Monday, July 25, 2016

Project ID - Interior Design Identity

So it’s been a month since I started attending my classes for interior design and I must say, I haven’t felt this giddy and nervous in a long time. I’ve always really liked first days, there’s a certain sense of anticipation and magic that hangs about the air, with the promise of possibilities. Even as a kid, I’ve always looked forward to June cause it means I’m going back to school and that means a couple things: 
  • having an excuse to hoard new pens and notebooks,
  • finally being able to see my friends again,
  • having allowance after weeks of being penniless (YAAS), 
  • and of course, going back to studying because it means I won’t be bored anymore!

Maybe I’ve always been ADHD as a child and I easily get bored. Which kind of explains why the past few weeks of being at home have been excruciatingly painful for me, which maybe I will blog about next :)

For our first project, we were asked to make and design our own name tags — simple enough, right? But since this is design school, of course a simple cardboard name tag similar to what we do in grade school just won’t cut it. (Pun intended.) Unlike past projects in school, or even presentations for work, there weren’t any strict guidelines other than that it has to be functional (it is a name tag after all) and it has to say something about ourselves. 

So here’s what I came up with: 


                                      
Since my name is a palindrome, I tried to make it a mirror image. It spells out my full name (H-A-N-N-A-H) and also folds back to reveal my nickname (H-A-N). Also, if you notice, the letters were each embellished differently. 

                                      
  • The H is a banana tree because I’m Hannah Banana. (Obviously, I don’t know how to make banana tree I had to YouTube it!) 
  • The A has a Toby’s coffee cup and is embellished with coffee beans because I love coffee, especially Toby’s. (I had to steal those coffee beans for Starbucks and ask Andro to help me get those empty Toby’s cups. Haha!) 
  • The N has magnets from #PoetryMagnetsPH because I love words be it reading or writing. 



Although we had one week to do the project, which in corporate world IS a long time, I think it was just enough time because since there weren’t any specific directions aside from the general guidelines, I had to come up with the concept on my own, think through the design rationale and construction, and then execute via trial and error. Most times I had to re-do everything because the actual product didn't turn out the way I wanted it to be. I realise that design is really about the thought process that goes behind the concept, and the details when you bring it to life. More than showing a representation of your design idea, you must equally be able to communicate the idea and rationale behind it. Who would have thought, right? 

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Project Be a BUM

Okay, okay, so I know I’ve said it so many times before that I will resurrect this old blog and start writing more, but I guess this time I’m a little bit more serious on making good on this promise, since now I have a lot of time on my hands. 

Speaking of time, after resigning from my crazy wonderful job a week ago, I suddenly find myself with more time than what I’m normally used to having and it’s starting to sink in — you know, that feeling of having too much time on your hands that you end up feeling restless because since you have just been free from your corporate slave days AND since you’re still used to the crazy pace of telco, you’ve managed to cross off all the items on your to-do list by midday;  therefore you are left with nothing else to do with the rest of the day. Wow that was one hell of a run-on sentence…let’s hope my high school English teacher never gets to read it. hehe!

Here’s a sample of my to-do list for reference: 
Clean room. Check. 
Clean closet. Check
Clean files. Check
Back up all photos on my HD. Check. 

(Yes, as you can see, I’m a very messy person. BUT HEY there is a method to my madness yo. To each his own!) 

So back to being left with nothing to do. 

What about reading a book? Check. I read Love Letters to the Dead which made me feel really sad and depressed like how Perks of Being a Wallflower made me feel. Maybe I’ll write a review on it (probably when I run out of topics to write about). What about watching movie? Check. Already watched two: The Intern and A Beautiful Mind, which is already way above my monthly average. Hmmm, what about watching some more TV? I groan inwardly as I try to decide on what else I can do. And then it dawned on me. I’m not used to this! I know I should cherish these few days of nothingness because these breaks come few and far in between. Besides, isn’t this what I so wanted before?

So I thought, why not document my struggles and write down my thoughts as I go through my days  being unemployed? Sure, writing takes more effort than snapping a meticulously placed flat-lay. And let’s be real, people aren’t even going to read the whole thing given that we all suffer from ADHD nowadays; heck, I’m surprised you even got this far. But hey, when I look back, I want to remember exactly how it felt.  


See you soon. XO