70's Interior Design - Digital ModelingExhibition Text:
"Away from Home - Pursuing Ambitions" models a luxury living room of a new inhabitant and the distance/connection from home. This piece was created digitally through SketchUp and manipulation through Photopea with inspiration coming from Night Palm's 70's inspired high-end living spaces and Steve Powers expression of love through meaningful text. Text: Away from Home - Pursuing Ambitions
Size: 76.20 x 37.90 cm Medium: SketchUp and Photopea Completion: November 2023 |
Inspiration
Brazilian Treehouse by Night Palm
Architecture not only falls into the category of understanding Space and Design, but is in of itself a board term that expands into a variety of fields of design. I wanted to explore one of these fields with 1970's inspired Interior Design where instead of exploring how a structure interacts with an environment the focus shifts into a internal assessment that aligns much more to the individual that inhabits the space. Brazilian Treehouse is one of the interior home designs that Night Palm that along with the resurfacing of the 70's styling caught my eye with the purposeful lighting and color choices. After more digging I found that the particular mindset that goes into Night Palm's high-end residential environments are lush/moody spaces that express emotions of one's past. With the use of SketchUp that I've done so far, it has mainly been utilized as a component of the process or experimentation, but I wanted to fully incorporate it for a digital work. I haven't explored a home interior space like the exterior designs of recent my architectural work, and I believe that Brazilian Treehouse has some key characteristics for establishing a setting that feels present but communicates a past design style.
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A Love Letter For You by Steve Powers
A Love Letter For You shown is not one artwork but a series of rooftop mural artworks that each simply express a love from a guy to a girl, but for the local residents in West Philadelphia showcases a form of expression of love for those who have experienced it or long for it. All of the murals follow the same structure of being text-based with differing graphic design, and the one that I believed match well with the theme of this project is showcased on the right. This Love Letter chooses the graphical style of mimicking a fridge with the solid, white back that's complimented by the colorful magnet letters that are complied in the top-left corner but are purposely arranged to spell out a message. For this project I wanted to only include text directly into the work but establish a contrast from the setting and the shaping of text, whether that's font, dialogue, or language choice. I'm leaning towards this shape of text to be a form of childhood or familiarity to one's past, which not only compliment the setting choice but emphasizes the retro styling in a modern setting mentioned in the previous work.
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Planning
Exploring 70's interior design and having a better understanding of what the style consists of was important for developing an inspired living room design. The first of these characteristics involves an open plan home where two spaces are combined to create an area more grand and tends to be where most of the circulation of the residence occurs. Since I was focusing on one portion of the room for the viewer perspective the main take away from characteristics was the high ceilings that are specifically angled with windows above. From there I moved onto analyzing texture, where I wanted to hone in on the vivid colors and create a contrast from a graphical component and a color overlay that gave more visualization of the particular time time period (a subtle brown over the digital model against the lettering can be quite effective). Lastly looking into influence and looking for the inspired design, I wanted to ensure that the setting was cozy, minimalist, but most importantly had hints of it taking place in the present day. With these characteristics in mind, I create a brief outline of a living room space and identifying general bubbles where furniture and other aspects would be placed.
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Moving onto the graphical design element of this work, it was important that the manner in which text was incorporated into the work was meaningful. Love Letter for each of the mural work utilizes the particular shape of the text to connect to the message of each project in the series. The use of text also carries a mindset of being both specific to a particular person, but has a common meaning that allows it to be relatable to all. With this in mind I used a kinetic writing technique of how Powers approached each of his murals and started drawing ideas of how to mimic the similar style/message. One of the interesting takeaways was the role that food has in art and it's larger implication, as I believe that the "home-meal" aspect can be powerful for the project and establishing a contrast from the setting. In regards to the specifics, I have had many experiences of leaving home on my own, whether that has been with other family members, doing internships, or pursuing early college experiences. A part of that experience is being home sick, and the contrast of the work revolves around being in a high-end apartment but being on your own.
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I drafted a perspective sketch that combined both planning routes of each artwork into one cohesive project. For the SketchUp portion of the high-end apartment interior design I took the general bubbles that identified where the furniture would be placed and created a rough idea of what the inspired-look would look like in an area that doesn't look very lived in. It was important to consider that since the furniture was not being designed but rather finding how it would be orientated, it meant that in the actual process stages the furniture can look slightly different depending what it available. From there I would utilize PhotoPea to set that color overlay that was previously mentioned, but then incorporate a border with text that is on the top layer. The form of text that I settled down upon was a sticky note that would be visible in the composition but have a close up showing the particular text. This text will be one of the messages that my parents would say before I left on any trip without them, using the bright coloring to contrast the rest of the composition.
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Process
The first component of developing this project comes in the form of the setting where I have an average sized man along with interpreting dimensions to get a living room space as close to realistic proportions as possible. In Brazilian Treehouse an angle roof emphasizes the high celling and provides natural light from above. With the 15 by 20ft room that I outlined I simply had to do make one of the walls taller to create this top slope, which will be utilized later on for natural lighting.
With this simple rectangular shape I could begin introducing furniture such as a couch, tv stand, and table for the basic indicators of a living room. I would then start adding depth on the wall by making marks of sections that needed to be pulled out for ledges and shelves later on. I mainly used warms tones such as a red-orange and brown for color choice, lines, and materials as went through the available online catalog where I constantly cross referenced my planning sketch and saw what worked in this space the best.
From the basic indicators of a living room, I began adding more modern elements such as a flatscreen tv, digital fireplace, and modern frame to set the 70's inspired model in our present day. One important aspect to consider when working with these SketchUp models is taking into account the file/polygon size that can dramatically increase depending on the amount of assets you have. Since my project only needed a single perspective shot, not only did I only had to model one corner of the room but I had more wiggle room for the size of models I could use. Once I finalized the furniture, I could cut out portions of the roof to allow natural lighting to come into the composition. As I was setting up the camera for the proper perspective, I would alter the shadows with the time of day and time zone until I got this interesting shot were a portion of the table was illuminated which I found unique.
Exporting the perspective into a jpg, I was able to use Photopea to start manipulating the setting and introducing the text graphic element. With the filter lens I was able to have the image mimic a "dry brush" artistic style to help clear up any of the models that weren't as high quality to share a similar theming. I could then start adding effects such as a color overlay, gradient direction, and border around the image to add more depth into the overall composition that compliment the warm tones even further.
For the text graphic portion of the work, I had my mom physically right on a sticky note something she would write down if she was telling me something before I left for a trip. I photographed it and then cropped it out to have one layer of solely the sticky note and one on the bottom with the shadow and a lower opacity. After I positioned the sticky note I began making alterations to the final image such as lowering the opacity of the color overlay, making the border black, adding more width to the side border, adding the bag with the sticky note on the SketchUp model, and switching the filter lens into a "cut out" artistic style.
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Experimentation
Initial with having access to Adobe Creative Cloud, I wanted to experiment and try out the different programs that were available. I used Abobe Fresco and did a small digital painting seen on the left using variety of brushes and mediums that could be layered such as charcoal, watercolor, and chalk on the program. It was a great tool for more organic shapes, but as I developed my planning further I mainly wanted to stay with the styling of geometric shapes and therefore used SketchUp for more accurate measurements.
Speaking of style, one of the keep aspects for doing this project was the interior design aspect. I had a catalog of a variety of furniture that I utilized into the space, but alterations could be made to align with the 70s inspired style. During the experimentation of changing the color of this tv stand/drawer, I had realized that you're able to change the color of the outlines of the model which I thought was a really useful feature into mitigating the harsh lines into a more softer and calm style. For the version of SketchUp I was using it wasn't an option to making change the color of the outlines for all models, so this added an additional step in the process of having to go through each model to see if the outlines could be change based on it's complexity.
For the Photopea program I explored a similar direction to when I created my Digital Collage in Jr Year where I wanted to utilize the filter lens and blending options that the editing program had. I would go through each one of these filters and test out the effects it had on the image and even towards the end of the process I had adjusted these values to better compliment the overall composition. When creating the sticky note image I had used the shadow of the original image and transferred it onto the final one, but with the blending options it was possible for me to add a more natural and less harsh shadow without the layering technique.
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Critique
Similarities
- Meaningful Arrangement Choices: Each artist approaches arranging their composition to be meaningful in a conscious form, with Brazilian Treehouse being an interior design project and A Love Letter to You having the text be manipulated to add emphasis on its message that are all incorporated in my own project.
- Color Pallet (Left): The warm and cozy setting that is associated with the 70s inspired style that Night Palm had incorporated into their designs is complimented with their particular color pallet, which was utilized in my software to set the same tones with the furniture, materials, and overlays.
- Subject Matter in Text: Implementing text in Powers mural art series had the shared subject matter of being "A letter for one, with meaning for all" that carried over when developing the text featured in my own work being a sticky note that has a specific message but represents a distance/connection from home.
Differences
- Medium Implications: Away from Home - Pursuing Ambitions is developed in a digital format using SketchUp and Photopea, which allows a different approach when manipulating the visual construction of the work with perspective, lighting, and layering as the most notable.
- Framing of Scene (Left): Brazilian Treehouse has the particular scene take the entire composition of the living room to showcase the entire space in one single shot, whereas in my work it uses a perspective shoot to frame the scene towards on a section of the living room.
- Form of Text (Right): A Love Letter to You while sharing a similar messaging mindset does not carry the same form of text seen in my own work, where the magnetic letters are originally complied in a corner with select words being taken out to write out a sentence, I instead have a sticky note that's hand written but visible in the composition with lighting manipulation.
- Meaningful Arrangement Choices: Each artist approaches arranging their composition to be meaningful in a conscious form, with Brazilian Treehouse being an interior design project and A Love Letter to You having the text be manipulated to add emphasis on its message that are all incorporated in my own project.
- Color Pallet (Left): The warm and cozy setting that is associated with the 70s inspired style that Night Palm had incorporated into their designs is complimented with their particular color pallet, which was utilized in my software to set the same tones with the furniture, materials, and overlays.
- Subject Matter in Text: Implementing text in Powers mural art series had the shared subject matter of being "A letter for one, with meaning for all" that carried over when developing the text featured in my own work being a sticky note that has a specific message but represents a distance/connection from home.
Differences
- Medium Implications: Away from Home - Pursuing Ambitions is developed in a digital format using SketchUp and Photopea, which allows a different approach when manipulating the visual construction of the work with perspective, lighting, and layering as the most notable.
- Framing of Scene (Left): Brazilian Treehouse has the particular scene take the entire composition of the living room to showcase the entire space in one single shot, whereas in my work it uses a perspective shoot to frame the scene towards on a section of the living room.
- Form of Text (Right): A Love Letter to You while sharing a similar messaging mindset does not carry the same form of text seen in my own work, where the magnetic letters are originally complied in a corner with select words being taken out to write out a sentence, I instead have a sticky note that's hand written but visible in the composition with lighting manipulation.
Reflection
Incorporating SketchUp in not only another project, but showcasing the interior design aspects was a technical aspect I wanted to highlight in this project that wasn't in a project like the Charcoal Illustration where the architectural/exterior elements were emphasized. It gave me an opportunity as well to revisit developing a digital work for this school year that I hadn't done since my first introduction to Photopea in Jr Year. I developed as an artist since I not only investigated a new area of digitally modeling an interior space, but finding a meaningful way to implement text into the work. This is why for my inspiration I had investigated Night Palm's 70's inspired interior designed spaces and Steve Wonders linking subject matter for his art series. The biggest challenge of this project was pinning down a message to incorporate into the work in a meaningful way, but I believe that the sticky note idea was successful in the " A letter for one, with meaning for all" that Powers had used.
As mentioned before, this project utilized the SketchUp program that I had incorporated as a key component of my process after learning it over the summer and revisiting Photopea for it's composition and layer manipulation. My favorite part of this whole project definitely was this revisiting of SketchUp as a component that shared the same importance but was highlighted in the work to a greater extent. It's always great revisiting these programs and investigating other potential modelling programs just in the sense of experimenting and going through the process, refining each segment along the way. Overall I hope that this project can be a visual refresher and showcase of a category within space and design while complimenting the architecture work I've done so far.
Connecting to ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Night Palm composition choices with adapting the form of the space to fit their 70s inspired style was utilized as the foundation when digitally designing the space in SketchUp featured in my work, with Steve Powers shared messaging approach for mural art series being the link for how I incorporated text.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach of Night Palm was embodying the 70s interior design style into a modern living space for an ample, cozy living space, with Steve Powers developing his series of art murals to have messaging implications that were relevant to the community around him.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While I researched my inspiration, I had discovered the idea of "A letter for one, with meaning for all" as a subject matter that represented a message that may be very specific or towards a particular person, but has shared themes to a wider audience.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme of my inspirational research was investigating an environment that could communicate a change in space and implementing text that can illustrate the distance/connection between an individual and home.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Interior Design tends to emphasize composition, arrangement, and visual constructed of how the furniture and the lower end of scale affects the individuals that inhabit a space rather than a community as a whole.
Night Palm composition choices with adapting the form of the space to fit their 70s inspired style was utilized as the foundation when digitally designing the space in SketchUp featured in my work, with Steve Powers shared messaging approach for mural art series being the link for how I incorporated text.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach of Night Palm was embodying the 70s interior design style into a modern living space for an ample, cozy living space, with Steve Powers developing his series of art murals to have messaging implications that were relevant to the community around him.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While I researched my inspiration, I had discovered the idea of "A letter for one, with meaning for all" as a subject matter that represented a message that may be very specific or towards a particular person, but has shared themes to a wider audience.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme of my inspirational research was investigating an environment that could communicate a change in space and implementing text that can illustrate the distance/connection between an individual and home.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Interior Design tends to emphasize composition, arrangement, and visual constructed of how the furniture and the lower end of scale affects the individuals that inhabit a space rather than a community as a whole.
Citations
Sankar, Sanjna. “Is ‘architecture’ an Umbrella Term?” RTF | Rethinking The Future, November 2, 2022. https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/architectural-community/a8415-is-architecture-an-umbrella-term/#google_vignette.
Archer, Sarah. “Why Are We Yearning for ’70s Decor Again?” Architectural Digest, August 24, 2022. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/why-are-we-yearning-for-70s-decor-again.
Night Palm. “Brazilian Treehouse: Night Palm Interiors.” Night Palm Studio, 2023. https://www.nightpalm.com/brazilian-treehouse.
Kochman, Laura. “A Love Letter for You.” Mural Arts Philadelphia, April 30, 2019. https://www.muralarts.org/artworks/a-love-letter-for-you/.
Archer, Sarah. “Why Are We Yearning for ’70s Decor Again?” Architectural Digest, August 24, 2022. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/why-are-we-yearning-for-70s-decor-again.
Night Palm. “Brazilian Treehouse: Night Palm Interiors.” Night Palm Studio, 2023. https://www.nightpalm.com/brazilian-treehouse.
Kochman, Laura. “A Love Letter for You.” Mural Arts Philadelphia, April 30, 2019. https://www.muralarts.org/artworks/a-love-letter-for-you/.