Central St. Martins, Interior Styling Course

After working with the photographer Austin Hutton on a photo shoot for a potential magazine Editorial (image below), students began completing their final presentation. Each student had a 40 minute session with the photographer in order to pull together their theme. Every one had a different focus, as one would expect; each one was equally exciting - the results of which I will publish over the next few days. (Above) students from Italy, Germany and Switzerland begin pulling together the 'look' for their concept for a loft apartment, searching for inspiration from a wide variety of resources and enabling them to build on their resource books, contacts and network.

Central St. Martins Interior Styling Course: Student visits

Over the last few days students have been gathering resources and taking part in research visits to enable them to begin to develop their concepts for their project brief. In the images here the students visited the Geffrye Museum and the Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln Inn Fields. Students also had the opportunity to gather samples of materials at the Materials Lab and pick up catalogues from some of the major high street retailers such as Heals, Habitat and Lom Bok before viewing Event promotion products at DZD. As part of the course students were also given lectures in understanding styling for Interiors, how to present their work to their clients and deconstructing an interior space.

ERCO Lighting, London

ERCO Lighting, has been one of the most generous companies to us in Education in giving their time in presentations to our students at their fabulous showroom in Dover street (and actually at their showroom in Dubai too where they kindly talked about the incredible projects that they have worked on in the Emirates). I came here once when I was a student over twenty years ago and never forgot their generosity and I am sure my students and graduates will not either.

I once taught a group of students from Kazakhstan, at the School of Art in the capital - only one student spoke English so you can imagine how time consuming my lecture sessions were as each piece of information was gradually translated. It was also quite unnerving having 40 video cameras thrust at me for each lecture session - almost as if I was about to give out a secret formula - of course there really isn't one in this industry, just creativity, ingenuity, interest and plain old hard, hard work.

I took them to ERCO Lighting when we came to London. The guys at ERCO were incredibly patient in explaining to the group fundamental information needed for lighting a space, and it, subsequently being translated piece by painful piece.

I happened to be walking along Dover Street one evening recently and remembered that ERCO also owned the very last piece of work produced by the amazing Verner Panton - well I believe so anyway (pictured at the back of the top image)

Central St. Martins, Interior Styling Course

Students arrived for their first day of the Interior Styling course at Central St. Martins from all across the globe, travelling from places such as Saudi Arabia, Columbia, Taiwan, Brazil, London, Turkey, Bulgaria, Pakistan, and Italy. All have a wide variety of backgrounds including Marketing, Photography, Interior Design, IT, Accountancy, and Retail. This always makes these courses so exciting. Having issued the students with a brief: to create a concept for a loft apartment, identifying their target market and producing a proposal which should include materials, lighting, furniture etc., students will experience a wholly varied selection of site visits. Here students visited St. George's development in Vauxhall - a £0.5 million apartment / show home before scouring Lassco's Architectural Salvage, Ornaments & Curiosities to begin to gather in resources. You will be able to follow their journey, professionally and personally over the next week.

Selfridges 100 Year Anniversary

I feel I have been a bit slow to write about Selfridges 100 year anniversary windows, but there have been so many other exciting things happening to write about and record. Anyway, needless to say yet another superb example from an amazingly visual display team at the store. These images are the latest at the department store begun by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1909 containing narratives and ideas for the future, 2109 to be precise. My only other thought here is that I only wish I could be around in 100 years to experience some of them.

Central St. Martins Interior Styling Course: Geffrye Museum

Through my city wanderings I came across the Geffrye Museum. Formally a hospital, I had heard of it many times over the years and in fact had seen some trade shows here, although I don't think I have ever really looked at the exhibits. Along the side of the building are a series of room installations that covers UK domestic interiors from Victorian, Georgian, in fact all the way through the 20th Century. While these are not the most lavish of 'sets', the kind of thing you would expect at the V&A they do have enormous merit and have subsequently proved very useful in researching and identifying trends through the last century. My favourite is definitely the G-plan furniture of the late 1950's and early 1960's. There is also a great exhibition on here to at the moment, Ethelburga Tower, At Home in The High-Rise, by my colleague at the University of the Arts, London, Mark Cowper which makes the visit to this little gem in London's East End even more rewarding.

Rivington Street, London

My very first professional job at the tender age of 20 (sadly so long ago now) was working with a Textile Designer named Kate Blee based in Rivington Street, now new(ishly) built up. At the time I remember having to walk through what was then a series of building sites to get to the studio, based above an Architectural practise along this street. Although I have been along here many times since I left Kate I don't ever remember looking at it with the same eyes. It does still appear to have that nightclub after the party feel about it - you know, when the main lights are switched on at the end of the night and you suddenly realise that the carpet is stained and sticky, the walls are falling down and your date is no longer as pretty as the flashing club lights led you to believe in fact, as the graphic says, Scary. Anyway, through serendipity I did find this place, in particular the window display below which is quite interesting. This is the home of YCN.72 - a place which showcases and provides a platform for emerging talent

Central St. Martins Interior Styling Course

The examples shown here are ones that I collected from recent students. The group were allocated just half an hour to produce these ideas. The students were given a 'word' as a starting point and then gathered objects, materials that informed a particular trend. Students had to think about the points of focus and composition while applying design principals. The group decided that it was far more effective to focus on the composition and close in on details, identifying colour, form, texture and pattern. Inspiration was found from editorial images while looking at lighting, focus, viewpoint and composition. In effect these have become a kind of three dimensional mood board which captures the essence of the trends they were working with.

Central St. Martins, Interior Design for Retail Course, Student Guest Blogger Elsa Sanchez

Elsa Sanchez: Industrial Designer, Mexico
This was my first time in London, another amazing city that never sleeps… this place offers lots of options and many things to enjoy, whatever you want to do is possible, great to party, great museums, wonderful shows, beautiful landscapes…and everywhere you feel different atmospheres but all of them have their own charm!
The first few days in my trip were really sunny, and while I was walking just in front of Dali´s museum, there was an ice sculpture just melting and losing its beautiful shape… I took some pictures and then, I realized that Big Ben, Thames River, the ice and the Sun were playing a fantastic composition just showing how I will remember London…

This below is an example in Mexico city in my work place. The display itself is inside the store rather than in a window, which I think is what is so interesting. This is the first time since we opened, that we have used a Mannequin and not in the window, just in one of the sets that illustrates to customers, our living room furniture.
This display was created to explain a service that we offer for people that are planning to get married, and is for those who want to buy their presents in our store for this kind of event. The mannequin represents a bride with some gifts around the furniture and accessories that we sell.

What do you think about our display at Casa Palacio Retail Store in Mexico?

Tiffany, Bond St., London

I don't normally photograph jewellery in store windows, although, Tiffany windows always present their product so creatively and incredibly well that I couldn't resist including it. They create a kind of game by making us hunt for the pieces within a amazing narrative based scheme, this one of course uses an under water theme with coral, sand and bubbles and the jewellery is seeming effortlessly placed within the scenario as if it had been dropped into the sea and floated to the bottom. Luxury brands really do get product presentation right and this is such a pleasure to view on my evening city wanderings.

Braganza House, Chandor, India

No visit to Chandor, India could ever be complete without visiting the Braganza House. This stunning old mansion dates back to the 17th Century and is in fact two houses owned by the same family - although as I understand it they haven't spoken to each other for generations. The mansion overall is furnished with priceless artefact's which include Ming vases, crystal chandeliers, fabulously hand carved furniture and its very own religious artifact - the finger nail of St. Francis Xavier. I was fortunate while on on my visit to meet Mrs. Braganza (who was at least 90 years old at the time) who lives in the West wing of the mansion and who told me stories of how during land reforms they had escaped during the night to Bangalore and were in hiding from the Portuguese regime in the 1960's. Of course, today it has an air of faded glory about it, however this is such a fantastic example of colonial living from a by gone age.

Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, London

Thankfully, London 'Sale' windows are gradually being replaced with more creative narratives which always bring me so much pleasure. Walking through Knightsbridge, here in London, I came across the new installation at Harvey Nichols. What is so interesting here are the links that can be identified between yesterdays blog and these windows. My students used 2mm plywood and began to visualise their two dimensional drawings into a three dimensional outcome. While the creatives at Harvey Nichols would not necessarily have produced these thinking or working in the same way, the end result illustrates how potent these ways of working can be and how they can have other applications, but ultimately, as is my intention, how we can move these concepts forward.

Working from 2-D to 3-D

During my students first term of their Design course I take them on a series of site visits t0 such places as Kew Gardens, The Science Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Imperial War Museum over a series of several weeks. This enables students firstly to work on their observational drawing skills and also to begin looking at recording the information with the theory of three dimensional Design firmly in their minds. During this time we also begin a series of model making exercises and translating their drawings into a variety of materials that they have never used before. Here are some examples of students work using two millimetre plywood which my students experimented with using their drawings from Kew Gardens, looking at Repetition, Radiation etc.

Central St. Martins, Interior Styling (Lifestyle Boards)

There are many types of presentation boards, each with their own titles and purposes. Essentially, they show all visual information relevant to a project and represent and Interior scheme or concept with the aid of product images and samples. It is far easier to 'sell' your concept to your client through visuals rather than through words alone.

Types of Presentation boards :
Sample boards - Illustrating surface finishes
Colour board - Communicating a colour scheme
Mood board - Similar to colour boards, although using inspirational imagery
Trend board - Defining and predicting a look or scheme
Lifestyle board - Depicting a look or lifestyle of your target market.

London College of Communication, Student Guest blogger Kathryn Kane

Kathryn Kane, Fda Display Design, Work Placement at Marks and Spencer.
In June I had the opportunity to gain some work experience at Marks and Spencer at the new Westfield Shopping Centre. It was a very busy time as M&S were celebrating their 125 year anniversary. The first week was spent making sure we had all the decor for the store and the right outfits for the mannequins in the window, and over a very long night shift it all came together. The windows were unveiled the next morning, revealing vintage inspired window displays for each department. Marks & Spencer had decided to go back to their roots as inspiration for these displays reflecting different decades from the 1920’s onwards. I like the vintage inspired idea, reflecting the many changes in fashion and lifestyle. I think that Marks & Spencer 125 year celebration is reflected well in these windows.

Central St. Martins, Interior Styling Course (Editorial Photoshoot)

Trends and Photoshoot Project:

Working in small groups students had to create a product based editorial for an Interiors Magazine. Students identified trends, created a backdrop with a limited composition, avoiding large objects and focused in on detail They then worked with professional photographer Austin Hutton to create these images. Each group were allocated just 40 minutes to create their composition while thinking about lighting, colour, focus and viewpoints. Inspiration was gleaned from existing editorials, however, each composition was informed by students own research rather than plagiarising existing concepts.