Environmental

Design Process
Book
Amelia Sims
Table of Contents
The Space - 4

Preliminary Thoughts - 6

Workspace Environment - 7

Sketches - 8

First Designs - 9

Second Designs - 10

Third Design - 12

Redo Classifications - 14

Final Designs - 16
The Space
Drake Universities Carnegie Hall is the center for all design classes
on campus. As such, the interior of the building needs to match the
ideals that we hold as designers.

In previous years, the design classes have worked to modify the

hallway space in Carnegie. Our job as a class was to come up
with designs for the next room, classroom 201.

5
 Workspace Environment
While I was looking through images I realized I was most attracted
to designs with mixture of light and perspective. Personally, I like to
work in an environment with a lot of ideas around me. The ability to
see other works reminds me of what we can accomplish as designers.

Taking all of this into account, I decided that the environment I wanted
to create in the Carnegie workspace would be both inspiring and
modern. The space needed to encourage both the flow of ideas and
the movement of students to inspire collaboration.

Preliminary Thoughts
When I first looked at environmental type inspiration I found myself
drawn to the ideas that made use the architectural elements of the
room as well as the bright colors.

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 Sketches
For the first phase of my design
process, I sketched out all the ideas
that came to my head.

First Designs
My first round of designs were based solely off
of my initial sketches. From there I would refine
the ideas, but initially I wanted to get the ideas
into the computer.

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 Second Designs
In the second round of designs, I changed my inspiration for the back
walls, moving from the ‘type soup’ approach to a more informational
design for the classifications of type. I began to generate a design for the
timeline from my sketches.

I wanted to bring elements into the design that were similar to the
stairwell. I decided that I would create hanging tiles in CMYK to mirror
those on the steps. I also began a type wall much like the one in the
stairwell as a discoverable in the corner of the room.

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 Third Designs
For my third round of designs I experimented with
the materiality of the space. First I did some research
on different materials artists used for their type.
Then I altered the type classification walls, mocking
up one iteration with plexi CMYK panels and one
with different materials for each wall. In addition,
I changed the hanging plexi to squares that would
separate one side of the classroom from the other,
to create a more intentional feel in the space. I also
added the completed type wall.

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 Classification Wall Redo
As I was working through this project, I got to a point where I was suck on the design
of my type classification walls. Something about the design was just off, I could feel
it, but I couldn’t figure out what changes needed to be made.

After discussing with my professor, I decided to redo the type classification walls.
They did not read as a cohesive design, nor did they fit the designs I had created for
the rest of the room. So I went back to the drawing board with the idea of creating a
series of classification walls, each with information about the classifications as well as
some fonts and an example alphabet.

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 Final Designs
Once my redo of the classification walls was complete I put the final
touches on my design. The timeline was altered so that it was gernalized
dates instead of specifics and included the CMYK from the rest of the
room. I also added more CMYK to the discoverable wall.

For the classification walls, I decided that each large letter would be made
out of layed plexi. If implemented in the room I invissioned that there
would be a lighting element behind it, but I created this on the computer
using the color burn effect.

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created and designed by
Amelia Sims for
context and process

Drake University ‘23