Storage

How many times does your pets food get in the way?  Not to mention the lack of aesthetic appeal even the cutest bowls have with the rest of your decor.  This solution takes the bowls off the floor and into a cabinet so that both of these problems are resolved.  I think this image originally grabbed my attention because of the style.  From this, I felt as if it gave off a contemporary country image.  Although its the strangest mix of styles, thats exactly what I have fallen in love with for interior spaces.

Kitchen Design

From first glance, this image looks like a modern black and white kitchen.  That's not what I want you to take away from this picture though.  Upon closer examination, you notice that the appliances are actually in a cabinet with sliding doors.  Its always such a pain to have to take everyday appliances out so most people just leave them out.  In the design aspect, those really take away from the aesthetics of the space.  This idea is neat because it allows easy access to the important appliances and hides them when you're done.

Elements and Principles of Design

Principles: Rhythm. Balance. Emphasis. Unity. Proportion.
Elements: Line. Color. Shape. Texture. Form. Space.


Out of these principles, I feel the IOB group can relate with the idea of balance, unity, and proportion most closely.
Balance- Our triangle tree has to have balance so that the beginning doesn't seem completely disconnected from the end point.  We have tended to lessen the density of the triangles toward the end but keeping it balanced with the full bottom is necessary.
Unity-Unity is key because we are trying to unify the entire space.  We want to reduce if not eliminate the disconnect felt from the lobby to the factory through the use of a common theme.  Our triangle tree would act as a way finding device through the lobby and office space.  In the factories, it would be the bulletin boards to unify the space from the utter disconnect its currently in.
Proportion- Proportion is important because we don't want the triangle tree to take away from the people and stories within the IOB.  Keeping the tree in scale allows us to use it as a way finder as opposed to the main focus.


Out of the elements, I feel that line, texture, and space are the most important.
Line- Clean lines are essential to the IOB.  Our triangle tree is a play off the use of positive and negative space within an object.  The use of line in this directs your eye in the way it should go, leading you through the space.


Texture- This is the most important element we have faced thus far.  Visually impaired people rely on their other senses much greater because of their lack of sight.  Tactile experiences allow the blind to rely on their hands to tell them what their eyes cannot.  In developing this, we started with the idea of braille which is very organized.  From this, our textures were organized and patterned out.  We chose not to use braille as a texture because it isn't fair to play off of someone else's disadvantages for your own gain.


Space- Space is important within this concept because of the constraints they are faced with.  They are not able to create more space and then over use of walls makes the space they currently have appear a lot smaller then it is.  Using the element of space, we would like to introduce an open concept into the design, utilizing their limited space for all that its worth.

Guest Room

This just might be the cutest guest room I've ever seen.  Typically when I see the color scheme of red, green, and white used it always reminds me of Christmas.  With this room that wasn't even a thought that crossed my mind.  Its such a successful color scheme without being overpowering.  The idea of this is what really captured my attention though.  Far too often, guest rooms don't have near enough space.  This allows more sleeping room then the typical queen size bed.  It also is done in a classy way, not taking up too much floor room but more grown up then bunk beds everywhere.  I feel like implementing this into my future house would be important with my large family.

Stair Storage

A while back, I posted an image on storage drawers under the staircase.  I recently came upon this and thought it was an awesome addition.  If you're not able to put drawers on the side of your stairs due to the configuration of your house, this is an alternative option.  This isn't quite as convenient space wise but it is still additional storage which you can never go wrong with.

DC Speeches

My little preparation the night before was far from sufficient for this speech.  I bombed it, I knew it as well as everyone else.  I've never been one for public speaking; I'm too soft spoken and shy for it.  However getting up in front of people I knew so well should never have presented the issues to me that it did.  I didn't think the speaking presentation was incredibly helpful because it was more of a review session of what we've learned all our lives.  I also didn't visit the speaking center beforehand and maybe next time I should but with my lack of public speaking skills, I'm not sure it would do much good.  I will certainly improve from this point before the next speech, of that I have no doubts.

reflecting back on first year studio

As soon as I saw this object, my mind was taken back to first year.  We created places for so many things from leaves to twigs.  This object is a place for cookies, too precious.  I don't think anyone would actually buy this but the concept behind it is cute.