Like some of the other people who are participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge I breezed through “A, B and C” and then got stuck trying to decide what to write about for D. The first word that came to mind was drama but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about my love of theater so I hesitated. Next to mind was Desperate Housewives and I thought about writing on the topic of why I think it’s okay for smart chicks to like “bad TV”. But then I realized that the D word that makes the most sense for me right now is Design.

I didn’t actually realize until just a couple of years ago that I really have a strong interest in design. I noticed that I tend to read a lot of design blogs. I noticed that I was paying more attention to the architecture and fashion and interior decor around me in the world. And eventually I did come to see that design is something that really interests me.

Design is great because it blends art with culture, craft with technology … design is something that you can explore the entire history of or look at where it’s going in the future. Design can be really thought-provoking or it can just be great eye candy. It is the fact that design can be enjoyable in so many different ways that makes me really enjoy exploring design.

How design is entering my life recently:

• I am learning to design through crochet. I have stopped simply following patterns in my crochet work and have started to actually design my own pieces. I wouldn’t call myself a crochet designer just yet – I’m doing simple work and I never remember to write down what I’m doing so I’m not creating something that others could copy. Nevertheless I’m definitely learning crochet design.
• I am exploring crochet design and fashion design. Of course this relates to the last point but it is a specific interest of mine right now. In addition to reading about the work of other crochet designers I’ve watched a lot of old re-runs of Top Model (not just America’s but all of the other countries, too) and Project Runway with an eye on the fashion design.
• The most recent San Francisco magazine is about local design. What a cool topic! I subscribe to 7×7 but I picked up San Francisco magazine this month because the design topic definitely interested me.
• I keep thinking I’m going to start watching the dezeen talks on design online but I haven’t actually done it. It’s on my “to do” list this month!

Tags: a-z blogging challenge, design

I was just reading an article in a design magazine about a very unique design approach that has been taken by a Japanese mental health clinic located in Tokyo. The design uses a variety of different tricks that would likely confuse the mind. For example, there are doors located all throughout the mental health hospital but the doors don’t actually open. How do you get into the rooms if the doors don’t open? Well, there are hidden doors located behind bookcases and in the center of walls adorned with decorations.

It sounds almost like a form of torture doesn’t it? Here you are, trying to gather together your sanity, and everything that should be normal around you is different from the way that it’s supposed to be. It sounds confusing. It sounds frightening. But perhaps it’s exactly the opposite. Perhaps this unique approach to design could be the thing that helps to heal patients.

The thinking behind this design is that it’s a truly hands-on, day-to-day method of getting everyone in the facility to think outside of the box. When your normal surroundings are altered in a very unusual way like this, you are forced to think differently. You are forced to be more creative. This could have a very beneficial impact on altering the negative states of mind of the patients who come to receive help at the mental health clinic. It might even have a positive effect on the thinking patterns of staff and visitors.

As beautifully described by the magazine:

“By providing alternate perspectives for viewing the world, and avoiding being trapped by pre-existing perceptions, the interior allows visitors–and staff members–to experience opening new doors in their hearts, one after the other.”

It’s a fascinating idea isn’t it?

Tags: design, hidden rooms, japanese design, mental health clinic, unique design

Sometimes if you look up onto the top of a house or a church or some other building what you’ll see there is a structural / artistic piece of ornamentation called a weather vane. Although you can probably picture what a weather vane looks like, you may not know what the point of it is. At least, that’s true if you’re anything like me because until I did some research into weather vanes In frequently passed by them and wondered what the heck they were for.

A weather vane is a tool that is designed to show you the direction that the wind is blowing. This may be something that you want to know for the purpose of gardening or for planning other outdoor activities. We don’t necessarily need this type of tool today since we have modern computer access that can tell us all about the wind patterns around us. For this reason, today’s weather vanes may serve the purpose of decoration instead of function although they do still reveal the direction that the wind is blowing.

A weather vane is typically designed with a simple cross symbol which indicates the four directions of the wind. It is then ornamented with a design that makes it aesthetically appealing to have on your home or building. A very common design is that of a chicken. Because of this, weather vanes are sometimes also called weathercocks. Today’s weather vanes may use this symbol or other animals to add decorative appeal to the piece.

A few interesting things that I learned about weather vanes while researching them include:

• They’re typically located at the tallest height of the building where they are placed.
• Weather vanes date back to ancient Athens.
• Some people combine the word and call the product a weathervane but it’s really supposed to be two words.
• The world’s largest weather vane is located in Spain.

So what’s the point of the weather vane? It’s mostly for decoration but it can tell you the direction that the wind is blowing as well. Now I know!

Tags: design, Technology, tools, weather, weather vane, weathervane

I’m not someone who pays a lot of attention to fancy gadgets. Since I barely even cook at all, I certainly don’t pay much attention to fancy gadgets for my kitchen. Nevertheless, if I do come across them then they often interest me. There are some really cool designs and functions for things that I probably don’t need but can be impressed by anyway.

For example, I recently wrote an article about how to buy a cooker hood for your kitchen stove. When researching the article, I discovered that there are all kinds of really cool cooker hoods that I didn’t know existed.

A great example of some of the coolest ones can be seen by checking out the website for Elica Cooker Hoods. They have cooker hoods designed to look like lamps or chandeliers (as seen above). They also have cooker hoods with a more standard design but that have been modernized in some way. Really cool designs for a product that most people think of as being all about function.

Tags: appliances, cooker hoods, design, elica, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, kitchen, stove

I like to use a lot of different colors to bring life and energy into the places where I live. I hang up art and postcards. I spread colored fabrics across tabletops and hang them from the walls. I choose drapes and pictures frames and furniture that are all colorful. And I love to use bold paint to make a statement in a room.

I’m not picky about the colors that I use when decorating a home. I’ll try almost any color once to see how it makes me feel to live in a room that’s decorated with that particular shade. This experimentation has taught me a lot about how colors can alter your moods. And it’s taught me a lot about the colors that I like to live with.

One of the things that I noticed recently is that I’ve used the color yellow in every single place that I have ever lived. Yellow isn’t among my favorite colors but it offers a really great feeling for home design. It’s bright and optimistic and inspiring.

My first attempt at yellow actually wasn’t so great at all. I repainted my parents’ bathroom yellow when I still lived at home. Then I sponge painted over it with orange. The effect was garish. Believe me, looking into your reflection in a mirror that’s in a yellow room is not actually all that pleasant of an effect.

My other experiences with yellow in rooms has gone much better. My favorite was a small bedroom that I had added on to my old house. The walls were a great shade of bright yellow. The ceiling was painted to look like the sky. I always felt happy and peaceful in that sunny room even though it didn’t get a lot of natural sunlight.

Right now I’m using yellow to create bright patches in my bedroom. There’s a yellow and green piece of fabric over my desk. There are a few yellow fabric art pieces on the wall. There’s a yellow blanket slung over a small couch. And there is some yellow artwork on the French doors that separate my bedroom from my living room. It makes me feel like waking up. I think I’ll always have yellow somewhere in my homes.

Tags: color, decor, decorating, design, home, houzz, kathryn vercillo, paint, yellow

My dad recently re-did the floors at my sister’s house. Dad is a custom woodworker who also does urban harvesting and sells that wood to others. He had a bunch of extra wood because of this and was able to use this reclaimed wood to create my sister’s new floors (as well as a really great new wooden door for the front of their home). The new floors themselves are such a work of art that they dramatically altered the style and mood of the house.

This got me thinking about how floors can be used as fifth walls to really shape their space. A truly wonderful floor can be a style foundation for the home. Bold rugs, painted floors, unique tile options and the placement of large sculptures directly on floors are all ways that you can start to use a floor as the canvas for a room’s design.

I’m not sure yet what this means for my own home. I live in an apartment that already has wood floors. They’re nice but they need to be cleaned up. Plus I think that they need a bit more than just their own selves to be truly beautiful. Perhaps some rugs? Maybe some art propped against the walls to bring the eye down to floor level? I’m not sure yet but I’m hoping to figure it out. Or to at least have fun trying!

Tags: decor, design, floor, hardwood floor, home, houzz, Interior Design, kathryn vercillo, style

I was just compiling pictures of canopy beds for a design article over at Houzz.com. I’ve never had a canopy bed but I used to really want one when I was younger. I can think of a few reasons that I’d still like to get a canopy bed.

Canopy beds seem great because:

• They’re playful. They just look like a lot of fun. Entering a room that has one feels exciting!
• They create a safe place. If you have to spend the night alone then it’s nice to get all tucked in. A canopy bed enhances that.
• They’re romantic. If you’re not spending the night alone then the flirty enclosure of a canopy bed could help set the mood.
• They’re private. If you have to share a room with others then a canopy bed could be a great way to shut them out when you’re ready to sleep.

Although I don’t have one, I can see some great reasons to get a canopy bed. Do you agree?

Tags: bedroom, bedroom design, beds, canopy beds, decor, design, houzz, Interior Design

There are a lot of changes taking place in cell phone design today. Most people now have touchscreen phones in either slider style or candybar style. It’s not too common to see clamshell designs and the old 0-9 numbered keyboard anymore.

Another change that we’re seeing is the increasing use of OLED screens to replace LCD screens on these new phones. Although these new OLED screens are only in a handful of mobile phones at this time, it is believed by experts in the industry that over 50% of mobile phones will have them in the next few years.

There are many benefits to OLED screens. They are more vibrant and offer a better user experience. They are more energy-efficient which means that they produce less drain on the battery of your cell phone and are kinder to the environment. They are faster, thinner and more durable.

Not everything is good about the new screens, of course, but designers are trying to work out any kinks to make sure that we see rapid adoption of this technology in the mobile phone industry in the near future. Samsung seems to be the company leading the way in this area and is one to watch if this interests you.

Tags: cell phones, design, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, oled, touchscreen

I really love looking at gadgets and technology that are only in concept form. I’m a huge fan of concept cars (like Terrafugia) and am also really interested in concept phones. Basically I think that any technology that’s only in concept form has the capability of showing us what things might look like in the future. And I think it shows off the kind of innovation that only a handful of designers in any field are actually capable of working on.

For example I’ve been reading lately about the Kyocera EOS Concept Phone. This is a phone that is made from a bendable polymer that allows you to reshape the phone. I don’t know that it would work well in actuality – you can just see it breaking over time – but I think it’s an idea that is going to be worked into handset design in some way in the future. Likewise the phone’s ability to self-charge using kinetic power is something we’re going to see in tomorrow’s mobile phones.

It’s not that I think every single concept phone brings about change and ends up being the device that we want in the future. It’s just that I think we start moving in a new direction with these types of products. Anything that’s different captures my attention and anything that’s cutting-edge in design manages to keep it for at least a little while!

Tags: cell phones, concept phones, creativity, design, innovation, kyocera, mobile phones, Technology

I really adore creative things of all kinds and particularly love learning about how technology has advanced the ability of individuals to be more creative. For example, I love that there are so many people now making their own videos thanks to the popularity of YouTube – it’s a form of creative expression that the average person wasn’t engagin in twenty years ago and I think it’s great.

Another thing that I think is great is the availability of online storefronts like Zazzle. These are places where you can upload your own creative designs and easily turn them into T-shirts and coffee mugs and other items for use or for sale. This allows people to be flexible in their creativity and also to be productive with it.

I really like Zazzle and the sites that are like it so I’ve been trying to spread the word about it. I wrote a piece about Zazzle on this blog not that long ago. And I also answered a Yahoo! Answers questions about Zazzle which covered the basics of what it is and how useful it is. That answer was chosen as a best answer for the question.

Tags: art, creativity, design, kathryn vercillo, online design, questions, store, Yahoo Answers, zazzle