Design Department Update

In my nearly 2 1/2 month absence, I've been doing a little soul searching, a little apartment searching, and a LOT of job searching. While both the apartment and job search have yet to be fulfilled I can happily say the soul searching has been fulfilled. First, I'm positive I love design. Frustrated with my lack of job prospects I thought maybe design wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. So my friends, I'll remain unemployed for a bit longer, because interior design was, and is my passion. Thinking about how I got started, and all of the projects on the way made me realize that I've never shared any of my personal portfolio. So readers, over the next few days I'll be posting my portfolio one project at a time.

What you see in a designers portfolio is usually just their best work-- but here readers-- is all of my board work. There are a few stellar ones that I still can't believe were all my ideas, and some not so fabulous designs. In addition to posting my portfolio, I'll explain where each idea came from as well as what worked, what didn't and why. (That was always my big question in school, I recognized when something didn't work, but I didn't always recognize why it didn't work.)

I'll start with my first project. All the way from Oakland Community College's Fall 2006 semester. The assignment was to create a color concept board. Simple enough, or so I thought. Then the class was told to pick a color, no biggie I thought... from the color sample fan deck provided, and the fan deck was upside down. As students picked their colors I saw reds, greens, blues and a very very bright orange, so I was a tad nervous. I reached down and picked a square... prayed really hard for a minute and looked. Utterly Beige. How boring is that?!

Well, I knew the only color scheme to do then was neutral. But I didn't realize that utterly beige didn't have to be utterly boring. So I went home and dug through Elegant Home magazines. Naturally, I came up empty handed the first time around. Then I started pulling my own fan deck. What colors were around Utterly Beige? Did anything other than white work with it? How do I make beige NOT boring? Then it hit me. It literally hit me, someone threw a piece of chocolate at me. Rich chocolate Brown would look fabulous with beige. Brown and beige are technically variations of the same color, so why not. I picked what in design terms would be called a "neutral brown" called French Roast (Benjamin Moore) and designated that as the wall color. It was dark, but very rich, and since the floor color would be utterly beige, I figured it would lighten up the room. I chose a creamy white for the ceiling and a stark white for the trim adding height tho the ceiling and framing out the walls. Then added black accents.

The board was simple. Very simple.

The next assignment went hand in hand with this one. It was to complete the room design for this color scheme. So I did. Here it is folks, my first room EVER!:

You'll notice that I did add a pop of red, which I thought worked at the time, actually, it still works, but my personal taste has changed. Now, its a little bright for me. Given the chance to do it again, I would choose a silvery blue-green. A more muted tone than the bright red. I also added some chrome accents. We were given the drawing to color in and each surface had to be covered on the board so a silver hue was chosen to brighten and lighten the space. The fact is, any mirrored surface reflects light, and therefore makes a room seem brighter and bigger than it actually is. With the dark brown on the walls, it worked rather well to open the space. Overall I'm still very happy with this project. I really put a lot of thought and heart into this project, and earned an A on it.

So there it is, my first project... first two projects. Looking back I remember feeling anxious and nervous about turning it in. It was like a baby, I'd worked on it so long and so diligently I didn't want anyone else to see it for fear of it being rejected.... Yeah, I made the right decision, I love design and everything that goes along with it.

To those wondering how the job search is going: I'm still looking, and looking for a job is a full time job in itself!