Concept Development

Inspiration Photo

Conceptual Design | Depot

The inspiration photo gave form to the idea Generator. The photo features the bricks found outside the Pufferbelly depot brought inspiration to this design. It displays the rich history of the site giving it a rustic appeal and through this telling the story of the structure. 

Final Parti

Textile

The inspiration Photo gave form to the final parti design through the communicated different range in line weights through the overlapping and organic shapes. These elements provide multiple dimensions to the design by adding depth and making a direct connection to the nature of the project. The original reasoning is the history of the site in the natural, historic Pullman setting. Through a process of mirroring this original parti vertically and horizontally this created the pattern that composes the pattern design of my project. The model originally was aimed to mimic the raw and rustic qualities of the bricks texture. A secondary intention was to reflect the fluidity of the transformation of the structure that is to be designed next and simultaneously correspond with the connectivity of the phases of the structure throughout time, in the past, present and future.

Final Model

Through this design process I have learned more about the importance of a well-executed idea being intricately incorporated through a design. After having exposure to the design process previously both abstractly and aesthetically and in turn I have adopted a new appreciation of the value of the design process. 

Study Models

Zika Ascher

This poster was done to gain context behind textile designers in the early 1900's, I chose the designer by the name of Zika Ascher. I think this poster was particularly successful in illustrating this artist's strengths and what he particularly showcased in why he is famous. I wish that I had not left as much space between text and images because the poster seems like it has some sort of void to fill, either that or I wish I would have chosen a background with a pattern. Other than that I feel overall very successful in the design that was chosen to portray the information that I wanted to get across.

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity came to us with a problem, to design an open-layout two-story home for a potential Habitat family. This was a team task, which was a challenge within itself. Overcoming issues within a project’s group can be just as hard as getting to the solution of the design problem. My group and I tossed and toiled with floor plans, getting to a layout with flow and open communication to encourage the growth of a family, together. Through solving these design problems my group developed communication skills on how to explain ideas and through that improving the solution. A weakness in within the group was also communication, with the lack of it led to more personal problems within our group. By handling the issue like professionals the problem was addressed and handled the most appropriate way. The most important strength came out during presentations when our concept and design solution flowed cohesively together for the final. Reflecting back on the designs I am happy with my personal performance and the effort that I put into this design, I could not have completed this without my teammate and I am pleased with the final product, with time there is always room for improvement. 

Design Firm Visit

Over thanksgiving break when I was at home in the greater Seattle area I visited a designer by the name of Alyse who works for Build Urban in Seattle with two of my classmates. While meeting with her we presented our final projects for our interior design studio. The presentation took place at a quaint little coffee shop across from her place of work.

We presented our drawings and our designs for a commercial space turned residential apartment that is accessible for a person disabled in a wheelchair for the first floor, and visitable on the second floor. I presented last, and had all of my final work on my laptop (I had scanned my work previously and had it saved on there). I originally was nervous going into the situation not knowing what to expect but Alyse gave me great feedback that really put all of my designs into perspective. On my floor plans she pointed out practical things that would work and what would not, because what we put on paper is not how we would interact in the space in real life. She also reminded us that a few inches here and there would really provide a big difference when experiencing the space as well.

It was very interesting to see what a professional thought of my college project. Alyse's feedback was very helpful and put my work and thoughts into a perspective that I had neglected to see them in before. Overall the visit was beneficial and I appreciated the time Alyse gave to us.

Assignment 4B: Graphic Reflection

Throughout this semester in interior design 205, visual communication I have learned many useful skills and have improved with each technique over the course of the semester. This shows throughout my weekly homework as well as the various assignments that were to be completed. I was taught how to effectively render with marker while making progress with sketching a space with depth and accuracy in scale. My improvements in being able to effectively communicate a space are shown through my weekly journal entries. The progress in my marker renderings are shown through my weekly rendering practice, from not being able to effectively layer colored pencils and markers to being able to successfully communicate the visual appearance of an object as realistically as I can. Throughout the duration of the semester we completed a series of three assignments that were to teach us how to correctly represent the depth of a given space by using 1 and 2-point grids. By learning this I eventually became confident enough with my understanding of showing an area accurately to be able to freehand perspectives, but I still have much to learn. With each assignment I feel that I improved as I continued to practice the techniques we were taught in class. I personally enjoyed learning how to render with colored pencils and markers to give the illusion of a realistic space. I find this vital information for us to learn because the interior design we are expected to communicate our ideas in the best way possible. Being a visual person, as most people in the creative field, this is highly important. In the words of Confucius, “Learning without thought is labor lost,” and I am excited to keep learning more and giving everything into my future work to improve my abilities.

Habitat Experience

I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity on Saturday September 28th, 2013. It was such an incredible learning opportunity. When I first arrived with my group we were less than excited to work in the rain, but it ended up being one of my favorite service trips I've done in my college career. At the site, we framed, sheathed, and erected the exterior walls of the house.  A group of people from my Interior Design studio and I helped put the exterior walls of the house together, manually nailing them and then put a protective layer to prevent molding once the house is finished. After doing this we lifted the walls up and helped put them in place, we got to help put up the skeleton of the house which started to give the site more of a perspective in regards to the final product. Putting the walls up and together there was quite a bit of hammering to be done, needless to say I jammed my fingers a few times but I got the hang of it by the end and felt like a real pro! We also got to meet the owner of the house and her children, it was so touching to see the lives of the people we were directly helping.

Putting up one of the exterior walls

Sketch Crawl | Seattle Center

After being let loose in the Seattle Center with free range of field sketching, I decided to pick the most cliché building to draw—the Space Needle. At first I tried to build my drawing from the top of the structure, which I quickly learned to be a bad idea. After that lesson I started from the ground up and I started to piece the building together in sections, by drawing the contour of the lines that make up the space needle rather than a failed attempt at trying to draw the whole thing at once rather than viewing it in pieces. I would say that defining the components that make up the Space Needle and building my drawing in a progressive manner was strength of mine during this sketch. I spent the whole time on it and am actually pleased with the final product, however the top “saucer” part of the tower is a bit lopsided- but I just took it how it turned out because not every sketch can be perfect, but I can be conscious of the issue next time to try to get the contour of the line more accurate to the actual shape of the slope. I learned that I need to approach seeing the object that I am drawing as an object, not a whole definable object, but an object with many layers that can be gradually built off of rather than all piled on at the same time.

 Above is the Space Needle and the right photo is my sketch that I did while at the Seattle Center. The photo to the left is a different view but the same structure.