I have just completed the three-week module one course in interior and spatial design at Chelsea College of Art and Design and I have to say that it is the most fun I have had with clothes on… Ever! The course is intense and spans 12 days over a period of three weeks, with Monday off to enable students to catch up on their research and technical drawings.
The course:
The course is designed to introduce students to the foundations of design and technical drawing. You do not need any experience or qualifications and, in fact, the course appeals to an enormously diverse group, from people wishing to gain a clearer idea of how to do up their own homes to those who want to take up interior design as a profession. I chose Chelsea College of Art and Design because it has a reputation for excellence both in the practical and academic sense.
The experience:
On the first morning we all gathered in the cafeteria looking very anxious and awaiting our tutor who, from the moment she appeared, exuded confidence, passion and a belief that we could all become fledgling interior designers. Lyndall Fernie is a tall, elegant woman who, despite her preference for black attire, is utterly luminous. She doesn’t make things seem easy but she does instil a belief that everything is possible and even a klutz like me can master the basic skills of interior design.
The class’ brief was to redesign the ground floor of a Victorian terraced house into a comfortable flat for a couple. By the end of the first day, Lyndall had us up at the drawing board, drawing to scale and thinking about our design. By the end of the second day, she had us ‘sketching’ furniture (she knows lots of crafty ways to do this so that even the least artistic of us could produce something passable).
We also went off on three expeditions; one to look at hard surfaces and another to look at lighting (both these topics were covered by a delightful and extremely knowledgeable tutor, Matteo Bianchi, who, like us, had started off on the module one course, and who now designs hotels, commercial spaces and residences). The third was to look at soft furnishings with Sue Lamont, an equally professional and inspirational designer.
By the end of the three-week period, and under Lyndall’s careful mentoring, we all produced a set of beautiful technical drawings and concept and product boards to present to our potential clients. The result was stunning and we all felt a great sense of accomplishment as we listened to the evaluator, Jayne Fisher, give her critique. It was the perfect narcotic!
The students:
The course attracts a very diverse crowd and, from the experience of a serial workshop participant, I can tell you that I have never met a more supportive, generous, kind, clever or fun crowd. We had the super chic, super cool journalist, who writes for one of the major newspapers, and whose technical drawings (the sum of perhaps two weeks’ work) went missing on the last day, but who handled the calamity with amazing aplomb and grace. There was the guy in finance who had flown in from Hong Kong specifically to take this course; the gorgeous wedding planner who handles high profile events throughout Europe, South America and the former Portuguese colonies of Africa; the hugely artistic girl who runs a very busy dental surgery in Canary wharf; the student who is reading International Relations at university and who was a total natural at interior design and the ex-army officer, turned barrister, turned management consultant who, rather naughtily, kept disappearing for a smoke and who, like me, was unbelievably slow at completing all the tasks. She was the last to present her project, which turned out to be the most sumptuous, sensual, and sexy concept ever imagined.
All this to say that the course attracts all sorts of people with varying work styles, but the tutor allows you the freedom to work in the way which best suits you and allows you to derive the most from the course.
What next?
Well, of course, I feel I am the next Nicky Haslam, such is the sense of achievement derived from this course. It gave us all the tools to tackle a straight-forward project, the knowledge to access the information for more challenging ones and the confidence to just have a go. I shall definitely be signing up for Module Two.
