Category Archives: Design course

Interior designer & alumni Amrita Khanna talks to Insight School

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We love hearing our student’s stories – their life and journey before studying with us and some of their successes after graduating. This month we spoke with Amrita Khanna, founder of interior design company Zip Code 888 and graduate of the Certificate in Residential Interior Design course. The talented interior designer and mother of 3 shares her story with us.

What is your background? What were you doing before coming to Insight School of Interior Design?

I grew up constantly surrounded by art as my mother is a fine artist herself as well as a patron of fine arts and she introduced me to the works of many great artists. I decided to pursue art in the form of textile design which I studied for 3 years with a major in the art of fabric weaving and then went on to work in the fashion industry with some notable garment buying houses that supplied design ideas and created garments for the likes of Karen Millen, Eddie Bauer, Monsoon and NEXT to name a few. Three gorgeous kids tore me away from work and I took a break to be a full time mom until Insight School happened to me!

Image: Concept board for Tai Tam apartment

What did you study at Insight School and what key skills did you learn?


I chose to study the Certificate in Residential Interior Design course at Insight School. In my opinion the school equipped me very well to deal with pressures, time lines and demands of the world of interiors. Just a few of the most important takeaways that have really helped me in my projects are that a good designer needs to be a psychologist to understand the needs of the client, you need to be able to create for the client a space that they envision but by using your aesthetic and not execute your own version of what is good design.

Another immensely valuable skill I learnt is that when you follow the steps and stages of the creative process that the school teaches you the design you create is very unique and evolved.

Image: Living room furniture board for Tai Tam apartment

Where are you working now?


After graduating from Insight School i knew I wanted to immerse myself in interior design and this led me to starting my own company “Zip Code 888”. I didn’t want the company to come across as intimidating but rather as fun catchy and approachable, with a nod to chinese tradition where the number 8 is believed to be lucky and auspicious.

My company logo is a stylized version of the cherner chair, symbolizing beauty with functionality and classic style which echoes the mission statement of Zipcode 888, to create beautiful functional classic spaces within any budget.

What have been some of the biggest challenges in starting your new career as an interior designer?


I’d say one of the biggest challenges has been to try and do something different with each project and another is to get to the point in your relationship with the client where they trust your judgement and are willing to go out of their comfort zone.

What is the big interior design project you are working on right now/or just completed?


I have finished styling and decorating an apartment which got featured in the SCMP and Todays living Magazine last year. After this I completed a styling/ upgrade of a living room and balcony. These are both featured on my website zipcode888.com. And I am now starting work on other projects.

How do you stay current in the interior design industry? What newsletters/blogs/social media tools do you read each week?


To stay current I subscribe to Design Anthology and Home Journal Magazines, follow a lot of my favorite designers on Instagram, and our art history course at Insight School got me very keenly interested in decorative arts and I invest in a collectible book each month on different topics the history of furniture.

Image: Dining room of Tai Tam apartment

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Art for the Home: 5 Foolproof Tips & Tricks

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Sassy speaks to our founder Eve Mercier about how to make art work for your home.

Buying and hanging art can be a bewildering experience. So, to help you make the right decisions when choosing art for your interiors, two art and design experts share their know-how on art for residential interiors!

Eve Mercier, founder of Insight School of Interior Design (who worked for Christie’s in their modern art department before moving into interiors for the likes of Candy & Candy!), offers practical insights into hanging and lighting art in any space. Meanwhile, Côme Remy is an art consultant and historian who teaches at Insight School. Years of experience working for Sotheby’s and Christie’s means he’s just the man to advise you on how to make the right buying decisions!

Buy what you love

“Buy art that resonates with you,” says Eve, and Côme agrees. “I always say that pieces come to you, and not the other way around,” he says. “Wait until you really find the piece. Remember that it is hard to get rid of a piece. And also, don’t forget that money is findable… a really good piece is much harder to find again, if not impossible. You will remember the pieces that you missed, not the money you spent.”

Longevity is important here: buy pieces you know you will love for a long time. “I think people should grow old with their art,” says Eve. Remember, girls, you should be able to look at it and not get bored of it. Don’t buy something just because it’s fashionable, or because it’s a good investment.

And, says Côme, educate yourself. “Visit fairs and art exhibitions, attend art classes, read and discuss. When you’re looking at art, you should always be considering, ‘What will I be pleased to bring home?’”

White is right

The best way to showcase art in your home is by hanging it against a plain, white backdrop. If you think about it, it makes sense: most galleries hang art against white walls. The minute you have some kind of paneling it becomes challenging, and the same goes for wallpaper. The whiter and flatter your walls, the easier it is.

Consider your colour palette

Your art shouldn’t clash with your interiors, and here’s how to make sure it doesn’t. If your art work is grey and blue, for example, you’re going to make sure that the palette and the rug you’re going to use are all in this blue grey palette, so you have a monochrome effect. “Likewise, if you have a work of art with lots of colours, it would be nice to pack all the colours into your interiors, so your eyes can travel from your artwork to the other pieces of furniture” suggests Eve.

Or you could go in the opposite direction and choose contrasting colours for your space. Let’s say you have a very neutral background. If your interiors are, say, beige and grey and white, and you want to lighten everything up, you can bring a very warm colour in with your art. It could be a shot of yellow or a shot of pink, for example.

“If the idea you’re going for with your décor is to create the feeling of going to see an old friend, don’t be afraid to make a real and personal choice when it comes to colour or style of the art you go for,” adds Côme.

Hang each piece with precision

A good rule of thumb to follow when hanging your art is to place the centre of your work 1.45 metres from the floor.

It’s also a handy place to start when you’re hanging a group of works together or when you’re creating a picture wall. “Figure out where the centre of the group is, and place this point at 1.45 metres from the floor,” advises Eve.

In addition, you should hang the heaviest, darkest works in the bottom left corner, with the lightest and brightest pieces of art in the top right corner. Your eye naturally travels from bottom left to top right.

Light it right

So you’ve chosen your art and figured out where and how to hang it. Now for the finishing touch: present it in the best possible light by using the right type of lighting, as well as the right tone. “Halogen light is great for commercial spaces, but for a home, it’s too bright, too harsh and too white. It’s better to use incandescent bulbs or LEDs,” says Eve. Plus LEDs don’t generate the heat halogen does, and that heat can cause damage to your art.

But remember to pay attention to the colour of your LED, girls, because if it’s very cold and white it’s going to affect the look and feel of your piece of art!

For much more on art for the home, check out Insight School’s special one-day course on Art and Interiors, which includes a lecture on how to use art in your interior décor followed by a guided tour of Affordable Art Fair in Hong Kong. Find out more here.

This article was published on Sassy Hong Kong’s homepage on May 2, 2017.

 

BA&SH Asian Retail expansion design project

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Insight School and renowed Parisian brand BA&SH collabrate on a retail design project for Asia.

BACKGROUND

Renowned Parisian fashion brand BA&SH came to Insight School for help with their retail expansion in HK and broader Asia. Recently acquired by LVMH, BA&SH enlisted the help of Insight School Diploma students to translate and adapt their strong European retail design to the local Asian markets.

BRIEF

To adapt the existing European retail store design to better meet the Asian consumer’s needs and tastes
To develop a store layout that is more “lively” and better lit
To create striking store facades which appeal to the Asian market
To redesign and increase customer seating throughout the store
To redesign the accessories visual merchandising
To create a new window display for Chinese New Year

Yacine Bensalem, Isolde Andouard and Eve Mercier

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHALLENGE

To stay true to the DNA of this Bohemian Paris brand

To effectively translate the BA&SH brand guidelines to the Asian retail store roll-out

DELIVERABLES

  • A printed and bound A3 booklet and a 15 minute powerpoint verbal presentation to existing BA&SH Asia CEO, as well as retail design expert and lead teacher Yacine Bensalem from In Situ & Partners and Insight School teachers.
  • Included in the presentations were 2D and 3D store layout drawings, a materials proposal and a marketing & design strategy

STUDENT WORK

Diploma student Duncan Craig presenting his design proposal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diploma student Duncan Craig design proposal

Diploma student Ligia Campanela – FF&E selection

 

Diploma student Madalina Stoica – new concept facade

 

 

Diploma student Holland Young –2D drawings of store layout

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLIENT FEEDBACK

BA&SH client and Asia CEO Isolde Andouard was very impressed with the student’s creative ideas and presentations. BA&SH will consider implementing the Chinese New Year window displays and some of the visual merchandising shelving systems in their new Harbour City and Times Square stores in Hong Kong.

“Thank you Insight School of Interior Design students for your incredible work on BA&SH Asia store concept! We loved your ideas! & Thank you Eve Mercier!” Isolde Andouard

 

EXPAT LIVING HK SPEAKS TO EVE ABOUT SETTING UP A HOME IN HONG KONG

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Tips, tricks and interior design courses for making a home away from home

22 September 2016

Do you have a passion for interior design – colours, lighting and textures? Hong Kong spaces can be challenging so we spoke to Eve Mercier, a Hong Kong based design master and globetrotter who knows how to help you make a stylish home away from home – she can even help you to become your own design guru!

Parisian Eve has moved 13 times in the last 20 years. Through Europe and twice to Hong Kong, Eve has sent her family’s belongings across the globe, a lot! But as an interior designer, she knows how to adapt when she arrives in her new home.

Eve’s “Jack-of-All-Trades” background, which includes stints with Christie’s and Shanghai Tang, among others, helped her build her career as a designer. Her design school, she says with a laugh, was “born out of frustration”. When Eve returned to Hong Kong in 2012 architects and designers told her there was lots of work for interior design professionals but not enough of them. And so began ‘Insight School Of Interior Design’, a school that creates professionals through courses that combine creativity, academia and practical experience. It caters for everyone. “You don’t need to be talented to start with” she says. You just need to be curious, passionate and think outside the box – “The rest, you can learn.”

Provence Family Home

Bathroom in Provence Family Home

Eve’s Southside Home

The school’s courses range from an introduction for those interested in design, to short courses in specific areas like lighting or textiles, to full certificates and diplomas. While this is clearly a labour of love, Eve and her colleagues mean business; over 80 percent of graduates from the school end up being successfully employed in the industry.

Her latest introductory course starts on October 6th, runs for eight weeks and requires attendance just once a week.

In the meantime, Eve gave us some quick design advice for making a home away from home.

Plan your space

“When I moved back to Hong Kong [this last time] I didn’t have the chance to go and see the apartment I was going to move into, I just saw the plan. I was living in London at the time and I was able to see, by looking at the floor plan, which pieces of our existing furniture would fit into the space and which pieces I could leave behind.”

Don’t rush

“Very often when people arrive they decide ‘I want everything now so it’s done and I can concentrate on other things’. I think it’s good to spend a little bit of time to get the pulse of the city, to get to know which shops are right for you instead of trying to do everything in one go.”

Beware of copies

“People get very excited about going across the border to Shenzhen to buy things because it is cheap and very quick. Bear in mind that after six months the copy is going to look, feel and age like a copy. So it’s not always your best option.”

Don’t overlook IKEA

“This may seem obvious but IKEA is still the cheapest option if you want to buy interesting furniture. Lots of new designers contribute to their collections so you can buy some really interesting stuff there.”

Buy one good piece of furniture

“Take your time, compare. Buy your piece with a reputable source and try to buy something older than 20th century. Buy an iconic piece that will stand the test of time and that you can mingle with other furniture.”

London artist’s studio turned into an Italian family pied á terre

Mayfair Duplex - Residential Project

This article appeared in Expat Living HK homepage in September 2016.

 

Introduction to Interior Design course student: Jennie Ho

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Meet Jennie!

Insight School student Jennie Ho is one of our many talented graduates from the Introduction to Interior Design course. She took the course whilst running her family’s very successful digital surveying and measuring tools company. So we thought we’d ask her a few questions about her study journey with Insight School.

What is your background? What were you doing before coming to Insight School of Interior Design?

My family business has a long history of making home improvement tools and equipment for architects and home builders. As I took over the business I focus largely on understanding user experience and developing new products.

What did you study at Insight School and what key skills did you learn?

Throughout the Introduction to Interior design course, I got a glimpse of the fundamental techniques on interior design and architecture. Both Eve and Enrique are not only great lecturers, they are also two very prominent designers in their fields. The course itself was very hands on unlike any other design course in Hong Kong. We even got to use some of my tools for some surveying projects.

Where are you working now?

Beiter Laser. It’s a hardware company supplying digital surveying and measuring tools and equipment.

Jennie preparing for her presentation

Jennie’s moodboard