My Interior Design Blog

Last time I talked about the binder of Elements and Principles of Design we had to do. I talked with you about the importance of the graphic presentation. Well now, it should be already easier since you should add the Human Factor part to the already made binder.

What is Human Factors?

• Anthropometrics
• Ergonomics
• Proxemics
• Territoriality
• Personalization
• ADA

Definition for all those terms you would be able to find in my Human Factors binder. (By the way, the order is a little bit crazy, but you should be able to see the page numbers, and know what picture belongs to what HF.)

Today was a little bit happy and a little bit more sad I got to see my grandparents today, and I’m thankful for that every day. But, my grandma’s condition just makes me sader and sader every time I see her. One time she could look and act completely normal but the next, she will ask me when are we going to decorate eggs? Well of course my answer was on passover, but the problem with this question was that we are Jews, and never in my life I painted on eggs with my grandma…

On a different note, Fridays were highly anticipated. First of all because it’s almost or even more accurate to say the beginning of the weekend. And also because we had studio again. I don’t know what about the others but every time I went in to class, and waited for our instructor I was very excited. I was looking forward to see what she will teach us next? What will be our next assignment? You could never know…

Our first mini project was to find pictures that would represent properly the Elements and Principles of Design. We didn’t have to use only interior spaces, we could choose whatever we felt was right. Than after we discussed some of the pictures in class we had to write the definition of each element and principle and why we think the picture shows it.

Now, all had to be neatly presented in a binder. Your graphic presentation is as important as the content from several reasons. First, it is 33.3% of the grade, and if you fail in it but the content is excellent you still will get a C. Secondly, The instructor gets the idea about you, I mean she understands what kind of person you are, it’s kind off like the first impression all over again. The third and last, it prepares you to next projects, the level of neatness that you need to have, proper organization, and in some level time management.

By the way if you don’t want to read my completed Elements and Principles of Design binder but only want to know them, here are the 6 Elements and 7 Elements of Design:

Elements of Design

• Line, Shape, Form
• Color
• Texture
• Pattern
• Ornament
• Light
• Scale

Principles of Design

• Balance - Symmetrical Balance, Asymmetrical Balance, Radial Balance.
• Rhythm/Repetition
• Emphasis/Focus
• Harmony/Unity
• Proportion
• View
• Vista
• Contrast/Variety

I know you may wonder how did I get to be in FIT if I don’t even know how many Elements and Principles I mentioned, but I’ll tell you exactly what I was thinking. I said that there are 6 elements but wrote 7, that’s because some may consider Pattern and Ornament as one element. Same in principles, I said that there are 7 principles but wrote 8, That’s because View and Vista is one principle as well.

I forgot to mention that I had ESL - English as Second Language after studio, but there isn’t really much to mention… It was boring, I felt like I don’t belong, but I couldn’t do anything had to take it. So, that’s about the only thing I’m going to say about this subject. If anyone has questions about it you are welcome to ask anytime

I’m in my home country Israel… I almost forgot how beautiful it is.. The people are so nice and welcoming, I wormely recommend you to take a week off and come to visit Although the circumstances I came for are not very cheerful. As you may remember I came here because of my beloved grandma. She is not doing very well and it’s very hard to realize that she is not the 75 year old grandma that I remember but almost 85. I would ask you all to pray for her, as I will do myself.

I’ll try to let go of my personal life and focus on our mission towards becoming the best Interior Designer we could possibly be. Now, we are moving to Wednesdays which were not much for me… I had only one simple subject that day. Geometry and the Art of Design. It was so easy, seriously, the level of studies was something like the ninth grade and if you didn’t do well on the midterm you would have to redo it, because the instructor didn’t let anyone get less than 80. instead of having a final test we had a final project. The project could have been whatever you wanted it to be as long as it has a geometric meaning. He gave us homework only ones which took about five minutes to do, and never kept us in class more than 45 minutes when the class suppose to take 3 hours. It was in the middle of the day which sucked but was worth the A you get

Thursdays were OK too. I started the day at noon which was good I had extra hours to sleep or study if I really needed to. The first subject of the day was computers, to tell you the truth I don’t even remember the official name of it since it was so not necessary. We didn’t learn anything new neither on PC or mac. After this class we had Presentation Techniques. Boy I loved this class, I always liked to draw but never really got professional training. The lady that was teaching us was such a nice person, very caring, she even bought us donuts ones because people were hungry. The only thing is, she was talking so much, we barely had time to practice in class because she was showing us things again and again and guess what? Yes, again. I really learned a lot from her though. She taught us about light, perspectives, elevations, and of course color techniques.

I would deffinatly tell more about Presentation, but now it’s already 2:35am at my end of the world, so I probably have to go to sleep. I have a long day tommorow, so see you later aligators

Hey guess,

I know I haven’t been here in a while but I have a really good reason. I’ve been told that my grandma is in the hospital, she broke her leg so hopefully it’s nothing serious. I bought a last minute ticket back home to Israel, and I had to do some packing and organizing. Don’t worry though, I took pictures of all the things I have done throughout the semester so I would be able keep writing there. I don’t know how often it would be but I’ll try as much as I can.

Last time I talked about my Mondays which were the worst days. Now, we are moving to Tuesdays which honaslty for me were the best it gets. The day was full and long but a lot of work never scared me. I used to start the day at 9:10. Drafting was the first subject. When I started the semester I was sure I’m going to be very good at it since I have it in my genes, I thought it would come naturally, boy I was wrong… Our first project was just to take the handout and trace it, sound easy, don’t you think? Well. No it wasn’t. Since it was our first project we had to practice all our new tools, rulers, comps, and most importantly the drafting board. I really left those homework for last and I didn’t know how long it would take. (Took a long time). The next project was to practice architectural lettering, again I thought that from what I have seen my dad do I will do it quick and good, wrong again… It took me about three hours to finish everything. I remembered the instructor saying something about using a ruler but it was taking such a long time that I decided to do it free hand. After all I’m young, sort off and artist, my hand is steady, than why wouldn’t I be able to do it? I got a C, my first C ever, or maybe it was C+ but still, awful… With time I learned that I need to dedicate much more time for drafting, and never do it last minute.

Right after drafting I had volleyball, I thought it would be an easy A, just to relax and keep me slim. turned out completely different… We ended up writing three articles and had a final project. Since I’m not going to talk much more or at all about volleyball I’ll write everything now. The articles were about fitness, volleyball and group or team games. It wasn’t that bad, but the thing that really annoyed me about the instructor is that I handed in the last of the articles about a month before our finals. What did she do? Returned all of them a week before the semester ends at the most stressful time and says like it’s nothing: “Oh, everything is wrong, you need to redo all three if you don’t want to loose 30 points off of your grade. And hand in the final project.” I really came close to hitting her, but I decided that my continuing in the institute is more important then satisfying my need. The final project was just something artistic so it took me like 5 minutes and the articles took me no time. Do you want to know how? very simple. I asked my boyfriend to write them since I have no time to spare. He was sure that he did a bad job, I really didn’t care, but I got an A

After an common hour I had the most fun, hard and satisfying class I ever had. STUDIO 1. It’s the class that you spend most of your hours both in school and out. You learn all the basics of design. I had the most amazing and tough teacher ever, luckily she is going to instruct studio 2. It was 4 hours that felt like one, and needed to be doubled. I’ll talk about this subject a lot more.

Stay tuned to read more about Drafting and Studio, but now I need to catch the subway to the airport. I sure don’t want to be late. Wish me a good and safe trip, (I’ll sure wish it to myself, I hate flying).

Chau.

Today we will officially start the new year. Hope that everybody had a great new years eave and a wonderful beginning of 2009. What better way to start the new year than move one from the admission process to the actual 1st semester.

When I got accepted to FIT I also got a brochure saying that there will be an orientation week. I truly recommend that you will go and participate even though you don’t know anyone because that’s the whole point of those activities. I personally had a blast, and got to know my first friends here in the US, this is particularly important if you are international student, I know how hard it is to be so far away from your family and childhood friends.

My first day at FIT I had only two subjects, 3D Design and Survey of Interior Design. I’m not going to talk a lot about those subjects because 3D was the most boring and useless subject ever. You can’t even imagine how boring it was. The instructor always talked and kept going to things that are not related, but even things that were related even a small bit were boring. We didn’t learn anything but cutting geometric shapes and gluing them together. I will though show you our final project. Because as bad as it was, it also was an easy A.

Survey of Interior Design on the other hand, was not as bad but come on guys it’s history, it can’t be too much interesting. I will say that our instructor was an easy one. What do I mean about that? Well he never gave home work, you didn’t have to take notes either. He was teaching everything from a power point slide show, and before we had our midterm and final tests (which were by the way the only ones) he just printed his slide show out with specific questions on them. So if you have good memory, and you can memorize three pages, you’ll be fine and will get an A.

After the first day of school, I wondered if this is the profession for me. I had high expectations and after 10 minutes of the first class I just doubted my decision. But, don’t worry, Monday was my least favorite day, everything got better the next day and on.

Let’s pick up where we left off two posts ago. I promised to guide and explain everything I know about cardboard furniture. Than why don’t we start at the beginning. I entered this field about a year and a half maybe two years ago because my brother was sitting on my had (not literally, but almost). He wanted me to make something, anything, doesn’t matter what out of cardboard. So, I googled it and found a nice chat, (I would have added the link but it’s Hebrew, I don’t believe it would be useful ). I went to the first pages and started reading questions and answers, but it was too much so I just looked at pictures turned out I got it right. Well, there are several techniques I’m going to talk about the really, really easy one.

Ingredients For Any Project:

• Lots of cardboard
• Gummed tape
• Craft paper
• Hot glue gun
• Glue-All, white Elmer’s glue
• Acrylic paint
• Water based varnish
• Utility knife

• First step is getting a lot of cardboard, and I don’t mean like the boxes you buy shoes in, but the big ones, like from appliances and electronics. One really easy way to get those free is being familiar with your neighborhood’s “junk days” - the days that everybody put out the big trash. There is at list two “junk days” a week, and you will definitely find enough cardboard like this.

• You should figure out what do you want to build, I’m going to teach you about the rocking dog. After we decided on what we are building, you need to trace the image on a piece of cardboard. Don’t forget you should already draw the image the size you want it to be.

• Cut the image, and retrace it so you would have a total of 6 rocking dog profiles. Than after you cut everything, make three sets, each set glue to each other with the glue gun.
• Now, cut the “support beams” which are suppose to be about 2″ by 4″. Glue those beams in rows when the side of the 2″ is glued to the image of the dog. When you feel it’s enough put glue really quick on the edges of the beams and place over them another cardboard image. Do that again and you get a 3D rocking dog skeleton. Add a rope or wooden stick for comfortable grip.

• Measure the thickness of the dog, cut a long stripe of cardboard and cover where needed (around the perimeter of the piece).
• Now, comes the covering part. It may sound easy, and I’m not saying it’s hard, you just have to have patience. Take the craft paper and cut big piece, big enough for the whole side of the dog to fit. Put the white glue on the dog itself, place the paper on the dog, from the center and stretch out. Exactly like you would do with a wall paper. Put more glue on top of the paper and keep stretching from the inside out avoiding air babels. Do the same thing all over the dog. (For additional strength you may do another layer.

• Now it’s really FUN TIME!!! Paint, there are no direction for this. Like my presentation instructor always says :”It’s time to use your creative license”. You do whatever you want however you want.

• After painting, is one more step and we are done!! It’s time to sill the rocking dog for both paint protection and durability reason. I prefer the varnish that comes in the spray bottle, because it is simple application, not messy at all and the bottle is enough for several projects of this size.

Enjoy!!!

hey guys,

I know I promised to explain and guide you regarding the cardboard furniture. But, I didn’t have enough time today to write it at home because all of the preparation for the new year, and now I’m at my boyfriend’s dad place, so it’s a little hectic here to do anything. I sneaked to the office just to let you know that I didn’t forget and I will write everything in my next post, promise!!!

So, what else left to say but HAPPY NEW YEAR, may this year bring you joy, prosperity, love and most of all, success in your design projects and home decor

love ya guys, cya next year- Elina Pinis

Sorry I haven’t been around the last two days, I had the worse migraine headache ever… I woke up with it, and went to bed with it, it’s just can’t be described.

Last time we were talking about the home test that everybody has to have. This post we are going to discuss the Admission Portfolio itself. So, let’s start with the requirements, you need to have between 20 to 30 projects. They all could be drawn, or you can also have some 3D objects like; pottery, woodwork etc’

In my portfolio it’s pretty obvious that I chose to stay closer to the 2dimensional projects. From the simple reason that it is the safest area for me, even though I didn’t have experience with it as well. How did I know what to do and with what medium to use? Well, I was fortunate enough to have find a girl on craigslist that gave away free samples for people who major in Interior Design. When I came to pick up the samples I have brought along my portfolio, well part of it, to be exact since I had only 3 or 4 drawings done. She was really nice and agreed to take a look at what I have done so far and I didn’t like the look on her face when she flipped the pages. “Is it good?” I asked. She smiled at me and said, “I’m sorry to say, but everything is wrong.” She started pointing out things, I almost started crying, than she said something that changed everything. “FIT are not a big fond of color pencils, try to use prismacolor markers, they are the best!” She showed me 3 of her drawings from her admission portfolio. It didn’t look too complicated to execute. The same day I went on eBay and ordered 72 markers (by the way, eBay is the cheapest place to buy those markers, don’t buy them at stores!!)

When I got the markers I started drawing, but it was wrong. Everything was wrong. I was disappointed with myself, I thought it would be the easiest part, but it turned out to be the hardest. I tried to look online for portfolio examples but I didn’t find anything. There are two options, either I didn’t look hard enough, or there was nothing to look for. That’s when I decided to write this blog, I know it took me a while, but better later than never The next step was just to look for interior pictures that I like and try to mimic them. No, not copy, and there is a big difference.

The evaluators are not expecting you to have a previous technical knowledge of sketching or drafting. They want to make sure that you have the potential to learn. Than what are they looking at?

• They are looking at your color coordination, you don’t have to be a genius to know if two colors go together, just have to have a good taste.
• They are also looking for some since of perspective, I mean if you need to draw rails that are starting from the point closest to you and continuing to a dimension that does not exist on a piece of paper, they want to see that you have the logical since to make it wider in the bottom and skinnier in the top.

The two projects that stand out the most in my portfolio are the last two, which are cardboard furniture. Yes, you read it correctly, cardboard furniture. I know there must be a lot of questions regarding it, like; “Is it durable enough?” “How hard is it to make?” “can you actually sit on it?” “Does all of it made out of cardboard?” Well, if you want an answer to those questions and directions for your own cardboard furniture you’ll probably will read the next post

The day before yesterday was a movie day. My boyfriend and I went to the movie theater since a lot of great movies premiered on Christmas day. We chose to watch Valkyrie, since usually movies that are based on true stories are the best. We enjoyed it, bu it wasn’t something outstanding like we hoped it would be. After the movie ended we started going towards the exit and than we saw that another movie is about to start The Tale of Despereaux. Again, it was a cute movie but we agreed that it’s one of those movies for kids, not like other animation movies that are also fit for adults.

That was just a little review for you guys, and now I’ll continue my Interior Design journey. Now, if you remember the last post I uploaded my admission portfolio. Don’t get scared about the elevations you see there you don’t have to have those in your portfolio. But I’m going to talk about it next time, now I’ll explain the home test.

The first one is another essay you need to write. This time you should include in it: why you chose FIT, your career goals, and what do you think Interior Design is all about. My only and the most important advise is not to tell them how since you were a baby you dreamed, ate, and breathed FIT. It won’t work! everybody write about it.. And they know how good they are, they wont to hear about you!!!

The second home test is to sketch a room or a floor plan. If you are good in drawing, go ahead and choose the room sketch since it will be more colorful and show your talent. If not, the floor plan is the better choice for you. Don’t be scared, floor plans are easy you just need to know how to do it in scale. That was my problem, I came from the metric system and inches made no sense to me. (Plus, if you’ll keep reading the blog I’ll explain later on more about scale and floor plans).

The third one is to sketch a piece of furniture that you find interesting. I think for this you need to go online and look for something that catches your eye, don’t worry if it has a real purpose or not, they are just going to ask you why you chose this, and why you find it interesting. With the piece I chose I think you can see why I chose it…

The final and I believe the most important test is to design a functional object or a piece of furniture by relating it to an artist, or it’s better to say to an artists work. You don’t know any artist? That’s fine. I didn’t know anyone ether. What I decided to do is to go to Wikipedia and looked for a list of architects or designers, than I went one by one and googled them. After a long search I found an Architect I really liked her style; Patricia Urquiola Bergere. It’s important to explain to the people who interview you how do you think you portrayed the artist of your choice style and how it comes through. In my case, as you may see at first sight the picture and the drawings are not similar at all, but I wanted not to portray only that particular chandelier but the general style of Patricia, which is traditional with touches of modern. Like the chandelier, the piece itself and its lines are very traditional, but the material and colors are the most modern you can get.

First of all, I think it would be appropriate to apologize about yesterday, I mean that I didn’t write anything. My friend was leaving for a vacation back to her country so I spent most of my day at her place. After I left, I went strait to Manhattan, to meet my boyfriend and we went together to a birthday party. You would never guess where the party was… No, try again… I can see you impatient, so I’ll just tell you; it was at “Lucky Cheng’s” it’s a drug queen place, where they host, take your food order and dance. The food was good, but when you go there you pay mostly for the show, and the show is great. They interact with the guests and they even have a mini competition, but I won’t tell you what it is, you would have to go there and find out by yourself.

And now back to our business, last time I told you about the essay that you have to present as part of the requirements. The next stage would be to get a letter (1, 2, 3) saying that you are invited to an “in person portfolio evaluation”. Now, if you are living more than 200 miles from NYC you can just send your portfolio by mail. But, and it’s a big but, since there is no interview for FIT it is suggested to present your portfolio in person, because you can defend some of your work, and/or explain what were you thinking when you did this or that.

In addition, this letter also contains “information” on what should be in the portfolio and a home test. I put the information in quotes because it is unsuffisiant. I mean, to someone who has no expirience in the art field it’s all very confusing. When I tried to look online for examples I didn’t find anything. So, what I’m going to do is upload my admission portfolio which obviasly passed the FIT inspection.