additional work

I realized that the images from my board were very small so since this is a blog about my growth as a designer I thought perhaps you should actually be able to see some of my work and not just the inspiration. I've had some practice doing the parti and I love this part of the work. It's a representation of the design stripped down to its most basic form.


Next you'll see a bubble diagram. I didn't make one for the first go around but that type of design drawing was required on the remake. My professor thinks I should include this in my portfolio.



Here you have my plan and elevations that I rendered in photoshop using an effect called posterize. I like how it gave it a sketchy quality. But in the future I will more accurately render the plan as it serves like a map for the design and the client should be able to easily read what's happening (heard that gem in a critique).




And here you have the money shots. This was using Sketchup and Podium and gives the best representation of being in the space. Tried to include human form to give reference but couldn't quite master it before project was due. I will include in the next project.



Ok. So there's my work, up close and personal.
Ciao!

presentation of loft

Ok. Here's the orignial board.


And the new RE-presented one

By the way, I LOVE Google Sketchup. It's free and you can go on and play with it yourself. I hope you like what I've created. If you do, I'm available for hire. He he.

Residential

This past semester was the most fun, to date. I had the chance to design for two different interiors. I learned so much about the importance of using a concept to drive the design. In addition, the skills I learned in my Presentation Techniques aided in my board layout. I learned and honed my skills in the Adobe line of products(Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign).

The first project was a live/work loft in the Dumbo area of Brooklyn. The faux client was a fashion designers with an in-home studio. Her husband was an industrial designer who needed office space, as well. They also had a small baby. The space therefore needed to house a living room, dining room, kitchen, baby room, master bedroom, guest space, his office, her studio(with ADA bath), and a place for their art and oversized book collection.

The loft is located in a building that was formerly a bourbon warehouse. Bourbon production was the impetus for the concept. Tip of the hat to my husband who is a great fan of Maker's Mark Bourbon (has his own barrel somewhere at the distillery). I love the change of states that the spirit goes through before it's final state. I selected 'transitions' as the concept. **


After many attempts to show the concept of transitions architecturally, I considered how a person could transition through a space. Keeping in mind the bourbon, I thought that a drop in a glass would create a ripple effect that transitions throughout the space. So my concept morphed from 'transitions' to 'rippled'.

Since the couple were fans of local artists, I found a piece called 'Snow White' by Tony Brooks which was the inspiration for the colors and even complemented the ripple effect. **
I guess I get why Eric doesn't want me to hang this in our house, but I love it.
I decided to use a plaster finish that mimics a concrete, which would be used on the floors throughout the space.

Also, since the space was going to be used for both public and private spaces and the windows were floor to ceiling, I wanted the entrance to be breathtaking. I came across an image(universaldesignstudio.com) of a loft stairwell that was open and allowed for the light to penetrate the space. **


I designed a loft to house the office space for the husband which overlooked the studio space as well as a guest space. ** So here you will see my original presentation with the ff&e (furniture, fixtures and equipment for you non design folks). **

Thanks to the critiques from the residential midterm and my pres tech class I was able to modify my presentation even further. **

Ok, having trouble downloading final images. Try again tomorrow. I'll have more to follow for the second half of the semester, but this is a start. I hope you enjoy.

Ciao! Lynn

We have come a long way. The design of our space struggled with looking too boxy for a natural open feel. So we were challenged to break out of the traditional roof and extend the branches to become the ceiling. In order to do that we found that the double layer of wall with lighting between would have caused too much commotion for the roof so we reduced it down to one layer of wall. And we decided to soften the corners and make entrances on two sides of the four-sided structure.

We also found it difficult to incorporate the nail polish, which is a big problem if you're marketing nail polish. So we decided to use color to draw people in and explore the polish inside. The images of the birch trees in Aspen have such wonderful oranges and reds in the fall so we decided on a gradation of those and a soft yellow-orange for the floor to make the focal point of the room, the white display tree in the center, stand out more.

We created an abstract display tree and made replicas of our packaging to display on the shelves. The display tree mimics the cut out walls in shape and in the shelving. The shelving on the display, however, we made with colors to stand out against the white while the shelving on the walls remained brown, like the bark of a birch tree.

We decided to use soft packaging for the object to maintain the integrity of the sustainability of the product. Too much packaging would be inconsistent with the goal of 'green' nail polish.

We found that once the tree branches were bent they pulled the attached trees with them in contorted directions so we stabilized them by gluing them at the top. We had some cool lighting that we wanted to use but there was no way to use it without seeing ALL the wires and it would have been messy.

We are pleased with our final result but it is certainly far from where we started. Until next time.

Cheers!

Canopy Layers

For our organic nail polish project with the canopy of trees concept we worked on a space that gave the shopper a feeling of fresh air. Professor Volchansky-Nieves liked our idea of using a more open wall. We had two walls made of carved out trees (white bain board in keeping with the birch trees we were representing) and a back wall with a more abstract tree whose branches served as display shelves. She suggested we consider how light falls on the space and how you get the sensation of being surrounded by layers of branches. So we explored that option and made the trees in the walls a little more narrow and added a second layer of wall to really enhance that idea.
We felt we needed storage and we included a cabinet attached to the wall but suspended from the floor. The strong horizontal, geometric lines cut off the vertical organic lines and felt inconsistent with the tone. We were getting closer to our target but there were still issues with the roof and the entry.
We decided to package the nail polish in sets of three to be able to create an interesting package and cut down on the amount of waste, being that we were shooting for a more sustainable target. The chairs I posted earlier on that look carved out with bright colors for the seating was the inspiration. But as we developed our space it became necessary to take a second look at if that worked best with our concept.





More to come.
Ciao!

Gaiam

My team met with some ideas on how to compose the space. We were struggling with which part of the assignment to design first. Should we start with the structure, then the display and then the packaging? Or do we start small with the packaging and move up to the overall space. The product we chose was Gaiam, an all natural product line. We looked to see if we could market the nail polish in a way that was consistent with their existing campaign.

Our first challenge was to find a way to represent a brand whose main asset, in our minds, was its non-toxic nature. So we looked for ways to represent nature and what we felt people might connect with. In using this product you can take a breath of fresh air and not worry about any harmful side effects. So how could we represent fresh air? We thought of being outside with a breeze blowing and the trees waving in the wind. We jumped up into the trees and sat under its canopy. And, hence, the concept of the canopy of trees was born.

We designed a 10'x 10' x 12' space that felt a lot like a traditional retail space, four walls, a floor and a ceiling. We saw some examples of spaces that took the outdoors and brought it inside. We thought we could develop our own way. Our walls came together pretty well and we liked the idea of using thin shelving on one wall as a display for our packaging. So we started there.

One of our biggest challenges was giving the space the feeling of being up in the treetops therefore not using heavy solid pieces to bring the experience back down to the trunk. We needed to find a way to capture the light, airy feeling of being in the treetops. We decided to each work on it along with packaging ideas and display and meet again.

Until next time,
Ciao!

Group Project

This assignment has us combining the previous three. We have to brand, package and create a display for a kiosk-type space. We will work in teams of three and pick an entirely new object in our category. I am working with Shadie and Julia. So far we three are all on the same page. We have a big picture in mind and now are working back from the beginning to build to there. It's kind of like knowing the end of a book and then creating the story to match.

We decided to stick with nail polish as our space requirements are 10' x 10' x 12' and thought nail polish would be a cosmetic that would warrant that amount of space. We are considering including a small space for manicures or testing. We also decided on an all-natural, non-toxic polish as our object. We feel that we can then brand and design our project within the parameters of sustainability.

All three of us are designing models based on our discussions and will meet today to choose the best aspects from each to present as our concept tomorrow in class. Here you will see some of my inspiration and soon I will post the models themselves.

Cheers!