{"id":258041,"date":"2026-01-29T18:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258041\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T18:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:27:13","slug":"a-rare-glimpse-inside-interior-designers-sketchbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258041\/","title":{"rendered":"A rare glimpse inside interior designers’ sketchbooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regardless of the type of book, it is clear the analogue approach \u2013 physical mark-making \u2013 is as vital a part of the creative process for these designers as it is for Philip Hooper, joint managing director at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler<\/a>. \u2018A sketch book is always by my side. When travelling, drawing what you see is the only way to make you focus and understand what you are looking at,\u2019 he says. \u2018A photograph just does not work in the same way. Studying how a building or interior goes together will only make sense when you start to analyse it as a three-dimensional object.\u2019<\/p>\n

For Andy Goodwin, co-founder and creative director of hospitality design specialists Fettle, who has recently worked on projects such as The July aparthotel in London<\/a>, paper and pen helps block out distractions: he often turns to his sketchbook \u2018to solve a problem.\u2019 \u2018Nothing can compete for your attention when it is just you, a pen and a blank piece of paper,\u2019 he says. Problem solving is also why Lauren Geremia, who founded Geremia Design after training as a painter, keeps a sketchbook. \u2018At work, I’ve got to juggle creativity with timelines and budget targets,\u2019 she says. \u2018Sketching is a release. At the end of a long call, I often find I’ve got a paintbrush or a pencil in my hand.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"andy<\/p>\n

Andy sees his sketchbooks and notebooks as a ground for problem solving<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Andy Goodwin<\/p>\n

While for some it is a form of meditation, for others, Phillip among them, keeping a sketchbook is an essential part of the design process. \u2018Sketching is the lifeblood of my designing,\u2019 he says. The drawings \u2013 especially those he makes while travelling<\/a>, which is where he gets so much of his inspiration \u2013 serve as the jumping off points for his work when gets back to London. \u2018On any project I will have pages and pages of notes and drawings all accumulated as I explore on paper, proportions, forms, details, elevations, and plans,\u2019 he says. He then separates the wheat from the chaff to create his final designs.<\/p>\n

\"philip<\/p>\n

Philip cites travel as his biggest inspiration and the sketches he makes while abroad often inspire his work<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Philip Hooper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Regardless of the type of book, it is clear the analogue approach \u2013 physical mark-making \u2013 is as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,38882,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-258041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-decoration","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}