Rottet Talk — Rottet Studio

Sketch Series: Parker Nussbaum

From the MARS Ascension Vehicle at the Johnson Space Center to the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, the products of Parker Nussbaum's sketches continue to reach new heights and audiences. The Houston-based industrial designer is well-versed in rapid prototyping and creating objects that marry both beauty and function. In June, Parker helped launch Rottet Collection during NeoCon 2017, and he's been on a roll ever since. In this Sketch Series installment, we delve into the organized chaos behind Parker's work.How did you first get into sketching/drawing?I have always liked drawing and actively sketched throughout most of my youth. I was lucky in that my parents took me to a lot of art museums growing up, so I learned to love the visual arts and explore them in my free time.It was not until college, however, that I really hit my stride and started to gain knowledge of form, composition, and technique. The transformation did not come easily. Having your drawings and ideas slammed during critiques pushes you to try to be more clear and fluid in form and style, not to mention learning the technique for industrial design drawing of Vizcomm (visual communication), which took a while to grasp.Today I still keep sketchbooks around and continue to further my skills in drawing and idea generation. Right now I have three in rotation: one for work and notes, another for product design ideas, and a personal one where I draw the most freely.Tell us about your drawings.Most of these drawings are some of my favorites from past projects. The bicycle-related drawings explore the functionality of bicycles and bicycle accessories for a startup project I worked on in conjunction with the [Gerald D. Hines] College of Architecture and the [C.T. Bauer] College of Business at the University of Houston, my alma mater. The living chandelier and oxygen-generating devices are studies from my thesis exploring different implementations of living media to combat indoor air pollution. The space craft design drawings are some human factor studies I did on the Mars Ascension Vehicle at NASA in conjunction with Lockheed Martin, studying flight seats and sleep hardware.They are quite different in their scope of product, but I wanted to show more fleshed-out drawings rather than the visual madness which constitutes most of my sketches.What do you sketch when you’re not at work?Nine times out of ten, it’s something from work that I just didn’t feel I got right. Usually through this sketch exercise, my perfectionism begins to lose its edge and the drawings descend into chaos. It’s in the chaos that I either find clarity or just begin to draw forms.Occasionally I’ll practice drawing people or landscapes, but usually they are very abstracted or quick expressions of a moment.What was the last thing that inspired you?Recently, I had the chance to see the David Hockney retrospective at The Centre Pompidou in Paris, and was truly inspired by the breadth and quality of his work. Not only was his style fluid and emotional, it also managed to retain a quality of simplicity and optimism. I read a quote by him on one of the signs that described how he wanted to master as many painting techniques/styles as he could, so that his work would not be typecast by art critics but instead retain a timeless quality. I think that is an admirable goal.What are your favorite tools?I actually really prefer to draw on loose leaf paper. 80-lb Hammermill paper is my standard. It handles Copic markers really well and does not wear out fine-tipped pens nearly as quickly as other types of paper. If I am going to use a sketch book, I have come to prefer the MUJI Size A6 Notebook, since it fits in my back pocket but still has enough structure.For drawing utensils, I love Marvy LePens, the MUJI 0.5mm black ballpoint, Pilot Fineliners, and Faber-Castell pencils. When do you find the time?I do some sketching at work on a daily basis, but it’s rough - almost like a data dump, spilling out shapes, notes, and thumbnail ideas. I suppose the really tight and clean drawings I do are at home on the weekends when everything is a bit quieter and I can focus on the minutiae. I like when the drawing experience transcends into being a meditative experience.

UncategorizedSeptember 18, 2017Art, Corporate Culture, Culture, Employees, Rottet Studio, Sketch Series

Meet Our Interns: Summer 2017

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to work at Rottet Studio as an intern? In our first ever blog feature, we give you a glimpse into the lives of our Houston, LA, and New York interns! Hailing from all across the globe, our interns are as diverse as the projects they’ve worked on this summer. We discussed with them their expectations, career goals, and their favorite part of their internships.Jayati is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Interior Design from Parsons, The New School and will graduate in May 2018. She completed her undergraduate studies in Interior Architecture & Design in New Delhi, India.When Jayati is not working, she enjoys photography and travelling. She also loves puns and word play, although, in her words, she "tends to lose always while playing Scrabble."What are your long-term career goals? How has your internship at Rottet Studio shaped or informed these goals?After completing my Master’s [in Interior Design from Parsons], I plan to learn more about Retail, Hospitality and Installation Design. My internship at Rottet has helped me gain real-world experience outside of the typical boundaries in a classroom. It has also helped me network and has given me specific insight into Hospitality Design projects.What did you work on this summer? What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?I worked on several projects - a private residence and a few hospitality projects.For the residential project, I assisted with the Media Room, worked on construction drawings for the bathroom spaces and made design concept presentations for client meetings. This allowed me to get hands on experience, as I was dealing directly with furniture companies in the city and incorporating their products into my design. Additionally, I learned about the different material palettes used in residences.For a hotel project in the Caribbean, I worked on planning a space for the restaurant, which was very exciting as it ties directly into my career interests. I also helped others by procuring their materials for the design concept board and the material board, which helped me understand how an integrated story is put together piece by piece. Creating a material board really helps in visualizing a space, which was particularly helpful for this themed resort that faces the sea.Eric has a liberal arts background as a graduate of Brandeis University with a double major in psychology and architectural history. Currently, he is pursuing his Master’s in Architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).Merging an interest in travel with his pursuit of higher education, Eric drove from Boston to Los Angeles to attend UCLA. "The trip took me 14 days, and across 14 states,” he says. “I stayed in Chicago for 4 days, and enjoyed visiting Farnsworth House by Mies. Starting from Chicago and ending at Santa Monica, I followed and completed the full length of the historical Route 66. This adventure marked my total visit of 26 states in America."How did you approach architecture and design prior to your internship at Rottet Studio?My multi-disciplinary background has instilled in me the belief that architecture should be grounded in human experience. This perspective of architecture draws on my additional interests in psychology and the social sciences as essential instruments of a building’s composition. While psychology and social studies examine the human experience from micro- and macro- perspectives that give insight into the human mind, emotions, and behavior, architecture serves as an effective means to implement these understandings through space.As part of my thesis on social media and its impact on architecture, I was able to conduct case studies, field visits and interviews in the headquarter offices of Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. My research examines social media’s influence on interpersonal behavior and our notions of space. Through an analysis of social media companies’ headquarters, the project investigates how architecture responds to pervasive social networking systems, exploring issues of transparency, decentralization, and fluidity.What did you work on this summer? What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?Although I only started four weeks ago, I have assisted with many projects in the LA office, including the design and modeling of the Viking Cruise Shanghai Experience Center, construction documents for office renovations and reconfigurations, rendering a showroom in Hawaii, and drawing company standards for door hinges. I would say that I enjoyed all of the projects equally, because each one deals with a different aspect of the design process. The mix of experience from schematic design, visual presentation, and finish selections, to the detail and construction drawings is really exciting and fulfilling for an internship.What were your expectations at the beginning of the summer? Did your internship meet your expectations?I have really enjoyed my experience working at Rottet, which has provided quite a different learning environment from the architectural training at UCLA. The interior design projects focused heavily on creating not only spatial character, but atmosphere, as well. How to make a space “feel” comfortable, welcoming, and elegant is a design problem that I had not previously encountered in my architectural education. Setting the atmosphere entails furniture and material selection, pattern selection, and setting up scenes and focal views. I believe these experiences, which I do not often have the chance to practice in architecture school, will advance my understanding of human-experience-focused architecture.Isabelle went to Texas A&M University where she studied Environmental Design. She is returning to Texas A&M this fall for her Master’s in Architecture. Though Isabelle remains unsure of what her plans are after graduate school, she is excited to continue her education in Architecture.How has your internship at Rottet Studio shaped or informed your goals?So far, my internship at Rottet has helped confirm that I would like to work with hospitality projects. This internship has also established a personal appreciation of and fascination with the area where architecture and interiors meet.What have you worked on this summer so far? This summer I have been helping Amber [Lewis, Associate in RS Houston] with 555 Howard, a residential project in San Francisco, and working on choosing furniture and pricing for the River Oaks Condos in Houston. I have also helped Zina [Sharif, Librarian] organize and clean up in the library and done some walk-throughs of Hotel Alessandra with Anja [Majkic, Associate Principal].What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?I have a few favorite parts of this summer. I have loved working with Amber and Zina, I enjoy the happy hours when the office gets to socialize a little, and it’s always fun when Bernardo and Anja make jokes.Quina attended Stanford University and graduated with the Class of 2017. She has a B.S. in Engineering, with a concentration in Architectural Design and a minor in Human Biology. Her path to architecture was unconventional, to say the least: "When I went to college I was planning to get a PhD in Plasma Physics and work as a physicist developing nuclear fusion as a source of sustainable, safe, and efficient energy."However, her interest in design and the arts hails back to her days in high school, when "...I made countless fashions (dresses, tops, pants, accessories) out of 100% recycled and found objects to promote environmental awareness and action." Quina is also an artist and plans to study classical painting techniques at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy in the future. From painting to physics, Quina plans to channel her diverse talents into a career in architecture and design.What are your long term career goals?In the future I hope to be an architect, artist, and designer! I am still conflicted on exactly what I enjoy and do not enjoy. Currently, I can picture myself working in a combined field of architecture, furniture design, jewelry design, and fashion design. Moving to LA and exploring the fashion district has definitely gotten me fired up about fashion design, which is something I sort of abandoned a few years ago.What have you worked on this summer so far?So far I’ve worked on a number of projects, mostly in hospitality. I’ve worked predominantly in AutoCAD. My favorite aspect of working at Rottet has been being surrounded by individuals who are so passionate about what they do. It is amazing and an inspiration to see people working so hard to ensure their visions turn into a beautiful space for others to inhabit and enjoy.Loren is currently completing her undergraduate studies at Syracuse University. She was born in Israel and moved to America at the age of 4 -- she still goes back to visit every year. She loves animals and her favorite animal is, in fact, a penguin. Loren plans to apply her Psychology major to pursue a career in Real Estate, specifically the marketing and/or design side of it. She also aspires to utilize her bilingual skills in the future to form relationships between the New York and Israeli Real Estate markets.Loren considers Psychology to be a key determinant in her career path:"I believe pursuing a major in Psychology was extremely beneficial, as I was able to attain knowledge on the human brain and truly comprehend exactly how we as individuals function. This has assisted me in forming interpersonal skills and understanding exactly how to market to the consumer."What did you work on this summer? What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?I worked on assisting the Marketing team with numerous tasks such as award submissions, social media outlets, and updating the press database. Additionally, I worked on blog posts for rottetTALK. My favorite part of my internship was working on the blog, as I was able to gain insight on the employees and the projects of Rottet Studio. I was able to go in-depth with the Project Evolution series and understand exactly how a project went from an idea on paper to a finished development. Furthermore, I was able to converse with the designers behind the project and learn about what inspires them.What are your long-term career goals? How has your internship at Rottet Studio shaped or informed these goals?Prior to working at Rottet Studio, I was aware of my fascination with interior design, but I was unsure exactly how I wanted to incorporate it into my career. This internship has provided me with great insight and knowledge of the industry and has validated my aspiration of working in Real Estate, particularly on the marketing side. Furthermore, working at Rottet Studio allowed me to advance my business development and interpersonal skills, which I hope to utilize in my future career.Jessica Wang is currently obtaining a Master’s in Architecture at UCLA. She previously completed her undergraduate studies in Tongji University in civil engineering. Her extensive portfolio truly exemplifies how she applies her passions in art, music, and mechanics to architecture and design. In addition to writing screenplays, Jessica’s notable schoolwork includes devising a habitable space for people to live underwater in response to the threat that rising sea levels pose to coastal communities, as well as manufacturing the VULCAN Pavilion, a temporary structure inspired by the spatial forms of silkworm cocoons, which exhibited during Beijing Design Week and was awarded the Guinness World Record for the Largest 3D Printed Structure in 2015. Through the VULCAN project, which Jessica took part in through the Laboratory for Creative Design (LCD), she learned digital design and fabrication methodologies.What are your long-term career goals? How has your internship at Rottet Studio shaped or informed these goals?Architecture school emphasizes training students about value judgment, which enables us to tell “big stories” from a “big perspective." However, Rottet Studio has taught me how to express these humanistic ideals on a form and tectonics level.I hope, with experience, to be a main designer with the knowledge to discuss and execute my ideas in detail.What did you work on this summer? What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?I've worked on presentations, such as the Viking Branding Book, material selection for the 8th and Figueroa project, and construction documentation for Dual Max and the UTA London project.I love the presentation part most. Doing construction documentation makes me feel like I live in a world of black and white. When preparing presentations, I have the chance to participate in schematic design, meet and communicate with people, familiarize myself with different materials and brands, and make watercolor plans and rendering elevations. Here, I have the opportunity to draw a colorful world for myself.

UncategorizedAugust 7, 2017Intern Series, Rottet Studio Culture, Summer of Rottet

Project Evolution: Renaissance Atlanta Airport Gateway Hotel

Welcome to the first installation in our Project Evolutionseries, where we take you behind the scenes of a project's development from concept to completion. Recently, we helped to open the Renaissance Atlanta Airport Gateway Hotel, as covered in Boutique Design and Curbed Atlanta. We spoke with our New York-based design team to learn more about the inspiration and process behind this groundbreaking new hotel.The development of the Renaissance Atlanta Airport Gateway Hotel by Marriott was inspired by the idea of creating a new experience for the business traveler filled with modern luxury comforts and amenities. The development of this property was grounded on rebranding, expanding, and redefining the typical airport hotel, which is conveniently connected via SkyTrain to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Rottet Studio was tasked with creating an elevated and inspiring experience for travelers seeking an escape while maintaining comfort and style. Our designers aimed to incorporate inspiration by the local life, culture, and energy of Atlanta.The design aesthetics throughout the hotel follow a raw, industrial, and natural theme, relayed through honest materials such as exposed concrete and raw and unpolished steel.The LobbyTo emphasize the moment of arrival, guests enter through revolving doors to a large, open lobby. A long, linear table functions as both the reception desk and "discovery table" and offers a site for communal gathering, where guests can check themselves in on iPads and also meet and collaborate with other people. Overhead, a custom light fixture resembling water dripping from moss infuses the lobby with greenery, while swanky chair swings echo porch swings prevalent in the South. An original abstract mural, which is one of eleven in the hotel, displays a world map depicting the concept of Atlanta as a world community and business hub. The lobby is intended to be a big living room with no boundaries, a calming yet convivial environment in the hectic world of travel.The public areas of the hotel each offer a unique point of view that reinforce different parts of a traveler's journey-departure, arrival, homecoming.The Bar and RestaurantHickory & Hazel, the bar and restaurant in the hotel, is unpolished and low-key with a special personality. The bar was designed to be intentionally imperfect, lik e a local favorite neighborhood hangout, with raw concrete ceilings and brick walls contrasted with polished wood.Meeting Rooms

The meeting rooms span over 6,290 square feet and are named after the commonly used Aviation (Military) alphabet, promoting the idea of travel throughout. A long felt runner with inspirational text in French runs from the wall and continues onto the ceiling, a nod to the notion of global cultures and languages convening in Atlanta.

RestroomsThe public restrooms feature the various seasons, inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia, where each door leads you to a different season in a new world.GuestroomsThe guestroom corridors offer natural light and views of lush greenery via large windows on either end and help connect guests with the outdoors rather than feeling trapped in a hallway. Each corridor features two millwork niches for local art installations so that when the elevator doors open, guests see something different on each floor. Tally marks, fashioned by a local artist using wooden sticks, denote the floor numbers while each door displays a question mark on it, inclining the guest to wonder what lies within.The 204 guestrooms, which include eight suites, represent a mixture of typical Atlanta fashion and modern design; they are salon-styled but also feature residential furniture.In the frosted glass shower, a mirror reflects the outside view and also expands the space, while a custom wall mural by Ryan Coleman finds an unexpected home behind the toilet. Each junior suite displays custom hand drawn murals by local artists, providing a human element to the whole experience.We heard from the designers themselves about what they consider to be the differentiating factor in this hotel. Both point to the use of local artists in creating this unique experience."The most unique part of this property is the number of custom murals painted throughout by young local artists, ranging from the large scale murals in the public spaces, often painted on brick walls, to the smaller murals in the suites," said James Cull, a senior associate in the Rottet Studio New York office. "The fact that each suite has an original mural is impressive—no two are the same! To have all of that custom artwork hand-painted on site, especially in guestrooms, provides a rich and varied experience for visitors, and especially to repeat guests!""The most unique part is the art for sure, but the most important and special thing is to bring the energy and surprise to all the guests," said Ashley Liu, a designer in the Rottet Studio New York office. "From artworks, details to the quotes on every floor, we created little surprises here and there, and hope to bring an unforgettable experience to guests."

UncategorizedJuly 5, 2017Hospitality Design, Project Evolution Series

Sketch Series: Harout Dedeyan

With a background in architecture, it is easy to understand Associate Principal Harout Dedeyan's fascination with the built environment. Even when he is not working, the Los Angeles-based employee enjoys mixing business with pleasure - that is, incorporating architecture into his illuminating photography. For this Sketch Series we asked Harout to show us what life looks like through a short-shift lens.Tell us about your photographs.The photos you see here are part of a series called Art on Architecture, something I started two years ago. I shoot buildings that are used as canvasses, or I use them as backdrops to public art. Sometimes the architecture gets left out and I just shoot the art, other times the reverse. I then print them on archival paper, create handmade postcards and send them to people dear to me, with whom I want to stay in touch.I love this old fashioned exercise in an age of electrons traveling at the speed of light. I don’t want anyone to ‘follow’ me or ‘like’ my pictures. Sometimes it’s very soothing to slow down and go back in time.I also enlarge and frame the pictures, hoping one day to have the opportunity to show them.How did you first get into photography?On my 12th birthday, my aunt Elizabeth gave me a Kodak Instamatic. After the first roll of black and white film I was hooked. Throughout the years the Instamatic morphed into an SLR, medium format, 4x5… What followed were classes in architectural and product photography and a small side business shooting architectural models. My trick was getting very close and using a short shift-lens giving the model a very realistic look at eye level instead of the bird’s eye views prevalent at the time. Eventually architecture became a career, photography turning into a hobby.What are some of the subjects that you’re interested in photographing?I’m mostly interested in photographing the built environment. I like responding to places, looking at marks and traces, making the over-looked noticed, acknowledged through my photographs.What was the last thing that inspired you?I once saw an exhibition by Robert Holgren called Toy Camera Works. A successful commercial photographer puts his expensive gear and gizmos aside and uses a toy camera for his personal work. It was inspiring, and very appealing.

UncategorizedJune 15, 2017Art, Corporate Culture, Culture, Employees, Rottet Studio, Sketch Series

Sketch Series: Ruthie Chen

Logo brainstorm for a friend's medical company - Communiclear was a working name

"The Kiss" (1880-1881), Auguste Rodin at the Baltimore Museum of Art

"Bather Fixing Her Hair" (1930), Aristide Maillol at the Baltimore Museum of Art

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Ruthie Chen has a notebook for each side of her brain - one for meticulous note-taking and list-making, and one for more free-form journaling and sketching. "I go back and forth between using design as a mode of expression and communication, which are two different things," Ruthie says. "All design, art, and writing contains aspects of both, but you should always ask who your audience is - the answer should rarely be 'myself.'" In this Sketch Series installment, we asked the Houston-based Marketing Assistant how she strikes a balance between the two. How did you first get into sketching/drawing?I used to hoard notebooks, scribbling or writing in the first few pages before tossing one aside for another – my childhood room is still littered with them. I started journaling regularly right before middle school, but I didn’t start keeping a sketchbook until my high school art classes required one.These days, I have two notebooks – a daily planner for work that I use to keep track of to-do lists, appointments, and meetings, and a personal sketchbook. I find that I go through spurts with my sketchbooks. I’m so used to recording visual information with my phone first that capturing a moment on paper seems almost counter intuitive at times, even if the process of doing so is ultimately the most authentic way to commit something to memory. To be honest, sketchbooks feel intimidating to me; I’m precious to a fault about what goes on the page and tend to overthink things. As a result, my sketches often lack a certain spontaneity and freshness, something I am slowly trying to overcome.Tell us about your drawings.Many of the pages in my sketchbook are a combination of words and visuals, which I think reflects how my brain works. Mostly, they’re a reflection of what’s around or in front of me at the time. I’m still in the imitative stages of capturing things visually – meaning, I can copy from a photograph or draw from life, but I can’t conjure images from my mind without a concrete visual reference. For instance, I tend to record my dreams verbally because I find that, vivid as they are, visuals don’t quite do them justice.What do you sketch when you’re not at work?Scenes from travel or day to day life, hand-lettering and typography, and figure drawings. I like to take a sketchbook with me when I travel – it forces me to take the time to document new sights and sounds that I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed.In terms of hand-lettering, I follow a lot of typography and design accounts on Instagram which are endless sources of inspiration. I’ve recently been interested in monogram logos – in the way the same letterforms can be manipulated over and over again to create vastly different effects, almost like a mini optical illusion. There’s so much you can do with the negative space between forms or the perspective to make something clever and visually arresting.I’ve always loved drawing the human figure – during my first figure-drawing exercise in high school, my teacher instructed us not to take our eyes off of the model or our pens off of the paper. It was a true lesson in abstracting forms and learning to draw what you really see, not what you think you see. The female form, in particular, is interesting to capture because it carries so much historical and cultural weight - the body is both personal and political.What was the last thing that inspired you?A close friend lent me a copy of Private Citizens by Tony Tulathimutte. The novel follows four twentysomethings in millennial San Francisco as they navigate their careers and relationships. The writer's observations are so sharp and darkly witty - one in particular stood out to me: "Cities that tolerate everything tolerate mediocrity."What are your favorite tools?For taking notes and drawing, I love MUJI Gel-Ink Ballpoint Pens in 0.38mm or 0.5mm. I have them in every color. I am a meticulous note-taker, probably some sort of deeply ingrained habit from school, and the MUJI pens allow me to write quickly with minimal resistance. When I need to use pencil, I’ve actually grown really fond of the Paper Mate Sharpwriter Mechanical Pencils that we stock in the office. My current sketchbook is a classic hard cover Moleskine with blank pages, but I prefer the soft cover with dotted grid pages. Once in a blue moon, when I’m feeling ambitious, I like drawing with charcoal and conte crayon. When do you find the time?Ha - I don't. I try to wake up a few hours early at least once a week to sketch or write - my ideas are the most fresh in the morning.

UncategorizedMarch 21, 2017Art, Corporate Culture, Culture, Employees, Rottet Studio, Sketch Series

Sketch Series: Ashley Liu

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Ashley Liu's doodles are as vibrant and playful as the designer herself. The New York-based employee has sketches dating back to her design school days, though she typically approaches drawing with a fun and whimsical approach. From conference calls to the streets of South America, Ashley spoke with us about the role that her doodles play in not taking herself too seriously.How did you first get into sketching/drawing? I started to sketch when applying to design school. I actually don't keep a regular sketchbook. I usually grab any available papers or even napkins when I want to draw.Tell us about your drawings. I made these stair railing sketches and 3D detail studies for a current hotel project in San Francisco, California. We presented different options to the client based on my design:Here are a few doodles from a super long conference call with all consultants:This bathroom design was for a school project, designed for a Christian Louboutin store, with high heels displayed on the walls: When I was studying at the New York School of Interior Design, I took an accessories class at the Fashion Institute of Technology where we designed handbags, chairs with different "hairstyles," and other fun iterations of furniture design:What do you sketch when you’re not at work?Anything - anything that comes into my mind! I sometimes draw food when I’m in a restaurant, and buildings and street views when I’m traveling. In my last trip to Cartagena, Columbia, I sat in a cute restaurant, ordered a cup of coffee, and asked for milk for my coffee. The waitress didn’t understand English and I don’t speak Spanish, so she kept giving me sugar, spoons, all kinds of stuff, but not milk! So I ended up grabbing a piece of napkin and drew on it, and then she smiled, and gave me milk. I think she ended up keeping my drawing.What are your favorite tools?A black pen – it looks more professional and cool!What was the last thing that inspired you?The Tree Hotel (The 7th room).

UncategorizedMarch 16, 2017Corporate Culture, Culture, Employees, Rottet Studio, Sketch Series

Sketch Series: Mark Borkowski

Stone Shop Drawings for the Presidential Bungalows at the Beverly Hills Hotel

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Welcome to our "Sketch Series," a periodic peek into the notebooks and minds of Rottet Studio designers. Through their notes, doodles, and working sketches, we hope you get a glimpse of the design process behind some of our award-winning projects - and the tools we grab when inspiration strikes. In this installation, we hear from Mark Borkowski, AIA, LEED AP, a Los Angeles-based senior designer, about how his sketches take different forms depending on the function they serve.Tell us about your drawings. When I heard about this segment my first thought was, “I’ve got this covered, easy.” But as I started looking through my sketchbooks, I wasn’t finding any good sketches, just lots of notes and basic brutish sketches that help me work out how to detail something. Not much to write home about. Needless to say, I was a bit baffled. I knew I had done several decent looking sketches and yet I wasn’t finding any of them, at least not in any of my sketchbooks. So I went back to work and let it go for a bit. Later in the week, when I was showing someone in the office a detail from another project in one of my half size sets, it finally dawned on me that all my really good sketches are littered throughout my half-sized field sets and Construction Administration responses to things like submittals and RFIs. It is only when I needed to communicate a design or detail idea to someone out in the field that I was doing some of my best sketch work.The sketches included cover a full range: pages from my day-to-day sketchbook, scans from submittal responses, scans of pages from my half-sized field sets. The submittal responses have the most polished sketches based on time and the need to communicate design intent. The sketches from the half-sized sets are a bit rougher, with a certain immediacy to them that comes from sketching something while standing around a group of subconsultants trying to describe the finer points of our design (or sorting out a ‘Plan B’ based on field conditions). Finally, the sketches in my sketchbook are a loose kind of shorthand with very little organization or polish - I know what it is supposed to represent, so there’s not as much need to dress it up.How did you first get into sketching and drawing?It goes all the way back to grade school/high school, when I would doodle regularly in my subject notebooks for each class. Little vignettes and sketchy marginalia are littered throughout the pages, sharing space with the inventor of the cotton gin, Avogadro’s number and quadratic equations. In college, one of the things the architecture program impressed on us fairly early on was the need to keep a design sketchbook, so I started to keep a ‘formal’ sketchbook for my design classes. Meantime, the trend of sketching in my class notebooks continued, just with a bit more of an architectural bent. As for my current sketchbook, I would characterize it as a junk drawer for my notes, rough calculations, square footages, furniture piece names, fabric names, meeting notes and yes, the occasional sketch.What do you sketch when you’re not at work?Usually work-related things. When there is a particularly challenging detail I am trying to work out, I will think about it as I am going about my business at home. If something comes to me, I will sketch it out on whatever is handy: backs of envelopes, business cards or newspaper articles. It does not have to be a pristine surface, just a space to allow me to hammer out some of the thoughts I have at the time that I need to get down before they slip away. It gives me a chance to test my idea and decide whether it will work or not, as well as refine it to a point where I can formally draft it up.What are your favorite tools?The Bee Paper, Super Deluxe 9in. x 6in., 93lb 150gsm 60 sheet notebook. It has a sticker on it that says, “The Only Sketch Book You Will Ever Need” (underline theirs) which I find to be a humorous statement. Yeah, it is the only sketch book you will ever need… until you run out of pages and have to buy another Bee Paper Super Deluxe sketchbook!I like this sketchbook for the heavy weight paper that allows me to write/draw on both sides of the sheet without much in the way of bleed through. I also like it because it is spiral bound and can be folded over to one sheet, which takes up less space on the desk and gives you a nice flat surface to work on. As for drawing utensils, I generally stick to the Precise V5 rolling ball ink pens. I tend toward pen/ink sketches and only venture into pencil when I feel like getting softer transitions and gradients, as well as graphite all over everything. It can get quite messy for me, which is why I gravitate towards ink pens for most of my sketch work.Are there certain techniques, themes, subjects or explorations that you tend to focus on?For some reason, stairs show up in a lot of my sketches - that and volumetric studies, when I am trying to figure out the three-dimensional footprint of something based on reviewing a bunch of two dimensional references. The other things that seem to show up a lot are enlarged details, relating how things fit together. These tend to be wall, ceiling, or door elements which usually find their way into a detail at some point down the road.What was the last thing that inspired you?I don’t know if it was inspiring as much as it was thought provoking. There is a blog I follow and in one of the posts, the artist was trying to recreate/reinterpret a drawing done by another artist from several years prior, which was seen as something of a masterpiece in the realm of illustration. After a few attempts, the artist was still having trouble reproducing the essence of the original with the reinterpreted subject matter. To try and figure it out, he enlisted the help of the readers, showing the original along with all the attempts to rework it, and asked them to weigh in on the matter. For some reason, I got completely sucked in. What was it about the first illustration that resisted reinterpretation? And what moves or modifications could the artist possibly make to get close to the flavor of the original? What does that say about emulating the work of others and that work’s ability to or resistance of being copied? There is value in trying to copy something, for sure, but it comes more from the analysis of what makes the copy turn out good, bad, or mediocre when compared to the original. In a way, it forced me to think more in terms of criticism than in execution or technique.

UncategorizedMarch 14, 2017Corporate Culture, Culture, Employees, Rottet Studio, Sketch Series

Sketch Series: Ana Maria Nater

The American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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Ana Maria Nater spends her evenings doing rapidfire sketches using salvaged materials - chopsticks and ink, a discarded newspaper clipping - as part of a drawing class. We asked Ana Maria, a designer in our New York studio, what inspired her to start drawing again and how taking pen to paper has made her a better designer.Tell us about your drawings.These are some sketches I’ve done so far in a class I am currently taking at Parsons School of Design. Right now, we are just doing very rapid sketches of objects - literally in seconds - as we need to learn how to abstract what we are seeing (chair, stool, umbrella, etc.). We are also learning how to use different drawing tools. For example, some of my sketches were drawn using chopsticks and ink in whatever material I could find laying around the room. We've recently started to sketch some interior spaces (Metropolitan Museum and Chelsea Market), and then we will start to learn how to render them.I am taking this class because I’ve always been a big fan of free-hand drawings and after seeing the Valencia Texican Court sketches [by Maksim Koloskov], something sparked inside me and motivated me to take a class! I think that sketching is such a useful tool for designers to communicate their ideas. Even a scribble can become a great design later on.How did you first get into sketching/drawing?I’d say ever since I was in elementary school, I've enjoyed painting and drawing. Every summer as a child, I was enrolled in the art camp that the Museo de Arte de Ponce (in Puerto Rico) offered. I have a travel sketchbook that I sketch in from time to time, but I have to admit haven’t used it in a while. I used to take it everywhere I traveled and tried to sketch something that caught my eye in every place I went.What do you sketch when you’re not at work? I really like going to public spaces to sketch, whether they are of interior spaces or exterior ones. I enjoy sketching buildings because I think that even if the building does not physically change, the light, the people, and the weather make for a different experience each time, which I try to capture in the drawing.What was the last thing that inspired you?Art Basel Miami 2016.What are your favorite tools?I like to sketch with Pigma MICRON pens and when I have the time and space, I like to get a little creative and just use a chopstick and black ink. I really like for the lines not to be perfect, and the chopstick/ink combination gives you different line weights with just a stroke.When do you find the time?I haven’t lately, which is why I enrolled again in a night class to try to force myself into doing something I like and truly enjoy. I hope that after this class it becomes a habit.

UncategorizedMarch 9, 2017Corporate Culture, Culture, Employees, Rottet Studio, Sketch Series

Sketch Series: Maksim Koloskov

Hard line pencil drawing of the Hotel Valencia Riverwalk

Watercolor rendering of Hotel Valencia Riverwalk

Final watercolor and line rendering of the Hotel Valencia Riverwalk

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UncategorizedMarch 7, 2017Corporate Culture, Culture, Employees, Rottet Studio, Sketch Series

Houston Business Journal Features Lauren Rottet

Founding Principal Lauren Rottet in the Presidential Suite at The Surrey Hotel.

Houston interior designer diversifies, gets projects ‘we never even dreamed’ of doing

Lauren Rottet has been through down cycles before.

The founder of Houston-based Rottet Studio, an international interior design firm, has worked through her fair share of economic slumps around the nation. Her namesake firm, which she founded in 2008 on a bedrock of corporate interiors experience, has since diversified heavily into hospitality, residential work — and cruise ships. Rottet Studio led the design of nearly 50 ships for Viking Cruises, a luxury and destination-focused cruise line.

“I don’t wake up going, ‘Oh my gosh, what are we going to do in 2017?’” she said.

The Rottet name carries a lot of weight in the interior design community and has cultivated a highly respected reputation around the world. She has worked on notable Houston-area projects such as BMC Software Inc.’s Houston headquarters, and Midway Cos.’s Hotel Alessandra, which is underway in downtown Houston. Globally, Rottet Studio has worked on the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City, residential towers in Hong Kong and Target Corp.’s (NYSE: TGT) marketing and public relations offices in New York City.

Prior to starting her own firm, Rottet co-founded Keating Mann Jernigan Rottet in 1990 in Los Angeles. Four years later, the firm was acquired by Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall. Rottet stayed on for 14 years as director of the interior design studio at DMJM Rottet.

You founded your own firm, Rottet Studio, in one of the biggest cities in the nation. How was that first year?

I had done it once before in a bad economy. In Los Angeles, we had grown Keating Mann Jernigan Rottet to a firm of 60 or 70 people. But I knew I needed to strategize. We started expanding in hospitality. Hotels do renovations every five to eight years. We figured it was a good time to get into hospitality because they’d be renovating because their bookings would be down. So, we did a lot of renovations — offices and hotels and private residences of people who wanted to take advantage of low construction costs. It was a good thing. It introduced us to new markets we weren’t in.

Tell me about how you got involved with the Viking Cruise ships.

That also happened when the economy was still down. Viking wanted new talent and was exploring its options. They didn’t want a ship designer. They didn’t care whether they have ship experience. Strangely enough, I had renovated a friend’s huge, private yacht and I put together a ship brochure, kind of for fun. So, when this call came into my Los Angeles office, it all came together. We ended up getting that client, and we’ve done 43 of Viking’s river boats and three of their ocean ships.

You’ve paved the way for so many women in business. What’s one thing you wish people knew about that journey?

It’s more about who you are and what you do. I don’t think it matters whether you’re male, female, black, white, Chinese, old, young — in my industry, it’s about having a design brain. When a design brain meets another creative person, that’s all they see. I had a partnership with four men and my eyes were opened. I didn’t experience discrimination so much as I realized we think differently. Sometimes, I feel like men want to pass the ball around and take their time, while I just want to get to the point.

In the design world, gender dynamics become very tricky when you’re trying to have a family. A lot of women didn’t have children, and that’s really sad, because they couldn’t figure out how to work the hours. Now, I’m seeing that the guys in the office are just as involved in the family as the women are. It’s a much more even distribution of help.

What’s on the horizon for 2017 for Rottet Studio?

Office users, in general, are downsizing. I think most cities probably have a little too much office space right now. But someone has to fill it. I think interiors will still be good for the next few years. As a firm, we’re going to pursue more renovations. That’s always a good plan no matter where the economy is. We’re doing a lot more high-rise residential work. In some ways, 2017 will be more of the same. Fortunately, in other ways and based on the work we’ve done, people are calling us for projects that we never even dreamed we’d be up for doing.

What’s the best business lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?

I don’t know if there’s one lesson. In any kind of business, there’s a lot of politics and you can be tempted to not stand firm. Stick with your guns — as long as you’re educated on the work and you truly know you’re right. You’ve typically been successful because of your experience and your rationale. Don’t be persuaded by bad politics.

You founded Rottet Studio nearly a decade ago. Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

I wouldn’t have done this differently, but in the recession, I hung onto everybody. We didn’t let anyone go. I didn’t pay myself much and I could’ve saved a lot more money. That set us back a little. But now, we have the reputation of treating and keeping our employees like family in good times or bad times.

The only thing I would do a little differently is … I feel like I have finally grown up a little bit and have more reconnaissance in my decision-making. That happened because I have my own firm. Being the total bottom line, you realize there’s a lot of balls in the air and everyone is just as important as the next.

Your son, Kyle Rottet, serves as director of marketing at Rottet Studio. What have you learned about working with family?

I grew up with my father telling me to keep family and business separate. I thought that’s just what you’re supposed to do. But with Kyle, he just rose to the occasion. It’s really been a lot of fun. It’s really interesting how intuitive a family member can be. I don’t have to ever say, “Don’t put that in the proposal,” because he intuitively knows what I like and don’t like.

You’ve had a career that’s sent you traveling all over the world. How does Houston compare on a global scale?

When I left Houston at 17 to go to college, I was never going to come back. Houston was so boring, hot and miserable – why would I ever go back? I went off to San Francisco and Chicago, came back to Houston to get married, went back to Chicago, then Los Angeles and New York City. Family brought me back to Houston. Of course, I moved into the inner Loop, and I thought, "Oh, this isn’t so bad."

I used to hear from people, “Why on earth do you live in Houston?” I haven’t heard that comment in a year and a half. I used to hear it all the time. I know this city has put a lot into PR, but I think the reality is that people moved here and the culture is more diverse and the food is more diverse. The arts have always been amazing, but now you could go to a fun, social or cultural event every night of the week. When you start traveling as much as I do, I come home and I think, “I am really lucky.”

Text by Cara Smith. This interview has been edited for length and clarity and originally appeared on the Back Page of Houston Business Journal's 'Deals of the Year' issue in December 2016.

Corporate, Hospitality, Lauren Rottet, PressJanuary 26, 2017