Central St. Martins Interior Styling Course: Sarah Zimmer

Sarah Zimmer Germany / London

There are many different types of journey. The journey to healing, the journey to your Holiday resort, the journey to success and the trip back home. After a long exhausting day at work to (finally) relax and let go.

A journey is defined as a process of travelling from one place to another, hence figuratively a passage through life. The Interior Styling course has been an inspiring journey, as an Interior Stylist creates and sends their client on a journey each time. It can be an imaginary one to the Provence, to the countryside in the UK, to the seaside in Spain or to Disneyland. It is a journey through time and style. A trip to the clients dreamland.

We all need to set sail one day to begin the journey of a thousand miles and it begins with one step. I have begun my journey by joining this inspiring course...!

Central St. Martins, Styling for Interiors Course: Fahad Allwihan

Fahad Allwihan: Architecture Student, Nottingham / Saudi Arabia

This was a really good opportunity to learn something new in my life. Before I joined this course I was so enthusiastic to learn the techniques of Interior Design, especially as an Architecture student because Interior Designers have such good drawing skills which are illustrated through drawing plans, sections and perspective views. Moreover, the course was so interesting especially when we visited St. George's development in Vauxhall, South London on the first day. I love the style of these apartments, and when I saw it for the first time, I felt that I was in Dubai rather than London. I really like modern & colourful design styles, as it gives such a fresh feeling for residents. Below, I have attached an image which is of the building that I live in at Nottingham and is a typical design from the DE STIJL style of Architecture.

Central St. Martins Interior styling course, Stefania Mazzon-McCallon

Stefania Mazzon-McCallon: Accountant, Switzerland

What a wonderful experience....!

It is the end of the week and therefore the last day of the course and finally everything is ready for the presentation.

We had a very interesting week, full of site visits, visits to Museums and Lectures in styling in the studios at Central St. Martins, London.

We had a great group of people and with a very vibrant Jonathan Baker made this course special. I am really looking forward to a follow up one...!

Central St. Martins Interior styling course: Antonella Montresori

Antonella Montresori: IT Consultant, Italy / London:

What a great kitchen for a small apartment.! This is the biggest open space in the entire apartment that I saw at St. George's in Vauxhall, London. Everything is tucked away in beautifully designed cupboards, yet close at hand should an ingredient or a fancy plate be needed or an open cook book on the counter top, herbs and spices laid out in a line and the the laughter of friends enjoying themselves over their first cocktail of the evening. Ah, the single life..! Now, back to reality. The children are back from nursery, they each want something different to eat, the husband is running around putting dinner together and the phone is ringing or off the hook. Catch me if you can, I am typing away finishing my first blog entry..!

Central St. Martins, Interior Styling Course, Alessandro D'Ottavi

Alessandro D'ottavi: Milan, Italy, Screenwriter and free-lance journalist.
It's always like this, at the beginning of something new, I feel always the same. I feel slow, awkward, in one word I feel dumb. It's because I'm overwhelmed by new things, my brain has to decode so many new elements that it is not able to do its normal job. and this is exactly what has happened to me in these first days in London at Central St. Martins Central College. It's funny how in these situations the brain focuses on apparently insignificant things: a kitchen (pic 1), a light switch (pic 2), the floor of a very standard building lobby (pic 2).in our everyday life we don't pay attention to these little things, but may be they are not so insignificant after all. They are the basic commodities that shape our world, they make our life the way we perceive it and essentially they make us who we are. Once we experience something new they are the first thing that we are in touch with and they are there to remind us how amazingly different we are. This is why I do think that that feeling of dizziness we have at the very beginning of a new experience is not that bad after all.

Central St. Martins Interior styling course: Yassir Nasief

Yassir Nasief : Phd Student, Saudi Arabia / London

These pictures were taken at The Ethelburga Tower Exhibition (by Mark Cowper) at the Geffrye Museum, East London. The concept behind the exhibition is to present real-life examples of apartment interiors in the Ethelburga Tower (Battersea, London) which are presented with brief captions about the occupants of each one. The apartments vary in their styling, themes, lighting etc. This Exhibition takes the viewer in a journey away from the simple appearance of the space to peoples' personalities and psychology. For example, there is a lawyer living alone in one of the apartments with some reference books by the dining area and a reasonably tidy floor and environment. There is also a vending machine technician occupying an identically sized space trying to enjoy his apartment in his own unique way - both are polar opposites. Interestingly, while all of the apartments are completely different - one thing links all of them, large flat screened televisions. Perhaps indicative of the lifestyles of the occupants in this type of environment?

Central St. Martins Interior styling course: Student Lifestyle Boards

Suverce Cilek: Architecture Student, Turkey

Over the week of the course students began collecting information for a lifestyle board from a variety of sources which included photographs, magazines, site visits etc. Students initially identified a target market for their concept, specifying where the location for their apartment would be and began to build their narratives around this. Naturally the pieces here would only form one part of a much bigger project, and of course they are work in progress. With more time, students may have considered electronic means of presenting their ideas however low tech means are quickly produced and do have an immediate effect of communicating their thoughts.

Hung Shuna: Interior Design student, Taiwan



Fahad Allwihan: Architecture Student, Saudi Arabia

Central St. Martins Interior Styling Course: Student Editorial Photo shoot

During the week of the Interior Styling Course, students had the opportunity to work with Photographer Austin Hutton on a potential Magazine Editorial. The students worked in groups of three and were given just 40 minutes from start to completion in order to develop a concept and select products from our vast store of props. This is the first time that students had worked with a photographer and with this kind of brief, however, here are some examples of the work the students produced with Austin. Naturally this is a huge learning curve for anyone beginning their styling career although I think you will agree that the outcomes are actually not bad at all for a first attempt.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.