Calling all designers
By Debra Collins
31 Jul 2007
1. What kind of designer are you?
Kitchen designer
2. What did you want to do for a living when you were a kid?
I wanted to be a news photographer and travel to war zones. I always had a camera with me and hoped to take that perfect shot that told the real story.
3. What is it about your design work that makes your photography better? And vice versa? Where do you see parallels between the two?
In learning photography I am thinking a lot about composition, color, and light, and it is making me take another look at my interiors. Just as in a photograph, interiors need composition to create flow, color to evoke emotion and lighting for definition.
Photographers and interior designers also run into the same problems in marketing their work. No one really needs either one so we have to work very hard to make people realize that what we do has value.
4. What do you find most challenging about your work?
The most difficult part is trying figure out what people really want and need in their designs, not what they think they want.
5. Do you have design heroes? Photography heroes?
My design heroes are the people who began movements or broke out of the mold to define an era. People such as Mies van der Rohe, Charles Eastlake, le Corbursier
My photography heroes are closer to home. They are friends, or people who are working in the field now and are successful – Tim Kelly, Michael Taylor, Al Gordon, Monica Sigmon, Vicki Taufer. These people have taught me to see light in new ways as well as the ins and outs of marketing in a tough business. Also my daughter, Annika Collins, who is brave enough to strike out on her own and has an incredible way of seeing through the camera lens.
6. Name some unexpected sources of inspiration you've had.
Most of my unexpected inspiration comes when my hands are busy but my brain is not. I usually solve problems and put ideas together on long drives, especially after a class or a visit to a new place.
7. Do you have any regular habits/exercises that make you a better designer? Photographer?
I am the kind of person who jumps into things with both feet so whatever project I am working on just seems to evolve as I go along.
