Monday, May 26, 2014

Project challenges

    You, as a designer, may come across many unexpected challenges when working on design project for the very first time. Remember, the key to successful execution of any project lies in good planning. if your planning is precise your project will work precise .  
    Make a list of Primary items required by clients and stick to these requirements throughout the project. Try to complete these requirements on priority basis and later you may think of adding some more beautifying features that can enhance the appearance of the project. 

Keep a practice of making a snag lists as the project moves towards completion stage. Snag list will keep you updated about things need to finish and finalize in a project as per clients requirements. it give us alarm for which task need to complete on urgent basis before project dead line arrives. 
   Also, bar chart (time line) will provide good enough support to keep a track on project work progress, as per your plan. Most importantly it enables us to know how much man power and material supply is required on each day basis in order to complete each task. 
     In a nutshell we should always remember "All that start's well ends well". For a designer regular updates and timely action is what is essential to execute project successfully before dead line.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Professional Practice

As a Designer how many of us really think that our profession is one of the most creative job in this world. How many of you really say thank you to your mentor, who you taken inspiration before entering the interior design profession. If this is the profession you were always waiting for and if you have already achieved the position that you dreamed of, than its a right time you start a professional practice. Professional practice in simple words can be put as 'A system of working in an organised way and presenting every task with utmost creativity & precision in order to make our job profound.' Following are some of the key factors that serve as foundation for professional practice.
1) Dress code: Dressing is the very first impression we put on clients mind as professional person. Even if we not spoken to the person before or meeting for first time, if we are well dressed & well behaved we have won half the battle.
 2) Working tools: Like artisan always carry his working tools say sculptor, potter, carpenter etc. We beings a professional person need to carry our working tools always handy. We must carry our presentation tools such as Laptop, Tablet & Smart phones loading photographs and presentation slides of our previous projects. Also a small measuring tape, pair of ball pens / fountain pens, some color pens, sketch book & note pad should always be available in our office bags. This tools will always help you in making on the spot design presentation if demanded by your clients.
3) Know your strength: Everyone of us is blessed with some talent or skills that can become our biggest strength in our professional field. To know your strengths is very important being a professional. If you are good in public speaking or if you are good in sketching or market research, or cost calculations, know it and make it one of your working strength there by making your presentations valuable and impressive every time.  
4) Go extra miles:
Gone are the days of hard working. today we live in the world of smart working environment where tasks are completed on tip of our fingers. if you really want to make success in your field of profession you need to build an attitude of giving more than what you get. People who dare to go extra mile seldom finds any competition. Try to deliver little extra in your service than what you getting paid for, this will help you to build strong and trustful relation with your client every time.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Successful design proposal.

Before you start preparing design for any of your client's home / office make sure you have worked on these five important factors of design proposal to make it more convincing and acceptable by your client. 1)Concept: No matter how boring and difficult it seems to think for concept of design but it is something that will give your design its unique identity. also concept based designs gives confidence to the client that his home is going to be one of its kind after the renovation is completed.2) Ergonomic data: Once you are ready with your concept of design the next very important job comes is to fit in all your design features as per the ergonomical data. User should find it easy while handling the furniture and operating its various functions. Ergonomic data gives us standard dimensions of every furniture to be used in home or office. 3) Material selection: It is always advisable that you decide in the planning stage itself whether you going to make furniture in Plywood, Natural wood, MDF or any other composite material or rather any metal. This will enable you to visualize how the end product will look like and what would its finish could possibly be.4) Cross check on budget: While you are preparing design details for your project kindly keep a copy of project BOQ open in background so that every now and then you can keep a track on final budget of your client and you can make necessary alterations in your design in initial stage to keep it in harmony with your project cost.5) Time line: Always prepare a time line chart along with your design presentation. Time line not only helps in keeping track on your project work progress but also it help in understanding how much time and energy you are going to put behind every project there by enabling you to evaluate and decide your fees structure for individual project.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Nature the Source of Inspiration

So wisely it is said ‘’Nature is the best teacher’’ nature always appears to inspire us and teach us many things by its spectacular natural features. In nature we find living as well as non-living things and that both have their own identity and diverse nature that makes it easy to recognize at same time unique in all aspects. In nature everything seems to be balanced, rather, nature always tries to balance itself in all the possible ways. Be it in terms of food chain or be it in terms of environmental conditions of a particular place. Nature inspires us in many ways. Every day right from the early morning till the night falls, hundreds of spectacular things in nature endow us with its various natural appearances that we can seek as a source of inspiration for our perception or aspiration in our day- to-day life. Nature is full of elements of perception, to be more specific, elements such as different shapes, sizes, colors,lights, textures etc. And to perceive these elements one need a creative vision while looking towards it in order to understand the concept of nature and its behavior. There is so much to learn from the surrounding natural environment, there are thousands of colors in nature. Every flower has different color and texture than the other one. Every flower has unique fragrance that gives it a unique identity and so we enjoy the beauty of variety of flowers in nature. Beautiful effect of natural sun light can be seen changing at every hours of the day. The sky in this way displays hundreds of natural light effects throughout the day. Another amazing thing in nature is the ability of some animals to camouflage them self to the background of surrounding environment in which they dwell. Camouflage
commonly involves adaptation of size, shape, color, patterning and behavior and is widespread in the animal kingdom. In one aspect element of nature possess variety of textures on its surface. There are many natural things with rough, smooth, shiny & matt texture. Leafs of plants and trees has different sizes, shapes and textures, this enables us to identify various plants and trees easily. Also it adds variation to the natural world and enhances its beauty. .As we know various natural stones have different finishes such as marble, granite, onyx, khaddapa and so on they possess different color and are either smooth or rough in texture. This gives amazing finish to the surface wherever it is applied in interiors or exteriors of home So is the miraculous thing we notice in nature and it can be taken as a source of inspiration for our purpose of designing.

Friday, May 2, 2014

"good practice gives you good result"

When i started with my interior design carrier i was very little aware about the endless possibilities of design. I use to make very basic and regular design features for residential projects. Also i was not aware of latest design concept trending in market for home and office interiors. It was only after a time when i realized that designing a home or office doesn't mean merely planning and colour combinations of furniture with reference to walls and flooring. Designing in real sense means a lot more than our own imagination. Designing first of all requires sensitive thinking followed by understanding of how & what to apply for a particular piece of design or to that special corner inside your home and office. Within a year’s time i read 10's of books that discussed on latest concepts of interior design both in India and abroad. I started researching for new types of materials available in market that can help in enhancing the looks of furniture. i spoke to various brands and vendors for possibilities of customizing their products for better results. By practicing in this way i soon was able to come up with new ideas while proposing interior design concepts to my clients. And i made every project a job of appreciation. My clients emailed me mentioning my best works and their satisfaction towards my design consultancy "good practice gives you good result"