The new year is the perfect time to check in with yourself, revisit your goals, reflect on how much you have grown over the past year, and set new intentions for the year ahead. This is often applied to all aspects of our lives – but one which is sometimes overlooked is our free time and our hobbies. Regardless whether design is your professional career, or an extracurricular interest, it is still a hobby. Take a read of these small, measurable and doable points which help to combine this passion with goals for the new year.
Hand sketching
Do a sketch a day. Stuck on what to draw? Start with things directly in front of you, and overtime you will move on to items from your imagination. Experiment with your style – draw the same object / scene every day, but in a different style. This will encourage you to see details in a new perspective.
Remember to diversify the items that you are drawing. Understanding how to draw external architectural forms are just as important for interior designers as being able to draw furniture.
Experiment with new materials
Whether you are a full time designer or it’s a part time hobby, challenge yourself by swapping out materials with sustainable alternatives. The product market has made leaps and bounds of advancements – there are coffee tables made from old coffee grounds, and leather made from mushrooms. Take the time to see what’s out there and the opportunities to your design that these new materials might bring.
A great starting point is reading up on Dutch designer Nienke Hoogvliet. Her stool (shown above left) is made using leather from salmon skin.
Learn new software
Visualisation software is crucial to making your ideas come to life, and giving them a three-dimensional quality which allows you to critically analyse the design to improve it, before taking the jump to producing the design in the real world. Take the time to develop your own style. Both images above are examples of renders, but with completely different personalities… Have fun, experiment, and see what your unique visualisation style is.
A great place to start for free modelling and rendering programmes is Trimble Sketch Up or Blender. There are plenty of YouTube tutorials to get you started too!
