Michelle Aryani, Product & Toy Designer (Singapore)

Michelle Aryani is a product and toy designer who works freelance. Key takeaways:

• Freelancing gives you the power to design as you see fit, keeping clients who appreciate your work (and pay the bills) while dropping those that are a waste of time.
• Follow your passion and let that lead you towards your goals.
• Awards won in school may have extra benefits – like cutting your study fees in half!

You can get into contact with Michelle by visiting her online portfolio at http://cocomich.dunked.com.

You’ve been an intern and worked freelance in design, do you prefer working on your own or being part of a larger company? How do you find your customers and projects?

As a graphic design intern in a marketing company, I feel like you are being forced to create a design in a ‘cliche’ and those commercial style, which I don’t really like much. Well, not everything goes in your way and that was what I learned there. The clients were asking me (through email) to move and scale the font for hundred times which I find really wasting time to do the same thing over and over again. As for freelance job, I find my thing there. It was fun and you are not being forced to do what you don’t like. Maybe because I find that the company and I somehow clicked together and the people were so nice and willing to share. In the future, probably I would prefer working on my own.

[Sebagai pekerja magang grafik desain di perusahaan marketing, saya dipaksa untuk membuat desain yang ‘cliche’ dan komersial yang saya tidak terlalu sukai. Yah, tidak semua bisa berjalan sesuai rencana Anda dan hal tersebut yang saya pelajari dari sana. Klien-klien tersebut terus menyuruh saya untuk menggeser dan mengganti ukuran font berulang kali yang saya rasa cukup membuang-buang waktu. Saya menemukan hal saya di pekerjaan freelance. Pekerjaan disana menyenangkan dan saya tidak dipaksa untuk mengerjakan hal yang saya tidak sukai. Mungkin karena saya cocok dengan perusahaannya dan orang-orang disana sangat baik dan mau berbagi. Untuk masa depan, mungkin saya lebih memilih untuk bekerja sendiri.]

Your sketches are incredible – you have some very talented hands and a great mind for design. How long does it take you, for instance, to render the “living room marker” and draw the “axonometric drawing”? Where did those ideas and concepts come from?

Thank you for the kind comments. I took around 4-5 hours to render whole A3 paper, full color. People, books, internet and my daily life are the main factors for my idea bank. I think daily life is the story behind most of today’s design. How to save space in these limited areas, how to use things efficiently, how to live healthy, etc, they are related to daily life problem. Since I am from Indonesia, my background also took part in my design process. Especially if I render a traditional living room, I tend to use brownish and nature color for the overall theme.

[Terima kasih atas komentar Anda. Saya membutuhkan waktu 4-5 jam untuk mewarnai penuh kertas A3, full color. Orang-orang, buku-buku, internet dan rutinitas sehari-hari saya adalah faktor-faktor utama untuk bank ide saya. Saya pikir rutinitas sehari-hari adalah cerita utama di balik semua desain. Bagaimana cara untuk memanfaatkan tempat semaksimal mungkin, bagaimana cara untuk memanfaatkan sesuatu secara efisien, bagaimana cara untuk hidup sehat, dan seterusnya, itu semua ada hubungannya dengan rutinitas sehari-hari. Karena saya berasal dari Indonesia, latar belakang saya ikut ambil bagian dalam proses desain saya. Terutama ketika saya mewarnai ruang tamu tradisional, saya akan menggunakan warna coklat dan warna natural untuk tema keseluruhan.]

It’s ironic that I’ve been looking at a unique and innovative way to CNC laser cut, using acrylic, a chess game – I love that game! I saw your chair chess and I must say – that’s awesome! I’ve never seen anything like it and it looks great! How long did it take you to sketch, model, cut and build this chess set?

I love those chair chess too. It was inspired by my favorite Japanese designer, Kouichi Okamoto. Most of his designs were daily life related and red-white, so I symbolize daily life with a chair, a furniture or tool that we use almost everyday. Once I got the idea, I try to work with my paper and pencil and did some doodling. It was quite fast and I choose a few sketches then combine them together. The laser cutting process is quite fast once you have all the template done in Adobe Illustrator, but the assembling part took quite some time. It took me around 3-4 days to assemble the small little chair pieces.

[Saya juga menyukai catur kursi tersebut. Saya terinspirasi oleh desainer Jepang favorit saya, Kouichi Okamoto. Sebagian besar desain dia ada hubungannya dengan rutinitas sehari-hari dan merah-putih, maka saya menginterpretasikan rutinitas sehari-hari dengan kursi, sebuah furnitur atau peralatan yang hampir kita gunakan setiap hari. Begitu saya dapat ide, saya mencoba untuk bekerja dengan kertas dan pensil dan mulai menggambar. Itu selesai dengan cepat dan saya akan memilih beberapa gambar dan menggabungkannya. Proses laser cutting akan berlangsung cepat apabila Anda sudah memiliki template yang dibuat dengan Adobe Illustrator, namun membangun kursinya membutuhkan waktu yang cukup lama. Hal tersebut memakan waktu 3-4 hari.]

Can you describe the design process behind your Lupe? I really like the esthetics of your paperweight wooden magnifying glass. Same with your cast resin light bulbs – I love this concept? Do they last as long as regular lightbulbs?

Lupe is actually a paperweight series I did for this unknown random man, captured by the talented hand of an American photographer, Scott Schuman. If you guys know this fashion blog called ‘The Sartorialist’, you will find many of great photos captured by him. Lupe was born by the idea that comes from the analysis of this unknown man’s fashion style and the way he look. I imagined what kind of home he lives in, what kind of items he will have and I imagined a bunch of possibilities from that one particular photo. Lupe series were made by CNC router machine. I did the parts with 3D modeling software, Rhinoceros and sent them to the machine. The machine took almost 3 days to cut those 3 pieces of wood! Maybe because I used Nyatoh wood, which belong in hardwood type, so the process took a longer time.
As for the resin lightbulbs, it was actually a group project that I did in my school days. We were suppose to design a lighting and explore this material called resin. They do last long as regular bulbs since we were using regular bulbs in this project. What makes them different from the regular bulb is when the light turned on, the light will disperse through the resin and creates these beautiful effects.

[Sebetulnya Lupe adalah seri pemberat kertas yang saya buat untuk laki-laki yang tidak dikenal, difoto oleh fotografer Amerika, Scott Schuman. Apabila Anda tahu fashion blog ini ‘The Sartorialist’, Anda akan menemukan banyak foto-foto yang menakjubkan. Lupe lahir karena berasal dari analisis terhadap cara berpakaian dan rupa laki-laki tersebut. Saya berkhayal bagaimana bentuk rumah yang dia tinggali, benda seperti apa yang akan dia miliki dan saya berkhayal banyak kemungkinan dari satu foto tersebut. Seri Lupe dibuat dengan mesin CNC router. Saya membuat bagian-bagiannya dengan modeling software 3D, Rhinoceros dan mengirimnya ke mesin. Proses ini memakan waktu hampir 3 hari untuk memotong 3 buah kayu! Mungkin karena saya menggunakan kayu Nyatoh yang termasuk dalam golongan kayu keras., maka prosesnya membutuhkan waktu yang lebih lama.
Proyek lampu resin ini adalah kerja kelompok di saat saya masih sekolah. Kami diharuskan untuk membuat sebuah penerangan dan mencoba material yang disebut resin. Lampu-lampu tersebut bekerja seperti lampu biasanya karena kita menggunakan jenis lampu yang sama. Perbedaannya adalah ketika lampu dinyalakan, sinar-sinar itu akan dipencarkan melalui resin dan membuat efek yang sangat indah.]

What subject matter do you enjoy photographing and what kind of camera(s) do you have? Have you ever considered getting into video to share more of your skills with a wider audience such as YouTube?

I am into photography mainly because of curiosity and because I constantly using my friend’s camera and it made me to buy one too. I am a Canon user and I use 600D with 18-135 lens. It was so easy to use and I completely fall in love with photography. I like to capture still picture like nature, but I also like to capture concert moments. I must say I am a concert maniac and when I don’t get a good seat, I can always see the singer through my viewfinder and captured those precious moments! Photograph won’t change and that makes me learn how important it is for me to look back what am I lacking and the things I can improve.

About the videography, I haven’t thought of learning it yet and I think for the meantime I am not really interested in making videos.

[Saya menyelami dunia fotografi karena keingintahuan dan karena saya terus-menerus menggunakan kamera teman saya dan hal tersebut membuat saya untuk membeli kamera juga. Saya adalah pengguna Canon dan saya menggunakan 600D dengan lensa 18-135. Kamera tersebut mudah untuk digunakan dan saya benar-benar jatuh cinta dengan dunia fotografi. Saya suka mengambil foto alam, tetapi saya juga suka mengambil foto konser. Saya harus bilang bahwa saya adalah konser maniak dan ketika saya tidak mendapatkan tempat duduk yang bagus, saya selalu bisa melihat penyanyi-nya melalui kamera saya dan mengambil foto! Foto tidak akan berubah dan itu membuat saya belajar betapa pentingnya untuk saya melihat kembali masa lampau terhadap apa yang kurang dari saya dan hal-hal yang dapat saya benahi.]

How did you win the NAFA Merit Award in 2011 and what doors or opportunities has it opened for you as a multi-faceted designer?

I won the award because of my academic results and I have to say it really helped me a lot in my school tuition, because when you get the award your school fees will be cut by half. The award haven’t give me any opportunities yet, but it will be good if it can help me in my career. So collect a lot of awards, folks!

[Saya mendapat award itu karena hasil akademik saya dan hal tersebut benar-benar membantu uang sekolah saya, karena ketika Anda mendapat award itu, uang sekolah Anda akan dipotong menjadi setengahnya. Award itu belum benar-benar memberi saya kesempatan apa-apa, namun akan lebih baik jika hal tersebut dapat membantu karir saya di masa depan. Jadi, kumpulkan award yang banyak, teman!]

That’s all. Thank you for taking interest in my work and wish you all the best for you and your books and blogs!