Researching concepts

Concepts can take many forms; they may be visual or literary and may be found or created. A concept can be embodied in a story, a photo torn from a newspaper, a collage of images, a poem, a pattern shown on a fragment of used wrapping paper, a page from a scrapbook, or indeed anything that grabs your imagination and provides an anchor, a strong and compelling idea that says everything that you need it to about the project; what it looks like, how it feels, the history that it evokes.

However it is presented, the strongest concepts often make little direct reference to the constituent parts of the project. Rather they are an abstract representation of the ideas of form, texture, colour, style and mood expressed in the brief by the client.

Concepts work by providing a reference point for the designer. All the decisions made during the development of the design that dei ne the look or feel of the space can be checked against the concept. Does the formal, grid-like furniture layout you are contemplating work with the concept? Which furniture fabric strengthens the ideas of sophistication and elegance that the client wants? Check against the concept, and you will have your answer.

Communicating concepts

Some designers like to work in a very abstract way during the first stages of a project, allowing ideas to coalesce about a central idea. Their concept work could be generated in the form of ‘mood (or concept) boards’. Others will have strong ideas from the start, and without getting into detailed planning they may confidently produce ‘concept sketches’ which are not intended to be dei nitive, but which serve to illustrate their first thoughts on how a space might work.

Clients may want to see initial concept work so that they are confident that the design will progress in a direction that they are comfortable with. However, both mood boards and sketches may be very raw, visceral and unfinished. This is exciting and liberating for the designer, but can be confusing for the client. You will need to judge the personality of the client and, if necessary, modify the work before presenting it. Careful line drawings organised into an understandable if tentative and unfinished representation of the space, perhaps with colour added to define form, can be a very evocative and ultimately persuasive tool for the designer. Concept work is not about perfection; it is about capturing and communicating the spirit and character of a space.

Scrapbooks are a very useful way of collating research material, especially if this is visual in nature. Rough working in this way encourages free thinking and helps in the generation of design ideas during later stages of the project

Case study
Concept development

Project Orange responded at short notice to a brief for the ‘Urban Interventions’ exhibition (part of the London Architecture Biennale) to look at how architecture can reinvent and enhance the fabric of the city. Local architectural practices were asked to submit pieces of work, which were then displayed as a ‘collection of road signs and street furniture’. Housed in a disused 1950s shed, the space was painted yellowin order to lead visitors in from the street, the idea being that they create their own road map’ of the exhibition.

The ‘bar code’ floor pattern, derived from the bar code of the Biennale, makes a visual connection between the Biennale and the exhibition as it leads visitors in from the street.