Week One

 The Elements of Interior Design

This week in class we started learning about the Elements of Interior Design. There are 8 total elements: Point, Line, Shape, Form, Light, Color, Texture, and Pattern. We discussed the first four. Point is the most basic element. It is a stable point within a visual field and organizes the elements around it. It is often a focal point. A focal point is the place that people look at first. It is not always in the direct center and can cause tension when it is offset. A fireplace is a common built-in focal point.

A line has many types each portraying a different feeling. Horizontal lines provide more restful and peaceful feelings whereas vertical lines give a more strong and powerful feeling. Diagonal lines often feel more unbalanced and energetic whereas curved lines feel more gentle and graceful. 

Planes are seen more as the borders of the space being designed. The wall-places, ceiling-plane, and floor-plane. These planes create space or volume. They can create negative or positive space, and a balance of the two is what creates good harmony in a room.

Form refers to the shapes of rooms or the elements inside them. The repetition of forms within a space creates harmony. If there are too many different forms within a space it can become distracting. 

Sketching Interiors

In Chapter 1 of Sketching Interiors, we learned about how important it is for designers to be able to freehand sketch. They will need to use it to communicate their ideas and designs with clients and colleagues. It is also very helpful for brainstorming and generating design ideas. We also learned that the best way to start is to look at drawings of other designers and artists. It’s not about perfection, but just about recording on the paper what you see. We also learned the best tools to get for sketching. We learned about the difference between the left and right sides of the brain. The left side of the brain is more for thinking where as the right side is more for creativity. It is important to engage the right side of your brain more when you are drawing and not let the left side take over. 

This week our assignment was to create two upside-down drawings. The goal was to force the right side of the brain to take over. At first, I thought this would be very challenging and turn out looking very bad, but I was pleasantly surprised. By drawing them upside down I only focused on what I saw instead of what I thought it was supposed to look like. When I turned my paper over, I saw that it looked pretty similar to the pictures I drew from.