photo analysis

he elements and principles of design are the basic building blocks of great interior design. The elements of design are composed of line, space, color and light, texture, shape, form, and pattern. Along with the elements, the principles of design are balance, rhythm, emphasis, proportion, scale, variety, unity, and harmony. To help further illustrate these various elements and principles of design, we will be analyzing the above interior. 

In this picture, a variety elements and principles are used. We will first begin with looking at the elements which are seen. All of the lines seen in this interior are straight which conveys a sense of stability and control along with a lot of horizontal lines which add calm or repose to this interior. The shapes and forms which are seen here are all squares, rectangles, and cubes or in other words all of the shapes and forms have squared off edges which also adds a sense of control and stability to the interior. In the bookshelf in the back corner there is an interesting use of negative and positive space being utilized. The textures used in this space are mostly all smooth except the one wall containing stone. These are the different elements of design which really standout in this interior.

To further analyze this photo we will now look at the different principles of design which are being utilized in this space. Firstly, there is a very good rhythm created by using only straight lines and squared off edges. The rhythm is created because this element is repeated throughout the space. There is an emphasis on the wall containing the television because it is painted red and your eye automatically is directed towards it. Unity is present in this space by using all of the straight lines, squared off edges, smooth surfaces, and similar colors. There is a variety however through the use of the stone wall and the red television wall. The variety makes the interior interesting enough while the unity of elements brings the whole space together which creates harmony and a balance in this interior. 

In the above photo many different elements and principles of design are utilized. The space is very successful and harmonious because of these different elements and principles. In order to create a successful design you need to analyze each element and principle and utilize them correctly. 

Unusual Materials

   Interiors and furniture do not have to be made from the same everyday materials. Throughout the world various interiors and furniture have been made from a variety of unusual and innovative materials. For instance, different structures have been created by using glass bottles that create a very unique and interesting structure and interior to look at.

     A bottle wall can be defined as a wall made out of glass bottles and a binding material. Constructing a glass bottle wall can actually be quite simple. You use the glass bottles as you would a masonry unit and then combine the bottles with adobe, sand, cement, stucco, clay, plaster, mortar, or any other joint compound.

    While bottle walls are believed to have been around since Ancient Rome for aesthetic reasons, the first actual bottle house was constructed in 1902 by William F. Peck in Tonopah, Nevada. The house was constructed by using 10,000 bottles of beer and was later demolished in the early 1980's. The next known bottle house was built by Tom Kelly in Rhyolite, Nevada using 51,000 beer bottles masoned with adobe. Kelly constructed this bottle house because trees were so scarce in the Nevada desert. As the years continued many different people and even organizations continued constructing glass bottle walls and structures because it is a very good alternative to normal building products and also because the glass bottles create such a unique and interesting environment. 

      Glass bottles are a great alternative building material that is also very environmentally friendly as well. This unusual material is a very functional and aesthetically unique building material.



References:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_wall

Design Expo: Brian Graham Learning Lunch

Design Expo is an even that occurs every year at Texas Tech. At Design Expo a day full of events occur such as the learning lunch and then the actual expo that includes many vendors from all over the nation in the textile, flooring, furniture, paint, and many more industries. The event which was the most information and the most interesting this year, was the Learning Lunch which included a lecture by designer Brian Graham.

Brian Graham is an interior designer from San Francisco who is the owner of his own company, Graham Design. Graham began by telling the crowd more about his background which included him getting his degree in Interior Architectural Design at California State University, Long Beach where he also served as a professor. He also added in that he began as only an interior designer and now has branched off to be a furniture designer after gaining experience in the interior design world and learning how furniture and other items are assembled and put together. Graham explained that to design furniture is a very complicated process because everything has to be broken down and you have to explain how to assemble each furnishing piece by piece. This become apparent as Graham began to show his sketches and sections of some of the furniture he had designed.

Graham also explained his design process to the Learning Lunch and his design inspirations. He included designers such as Florence Knoll, Charles Eames, and Richard Nuetra as his design inspirations or mentors. Also, Graham showed all of his sketches and his studio for everyone to better understand his design process. In his studio, Graham has pictures of all kinds of furniture to give him more inspiration while designing and also a chart created by Charles Eames explaining the relationship of designing with a client to better help him. In addition, Graham went through his design process step by step by showing his process of quick sketching which was very interesting to see because it is almost exactly like the process we are learning to use in Collier's 2383 studio.

The Learning Lunch and the Design Expo are very information and educational tools every year which help to better understand and appreciate the designing process involved in interior design.

Campus Materials Analysis

The six applications of fabrics include seating, window covering, wall covering, panel systems, floor coverings, and fiber based art. Walking around the Texas Tech campus you can see many of these applications put to use in a variety of settings. In the human sciences building, as shown in the top picture, a black leather like material was used for seating in many of the areas. In the English building, many office chairs were upholstered in a decorative fabric that was very wear resistant. There are many positive things about both of these materials used in their seating settings but also many negatives to these materials used.

The black leather like material used for upholstering the seating used in the break areas of the Human Sciences building has many ups and downs. For instance, the aesthetic qualities of the material go along perfectly with the Texas Tech colors, red and black, as the material is black and red accents are used throughout the furniture pieces. However, one of the displeasing qualities of this material is that it looks cheap from one perspective. You can tell that this material is not real leather even though it is supposed to be made to look that way. The functionality of this material is great though. This material is very wearable and also very cleanable meant for an area of high volume and accidents which makes it perfect for the break area of the Human Sciences building.

The office chair's material in the English building also has its many ups and down to it as well. The material from an aesthetic quality is not the most pleasing thing to look at. The design on this fabric is very busy and has too much going on, especially when it is meant for classrooms where you want the students to be focusing on their work or the professor. The design in this fabric can easily be a distraction to anyone in these classrooms. The functional qualities however of this material is outstanding. The material is obviously very wearable and resistant to abrasion which is great because there are obviously many different people seating in these seats daily.

After walking through campus, there were many different materials used in a variety of ways. These are just two examples of the many different materials.