I finally started my summer internship yesterday. I work at this place called TaiHoo Design, a design company based in Taiwan that specializes in set/space design. I got to know this company through my mom's friend's daughter, who collaborated with the company before (oh connections connections...). I've never done any 3-dimensional/space related design before, so I think this summer is a good opportunity for me to open up my eyes for another different option that I can consider in the future.
I didn't do much yesterday, since my boss Mr. River Lee wasn't there. I spent quite a lot of time looking through TaiHoo's design book collection. I love flipping through design books; I formed this habit back in the Dulwich days - Mr. McGrath's collection was great. TaiHoo's books are mostly about interior or industrial design though, which is different from Mr. McGrath's illustration books. Many designs are really avant-garde...they're the kind of stuff that will, uh, electrify your mind? At least that's how I felt.
This book really caught my attention (chuckles). I wonder when this will ever come in handy. This book completely tipped over my idea of nightclubs. I've never been to a club before, and I'm not quite sure why I imagine all clubs to be dirty, messy, filled with people who have nothing better to do than drinking and smoking... Oh well, call me insular and tacky. Almost every club included in this book has really avant-garde designs, in particular the lighting. Here's two that really caught my eyes with their dazzling lights/nice vibes:
- Kabaret's Prophecy (London) -
I think the digital-looking lights look really cool (can I think of a better way to describe it), and the overall dark red interior is pleasing to the eye.
- Mystique (Bangkok) -
I would say red really is my favorite color...from the clothes I wear all the way to club design.
Anyway, my point is that many of these clubs' interior designs are quite cutting-edge. I'm pretty sure TaiHoo has been inspired by the vibrant lights and colors in certain ways. Besides Club Design, I also looked through some package design books, design magazines, and this beautiful book called Tropical Colors: The Art of Living with Tropical Flowers. It has a brilliant assortment of floral decoration/displays, photographed in homes of Thailand's leading artists and designers.
So simple and elegant...lovely.
Then, Mrs. Lee gave me a little assignment, since she thought I would fall asleep if I spent the day only looking through books. TaiHoo is in charged of many Taiwan-Macau relation activities and events, so she wanted me to try to design a banner for one of the upcoming events.
Working at a actual company is really different from working at school. There are no instructions, so I was really lost in the beginning. I looked through images of Macau and the past works that the company created, and I pretty much just messed with Adobe Illustrator and see if I could come up with any nice-looking things. Hotels, casinos and whatnot didn't really inspire me; instead, I was inspired by images of lotus (probably not significant enough to symbolize Macau...but I like flowers). So I came up with this:
Not sure how many hours I spent on this. I basically just played with live-trace and eraser in Illustrator. Not entirely original...but I really wasn't sure what I was supposed to do.
I was at work from 9:30am-6:00, and I left my house before 8am. The first day was pretty tiring, but hopefully I'll get use to it. I kind of got a taste of how rough a designer's life could get. The earlier I know, the better...so this is good.
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