Interior design has always been a big facet of the artistic community. It requires individuality, passion, inspiration—and a desire to group elements creatively—to create environments.
One of the most prolific genres of blog on the Web right now is the interior design blog. It brings the global community of interior design into focus, culling inspirational photos and popular “Before & After” shots of interiors and DIY (‘do it yourself’) projects that offer artistic afflatus to the masses. One blog that specializes in this is the mecca of all design blogs, Design*Sponge, which has a large selection reader-submitted content and peeks at work by various, smaller interior design shops.
Design*Sponge Before and Afters page
Drawing from this DIY-crafty style is the retail store, Anthropologie, which sells vintage-inspired home goods in addition to clothing and accessories. The brand has become a style all its own, even spawning a television show for the Sundance Channel called Man Shops Globe, which follows their buyer Keith Johnson as he travels around collecting the one-of-a-kind items Anthropologie is known for. It demonstrates the ability to take found objects and make them mass-marketable. It’s selling those flea-market sensibilities to the masses and inspiring individuals to create unique spaces for themselves.
[Image via Man Shops Globe.]
Anthropologie's buyer in South Africa looking at handcrafted wildlife sculptures.
We create environments, too—just of a different sort. We create design environments that brands employ in all aspects of their marketing: print, web, ads, internal documents, and more. Like the interior of someone’s home defines them, these environments define a brand and are born of an intensive development process.
If you’re familiar with the design boards created at Shannon-Rose, you know that one of the main elements from which we draw inspiration for a logo and an environment from is interior design—along with other graphics and artistic media, such as automobiles, fashion, photography styles, textures, and typography. We draw elements, shapes, and feels from them to influence the design environment.
An example of a design board with an interior design element:
If you’re into interior design and haven’t checked out the new show on Bravo, 9 By Design, it’s a great chance to steal looks inside some really incredible spaces in Manhattan and get inspired by modern design-meets-flea market accents. Check out the show’s site here.
To see an example of a start-to-finish redesign done by Shannon-Rose, including examples of design elements, click here.
Tags: 9 by design tv show · Anthropologie · Branding · design boards · design environments · design*sponge · interior design · interior design blogs · Man Shops Globe TV show