Studio Reflection

On February 12th, the regional artist, Carrie Ville invited interior design students to her new studio that was located in Colfax. The studio was located a few hundred feet away from her house. Her original studio was located in a basement of the residence however; she was often distracted by house chores. This is the reason why she built her studio away from home. When I first stepped into her studio, my first impression was comforting like I usually felt when I visit a house. All the small art pieces and warm-yellow Halogen lighting had very dramatic effect. Also the windows brought natural light to the space which made studio feel more like home. The work space was limited but, if she makes more shelves, this problem can be solved. The furniture arrangement depending on her work preference pose was very impressing. One of the interesting aspects about this space was, it had several lightings for different tasks. She had halogen track lights to evoke dramatic effects when her clients visited the studio. She also had florescent lights for her art work during night time. I learned that the layout of the studio can vary depending on the artist. For my artist’s studio, I realized that I need to ask specific questions and really understand what process he goes through to create one fine art piece.

WSU Art Museum Reflection

“Pause Art & Architecture”

Different from the last time I visited the museum, the WSU Art Museum had a totally different theme and layout for the gallery. In order to set up a temporary gallery for the next coming up gallery by different artists, the interior walls were movable. The size of one partial wall was an ideal for only about one or two art pieces. In this gallery, all the partial walls were lined up together and the gaps between those were simply covered with a tape. This way, the gallery had more space to display art pieces. The color of the walls was white, which barely distracted the art pieces. I learned that if I am displaying 3-D art pieces in the gallery, I must consider the cretin angles. This way, it will evoke the curiosity and encourage viewers to explore deeper.

Vision Disability Workshop Reflection

Reflection Sketch:Crytal
Reflection Sketch: Starbucks Sign

I experienced vision disability by wearing sun glasses that was covered with Vaseline. The thin layer of Vaseline made my vision not completely blind, but offered the blurry vision to identify some objects. Not being able to see well, I realized that I am always exposed to hazardous situation. Finding the location of the stair was impossible unless my partner indicated the location for me. Going up and down the stairs felt very insecure despite of the rail on the side. With the glasses on, it was impossible to find the defined edges of the first and last steps of the stairs. I noticed that I can verify the object better under natural light instead of artificial lighting. I observed this from my partner, crystal. When she was exposed to daylight, she tended know where she was going without my help. However, when she was getting into the elevator or the restroom where the natural light was limited, it was hard for her to find where she wanted to go.
Using the ATM without any assistance required patience. If I am using the ATM for the first time I would have given up. WSU CU ATM has an audio set for assisting people who have impaired vision. In order to use this service, you need to plug your own headphone into the machine. With my glasses on, I did not even know they offered this service, and it was impossible to find hole to plug the headphones in. Luckily, I had a headphone, so we got to hear the instruction about how to use the ATM. Listening to the instruction took more than 5 minutes. During the instructions, you need to memorize where all things are located then, try it on your own. I know installing high tech- assistant system will cost more, but it would be fair for people who have vision impairment. I think this universal design needs to be applied throughout the entire building environment to meet the basic human rights.
In order to input the universal design aspects in the cub, this building needs to replace all the signs. The lettering size of the signs does not meet the standard size for people who have visual impairment. For example, the restroom sign is hard to distinguish by people even though they have normal vision. The artificial lighting in the building especially in the restroom and elevators also needs to change. It would be more helpful, if the restroom had more color contrasts between the wall and the stall.
This workshop, helped me to realize, how dangerous and uncomfortable it is to being blind. In order to design for those who have vision impairment, I learned that I need to put myself in her or his shoes first and look at how the environment is in different perspective view.

Unified Indivisual

Inspiration Object:

3-D Model:

Final Boards:

Model:

Process Packet:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24274534/Process-Packet

(My process work is available in this website!)

When I saw this triangular shape object, I immediately picked it up because of the unusual shape. On the bottom of the object, there was two different colors blue and white; which provided me the inspiration to design the residence. Based on the inspiration, I made a 3D model and translated the inspiration, ‘unifying Individual’, in the residence. One of the client is in a wheelchair; so, everything in the house needed to meet the ADA requirement. In this design, I focused on creating individual space for each family member while I created the ideal circulation for the wheelchair user. Also, in order to unify the individualism among the family and space, I placed the family gathering place in the center of the house.
I was running out of time when I was making the presentation boards, so all the final renderings were pretty rough. However, it still showed that my rendering skills improved from the past few months. It is more interesting and appealing to the client, if you have several renderings of the space. However, I wish I had a main perspective in decent size.
Throughout the whole time when I designing the residence, I realized that I needed to improve my time management skills. For the next design project, I need to practice marker lettering also, have a better understanding of the board layout to create the ideal board.

Black and White Bathroom

Presentaion Board

Concept Model

Study Model

Inspired by a feather, this is my first bathroom design. The requirement for this design was to have the toilet and sink area meet the ADA standard. Also, this room needed to contain a laundry area. Inspired by the color of the feather, this bathroom is in black and white. The common black and white room is simple yet modern looking. However, I added a few delicate aspects in my design; such as an arched bathroom entrance with two columns, ball-shaped lights, and rugs which build more character to the space. It also provides softness, like a feather. The bath and laundry room is separated in order to provide privacy and quiet space. The laundry room is small, yet accessible for ADA standard and have plenty storage space along the walls. With a big color contrast, this room is apprealing yetprovides softness and smoothness to the space. For the next room design, I will try to make the presentation board more pleasing with some graphics in the background.

6years old, Twin brothers Room

Final Presentaion Board :

3D Concept Model :

Room Model :

This was my first time to design a children room. The room was designed for 6 years old twin brothers. The general requirements for this room was, the room must be transitional for later years and accommodates both alone and play space. Also, this room requires the space for sleep, study, TV, storages for toys, book, and clothes.
My inspiration was from a children book, “The Fence” by Jan Balet. In the book, the author uses bright hues such as pink and purple. I decided to use ‘pink’ in boys’ room because I wanted to break the typical notion that ‘boys rooms must be in blue.’ By the different wall paint, the study, play, and bed area are divided. The addition of the stairs and wall plays a role to separate space and provide more storage. In the bedroom, I used pink as wall decoration. In the play area which is in the upper space of the room, the storages and couches are in pink. In the study area, the shelf is in pink contrast with sky-blue wall paint.
Since my client is 6 to 8 years, my presentation board would catch their attention right away. I attached all the little sketches in different heights because kids at this age start differentiating height. I wanted to use bold colors for the children’s room. However, I am scared of using bright and bold hues. I could have painted the wall with dark pink or something else; but, I used pink as an accent color through the room. I need to study relation of colors and be confident about using it next time.

Cozy yet, Spacious Kitchen

This project was remodeling kitchen design. The art piece that I received from the client, Jehee Kim was the Mediterranean scenery oil painting. It evokes the sensation of coziness and relaxation through out the bright warm colors on the oil painting. Jehee Kim’s family is consist with four member which are parents, and two children. Jehee desires to have a kitchen that is cozy yet, spacious.Z Also, she wanted lots of storages besides the pantry and at least two oven in her kitchen. Material wise, she wanted to have a limestone floor for easy cleaning.
The strong lighting in the oil painting creates a separate space emphasizing both the ground and the sea. However, the uses of these color both unify and balance out the painting. These ideas were applied to the kitchen remodel. The division space in the painting transfers to the creation of the new walls in the kitchen and family room area. This provides coziness to the space. However, this can block the view and make space look smaller that it would seem. In order to remodel a kitchen that is cozy yet spacious; the arch-shaped windows and the opening area towards the family room are added. The client, Jehee dislike round counter top. However, she wanted to put curve in her kitchen for the coziness look. Therefore, the arched windows were located in the kitchen. These window catch tons of sunlight and provide spaciousness in the kitchen space. For the unification of the space, neutral colored arch-shaped windows, arches, and columns are added. The curve from the windows and arches flows through the kitchen space and unifies the space. The color of the countertop and cabinet are earthy, providing coziness. The factors unify the space and create elegance and a welcoming atmosphere as the client requested.

Kitchen Case Study

The goal of this kitchen case study project was to develop the skills of analyzing good and poor kitchen design. My teammates were Josh, Crystal, and Sam. To analyze the kitchen design, we started out cooking spaghetti. By using an actual kitchen and focusing on the layout of the kitchen, our team members started noticing the positive and negative aspects of the kitchen. For example, adequate storage under counter space was a positive aspect of the kitchen. However, as you can see from the perspective drawing on the poster, high shelves above the sink were the negative aspects of the kitchen. The title of this kitchen case study is “Interaction between space, being, and movement”. Crystal came up with this title because the interaction between space and how people freely move around the kitchen decides whether a kitchen has a good or bad design. Each one of us had different preferences and opinions but, it was amazing experience. Whenever we had discussion, we would come up with the best solution for this project. This project helped me develop teamwork skills in order to create the best work. Also, this project guided me to have a better understanding of NKBA standards and a good lay out of a kitchen.

Kitchen Sitll Life Sketch

This sketch required me to create a still-life drawing that contains texture, value changes, and volume of each item. The goal of this sketch was to view common items in a new way, developing visual thinking skills based on texture, values, and volume. I chose to draw the most familiar kitchen items which were a coffee mug, fork, and spoon. For refreshment of the drawing, I added an eyelash curler. I was confident using graphite to add texture and volume into the drawing. As you can see the texture and volume show well in this drawing; however, the shape of fork seems odd. I need to draw more in order to see the characteristic that each objects has.

Chair Sketch

From a magazine, I found an interesting picture of a chair. The assignment was creating negative space by contrast of black and white. I drew the chair lightly on white bond paper and added a black background with black color pencil; then I darken the shadow in order to emphasis the positive space in drawing. Some parts of the positive space (background of the picture), has various intense due to the lighting in the drawing. This drawing is a good example to show the relationship between positive and negative space.