Alkha

As I work on my portfolio I thought it would be a good idea to update the look of my CV and make it more design centered with its content. I have had this bold graphic CV for over a year now, and it landed me crucial industry experience. However, as my portfolio has taken a new visual direction, it is now out-of-date and needed to visually match.

My new CV is a lot more calming to look at and I hope it seems more thoughtfully put together now that I have changed a few elements. 

// 19 March 2020

My business cards were delivered through the post today.

// 19 March 2020

When I first began creating my manifesto - a poem - I kept mulling over the idea of a coffee table; the things we'd find on a coffee table. For me, a coffee table is a symbol of tranquility and relaxation. I mulled over this idea for a while and was drawn to creating a vase. After some failed attempts at vac-forming, I went back to what I knew would work, clay.

I just let my hands and instincts take over to create pieces which were truly myself and decided that 4 "ring vases" were enough to choose a favourite from.

I took small pieces of air-drying clay, rolled them into a ball, then worm, then flattened into a rectangular piece of clay that I could twist into shape.

After drying for over a day, I went to coat the vases in varnish, but realised that I couldn't find the varnish anywhere! Despite this, I quite like the unfinished and raw feel of the clay - although this may not be best for coffee table items, I do think being uncoated is a better representation of myself and the things I believe in as a designer.

As I was unable to access the photography studios at university due to corona virus closures, I created a small studio in my garden with some black card.

Here are some of the edited photos of the ring vases...

I adore how these photos came out! I am so pleased with the vases and I think the black and white filtering and contrasts I layered on the photos really captures the essence of the vases.

// 16 March 2020

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that business cards would be so difficult to design. 

I spent hours trying out different colourways of my logo with different shaped business cards and I think I have finally found the one. 

Front 

Back

As I am a designer who uses a lot of colour, I thought it would be better to stick to a monochromatic scheme. I incorporated some of my art into the cards - I think the leaf motifs soften the harshness of the black and white contrast and add some visual interest. 

I used a business card printing service called MOO to print my cards and the final pieces will have a chilli red trim that will give the cards a nice touch. 

// 16 March 2020

Last week I convinced a colleague to visit the GK Gallery and Tea room with me so that we could see the 3D print installation in its gallery space. I believe it is important to take a break from working in the same environment once in a while, so that we may perhaps break repetitive thinking cycles and prevent boredom.

The installation looked quite delicate in parts, yet robust in others. I liked how one piece could create multiple shadows in the space because of the lighting. This  creation of shadows is an important thing to consider when designing (in my opinion) because shadows belong to the objects they are made from and are vital in creating a sense of place as much as the physical entity.

In this case, I was much more drawn to the shadows of the 3D-printed forms than the forms themselves. 

The layering, stretching and strength of the shadows here had had an animate quality which I found truly enchanting. Although this reaction I had to the art may not have been what the artist intended, for myself this appreciation of shadows was a far more valuable realisation. 

// 12 March 2020

After using the font Glasket for my logo, I have become quite unsatisfied with it. It does not show enough personality. 

I designed my own logo on Adobe Illustrator and came up with a few variations.

// 11 March 2020

Continuing from my last blog post, I further developed the seat into a bench/daybed sort of seat. I am a huge advocate of daybed and I believe we should use more of them as designers! This design begun as a daybed but in its final form, it looks more like a three seater sofa, but is quite elegant. Additionally, I developed a light I designed in first year into another drop pendant style light that I placed on the sides of the sofa. I designed the plant pots and table so that their styles matched with the rest of the space.

This was the first render, I spent some time getting the soft shadows correct and included a carpet from Ligne Roset to bring more personality into the space.

I did some editing on the render to bring a more pink glow.

I went back and centred the carpet, and made the scene more symmetrical with the plants. I think this design was successful and has my signature warm feel.

// 10 May 2020

As bespoke furniture is something we deal with in the interior design industry, I have taken it upon myself to design pieces that reflect who I am as a designer, and the current direction I am taking in my work. As designing and creating something from scratch brings me immense joy and satisfaction, I took a few days out to design scenes that bring back that spark I have within so that I may work to my full potential in my NMP. 

I gave the chair a soft form so that it wasn’t too imposing on the space it was to be used in, and used wool upholstery to further iterate it’s organic form. For the panelling on the walls in this scene I experimented with a paper texture that I think was quite successful. In a real-life setting using paper would be inappropriate so I would use a natural-fibre fabric that contains flecks of other organic material to create similar finish. 

The final render looks pretty good. I designed a table to go with the other elements of the space and added lighting and art from manufacturers.

// 05 March 2020

After attending a riso-print workshop, the prints created were used to learn about different methods of making books.

I learned that there are two forms of books, destructive and non-destructive. Non-destructive books are ones that cannot be changed once made, however destructive books are ones that can be altered and the content can be changed around through adding and taking out pages. 

Some of the demonstrations included saddle-stitch binding, screwpost binding, wiro binding and perfect binding. 

My favourite book-binding method shown was perfect-binding as shown by the image above. I used what I had learned to create my own A5 perfect-bound sketchbook. 

I attended a workshop to learn how riso prints are made so that I could understand the process behind creating artwork this way. I was a newbie to this method of printing so it was a learning curve that I enjoyed. 

Riso printers create artwork and prints through the layering of colours through repeatedly passing paper through the printer. 

First you must choose your art.

To create riso prints, art is layered and each layer is given a different colour. The tubes below show some of the inks that can be used in a riso printer.

The inks are placed into drums of corresponding colours within the printer. Once the ink and first layer of art are in place, the printer creates a “master” from which additional prints can be made. 

The prints created were then used in a bookmaking workshop. 

I really enjoyed learning about riso printing and was shocked at how fast prints are created through this method. The understanding of this process will help me with my knowledge of creative practice and process that will aid me in the future as I can use this method of printing for my own graphical representation.

// 24 February 2020

This morning at university we had a visit from Bedrock TIles in what was an informative talk about regulations surrounding the finishes on tiles and slip-resistance. 

Aside from the nitty gritty, law-controlled parts of designing tiles, there were some pretty things to look at!

In their latest catalogue, I saw some small tiles arranged so that they looked like snakeskin - I think this is absolutely beautiful (image below). This has given me major inspiration for my NMP and I may do something similar in my design.

Another thing that caught my eye were the range of grouts the owner of the company had brought along. I think this small box of coloured grout samples is something useful to have as a designer as grouting can be made a feature of. 

// 17 February 2020

This visit to a Gold standard Well certified space was the Hilson Moran office in the Neo building in Manchester.

I sat through a presentation on what the Well Building standards entail and learned a great deal about the concepts measured through this form of building regulation. These seven concepts in the Well v1 are centered around wellbeing: air; water; nourishment; light; fitness; comfort; mind. I think that as a designer these seven concepts should always be on our minds when working on any project.

Throughout the office, there were notices that explained how different elements of the space aided the office in reaching it’s Well certification and I think these were useful notices that make one realise that there is depth to the design decisions in the space.

The carpet in the office was green in more relaxed and informal spaces. This was to mimic nature in a very obvious way. A running theme through the office was very obvious visual cues to wellbeing and nature - I think this was effective in this case as the office wasn’t very big.

The kitchen cabinetry was made from potato skin with hay and plywood that helps with the Air concept as it reduces VOC levels and incorporates natural materials. I think this was a nice touch since the kitchen area was small, however I don’t think it would be suitable for much larger spaces, unless it was used alongside other materials. 

The office featured more natural cues with preserved moss in an area used for brainstorming and collaboration. 

// 03 February 2020

During the summer, I spent quite a bit of time nearby Barbirolli Square in Manchester, so it was nice to visit it in a different light.

The construction site was just as expected - cold and dusty. After watching a presentation given by some builders and an architects working on 101 Barbirolli Sq., we put on our PPE and were given a tour of the space. 

The architect used an IPad and software called Kuula to show us virtual renderings of what the spaces in construction would look like once done. In the photograph above, the visual is of the atrium space. The use of this method of visualisation showed me the importance of being able to communicate the design vision to people who aren’t involved in the process, and as virtual reality grows, creating 360 renders are something I will have to get better at.

Below, the image shows an extension being built on the roof of the building. This is to increase the Net Internal Area which is important for coworking spaces such as this building. 

As the architects had designed the space with a stripped back and exposed aesthetic, the builders spoke about how it was important for all the exposed pipework and wiring to look neat and be arranged in vertical lines. This helped me to understand that whilst stripped back interiors may seem simple, there is an added level of precision required to make such schemes look successful and not shabby.

// 26 Jan 2020

I spent some time creating a scene in SketchUp with the aim to experiment with the landscaping tools. I created the model and continued tweaking it until I was pleased with the visual composition.

First I created a daylight render - this looked good but didn’t match the vision I had in my head and it wasn’t atmospheric enough.

I decreased the temperature and edited the image to create more texture in the sand. This looked better, however it was too cold for my liking.

To create a softer look, I gave the scene a dusky feel and this instantly felt better and more atmospheric.

To create more visual harmony, I changed the purple arched structure into a pearl finish so that there was a softer look.

The final composition!

After more post-production editing I was satisfied with the scene. It has visual interest and the colours work well together. 

Graphical representation of The Simpsons house.

I found these images online and thought that they were a really vibrant way of visualising floor plans and cross sections through a space. I really like the use of colour here and how the cross section really makes the house lived in, the graphics really tell a story.

To be a better designer, I think I need to continue to develop my style of representation and experiment with making videos and more gifs.

// 04 December 2019

As I was headed into university, I got an email about the annual Mix Interiors event taking place at the Hilton, so I decided to take a day-long detour.

I wandered through every part of the event, got stuck into the VR experiences, sat through two panel talks, however the Living experience struck a chord with me.

As soon I stepped into the room designed by Basha-Franklin, I felt that this place was for me. To put it in words, the room held such powerful emotional quality that I could help but immerse myself in it. It reminded me of the reason why I love interior design so much. 

There was a nostalgic intimacy to the room. It was cosy and almost looked lived in. 

Above this chair in the corner of the room, there was a sensor underneath the seat pad that turned on the light above the seat once a person sat in it. Furthermore, once seated here, speakers embedded in the chair began to play the first line of famous novels. The technology at play here created a really memorable moment and I think this is an example of how we can use technology to enhance our spaces in subtle ways.

Another interesting feature of this room was the display around the digital screen, This was made from stacked vases from Vitra. 

I really liked the continuity of forms in this space. The backrest on the sofa resembled a pebble to me which echoed the the carved lavastone placed above it.

Branding!

After scrolling through thousands of fonts, I have found a style which appeals to me. I was particularly drawn to elongated lettering, as shown here on the letters l, k and h. This is partly because I take inspiration from Kelly Wearstler as a designer and find her branding typography quite striking. 

I have played around with some of the fonts for my own branding identity, and with some slight adjustments, the font “Glasket” which is third in the list above, may be the font I use. Glasket is a sans serif font. I like the rounded shapes of the letters, as well as the cleanliness and spacing. 

I have included an image of Kelly Wearstler’s typography for reference.