font for the least important information. I want the body of the sections to be read more clearly than the headings of course!

My only fear for this was that it may not look professional or serious enough. Although my style is bold contrast and bright colors and angular forms, it may not be the usual prim and proper resume in the professional world. Granted, that could help my resume stand out among others, but it may stand out in a bad way. We'll see how it goes!

My New Logo!

 So I've been working on a few logos for my design and I came up with one that I think does a particularly good job of representing me, my style, and my design. Bright bold colors and a simplistic design are really what I'm all about, as you see above.

And these last few were just extras. I liked the design but couldn't quite figure out how to finalize it. So they're just for looks. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

 These are just a few sketch ideas that I had to begin with. Clearly I didn't deviate very far from the originals to create my final logo.

Color Study Cont.

I need help! I put all these together and I can't decide which ones to finalize. Any votes?

Module 1

Module 2

Module 3