What is design for you and how does it affect your life? Design is generally a broad concept. I myself focused on interior design, which I complement with graphic design. My projects are always designed holistically
What is design for you and how does it affect your life?
Design is generally a broad concept. I myself focused on interior design, which I complement with graphic design. My projects are always designed holistically, which means that when designing the basic idea of the interior, I take into account the already existing overall image, or at the request of the cgp client, I update or change it. Design is not just work, it is something that lives inside me and is constantly changing. Many things happen on an unconscious level: you put food on a plate, choose an outfit and accessories, in a restaurant, ordering food takes a little longer because you look at how the menu is designed. You experience situations when people simply do not understand why colors, color harmony and shapes are such an important part of your life.
Does space and interior design for a well-known client require a lot of time?
You create environments in which people live and influence their well-being, so it is important to listen to them and immerse yourself in the new space already during the design itself. Spatial representation and interpretation of the representation are important qualities of every designer. Finding a way from the client's wishes to a picture on paper and adding my own creativity is the result of my completed projects. We work in stages and always agree on the steps so as not to destroy our own ideas. Sometimes it turns out that it makes more sense to spend more time thinking about the sketches themselves than to lay the foundations anew.
When designing public spaces, do you use different rules than when designing private spaces?
When designing a public interior, views from the crowd's point of view are taken into account. a wider range of users requires an unobtrusive environment that can be upgraded according to the purpose of the premises. For example, healthcare, business premises, restaurants and bars each require their own professional approach by observing the technical regulations of their profession. There are no such strict regulations for the interiors of private spaces, and the wishes of the client are known in advance, otherwise we find them together.
Do you upgrade your ideas and knowledge at any fairs, workshops, seminars?
The furniture fairs in Milan and Cologne are certainly the most famous and visited fairs by designers. When we talk about seminars in Slovenia, designers must be inventive. Otherwise, there are some educational seminars that are organized by target groups, but the registration fees are so high that attendance is curtailed, and the purpose is certainly not achieved. A designer who needs fresh information is not always a successful designer who can afford it. At the Society of Designers of Slovenia (DOS), we try to cooperate with each other and act as one. However, nowadays almost everyone feels capable of designing, even if they are not professionally educated.
How much nature enters your premises?
The oversaturation of ideas and color combinations is not only helped by the restart button on the computer, but nature is the factor that purifies and sharpens thoughts. High mountains, running, cycling and skiing are indispensable sports companions in your free time. The sea itself is mandatory. But even in these situations, the colors never go unnoticed, they are just unencumbered and transformed. Nature itself certainly knows best the laws of mixing colors and shapes. She puts together matching and contrasting colors herself, arranges the shapes in suitable proportions, according to size. It is only necessary to observe and transfer what is seen to the ambience and interior.
Do we have a building in Slovenia that seems to you to be a rounded whole from a design point of view? What details would you highlight?
I like the restaurant chain "Orange in hot chocolate", Studio Mandarina from Ljubljana. In the bars, there is a recognizable overall image of the approach to solving the project, which consists of: concept or program, elements of interior design, colors, name with a graphic image and, last but not least, the offer. Sweet-sour, hot-cold, contrasts in short. All these elements define a higher standard, which they successfully follow and complement each other. A whole is created, such as it would like to create itself, according to its own principle of work.
What kind of space or environment is the best relaxation therapy?
I always try to stay with nature, when this is not possible I tend to make the ambience relaxing, natural. A good example of this is my just-completed wellness project in the center of Celje, Skinspa Face and Body Care Studio, where pampering with the play of colors and light, with a touch of wild bamboo, is a real treat for cosmetic gourmets.
Where else can you find environments that offer pampering?
My work is varied and connected with getting to know new places. Although I like to try new combinations of food, there are also corners where I like to return to a loyal visitor. When I'm in Ljubljana, I spoil myself at Babica on Dolge mosto, when it smells of special occasions, Pri Čubru in Komenda is always up to the task, for prosciutto and excellent wine I go to the Lisjak winery in Dutovlje. When it comes to desserts, they win at Hotel Evropa in Celje.
Traveling is a big part of your life. After which part of the world would you arrange the environment in which you create?
Other continents allow me to get to know the living environment of other cultures. I try to communicate with the locals, otherwise with other means of communication, because in the most pristine parts of Africa, South America, the Arab world and other distant lands, the language differences are too great. It is admirable to observe how people are their own interior designers. How simplified their lives are and how different their thinking is, unspoiled and unencumbered by the material goods of Western cultures. Design for them is created by nature with its life and all they do is to imitate it. My office contains some touch of Africa.
