Last week I picked up “Whatever you think, think the opposite” book from the library. I carried it with me everywhere, and flipped through before meetings, at coffee shops, at a dental office and at dinner.

I found it fascinating and really hitting home at this very moment in my life…personally and professionally. It is a coffee table book, an idea book, a short book, a big impact book. These few points stock with me the most and I hope they provide value for you, too.

“Whatever decision you made is the only one you could make. Otherwise, you would make a different one.”

I do not regret any decisions that I have made in the past. Sometimes I do wonder though, what would change, had I made a different call.

“Having too many ideas is not always a good thing. It’s too easy to move on to the next one, and the next one.”

I have also found myself having a lot of new and big-picture ideas recently, which (per the quote above) left me overwhelmed and feeling as if they were larger than me. One idea would have been enough, but when there are lots of them, the confusion is even larger.

“Churchill said that when you are at the top, you only have to think about policies. (…) Start your own company, then you can have control of your own destiny. It makes you number one from the start.”

I am the boss.  I am number one…at least in my business, which is not hard since it is only me. However, I want to become number one in a bigger-picture at some point. I want to become a game changer.

This book and recent events in my life have motivated me to focus, pick a direction and act in order reach the goal I set for myself and my business. And even though it may not be the easiest thing to do at first, and vouch to do my best, and keep at it.

I love to travel. As an interior interior with a passion for hospitality design, I make a point of seeing newly constructed and renovated projects to pick up new ideas, observe the trends and learn from other people’s mistakes. Not a big gambler myself, I still take an annual trip to the mecca of hospitality and entertainment, the good old Las Vegas, Nevada.

Few things have changed since my last visit to The Sin City. The M Resort and Casino opened in March 2009. Located 8.5 miles south of the Mandalay Bay, it is a very modern, theme-neutral $1 billion resort.

It has all the expected amenities from casino, cocktail lounge and bar, fine dining, spa and massage services to unique Hostile Grape Wine Cellar located in the lower level, high-end retail and even its own Pharmacy.

I enjoyed the  bold patterns and dramatic texture combinations. Very cleverly designed lobby and check-in area utilized reflective marble surfaces, calmly draped fabric at the ceiling and massive calla lily partitions to bring class and sophistication to the space.

December 2009 marked an opening of the 8.5 billion mega-development by MGM called the City Center.

It’s a city within a city, comprising of several hotels (Aria being the largest), luxury condominiums, an extensive designer shopping center, an art gallery and a plentiful of dining and entertainment spots.

Its slick and very minimalistic architecture style creates an unusual museum-like experience. Enhanced by numerous unconventional sculpture and fine art displays, the City Center is a must-see for all.

Last but not least, the hotel we stayed in was an unexpected surprise of downtown elegance. As a huge fan of the extravagant Las Vegas Boulevard (The Strip), I don’t normally venture into the original parts of Las Vegas, which is located in the heart of downtown. Nonetheless, this time we stayed at the new addition to the Golden Nugget. The recently constructed Rush Tower is a nice blend of contemporary style with a classic flair. An open lobby with a memorable fish tank behind the low profile and welcoming reception area, bold color scheme throughout accented with a trendy turquoise, all combined with golden-tone mosaic tiles and rich walnut-stained wood panels make for an overall successful addition to the original but still very prosperous and popular Golden Nugget.

The room size was decent, with a spacious double-vessel sink vanity, a large walk-in bathtub/shower and a separate water closet. I enjoyed seeing the wood-grain ceramic tile floors in the bathroom as well as the trendy silver-screen elongated rectangular tile bathtub surround.

But every project has some downfalls. Lack of electrical outlets near the bed or the sitting area made it a little difficult to keep favorite electronics at reach. No fan in the bathroom or the toilet room was an air quality overlook (I hope), and the double-bed headboard and a center night stand built-in as well as the TV and media unit on the opposite wall seemed overly excessive and too large for the space. Even my husband noticed the crammed art in the corner.

I could never get bored of Las Vegas. Besides the fun, great weather and 24h entertainment, it is my source of design inspiration. What’s yours?

My mother’s company (with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland) believes in a bonus-based motivation system, where each employee gets a number of special tasks assigned to them on quarterly basis. Successful completion of those tasks is directly related to a dollar amount payable at the end of each quarter. Her special tasks for this quarter consist of soft PR, marketing support to a product engineer and distribution departments, as well as professional training planing and coordination. Mind you, she is a Marketing Director, who already puts in 50-60 hour weeks, and is not afraid of a challenge.

One may say that being offered more money is a good thing. My mother’s reaction, on the other hand, was not as enthusiastic. She knows that this new motivation system will fail miserably. Why? Because she is being over-exploited and not appreciated already; she is not given the freedom to accomplish these tasks her way, and in the end, someone else will get the credit for it anyway.

What is wrong with this picture?

Daniel Pink explains this phenomenon in his new book “Drive”.

Most employers hold on to the idea that workers need to be “managed”. That is the old way of thinking.

“Motivation 2.0 assumed that if people had freedom, they would shrink – and that autonomy was a way to bypass accountability. Motivation 3.0 begins with a different assumption. It presumes that people want to be accountable — and that making sure they have control over their task, their time, their technique, and their team is a pathway to that destination.”

Daniel Pink argues a good point. The old fashion carrot-and-stick approach provides temporary results, if any. Money tends to mask the creativity and innovation, and instead, it generates more mundane and repetitive behavior. If you put passion (internal motivator) and money (external motivator) on a scale, passion wins hands down. It’s because it has the long-term power to challenge us, and keep pushing the boundaries. Money or any other external motivators act as candy: they provide a sugar/energy rush temporarily and leave us exhausted and asking for more shortly after.

As far as my mother’s case, I know she will do a great job as far as her daily responsibilities and her “super hero assignments” are concerned, but that’s just the kind of person she is. She thrives on a challenge and makes it a person goal to give her best. However, I know she could do so much more if she was given the autonomy she needs to perform her best. Freedom of task, time and technique is all it takes. Is that too much to ask?

Thank you

Thank you to all my family, friends and wonderful clients who believed in me and my design skills. I had a blast designing, writing, speaking, educating and mentoring. I look forward to many more fantastic years and great projects. With your support, anything is possible!

Celebration

I wouldn’t be ME, if I didn’t think of something extraordinary to make this day special for all. I give you a chance to WIN a limited collection Aga T-Shirt made by the awesome guys at Brew City Brand.

How to win a T-shirt

I love playing word games. English is not my native language. Maybe that’s why I like making up words, learning the meaning of words I have never heard before, and breaking sentences apart to understand their structure. My name, for example, is of Greek origin and means purity. But that’s not all. Have you noticed that my name is also associated with the very popular range and oven company? Or that this association and I share the same acronym? That’s where the idea for this competition came from….

Since Jan 21st is also my Name Day, it is only appropriate to have my name be the “subject of the game”.

I thought it would be fun to take my first name and make it into a designer-appropriate, grasping the essence of my profession and personality A.G.A. Acronym. Five best acronym authors will win a T-shirt! You can email your acronyms to contactme@agaartka.com or submit them in the comments section below. Submission deadline is Feb 5th, 2010. Get your dictionaries and creative hats out.

Let’s play a word game!

He has been talking about painting something unique and special for his working area, but his plans never finalized. Motivated by Mike Lin and his Be Loose workshop, I picked up a paint brush yesterday and voila…..Brian now has a two part art piece hanging on his office wall. These are acrylic on canvas, size 16″x20″.

I have received positive feedback from a few people. I may even consider commissioning some art if you like this Let’s talk…

I’ve always enjoyed the arts. I used to take a sketch pad and a box of pastels on family vacations and spend afternoons drawing my surroundings. I never really understood how to draw correctly, but through observation, I was able to recreate the reality of paper. My fascination with space, light and shadow, proportion and balance, as well as overall good design lead me to selecting interior design as my study major and receiving a degree in it. The problem was that we never really learned how to develop our design ideas through quick sketches and realistic renderings. We were lead to believe that a computer can replace the conceptual phase of design and even make it faster. As an independent designer and a business owner since Jan 2009, I have quickly come to a conclusion that having the ability to draw is golden. Seeing my ideas on paper before they are finalized in a computer software is a crucial part of my design process and should not be undervalued, no matter if you design gardens, interiors or buildings.

How I found out about the workshop

One of my favorite classes in college was Design Studio. It was a hands-on class meant to introduce students to the complex design process from programming, concept, presentation, design finalization, and specification. One of the very helpful books I purchased for this class was “Drawing and Designing with Confidence” by Mike Lin.

I did not know who he was back then. Last year I received an email from Mike Lin himself. It was an invitation to attend his workshop sent out to all ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) members, but I still took it personal and saved the message. I could not afford to leave my corporate job for two weeks, nor did I have the finances to pay for the workshop at that time. But after Nov 2008, when I was laid off, and shortly after decided to take charge of my life, I made it a goal of mine to one day meet Mike Lin in person and participate in his life changing workshop. When the same invitation went out to the ASID members last fall, I didn’t wait any longer and booked my trip immediately. It felt great. I was excited about this opportunity. And what an experience it was….

The workshop

I decided to take the two week (12days) workshop over the 2 days because I felt that it would be more productive and more beneficial. I’m glad I did that. Even though it may seem like a long time to be away from your routine life, it is nearly not enough to learn all the techniques and tricks that Mike has up his sleeves. The 12 days were heavily scheduled from 8:30 in the morning to almost midnight. We broke for 1h lunches and 2h diners every day, but we always felt hungry for more knowledge and kept pushing our limits. It took a full commitment to complete this workshop successfully but it was very much worth the effort.

Manhattan, Kansas

I’m sure you are wondering why Kansas? Manhattan used to be home for Mike Lin and his family. He taught at the University of Kansas for years before deciding to take the workshop on the road and move to a warmer climate of California. Because he owns a studio there, he continues to come back to Manhattan to teach the two-week workshop both in the summer and winter.

Proud of his surroundings, Mike took us on a scenic tour around Manhattan.

We also ventured out on our own in smaller groups, and discovered a very cute downtown area as well as the college neighborhood.

Pretest

We started the workshop with a pretest – a 12-part drawing test consisting of pencil, color pencil, pen and ink, marker and pastel techniques, bubble diagram, site plan, elevation, perspective, people, trees, hands and lettering. We had very little time to draw each section, but that wasn’t what caused us all to fail miserably. It was the inability to understand how to draw and how to use the various drawing media. Below you will find a few of the pretest examples. Pretty bad, isn’t it.

After about 10 days of intense training, we were instructed to redo the 12 drawings to show our improvement. Everyone did better….and when I say better, it’s a night and day difference. No doubt.

Perspective

The biggest problem with using a computer program to demonstrate your preliminary design ideas is the lack of spacial and detail thinking, that a hand-done perspective drawing otherwise requires. Computers make it very easy for us to manipulate spaces. I found that not being able to draw in perspective left me fully dependent of what a computer could do, and not what my mind could imagine.

Mike showed us how to approach a one-point and two-point perspective in a very easy to execute way. We were also taught birds-eye view, section/elevations plan views and other angles of an exterior and interior space.

Interior Elements and Materials

Mike took the time to show us what good design really means. He is a furniture and an art collector. In his house and studio, one can find classic furnishings by the famous Charles Eames, Marcel Breuer, LeCorbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe, Isamu Noguchi. We all had a chance to touch and feel many of his collectibles, which helped tremendously with drawing them and rendering in a realistic way. See for yourself:

It is important to point out that none of these drawings took more than an hour. Mike Lin teaches both designer graphics and professional illustration. My goal is to utilize the skills I just learned in creating quick but realistic drawings to convey my design solutions. Some people may choose to master their drawing skills to a point of creating photograph-quality illustrations. Illustrations take more time, skill and patience.

We also spent some time studying textures and patterns of various materials and hard to depict finishes. We learned how to render water, stone, brick and glass.

Other wisdom

Being able to draw is only half the success. Per Mike Lin, it all starts and ends with our attitude and positive thinking. We were encouraged to read both “The Secret” and “It’s not how good you are. It’s how good you want to be” to closer understand the power of our minds and the law of attraction. Mike would make it very clear that no drawing is a lost cause; you just keep working on it and if someone asks: “you are not done yet”. What a great way to approach it. We laughed every time we heard it, but it makes so much sense. Don’t ever give up. Look for a solution to a challenging situation, and you will always win.

The group

There were 27 students and 4 teacher assistants (TA aka tight ass) attending the January 2010 workshop. We all came from difference cities and even countries. It was definitely a small group compared to the recent years, but we still enjoyed it thoroughly. The studio can accommodate more than 100 students, but with a smaller group, we had more room to work, more time to practice, more attention from both the instructor and the assistants and were able to develop closer relationships with each other.

You may have noticed our workshop mascot (from the photo above). That’s Champ. The intense two weeks of learning would not be complete without this little munchkin-looking, fuzzy bundle of happiness. His actual size is slightly over-exaggerated in the group photo. In reality, he is very tiny and would fit in a palm of your hand.

The Instructor

I want to take this moment to give a shout out to Mike Lin, whom I mentioned a ton already but who deserves a great deal of appreciation for the energy, passion and effort he put into making our two week experience in Manhattan a blast. He is a great speaker, a passionate educator, a wise businessman , a loving husband (of his first wife , two grown children and grand children) and funny man….all in one. Don’t take me wrong. Mike will cut all the bullshit out of teaching and tell you how it is. His critique methods are plain and simple; he points out the bad and takes the time to explain ways to improve. Some people take it personally, but most turn his comments into motivators and move on.

Mike made sure everyone felt comfortable and welcomed. He would take the time to walk around and get to know his students. He would organize group dinners and social activities to give everyone an opportunity to relax and enjoy themselves.

Summary

Sounds incredible, doesn’t it. It was! In case you are still hesitating whether to take this course, listen to me carefully: The Be Loose Workshop is worth every minute and every penny you spend. It is a life changing experience which you will never regret. Whether you are a student, practicing professional or just a fan of good design, you will leave enlightened and bettered by the wisdom and skills taught by Mike Lin. You will make a ton of new friends and be exposed to a different life philosophy. Amongst other topics, Mike discusses the meaning of success, money and time. He changes your attitude towards both personal and professional life. He teaches you how to “Be Loose”.

As kids, we spend a lot of time drawing and coloring. We get easily absorbed in creating images with color pencils, markers, Crayons, chalk, acrylic paint, because it’s fun and it allows us to see the world differently.  In school however, we quickly discover that being artistic isn’t really all that great. Most kids choose to forgo their creative side in exchange for public acceptance and “normal” teenage-hood. It is much easier to control the “normal” than give freedom to the creative and let them develop on their own terms. Art programs are always the first to get sliced. Being artistic is generally not cool.

Then we grow up, decide on a career path, go through college and arrive at a conclusion that (it would be nice if could) but we still can’t draw. That is my story. That’s how I decided that I needed to take a step back and reconnect with my creative side. As an interior designer, I come up with a lot of ideas, concepts and design solutions that I would like to be able to jot down on a spot and develop later. I never had that ability, even after receiving my degree. I have tried self-education, sketching from nature, copying from numerous books but with poor results. Unfortunately, I always had a hard time understanding perspective, light, shade and shadow as well as seeing color in layers. More importantly, I never had the confidence or the patience to become a good drawer. Now I do.

Thanks to the intense but a very enlightening drawing workshop called “Be Loose” lead by Mike Lin, a nationally renown landscape architect, author and educator, I have the tools and the confidence to become the best drawer I can be (or how Mike would say “the best drawer in my family”). Mike has an exceptional sense of humor and a teaching style. He can feel the general mood and adjusts the scope of the workshop to the energy level of the group. He not only teaches the basics of how to draw, how to see spaces, how to incorporate light and color, proportion and balance into the design, but also changes our outlook on life as we know it, explains the idea of success and positive thinking. He emphasizes the importance of living life big, experiencing other cultures and countries, concentrating on today and not worrying about tomorrow too much. Through self-discovery, applied theory and lots of practice, this workshop shows that becoming loose is what everyone needs to succeed in this world. It is truly a life changing experience.

** Read Part II of Becoming Loose post to for details about the workshop

Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself

Where do I start if not by saying….he was right! Pink’s prediction about the increasing interest in the American society to take charge and transform this once heavy on manufacturing country into a free agent nation, became reality. Over 26% of the working population is self-employed. Blame it on the economy, if you want. But I strongly believe what’s happening in the workforce today is a natural transition, a change that has been foreseen by Pink and numerous open-minded professionals.

” The four values – having freedom, being authentic, putting yourself on the line, and defining success on your own terms – have combined to expand our notions of the work ethic. They have formed a broad new attitude toward work – a free agent credo that’s expressed most starkly in the independent workforce but that is shaping the rest of the workforce as well”.

I strongly recommend you pick up a copy and read this book. It may turn out to be the most value you will ever get out of a $10.

It’s official. Turquoise has been named the color of the year 2010.

“In many cultures, Turquoise occupies a very special position in the world of color,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “It is believed to be a protective talisman, a color of deep compassion and healing, and a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky. Through years of color word-association studies, we also find that Turquoise represents an escape to many – taking them to a tropical paradise that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.”

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Read on about the current state of office design and multi-generation workplace HERE.