Interview with Carmine Scotch
Born in California, raised in Santa Barbara, Carmine grew up by the sea. Fascinated with the unique elements of this aquatic environment, he developed an interest in the unusual design solutions…
Designer Interview
3 May 2018
I always had a creative bent growing up but I was not like a traditional artist. In some ways I was more of an observer. I wanted to know why things were the way they were, like a child who asks why the sky is blue, except the questions never stopped. I started developing my own ideas of how they could be better. This unrelenting curiosity and the ability to solve problems in a creative way is what eventually led me to design school. I have been a designer ever since.
I like anything that is a challenge. It can range from a small products to large commercial spaces. My design aesthetic leans very modern so I tend to approach most projects with minimal lines and simplicity.
I have no one favorite design, I see beauty in many different things in many different ways it impossible to point to one source for inspiration.
My first real design was actually developing a highly themed flagship retail space for Hanna-Barbera. Think Flintstones meets the Jetsons.
While I was trained in traditional methods of Industrial design including building models and rendering by hand, I love 3D modeling and rendering and have been using that as a tool for the last 20 years. It allows me to visualize ideas much faster and experiment without the huge burden of committing to design before all the possibilities have been explored.
4:00am seems to be the best working time for me. I know its unusual, but I have always been a night person and that times seems to be when the world around me is most quite.
Concept, Concept, Concept. I am obsessed with that. Yes, a typical designer might say form follows function but non of those matter if the concept is flat. Unique, interesting, or solve a problem in a new way, is always the first thought. I may not always achieve that but it's always what I strive for.
Inspiration, excitement, curiosity, self doubt, dissolution, desperation, depression, anger, denial, bargaining, acceptance, hope, exhilaration. In that order.
To me it's kind of surreal when a design becomes a reality. You spend so much time thinking, questioning your idea, working on details that no one else will ever notice, you almost get tired of the project. Then when its finally realized, its like a gift. Suddenly, you notice something you are holding in your hands or a space you are standing in was once just a pure thought in your mind which has suddenly become a reality.
A good design goes beyond solving a problem, being functional or aesthetically pleasing, its the intangible space where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
I hope that what design does is make the world a better place to live. Good design is not just cranking out another look, its solving a problem or making something better, even if its just a tiny step in that direction.
I think the design field is changing in a way that accepts more multidisciplinary designers than it did in the past. With the advent of technology, the general populous seems to have become more design aware and interested in well thought out design.
Like many creative people, they look to nature. However, I have a slightly different twist on that. Growing up in a beautiful beach town, my eye was always turned toward the ocean. Walking on the beach was always a new discovery. Wondering what mysteries the vast ocean holds keeps me spellbound.
My design style leans very modern in its appearance but that is usually the result of the concept. Instead of redesigning or building upon an existing design, I like to look at a each project as completely new, as if no one has ever designed that product before. I start my concepts from there and from that point on I try to develop it into a working solution, that hopefully has not been tried before. The appearance is really the end result of that process.
I live in a big city by the water but I grew up in Santa Barbara, a small town by the sea. Famous now as an enclave for wealthy celebrities, at the time it was just my home town. Many consider it a natural paradise with its beautiful beaches, islands and mountains all within close proximity of each other. I still feel that’s where I am from.
Let go of group think. It's very popular now whereby everyone has a say in the project. It's fun to design with other creative people in the room but at the end of the day its too many cooks in the kitchen and no one takes full responsibility for the end result. What you end up with at best is a "nice" but very uninspired design. All the sharp edges have been sanded down until everyone is OK with it but no one is truly excited by it. I call it the process of vanillazation.
Long hours, you never stop working. Even if you are on vacation, everything you look at is an inspiration to behold or a problem that needs to be fixed.
All good design must have some redeeming quality. Is it functional? Is it unique? Is it beautiful?
I use a variety of software applications but my main tool is 3DS Max. I use it for rendering and modeling as well as exploring concepts. Most of my ideas start on paper as very crude sketches almost like a mental note. I then jump very quickly into 3D.
It really depends, it could be a month or up to a year if its an architectural related project.
Right now, I am focusing on product design and furniture design because they are small projects that can be realized much faster than architectural projects in the past.
Through my website: carminescotchdesign.com