RODE Hive Workshop 4: Illustrating a Narrative

The design process is a strategic effort composed of a pooling of thoughts and ideas from several individual designers. To make sense of it all, we create diverse visual media that helps synthesize and rationalize the intricacies of that process. These visualizations become the instruments of storytelling we use to connect with our clients and communities and is the topic of our fourth hive workshop.

ILLUSTRATIONS

We develop step-by-step illustrations that simplify our thought process, building up our ideas from abstract concept to detailed realization. The sequential structure affords clients and communities time to grasp the essential elements and space to accept the design resolutions. For our internal team, defining the steps of our process holds us accountable for the integrity and rationality of our work.

MODELS

We also build study models that manipulate materials and form to explore broad concepts or specific strategies. We use these to assess the clarity and strength of our underlying concepts - models tell the story of progress and refinement.

MOOD BOARDS

Creating mood boards often transforms concepts into tangible feelings and experiences about a space on a more personal, and individualistic level. Our interior design team pulls together imagery and drawings to tell stories of space and enliven their clients’ visions. We often provide a series of options which enables our clients to take ownership of the design direction and participate in the design process.

Left: Mood board for The Lexington restaurant. Right: The Lexington restaurant

By the end of the session, we figured out that the common goal of these illustrations is to make sense of our design process and compose it for more public storytelling. Across projects, RODE consistently cares about the perception and accessibility of our narrative to our clients and communities.