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.

ERCO Lighting, London

ERCO Lighting, has been one of the most generous companies to us in Education in giving their time in presentations to our students at their fabulous showroom in Dover street (and actually at their showroom in Dubai too where they kindly talked about the incredible projects that they have worked on in the Emirates). I came here once when I was a student over twenty years ago and never forgot their generosity and I am sure my students and graduates will not either.

I once taught a group of students from Kazakhstan, at the School of Art in the capital - only one student spoke English so you can imagine how time consuming my lecture sessions were as each piece of information was gradually translated. It was also quite unnerving having 40 video cameras thrust at me for each lecture session - almost as if I was about to give out a secret formula - of course there really isn't one in this industry, just creativity, ingenuity, interest and plain old hard, hard work.

I took them to ERCO Lighting when we came to London. The guys at ERCO were incredibly patient in explaining to the group fundamental information needed for lighting a space, and it, subsequently being translated piece by painful piece.

I happened to be walking along Dover Street one evening recently and remembered that ERCO also owned the very last piece of work produced by the amazing Verner Panton - well I believe so anyway (pictured at the back of the top image)

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.

Selfridges 100 Year Anniversary

I feel I have been a bit slow to write about Selfridges 100 year anniversary windows, but there have been so many other exciting things happening to write about and record. Anyway, needless to say yet another superb example from an amazingly visual display team at the store. These images are the latest at the department store begun by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1909 containing narratives and ideas for the future, 2109 to be precise. My only other thought here is that I only wish I could be around in 100 years to experience some of them.

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.

Rivington Street, London

My very first professional job at the tender age of 20 (sadly so long ago now) was working with a Textile Designer named Kate Blee based in Rivington Street, now new(ishly) built up. At the time I remember having to walk through what was then a series of building sites to get to the studio, based above an Architectural practise along this street. Although I have been along here many times since I left Kate I don't ever remember looking at it with the same eyes. It does still appear to have that nightclub after the party feel about it - you know, when the main lights are switched on at the end of the night and you suddenly realise that the carpet is stained and sticky, the walls are falling down and your date is no longer as pretty as the flashing club lights led you to believe in fact, as the graphic says, Scary. Anyway, through serendipity I did find this place, in particular the window display below which is quite interesting. This is the home of YCN.72 - a place which showcases and provides a platform for emerging talent

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.

Central St. Martins, Interior Design for Retail Course, Student Guest Blogger Elsa Sanchez

Elsa Sanchez: Industrial Designer, Mexico
This was my first time in London, another amazing city that never sleeps… this place offers lots of options and many things to enjoy, whatever you want to do is possible, great to party, great museums, wonderful shows, beautiful landscapes…and everywhere you feel different atmospheres but all of them have their own charm!
The first few days in my trip were really sunny, and while I was walking just in front of Dali´s museum, there was an ice sculpture just melting and losing its beautiful shape… I took some pictures and then, I realized that Big Ben, Thames River, the ice and the Sun were playing a fantastic composition just showing how I will remember London…

This below is an example in Mexico city in my work place. The display itself is inside the store rather than in a window, which I think is what is so interesting. This is the first time since we opened, that we have used a Mannequin and not in the window, just in one of the sets that illustrates to customers, our living room furniture.
This display was created to explain a service that we offer for people that are planning to get married, and is for those who want to buy their presents in our store for this kind of event. The mannequin represents a bride with some gifts around the furniture and accessories that we sell.

What do you think about our display at Casa Palacio Retail Store in Mexico?