29 . 6 . 11
The creative process of coming up with an elegant and functional interior design requires systematic methods carefully mastered by an interior design consultant.
The process involved is so systematic that proper research of the design is made beforehand. Once the design is conceptualized, the proposed structure is then visually integrated into the interior space for analysis and to ascertain that clients are satisfied. The interior design consultant is responsible for carefully balancing the constraints involving customer satisfaction and goals, and design functionality and safety.
What To Expect From An Interior Design Consultant
The consultant is responsible for the planning of an interior space. He creates the interior design according to the taste and style of the client. By analyzing what the client wants, the consultant should be able to propose a theme consistent within the architectural context. For instance, when a client decides on the dominant color of the interior space, the consultant offers further options like appropriate color schemes so as to avoid color monotony.
An Interior Design Consultant Does More Than The Planning
With the design already visualized, he also directs and implements the formulated interior design to ensure that every detail is up to code. The right materials to be used for the project are also decided by the consultant. After the project is finished, the designer follows up on the client to address concerns that may arise.
When To Hire An Interior Design Consultant
The services of an interior design consultant are necessary if one is planning for major interior constructions or renovations. Most often, when clients know the style they want but do not know the right kind of furniture to put in, the design consultant with his knowledge on architectural design would intervene by proposing several types of furniture for the clients to choose from.
15 . 6 . 11
The design of your retail store can have a lot of bearing on your sales. Building a loyal customer base is so important in today’s world on cyber shopping and big department stores. Boutiques have a certain charm when they’re designed well and this can give your customers a reason to make a special trip to your store.
The goal, of course is to make more money. To do that, you need to carefully plan the “path” of your boutique so that customers have the experience that you plan for them.
1) Think about what you want customers to immediately feel when they approach your store. You’re in luck if you have front windows in which to display your favorite merchandise. Using mannequins has been long since proven to encourage people to buy.
This is not only because you can show them what clothes look like when worn, or because you can showcase many garments and accessories at once. It’s because you can actually answer a lot of the questions that need to be answered in a person’s mind before they buy at a single glance.
2) Think about what someone might be asking themselves as they consider shopping in your store and answer those questions either in your window displays or as soon as they come in. One, if someone is interested in a boutique, they probably want to find unique items or brands.
Make sure that they immediately see that within the first second or two of laying eyes on your store. Sidewalk or outside displays are a great way to do this.
3) The next question on their mind may be price. Does your store front and displays match your prices? You don’t want someone to get excited about something they see only to be immediately disappointed by the price. Try to communicate the price through the décor and arrangement of your boutique.
4) Now, the next question on a person’s mind will be something like, “how will this garment make me feel?” Communicate as much feeling as possible, either with your mannequins’ poses or the décor surrounding your items. A snowy scene with a campfire communicates coziness, a city scene may communicate cutting edge fashion, and so on.
5) The next thing people want to feel when they shop in a boutique is that it will be interesting to shop around. People avoid department stores and visit boutiques to have a pleasurable and enlightening shopping experience. Make sure that you have unique items scattered around the store.
Have things arranged in a “path” that leads the person from one interesting item to the next. Avoid crowding your clothing racks close together so that people stay comfortable, even if the store has a lot of shoppers. A clothing rack should not be overfilled, either, so that people can easily see what you have to offer without having to work to dig through too many items.
13 . 6 . 11
DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION is like a pair of shoes that you can never be separated. It won’t be functional if you lost the other pair for they are meant to be together until they fade away.
Design plays a vital cog in our society for it stands for people, our culture, identity and it defines our personality. But a DESIGN can be USELESS if it is not properly EXECUTED and realized.
In almost eleven years in the business of interior design, challenges are certainly inevitable. It is just how you take, handle and it is certainly how you approach them. But definitely, having a passion for what you’re doing really makes a difference.
We design for people, for all types of people. We find our worth and value in this industry because of them. In every design that we’re doing, it is them who we give importance with for we will be a FAILURE if we ignore them, and definitely, people will ignore designs that ignore people.
Being a designer is really tough. You have to think of how to create a fully functional place with a suitable mixture of moods for all types of people without sacrificing its aesthetics and theories.
Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society-Queenstown Multi-Service Centre is one of our challenging projects for this year 2011. Knowing the fact that the institution deals with the charity organizations, our design should coincide with their everyday traffic flow and operational systems.
We are definitely challenged on how to make the place have this energetic vibrant mood where you can stay with suitable for the elderly, families, children and professionals yet doesn’t require for higher costs.
Colors should make balance to each people inside. So we put the three variations: from light to medium, medium to dark. We created a playful energetic mood for the children and a warm feeling for the older people. We believe that putting such colors can add motivation to the people who will stay there.
Not just the colors, but the usage of spaces. We created a space that is totally functional suitable for all ages.
Aside from creating brilliant ideas, our service to clients doesn’t stop there. We helped them succeeded in choosing the right contractor for design execution.
Finding such contractor is indeed important. It’s like finding the right weapon against a certain battle, for contractor is the one who build and make your design comes into proper realization.
If you will not manage and sort things out properly, what will happen to your design? It will just be killed and left on one side amidst the efforts and passion you’ve poured.
Being a designer and a project manager, it is our duty to guard and make things easier and beneficial to everyone. We can never neglect each factors involved in making designs and building them and put into reality. We should always think of the reason why we, designers and builders, are existing here in this industry.
We are here not just to be served, but TO SERVE—serve the community with all the best to create a better place to live with.
8 . 6 . 11
There are many customers that look through store windows simply to pass time – the job of retail design is to make them want to enter the store and then to spend money when they get there. Hence, it is very important that the design you have for your store should be able to invite customers directly in.
Another common mistake that most retailers make is to design a store that they personally like, without realizing that it simply does not appeal to customers. In other words, you have to design a store that can appeal to customers, drawing them in, so as to increase your overall sales.
When deciding on your retail design, what you need to do is to firstly determine the amount of space that you will be working with. One of the best things that you can do is to take a customer survey to find out what exactly it is they would like to have changed in a store.
You might be surprised to realize that many customers prefer to have a larger width for an aisle, rather than an increase in the overall length of it. If you manage to make your store appear larger than it really is, you can be sure that customers would be able to have a much easier selection process for what they require. Make use of Gondolas that run parallel as this can help add to the appearance of a longer aisle.
Another more modern form of design for retail is the using of cascading aisles. Such aisles usually end at interspersed different sections. This helps in the creation of different pseudo angles that can increase the overall sales space.
Another way in which you can create the appearance of an increase in space is by placing larger items next to the outside walls of the store so that smaller items can be placed in the aisles, thereby resulting in an increase in the width of such aisles.
Remember that when you go about the process of any redesign for your retail store, it is important that you design it in such a way as to create an impression in the minds of customers. At the same time, the design should be able to increase your overall profitability.
1 . 6 . 11
If you want to make your office look beautiful and at the same time, make proper utilization of the space, you must come up with new and innovative commercial office decorating ideas. Decorating the office is as important as decorating the home, since people spend a longer part of their time at the office.
Before coming up with proper commercial office decorating ideas, one must remember the total area of the office space available.
The interior decoration of any office should be made in such a way that it becomes very attractive and at the same time, employees can work comfortably. You can consult any interior decorator for some excellent commercial office decorating ideas. If you want, you can paint your office walls with light attractive colors or you can cover them with beautiful wall papers.
To make things look more elegant you can place some ornamental antiques in the conference hall and in the reception area. If you have a good budget to support your commercial office decorating ideas, you can use beautiful lighting’s and decorate the walls with colorful paintings. The corners at the different rooms can be decorated with various types of arts and crafts, seashells, prize possessions and many other things.
To make maximum utilization of the space available, the office furniture used should occupy very less office space and at the same time create a feeling of cleanliness. Among the different furniture which can be used are credenzas, filing cabinets, desks, hydraulic chairs and many more.
If there are walking corridors, it can be decorated with ornamental plants. Enough light and air circulation through the windows is necessary as it helps a person’s mind to think freely and creatively. If the office is a big one the safety factor should also be kept in mind. In such cases there should be emergency exits, preventive measures like fire extinguishers, alarms to protect from fire accidents.
The reception or the guest sitting room can be decorated with beautiful flower bouquets as the visitors will be really impressed by the beautiful smell and the freshness of the flowers.
11 . 5 . 11
Have you ever wondered why the reception area of a dental clinic has pastel colored walls and soft cushioned sofas and armchairs? What about the excellent selection of warm and attractive lighting fixtures that exude a soothing and welcoming ambiance? Do you find the image fun and child-friendly?
These carefully selected elements and well-thought out ideas didn’t just spring out from the dentist’s mind or the architect’s creative plan. Every element of dental clinic interior design is planned, studied and executed well in order for the space to be comfortable and relaxing for the patients and easy to work at and navigate through for the dentists, assistants and other dental specialists.
Walking inside the reception area of a dental clinic can either make you frightened or make you feel welcomed. It can prepare you for a calm and beneficial treatment session with the dentist if the design is well thought out and applied.
The colors of the walls matter and even the choice of graphics and paintings can make a difference in how patients experience the office. The right interior design touches have to be imposed in the design of the reception area and also within the other areas of the dental clinic such as the treatment area, consultation area, recovery area and special testing area.
They must all come together so that they can regulate the positive effect of each design element in the interior of each area.
The treatment room can be enclosed, but only partially with low-wall partitions that have sliding or folding screens. They can also be fully enclosed depending on the size of the room because patients might be claustrophobic in a small and closed up space and might grow more frightened than their initial emotional response.
The dental chair must be placed in the center of the treatment area and it has to have ample space surrounding it so that the dentist can easily perform her tasks aided by her dental assistant. The sink counter and storage cabinets should be accessible for the dentist to ensure ease of movement and swift and efficient treatment of the patients.
When the treatment has been successfully executed and the dentist needs to discuss recommendations with the patients they could step into a well-designed office and be comforted by the soothing and calming ambiance of the space. The walls should be in neutral tones or subdued primary and secondary colors so that the patient can feel relaxed and not be distracted by heavily textured walls or eye-catching paintings or glaring lighting fixtures.
The dental clinic should be equipped by clean treatment rooms, recovery rooms for severe cases and private yet casual and interesting consultation room. A visit to the dentist is something that many people dread. It is important to ensure that the setting is as calming as possible to lower stress levels and ensure a pleasant, stress free experience.
23 . 3 . 11
While cubicles have been good at making the best use of functional floor space, the feelings of being isolated from the rest of the office workers soon caused employees to look for jobs somewhere else.
When it comes to commercial interior design, the inception of the cubicle was as a simple means of placing more employees into a limited amount of space while offering a small degree of privacy in which to work. The resulting problem was the intense feeling of isolation and that of being locked in a small room, which then lessened productivity.
The best circumstances for commercial interior design is to begin with the building itself, designing the structure to meet the specific requirements of the business, whether a retail space, professional office or restaurant. However, since many businesses begin in an existing building, commercial interior design comes into play to affect the interior and meet the company’s needs as well as create an interior that is pleasant for customers.
Accessories Reflect the Business
In many commercial areas, especially those with customer turnover, a commercial interior design expert may suggest items of interest with which to hold the customer’s attention while they wait for service. This will be a typical situation for a professional office such as a doctor’s or dentist’s office in which clients may have to spend a considerable amount of time waiting to be seen.
Restaurants represent are another business that will benefit from commercial interior design, giving their customers pleasant things to look at and discuss while waiting for their food.
Professional offices such as legal and financial offices will retain commercial Interior Design companies to create a professional atmosphere, which invoke a sense of trust and confidence while the visitor waits for service. The goal is to create the positive, usually staid, conservative ambiance which hints at financial success.
Going to excess, however, might have the opposite effect causing the customer to think maybe he or she might be paying too much for services.
Commercial interior design experts work to create an atmosphere for customer comfort, in addition to coordinating designs and colors which will match the industry being served. These design experts can work with any business to make it more appealing to the customers they count on for their business success.
22 . 8 . 10
5 years ago, Innovation Workshop had received an invitation from the High Commission of India to redesign their passport and visa application hall. We were very happy to accept their interior design project.
Since then, they were very satisfied with our interior design concepts and workmanship. As such, we had been awarded with another project to come up with an outdoor landscape exterior design.
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Recently, as part of their efforts to provide the public with better customer service experiences, the High Commission of India approaches us again to come up with the designing for the navigational signage. They wanted the signage to be simple and yet able to blend in well with their rich cultured building.
After a few days, our interior designers had presented them with the signage design concepts. They were very happy with our designs and had accepted the design concepts.
We have also made some changes to the existing lightings. In addition, we have constructed stainless steel handrails around the vicinity of the building to assist the elderly and children movements. Covered shelters had also been added.
Although all these little interior design changes might seem minor, but undisputedly, it has promotes so much of humanity. And we sincerely hope that more people will be able to benefits from all these minor yet thoughtful implementations.
21 . 7 . 10
Consider that such things as floor plans, space planning, computer links, government and building codes all have to meet with approval. The design concept may be adjusted and refined several times over.
The designer may be working 12-hour days in the crunch to meet the project deadlines. It should not matter whether it involves a small corporate job, or a major corporation, the need for integrity remains the same.
A highly qualified interior designer will make every effort provide the best services to complete the job.
Corporate interior design projects usually come about by word of mouth. In order for a designer to succeed in the corporate interior design field, he or she will have to provide quality service with integrity that is expected or their business may not last for long.
Design Concept
The first step in creating a corporate interior design is to put together a design concept and then present it for approval. The designer must analyze lighting, space, texture and color to develop a preliminary plan.
It is crucial that a designer listen carefully to the clients and work with them as a team while planning the corporate interior design project.
When the final concept meets approval, then furnishings and other materials can be ordered, the technicians will be hired and the work can be scheduled. It is important that the design goals of the client be given top priority in every aspect of the project from beginning to end.
Additionally, BCA requirements, building codes and building standards must all be adhered to during the project. It is a matter of integrity to respect and meet deadlines, the continuity of the work environment and budgetary constraints.
It is also important that the choice of an interior designer is one who is experienced and knowledgeable in corporate interior designing. It doesn’t matter if it is a major design firm or a single designer, as long as the proper credentials and references are in place to support their experience.
It may be simpler to work with a single designer, since they will be hands-on in every aspect of the design concept. Corporate interior design is certainly not the easiest of area of interior design, but with experience and knowledge a good interior designer can bring quality, ingenuity and solid customer service to the project.
7 . 7 . 10
While cubicles have been good at making the best use of functional floor space, the feelings of being isolated from the rest of the office workers soon caused employees to look for jobs somewhere else. When it comes to commercial interior design, the inception of the cubicle was as a simple means of placing more employees into a limited amount of space while offering a small degree of privacy in which to work. The resulting problem was the intense feeling of isolation and that of being locked in a small room, which then lessened productivity.
The best circumstances for commercial interior design is to begin with the building itself, designing the structure to meet the specific requirements of the business, whether a retail space, professional office or restaurant. However, since many businesses begin in an existing building, commercial interior design comes into play to affect the interior and meet the company’s needs as well as create an interior that is pleasant for customers.
Accessories Reflect the Business
In many commercial areas, especially those with customer turnover, a commercial interior design expert may suggest items of interest with which to hold the customer’s attention while they wait for service. This will be a typical situation for a professional office such as a doctor’s or dentist’s office in which clients may have to spend a considerable amount of time waiting to be seen. Restaurants represent are another business that will benefit from commercial interior design, giving their customers pleasant things to look at and discuss while waiting for their food.
Professional offices such as legal and financial offices will retain commercial interior design companies to create a professional atmosphere, which invoke a sense of trust and confidence while the visitor waits for service. The goal is to create the positive, usually staid, conservative ambiance which hints at financial success. Going to excess, however, might have the opposite effect causing the customer to think maybe he or she might be paying too much for services.
Commercial interior design experts work to create an atmosphere for customer comfort, in addition to coordinating designs and colors which will match the industry being served. These design experts can work with any business to make it more appealing to the customers they count on for their business success.
