RISEN : Happy Holidays!

WELCOME

We would like to welcome everyone with an interest in interior design to RISEN. All Rhodec students, and IIDA student and professional members, are particularly encouraged to participate. Enjoy!

JOIN US

This is a public web log and all posts and pages may be read by anyone.

However, we have set up a members-only Forum, for Rhodec IIDA students,called the RISEN CyberCentre.
To join us, simply go to the Forum, sign up and your registration will be processed by the Administrator.

See you there!

Chapter News

Check out the IIDA Sustainable Design Student Competition 2007 - deadline April 2 2007. Prizes include a travel scholarship to USGBC's GreenBuild Conference 2007, cash awards, and consideration for publication in metropolis magazine.

Chapter News Archive

Great Products

For the launch of RISEN, we thought a feature on a new CAD product would fit the bill! Martina MacGreevy from Belgium contributed the following:

I use TurboCAD Professional/Floorplan V10.5 but find that its CAD symbols’ library is pretty poor and I’ve just about imported every free symbol and mesh available on the web. As I’ve only managed to create a simple 3D table in TurboCAD to date, I decided that additional libraries were urgently required. With a budget of EUR 50, and with plenty of 3DS and mesh libraries to choose from, I found it difficult to decide on the best option, so I bought another CAD program. Read on to understand my logic!
The software in question comes from the creators of Chief Architect, and is called Better Homes and Gardens Interior Designer. It retails on Amazon for GBP26.99 (EUR 40) and has a library of 5,000 items.Its main disadvantage is that it is not compatible with the industry standard (3DS, DWG, DXF), so items and objects cannot be exported to or interchanged with AutoCAD, TurboCAD, etc. Materials and finishes, however, may be imported and applied to items.

Interior Designer is not a professional package, but it does enable the user to quickly and simply draw plans and 3D interiors for the residential market.I created my first interior space within a day of using it. Its rendering (Final View with Shadows) is almost non-existent, but the image can be enhanced greatly by using photo manipulation software.In just half an hour, I created a basic interior in Interior Design and rendered it in PhotoShop Elements. Click here to see it.

I think you’ll agree that for under EUR 50, it’s well worth the investment.

Photo Albums

Students' Work

Book of the Month

The Surface Texture Book from Thames & Hudson is a great little book and one that you will carry with you on every project.

The handy A5-size spiral bound book provides colour swatches of over 800 textures and surfaces, and briefly describes the aesthetics of each main category.The swatches are small (up to 9 on a page), but big enough to see the texture and to compare one surface with another.They are great for scanning into CAD drawings or for using as a guide for sketching various textures.

12 surfaces are covered in separate chapters – Carpets & Rugs, Paints, Paper, Textiles, Leather, Wood, Stone, Clay, Glass, Metal, Durables, and Site Surfaces – and each chapter is further divided into subcategories. The chapter on Wood, for example, has subcategories on softwoods, hardwoods, blocks & parquet, antique & reclaimed, decorative finishes, and processed boards. Each swatch references a supplier and a full list of international suppliers is found at the back of the book.

Finally, the author (Cat Martin, a successful architect), provides some practical advice for each surface category, which covers tips on installation and maintenance.The book is available from Thames & Hudson directly, or through Amazon. Prices vary from around 11.00 - 17.00 GBP (17 - 25 EUR).

Contributed by Martina MacGreevy

January Book of the Month - Portfolio Design.

Books

Great interior design books
A Handbook for Interior Designers
Aircraft Interiors (Daab Design Book)
Color in Interior Design
Exhibition Design
Interior Design (3rd Edition)
Spatial Art - Art Space: Interior Spaces As Works of Art

July 2008

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Mission Statement

RISEN is a multi-cultural and totally virtual "CyberCentre" for Rhodec International Interior Design Students. It provides a global interior design platform and connects students with the professional interior design industries by networking both locally and internationally, through membership of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).

Upcoming Events

If you have an event going on in your area and you want to share it with the world, tell us!

MARCH & APRIL EVENTS

In Australia, visit
Good Ideas Home Expo, Canberra

In France, visit
Salon Atlantique Habitat, La Rochelle

In Germany, visit
Fine Art Fair, Frankfurt

In The Netherlands, visit
Holland Art Fair, The Hague

In Romania, visit
Construct Expo

In Taiwan, visit
International Furniture Show, Taipei

In the UAE, visit
International Spring Trade Fair, Dubai

In the UK, visit
Ideal Home Show, London

In the USA, visit
Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, Chicago

Student Focus

Brandon Hartford I’ve been interested in interior design for as long as I can remember. My first course of action was to enroll in the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver where I stayed for two semesters and landed a part time job working in a design showroom. I honestly think it was there that I really understood the infinite possibilities of design. Years later, I relocated to Atlanta where I worked part time in a design showroom at ADAC. While I knew all along that interior design would be my calling, I also yearned to have adventures in my life that took me all over the world and found myself experiencing things I never dreamed I were possible. Many years and many different career paths later, I realized that middle age was upon me. I bought the condo, bought a Ferrari, and thought life was good. When I hit 44 I found myself feeling like I was missing out on something that I could not identify. With much soul-searching and times of deep frustration, I woke up one morning having had a dream of me as an interior designer. Incidentally, my horoscope that morning told me I would find myself in the design profession. Call it Devine intervention, but my search had finally ended and I spent a couple of weeks researching an academic program that would afford me the opportunity to get back into design while still being able to work full-time. The answer was Rhodec, and I enrolled on 07 December 2005. A decision I am very happy about. I still have a lot of essays and presentation boards in my future, but upon graduation, my plan is to open a design firm that works in both traditional and contemporary residences.

Country Focus

Put your country on the design map and write about design or the design related industries in your area and help us to get to know each other more. Remember to include photographs!

IIDA Online Articles

Using IIDA website has a great advantage for most of our students.Here you will find different things such as the Knowledge Center and a great find the Perspective articles. Log in and go to the Perspective section.There you will find valuable articles regarding our profession. You can read them online if you prefer or you can print them, for your future reference. This site is invaluable to us the student.As not all of us can get to alot of design forums in person this can help us understand our profession. The author's of these wonderful articles are IIDA members and have put alot of time, effort to help everyone in our profession. By not using this tool, which is at our grasp you will be missing out on some wonderful articles which would and will help you in the future of your interior design career. Enjoy these articles.As you the upcomming student in interior design our the future of interior design.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Happy Holidays!

After a summer hiatus, the traditional school year is well and truly underway again. Although we’re from a distance-learning school, with no formal term times, the renewed impetus for studying in the fall is shared by our students too. We hope you’ve been having a productive time, and are now looking forward to a break over the holiday season. We want to wish you a happy and peaceful time - wherever you are across the globe, and however you’re celebrating.

Seasons greetings,

Fiona

CyberCentre Director

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