Remember Ilay? She’s one of the oldest residents at Little Hearts and now studies interior design at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. She recently received her first big assignment – to design a retail outlet for her favourite personal care or cosmetics brand. She chose Neutrogena, a well-known company specialising in skincare, and set about capturing the brand’s values and characteristics – cleanliness, health, wholesomeness – in spatial form.
She laboured for three days and (most of) two nights, starting with simple sketches and continuing with accurate elevation drawings and floor plans on huge sheets of A0 paper. Then she had to procure all the materials, cut them with great precision and assemble them into a 3D model known as a ‘maquette’. The result was a simple yet elegant design for a Neutrogena shop situated on a street corner, with tall windows for a luminous interior and bright white décor to evoke a sense of freshness and purity. Not surprisingly, her hard work paid off – her project received an impressive score of 89.5%, one of the highest in her class. Everyone at Little Hearts is very proud of her.
What did Ilay learn from this demanding project? When working on a difficult assignment like this one, and especially if you’re all on your own, time management is key! It takes time to research brands, scout possible locations, ruminate on design concepts until the right idea forms in your mind, and translate it all onto paper and foam board. And you need to leave extra time for multiple trips to the art supply store, because designs evolve as they are put into practice, and you always realise (usually late at night) that you forgot something important.
There will be more such projects to come as Ilay delves deeper into her coursework. And one day, she hopes, this is what she’ll be doing daily as a young and ambitious designer.