For assignment 4 we had to choose a topic and conduct interviews to find out their ideas and attitudes to the area of design that you have chosen to look at. The topic or area of design I choose to look at was, “What does the way someone decorates their living space tell about them.” The questions that you asked in the interview had to help you to find the answer to this question and find out any connections between how the way people chose to decorate and how this tells you about them and their personalities. Before I carried out the interviews, a group of us doing the same question had a discussion about what type of questions to use and what our perceived answers would be and main aspects and areas to look at. In the discussion we looked at areas and aspects such as gender and generation relations, and the aspects of the ways in which people use their living space and the purposes of the living space, also the different styles and decorating themes people might use.
From the interviews I found a number of these aspects and ideas to be the case, I interviewed a variety of people from different age groups including an interior design student, a middle aged woman and a semi retired woman. The first question I asked was about what methods people used when thinking about their inspirations for decorating. This allowed me to note the first difference between the three participants I interviewed in terms of generational and occupational differences. For the interior design student their methods are very much relating to the way in which they would approach a design brief in terms of drawings and samples etc. The other two participants of both similar age groups used more media based inspirations such as decorating television programmes, however all participants used magazines as their main source of inspiration. This shows how different ages groups have different inspirations when it comes to decorating, older people use television shows on decorating a home and the programmes are targeted towards older people and their decorating tastes, whereas younger people are more inspired by current trends and themes showing in magazines. Televisions shows are targeted towards older people and this can be shown through their viewing times which could be seen as another reason for the generational differences. Another area that this looks at is the fact that one of the people I interviewed is an interior design student, and therefore has a more trained eye and approaches much like they would if they were doing it for a client. The second question was much more related to them as a person and their personalities and I found that the answers allowed me to establish more of a connection to the way the decorate and their personality. As from one of the participants they said that their most valuable or the most important aspect in their living space in terms of decoration was their soft furnishing, which I think represents the idea that they are a homely person and the they also mentioned that they all have to colour coordinate because they are the focal point in the room which might suggest that they are quite a neat and organised person, who is particular about things matching and going together. The other person was more focused on the carpets and the larger pieces of furniture and works the rest of the décor around the main pieces of furniture in the room. This could suggest that they although like the room to be homely and cosy, doesn’t like clutter and likes larger pieces of furniture in the room. The student chose as her most valuable aspect her living space to be the big massive window in her room, I think this shows an element of what she studies in that it is a built in feature of the room, and shows that it is the space in the living areas and how that works that is the most valuable within her living space. The last question I asked was relating to colour schemes and styles and I think you can get an idea of someone’s personal tastes, styles and inspiration from their colour schemes. From the people I interviewed the colour schemes they are attracted to were quite similar. The interior design student is attract to light colours such as cream, dirty pink and dirty blue, colours similar to shells. These could represent the idea that she likes the light warm feel that creates an older, style feel but with a modern twist, this could also reflect her own personal style and taste. From the other interviews I found they are quite similar and like warm colours such as peaches, terracotta and creams, to create a more cosy, homely feel. Therefore showing that people can express their styles, and tastes and show there personalities through their décor.
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