Highlights from the Sofia Design Week Forum 2012: Raw Edges Design Studio

It’s that time of the year again! No, it’s not Christmas…It’s Sofia Design Week!

I attended the Sofia Design Week Forum for the first time last year, and I was blown away by some really great presentations, unique projects, and lots and lots of creative design. That’s why this year I was really looking forward to attending the forum again. Unfortunately, I had a Marketing exam scheduled on one of the forum days, so I missed something like three lectures. I was quite annoyed by this development, as you can imagine. Oh well, what can you do…

Anyway, last year I wrote two posts describing some of the interesting ideas and designs that I saw (which you can read here and here), but since I missed some lectures this year, I thought that this time I would do a series of posts highlighting some of the most imaginative and exciting things from what I did see.

 I thought I’d dedicate this first post to Raw Edges Design Studio, a design collaboration that I actually knew of before the forum. In case you don’t know who they are, they are the ones that made the gorgeous parquet floors shown below for Established & Sons, Stella McCartney stores and Design Miami/Basel Global Forum for Design. These beautiful floors in lush colors are featured pretty much on every design blog I’ve read, and it was a real delight to be able to have Yael Mer and Shay Akalay as speakers in this year’s forum.

http://www.raw-edges.com/projects/byyear

 

I found quite a lot of their projects very interesting, such as The Pond and Plaid Bench, which you can see on their website. I’ve included a photo of the benches below as well (© 2012 Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay). I am fond of their bright color palette, which is close to what I use in my jewelry and abstract art. I also love their Hole In The Floor shelves for books, which you can also see below. These look simply adorable to a bookworm like me.
http://www.raw-edges.com/projects/byyearhttp://www.raw-edges.com/projects/byyear

Photos from http://www.raw-edges.com/projects/byyear No copyright infringement is intended. All photos feature work by Raw Edges Design Studio.

ONE COMPANY - MANY MANY LOGOS

OK, I guess I really enjoy logo design. I had to design a logo for a new fast food place called "Lucky Star" and I sort of went overboard. I gave them nine pages of logos. Yeah, crazy.
It's just that I had some ideas bouncing around in my head, and when I started putting them on paper and on the computer screen, I got more ideas, and I ended up churning out a bunch of different designs. Of course, some are simpler than others, but since the owners didn't really give us any direction, I decided not to discount any ideas.
I am kind of attached to the ones with the forks and the ones where someone took a bite out of the star :) I think those turned out pretty great :) Anyway, check them out below:

 

CONSTRUCTION FIRM LOGO

I've been meaning to write a post about the logo I designed for my dad's company for more than a year now, but for some reason I always skipped over it in favor of some other topic. I actually designed the logo as a birthday present to him one year because his old logo was very old-fashioned and with a crazy blue and yellow flashy combination of colors. In reality, just by looking at his old logo, you wouldn't be able to recognize that the firm has anything to do with construction. This is why I set out to design something new and fresh for him.

I started by just jotting down some ideas and doodling on a scrap of paper to come up with some ideas for the logo. Sorry for the bad quality of the photo, but it is the only one I have of my doodles, and it will do for the purpose of this post.


I was also thinking of maybe having a Bulgarian and English version of the logo, but in the end, I decided against it.

I decided on the design idea that seemed the most appropriate for the business and that looked cleanest in terms of lines and shapes. My goal was to create a logo that had a clean and modern look. Then I played with some colors in order to decide whether the logo should have one or two colors. I used colors that would suggest materials used in construction, such as grey, brown and black, and I used different greens, in part as a symbol of land and in part to bring some "freshness"to the design.



At this point I showed the designs to my dad, we discussed them, and he decided on a design of brown and green letters. The one-color logos looked interesting to me because the letters P and C blended together to create on structure, but the two-color logos were perhaps a bit better in terms of readability.

Finally, I prepared some designs for his business cards. He liked the vertical designs, so these were the ones we got printed.

SNEAK PEAK AT MY NEW ABSTRACT PAININGS

I've been trying to find more time to paint this month, while I am still on break between quarters, because once I start the new MBA courses I'll probably be back on a schedule of "don't have time for anything apart from school and work." I have painted five new abstracts in brown that I might end up hanging in my living room. Here is a sneak peak, and I'll post images of some of the paintings once they are dry.

Here are some details:

FOUR ABSTRACTS

Here are four abstracts that I framed to put in my art/craft room. They are tempera on paper and were originally meant to be used in painted paper abstract collages, but I quite like them on their own. They would go really well with the existing furniture and decorations in the room, such as the white bookcase and desk, the red puff chair and this awesome quilt that I got for my birthday last year.

I have been painting abstracts lately, and I hope I can get enough done this year to try and organize an art show, but, busy as I am, I'm not sure that I'll be able to find enough time to do it all. Still, it's good to have goals, I guess :)

Here they are:

JAWAN LOGO DESIGN

One of my college friends is involved in an online shop for scarves, Jawan, which is actually project helping the Afghan Scholars Initiative. About a month ago he asked me whether I could come up with something new for their logo. They did not want a sign logo, they just wanted me to play around with the name and slogan of Jawan Fashion and come up with a softer, elegant and modern look.
Here is a screenshot of their website:

I played around with fonts, different elements related to the scarves themselves, such as the tassels, and different colors, and I came up with the following logos:

From these, they liked the three below, which I made in their signature color.

Now I am just waiting for them to decide whether they would use any of these. Whatever happens, though, I quite like how they came out :).

.

MY NEW BUSINESS CARDS

Wow, I haven't posted anything in close to a month...I've been so busy, though, I've barely had time to get any sleep, let alone write on my blog. I'm spreading myself way too thin with work, the MBA, various art projects, dance classes, and all those little errands that you have to do when you live alone, like get food or clean the house :) Anyway, the end of this quite terrible term in school is close to its end, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on all the stuff I want to blog about. Oh, and just to whine a little - I have an exam on my birthday...blah.

In between all the late nights spent working or writing papers, I somehow managed to print my new business cards, which I'm quite fond of. They are blue, unlike my current orange and green color scheme, and I think I might freshen up the design of my blog as well...we'll see.

So this is what I got printed - they are on 300 g paper with matte laminate, and they look very cool.

Here are my other color schemes and designs for the back of the card. I'll print the orange and the green at some point, too, but I'm still not sure when.