Interior Design and Political Meaning

This little piece in the New Yorker's Talk of the Town is almost the perfect intersection of my Set Decorating Career and my previous career as a diplomat with the US State Department. 

The article, "Hillaryburg" in the April 20, 2015 issue of the The New Yorker, discusses the possible aesthetic implications of Hillary Clinton buying up some office space in Brooklyn as the likely headquarters for her presidential run. 

It is super fun in the way the writer approaches design and vintage store owners in Brooklyn, people who have decorated or re-designed political offices or regular offices and asks them their advice to Hilary decorating her new office space.  Plus the piece catalogues some recent political redesigns of note. 

I like how "Hillaryburg" explores meaning and political significance as expressed through interior design especially since after six-design deprived years as a federally employed bureaucrat I completely understand the quote below:

““In political culture, design is not a priority,” said Martin Finio, an architect who, with his wife, revamped the Brooklyn Historical Society.”

— "Hillaryburg", Talk of the Town, New Yorker, April 20, 2015

Reading and enjoying "Hillaryburg" reminded me of one of the funniest and most fun gifts I have ever received:

an old diplomatic colleague bought this for me as a gift because even 8 years before I started working as a set decorator she knew, this was THE perfect gift for me.  

I once had this book stolen out of the basket of my bike in Beijing's hutongs (true story) but love it so much that I bought another copy to replace it. 

And finally I liked how "Hillaryburg" ended with the statement about how powerful interior design is in fact on culture, psychology, and mood:

“For Clinton, Sherman envisaged “soft tones.” He implied that she might even be able to overcome issues of relatability through design. “You shape your space, and then your space will eventually shape you,” he said. “It shouldn’t be overly streamlined or stripped of character, which is maybe how people perceive Hillary. You want her staff to feel that she’s a normal person, too.” ”

— "Hillaryburg", New Yorker, April 20, 2015 issue, "Talk of the Town"

Art Deco Details + Why I Love Set Decorating

During one shoot I worked on in Tribeca, I had to go out a bunch to pick up more props around the neighborhood which is full of buildings with great Art Deco details. 

One of the things I love best about set decorating is the chance to walk around New York City so much in search of things.  

The chance to spend so much time out doors and interacting with the city so actively while in pursuit of that perfect item, prop, dressing, or whatever is something I deeply enjoy. 

As a huge Art Deco fiend (one of my ultimate favorite aesthetic eras), the opportunity to notice and appreciate small decorative and design details in New York's old buildings, especially the Art Deco ones, is one of the small joys of living and working in NYC. 

Handlettering

I did the lettering, designed, and handdrew all the borders

One of my top interests in life is fonts.  It has been a fixation since I was in high school, and if you want to know my favorite standard Microsoft Office font high school till now is Garamond Italics. Though now I'm starting to love Gills Sans Light a lot also. 

So getting to think about fonts and draw out a bunch of options for the Art Director of this shoot was like a dream come true for me: getting paid to think about and play with fonts and lettering!

I also had a lot of fun buying all the paint pens for the shoot and a behind the scenes rough draft option. 

Control Center War Room

I was the Production Designer* for a silly web series called "Put it On the Table" and one of the scenes was a Control Center/War Room for a guy to sabotage his ex-girlfriend's date with another guy.

It was fun to take a common visual idea seen in serious war or detective dramas and put a juvenile and light-hearted spin on it thinking from the perspective from a young guy still pining for his ex-girlfriend. You can see all the reference photos I used here. 

*I mean I was Production Designer, Set Decorator, Set Dresser, Props, and On-Set....you know for these small things you are basically the whole Art Department.  In this case it was my talented friend Eimi Imanashi and I who were the Art Department for the whole shoot. 

Painting Retro Signs

So the feature film I'm set decorating is set in NYC in 1988.  

The production designer wanted me to handpaint some sign mock-ups. I was using those 99 cent store brushes (that's what was available in the production office) but I thought they came out ok still:

The Art Dept office in the Production Offices were plastered with fun reference photos of NYC Soho in the 1980s. 

Matchstick Art

While prepping for a feature film where I was set decorator, I had to try and create two different images of an equinox flower out of matchsticks, a key dressing in the plot of the movie. 

option 1

option 2

option 3

option 4 (based on a drawing from production designer)

While not the easiest medium, I'm pretty happy with how they each came out.  It took a long time, but it was calming and meditative and I listened to a great episode of On Being while making these. 

In the end though, a much simpler and less complex design was used in the shot.  When the film is released I'll screenshot it. 

fun fact: a classic Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu was filmed in 1958, called Equinox Flower. 

Prop Styling Handmodel

I worked on a prop styling shoot where the client asked the stylists to get manicures according to reference photos so that we could double as hand models.  

the main room for manicures and the entry room where you first enter and look through manicure design styles. 

So I took the opportunity as a chance to experience one of NYC's main nail art temples: Paintbox Nails.  Not only was the whole experience unbelievably luxe, but I was really digging the interiors and the contemporary chic way they expressed luxury with their interior choices. 

the view from my station (I'm in love with that chandelier light piece), the marble counter drying station--if you notice that white box at the end it is the "manicam", close-up of the stone, and my station and the champagne they give you. 

and the final product as taken from their manicam.  

someone once asked me what the most fun thing I did related to set decorating/prop styling and I have to say getting a chance to experience this as part of my prep responsibilities was pretty fun. 

p.s. if you read about the whole investigative reporting series in NYTimes on the New York City nail salon industry, Paintbox had a great discussion of how they are an industry leader for fair wages and employee benefits in the nail salon industry on their blog here. 

Becoming a Pinterest Mom for a Shoot

For an ad campaign, I ended up morphing into a Pinterest mom for a couple of days trying to channel my best crafting game which usually lie very dormant. 

These are some balloons made into ice cream cones that I had to fabricate. It is harder than it seems.

To be honest the whole "pinterest perfect" twee aesthetic that has colonized all of our digitally visual lives is something I'm not a big fan of.  But on this shoot I also realized it was more than just our visual landscape that it has changed, it has also altered the commercial landscape. 

When did paperclips get so designed and cute-sy? When unpacking all the props for the shoot I started to wonder how come the most mundane office supplies are so cute now? Why are there things like perfect circle cutters and so many totally niche and very precise crafting tools?  Apparently the answer is Pinterest. 

Such as hand-crafting these gold stars to make a handmade ever so spontaneously twee background for the shoot.  Yes, something I got paid to do. 

I recently read this article in The Guardian that David Chang (Momofuku) wrote about "How the Internet is Making the World's Food Taste the Same" 

It is pretty good article and I would argue that the same thing is happening with people's aesthetic, design, and decoration preferences because of Pinterest.

 Like how you can totally tell if a bride has been trolling pinterest for too long because all weddings start to conform to the same "pinterest perfect aesthetic" and that is really boring and sort of annoying to me. 

it isn't that exciting.  I'm usually pinning in spurts when I'm doing research for a project. 

Oh yeah, I'm on Pinterest too if you want to follow along (I mostly use it for visual research for work or when I want to file an image away for future reference).