Interior Design Concept Competitions Offering Real-World Practice

In my quest to transition into a career within the interior design industry, I've been attending several info sessions and open classes at Harrington College of Design in Chicago. For now, it's one of a few options that I'm currently looking into, but it was quite an interesting glimpse into what my world as an ID student may look like.

The presentations that I attended this evening were semester-end presentations from a creative collaborative studio course. The students were assigned to groups of two or three and asked to find, prepare designs for and submit to an open ID competition.

(Real-world application is something I strongly value in educational settings, so I rather liked how students had to develop entire concepts for these actual competitions)

This experience resulted in a couple of things:

A) Now I'm all intrigued - what kinds of interior design-related competitions are even out there? How does one find them?

B) Just for shits and giggles - I would like to try my hand putting together something that at least "fits" the qualifications (I'm not saying I would submit it...). In case you (read: I) was wondering, the 2014 IIDA SDC conceptual competition to evolve the idea of open offices:

The 2014 IIDA SDC invites you to evolve the concept of the open office to offer employees’ a workplace that encourages health, well-being, collaboration, and productivity... (more)

C) A new understanding of just what interior design covers (i.e., everything). Case in point, this 40th Annual Interior Design Competition (2013) winner for a mausoleum:

Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum, Minneapolis, MN - HGA Architects and Engineers, Minneapolis, MN via IIDA

Yes, it's somewhat morbid, but it's definitely something I had never even thought of before.

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What aspects of Interior Design shock you, if any?

-LG

Holiday Gift Guide: Kitchen Gifts

I baked a chicken today - correction: I am currently in the process of crockpot-ing a chicken, a whole chicken, today. As such, it's got me feeling all sorts of domestic, and I thought I might jump on the holiday gift guide bandwagon (finally).

Naturally, it had to be a kitchen-themed gift guide:

1. Lobster Claw Oven Mit // Wayfair 
2. Tea Latte Mug // David's Tea
3. French Oven // Le Creuset
4. Claudia Pearson Dog Plates // West Elm 
5. Giraffe Dish Towels // Etsy - Heaps Handworks
6. Arizona State Plate // Corbé
7. Robot Tea Infuser // ThinkGeek

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What gift would you like to receive this holiday season?

- LG

Marsala Me Crazy: Pantone's 2015 Color of the Year

Nothing says 2015, the year of the sheep (in case you were wondering), like the earthy, reddish-brown hues of Marsala, Pantone's next Color of the Year.

I'm not going to lie - I keep going back and forth with this color. In theory, I love this color. I love wine-red colors, the quintessential blend of reds and purples. Marsala, however, is part red, part purple, and part brown. It's the brown that's not sitting with me. I've never been much a fan of brown. 

Maybe I'm just biased. And one should not be biased, so off I went in search of Marsala-esque things*: 

via Steven Miller Design Studio / Houzz

via Steven Miller Design Studio / Houzz

via Island Architects / Houzz

*I'm going to be honest here... it took me a good chunk of time to find examples that a) more or less featured a Marsala-like color and b) I liked. 

This all being said, the color was just announced yesterday. It will be interesting to do a follow up post, in say six-months to a year, to see what designs and products are sparked into existence because of Marsala. Plus, check out these sample color palettes Pantone offered. I must say, I looooooooove option #7:

via Pantone

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What do you think of Marsala? Yay? Nay? Eh?

- LG