Explore every episode of the podcast The Design TTAStelier With Chrys Teo

TRANSCRIPT FOR EP5
Welcome to design@ttastelier
Hi Im Chrys and in my previous episodes I talked about not just looking but See, and Seeing is not enough, you have to also Feel. All these processes allow us to know ourselves better and in return we will become more sensitive to the things in nature and the built environments around us. 

Our natural environment is a huge wealth of information and knowledge for our visual library in our mind, to learn, to absorb, to use, and also to return eventually with our own understanding and creations. One of the most obvious thing around us that we always look but did not see, is colours. No one is to blame, we simply take it for granted…or should I say, we blend into the environment so comfortably that we do not realise it anymore. Be it up in the sky, on land or deep in the ocean, there are abundance of colours everywhere the minute we open our eyes, we see it all from nature and its living things creations. These all seem to fall in place perfectly, as if the way it should be presented, to look comfortably soothing, or to look challenging hostile, their colours present to our eyes in their very own way and how we actually react to these colours with our senses unknowingly in our very own way, it is as if our reactions to the colours are inborn. Or is it not? It is true that we get annoyed easier when in a red environment, we get sleepy in a pastel baby blue setting, or we get get excited and happy when enter a garden with a big range of flowers in all mix of different but somehow matching Colours. Colours is beautiful. Colours in Design will affect the mood of feeling of spaces. Colours will make you feel differently. Colour is very interesting.

So how do we effectively use colours and create our own spaces using them correctly? I always say there’s 2 obvious and easy ways – look for a colour coordination book from the paint shop, or simply just look at animals or insects from the nature!
Two very commonly heard about term are Complementing colours and Contrasting Colours. Now im not going to dwell into the technicalities of the colour wheel and the red-green-blue of colours mixing techniques and so on, but instead I would just go with something simple – your natural senses. We are actually all very sensitive to colours, we grew up with it around us, subconsciously. From the toys that we play to the food that we eat and the clothes that we wear, the traffic lights, the sky and clouds, the plants and the insects…there are so many things that we can find all around us, day in day out. But as we grow up, we didn’t realise we know colours combination, unknowingly. Of course some will be better at colour coordination than others, but that does not mean you do not know about colours or cannot handle them at all. It just means you have to be re-introduced again. And this time, interestingly, it doesn’t come to you as a colour, instead it comes to you as a feel. 
Now, how do you feel towards this red room, or this blue curtains or this beige chair? How do you react towards these colours matters, because it will determine how you will accept or reject these colours as they will affect your mood and feeling! Now do you see all these terms that we have mentioned in the previous episodes are all coming back together to form something in design? Yes it is all related, it all falls into place and then a good design will be created. See the colours, then feel the colours. 

What leads next whenever Talking about colours will definitely be on lighting, because in order to see we obviously need lights. Colours and Light are like a full circle I said before, you cant do without the other half. So lights play just as an important part to bring out the best of colours, the beauty of colours. However, lighting is often the neglected factor in designing, or some chose to do it towards the end of the designing phase. In worst scenario, lighting is even the forgotten part of the design process, leading to only simple general lighting to so-call light-up the space only, pure utilitarian. The mood and feeling that is created and designed cannot be brought to justice, just because the lighting aspect ruins the finishing touches to the entire design. It will be very disappointing indeed. So I have to emphasise that whenever colours are touched on during the design process, lighting needs to be considered at the very instant together. It is only then, will the outcome be complete. Then of course we will lead on the next stage on the types of lighting and light-design selections, distances, positionings and quantities required, which will be again technicalities that could take more than an hour to simply achieve the ideal outcome and outlook of the spaces. So as you can see by now, colours and lighting should never be neglected, it is also an important part to the many other stages of the design process. 

I hope by sharing my thoughts on the above will set you thinking differently towards Colours and Light and gives you the confidence and even excitement when dealing with colours, that’s like I said, already all around us. So there you go again, see more, feel more and get inspired as im sure by now you would have become more sensitive of yourself and your environments. Enjoy and be part of the Design process, it is a happy one. 

Connect with me at chrysteo.com, c h r y s t e o dot com
I look forward to seeing you in my next episode where I will be sharing with you more on my thoughts, about all things design around us that matters, seeing beyond.

TRANSCRIPT FOR EP4
Welcome to design@ttastelier
Hi Im Chrys and in this episode, I want to talk about Distraction. Yes you heard it right, Distraction…now how and what has that gotta to do with Design?

Yes I do Designing for a living. My whole world is about design, this continuous search and appreciation of all things beautiful around us keeps me going, some call it passion, I find it’s really because I like what I do because im continuously doing it, consciously or subconsciously. 
So how and what has Distraction gotta to do with design? Well, I have a confession to make – im easily distracted. In fact, i get distracted all the time I think…whenever Im in my thoughts or even when Im drawing or driving or while looking at things, I easily get distracted. I see different perspective of things all the time, I do my best. I still get distracted on and off. And I believe it is not a bad thing. Now im not saying don’t get focussed and go get distracted, but im just trying to explain that whenever I get naturally distracted in my course of work, I get into many areas of thoughts, I began to see things differently in many angles and scenarios, I began to even feel what the user ultimately wants to see or achieve in the design of the spaces. 
Now, this is exactly the next concept I m trying to drive at here – is to Feel. How do we we feel design? Or how do we create designed spaces with a Feel? I know the last I talked about learning to See and now im asking you to feel. I don’t think im asking too much, because this is the next step, and a very necessary stage, and let me explain so that you will soon understand why this is so important. It is as if im talking about Light and Colors which I will wan to also cover later on…but as simple we know, no light equals no colours, because to see the colours or anything you will need light, not in darkness. The 2 complements to become a full circle, you will never be complete without the other half. Same with to See and to Feel. I would like to think that we humans, very often we do not use the natural ability of what we have all at the same time, so unknowingly we neglected our sensitivity to see and to feel at the same time, or rather to selectively choose to do so only at certain situations or certain places. I tend to believe its actually all in the mind… No no im not going to ask you to see with your Mind next, that will go on and lead onto some other very powerful things later on, we should never under-estimate our mind but for now I would just want to ask you to go along the more relaxing path instead. Just relax and be yourself, just do things naturally and use your natural ability to see more clearly, then try to feel what and how it has affected you. It’s really not that difficult actually…. Howabout this, just imagine you walking into a nice café that caught your attention across the road, you walked over and the moment you open the door you can smell that nice coffee aroma and at the bar the Barista has just done a heart-shape art on your café Latte. You should get a nice feeling now. Guess what - You are already seeing. Well done.

Seeing is believeing, in many aspects of it. But to see is not enough, you have to feel it. This brings me to what I learn about a Bruce Lee saying – Knowing is not enough, you must Apply. I would like to echo this similarity in designing – that Seeing is not enough, you must Feel. Because it is only through feel that you will learn how to appreciate the smoothness the mother-of-pearl on the tabletop after seeing its reflection of colourful spectrum of lights bouncing off the textured painted wall…it is also through FEEL that you can experience the mood and feelings of the spaces you are entering and moving around within… and it is definitely through FEEL that we can learn to put ourselves in the others shoes, to experience what it feels like on the other side of the scenario. So you see, to be able to create that feel, it is so important. It further accentuates the depth of the design that’s created, it gives more meaning to the design of these spaces created for humans, as we are beings with a rich capacity to feel. I mentioned in one of my last episodes that it is important to be able to exude that mood and feeling so that the user can resonate with the spaces created. This is exactly what I wish to reiterate and this is really what will differentiate one design from another, be it for your living spaces at home, your new office working space, your new retail shop, your other new ideas for the various spaces in all disciplines. Distinctively created.

I hope by sharing my thoughts will inspire you to be more aware of yourself and how sensitive you are when you react with your environments, be it the interesting built environments crafted by many, or the beautiful creations of the Nature everywhere around us. So go ahead and get distracted, don’t just look at that as a bad thing, see it as indirectly discovering more good things and even feeling it. Enjoy the process. 

Connect with me at chrysteo.com, c h r y s t e o dot com
I look forward to seeing you in my next episode where I will be sharing with you more on my thoughts, about all things design around us that matters, seeing beyond.

Transcript for Ep3:
Welcome to design@ttastelier
Im Chrys and in this episode, I will continue to share with you on seeing beyond yourself and the environment around you, you’ll soon realise that the world is full of great designs!

So some will ask – what is design, how do u define design?
Is it man-made and created out of nowhere or somewhere or can it even be from Nature?
The answer to all these questions is Yes!
Yes design is man-made, yes design is created, and yes design is even already in mother nature!
Remember in the last episode we talked about Design is in the Details? 
But before we even move on to the details, how do we even start going about doing a new design in the first place? or what we call our own creation? our own design? This is often the most asked questions whenever I teach the first year students on their first design project. It brings me back to what my lecturer once said, something that I thought doesn’t quite make sense to me at that time – she said design cannot be taught, it has to come from within yourself, and what the lecturers or the designer can do for you, is only to guide you with our professional ability to help you see what you didn’t see, bring it out from within yourself and help you craft it out into what you have envisioned it to be… or in simple summary, we use our skills to turn a good idea into a better one, or even make it it the best. 
Maybe now you might understand better on the saying you heard before – To Look but did not See! So you have to start seeing all things and the environments around you, then you will subconsciously realise that you will be able to see within yourself very soon. To see beyond the surface of things requires time, not a lot of time but start staring longer, and think more about it. Think of it like preparing Orange Juice - you see how the fruit, from starting to peel the skin pieces by pieces, before holding on the peeled fruit and transferring it into the Juicer machine and getting the Juice eventually. It’s just Orange Juice, but there’s so much more to just orange, even the smell of its fresh skin that still lingers on your finger tips. That’s seeing, deep within. These processes will unknowingly map into a visual library in your mind that will help you to design and led into interesting creations later on. You never know when you will need it or use it, but start accumulating your visual library in whatever you see, wherever you go and whatever you experienced! It is really that easy. Or if you think you are a forgetful person, you can create folders to store different things that you have seen or come across, you can even turn this into a hobby, a hobby of keeping beautiful things with beautiful memories! This will make designing enjoyable, it will a happy thing to do, to even share on your social media page, it’s learning to appreciate Design, and you will see that it can be the little things we comes across in life that can make us happy. And with happy memories, we will be able to recall it in our mind and re-create something with our own thoughts into something or some designs that will be become your own understanding, your own creation, and indirectly these spaces will make us happy again, even passing on to others using the spaces created.

Then there is this other painful question that you might ask is - what if I still cant see and what if I still have totally no idea to kick-start anything? Yes, then just leave it to the professional designer like myself to do the magic, because that’s why im here to help and I am the trained person afterall. But having that said, in order to help you with doing your design, or even for me to start designing it myself for you, I cant just pluck anything from the air and give it to you. What I meant is, I need to know more about you, your thoughts, your likes, dislikes, your work, habits, the people you are with, the kind of fashion you like, watches, bags, shoes, movies, even the kind of food really…so now, are you beginning to understand what I am getting at? It’s the same thing again, it’s about seeing you, im trying to create a visual library of my understanding of you…To create a design, I would first need to know the nature of you, the User! This is so that what I created eventually will be specifically crafted for you. I’d like to link this experience much alike going to a tailor shop, whats crafted has to be fitting to you. So similarly, to create a design for you or even your family members, your retail shop, your office space, your style…it is in fact YOU that maketh the design, im sure some of you wouldn’t realise this, but that is the truth, or at least that’s how I do it and that’s what I believe should be done. Design cannot be arbitrary.  

I hope by sharing my thoughts and insights will inspire you see more clearly on the things around you and discover that the world can be beautiful in our own eyes, and with our own efforts we can make our world an even better place to be in. So the next time you walk around a park or shopping mall or even in a train, don’t just look at the environment, See it! Im sure in no time you will realise soon enough that you can see new things from a different perspective, even new beautiful creations in your mind with your eyes closed. Keep Looking, but also See, see more.