FORCED
PERSPECTIVES

INTERIOR
PAINT DESIGN

HISTORIC SOUTH-CENTRAL L.A., CA

INTERIOR
PAINT DESIGN

20 ft tall workshop interior with walls colored in angular shapes, mimicking a perspective emanating from the back wall out. Paint colors are red and blue on the back wall; red, blue, and yellow on the left wall; and yellow and green on the right wall and on the short bathroom wall which pops out into the space. The ceiling, which angles up and down in complex directions, is of exposed wood plank and framing, as are the large beams which cross the space above.

Extremely long, narrow (16 ft wide) and tall spaces were made to feel wider through forced perspective paint design.

Bold, and particularly warm, colors – from Iridescent‘s rainbow version logo – were used to enliven these north facing spaces used by children after school.

Contextual to the odd geometry of the roof-ceiling, the triangulated design cohesively pulls all the architectural parts together into a fun spatial collage.

The big scale of the colored areas also helps divert attention away from the many small and diseparate objects placed in the unavoidably disorganized fashion of a maker‘s lab.

Fun and energetic are important spatial qualities in a workshop used by children for short after-school hands-on STEM experiments.

Due to their very narrow scale, the studios were very difficult to photograph. The study models, as distant aerial views, show the design of the spaces more accurately than the distorted photo collages.

The models – dubbed ”the house“ – eliminated a need for drawings; the painters didn’t need anything else to understand the design, saving money and time.

Broken up into large areas of color that contractors could paint, it was more cost-effective than painting a mural. This was a painful requirement since the organization had just been forced to move out of the space where I had painted a detailed STEM mural for them.

FOR / CLIENT

Iridescent (now Technovation)

SITE

  • Iridescent-ONR Los Angeles STEM Studios in Historic South Central L.A., CA

MATERIALS + DIMENSIONS

  • · (2) 16.5′ wide x 42′ deep x 19′ tall spaces
  • · Acrylic paint

WORK / CREDITS

Design, Model, & Photos: Ioana Urma. Painting: Lester & Nestar Gordillo.

Colored carboard, paper, and wood model of the paint design of two workshop spaces, separated by a wall. The paint areas are cut diagonally – as are the forms of the ceiling (created by the angled roof) – into large geometric shapes that span the entire length of the walls.
Left back corner of one of the workshop spaces where triangular painted areas meet in the bottom corner. On the left wall, from bottom of the wall up are triangular painted areas in blue, yellow, red, yellow. On the back wall, intersected by a wood pilaster, is a red painted area on the bottom and right, and a blue painted area on the left and top.
Zoom in on top corner of bathroom wall which pops out into the space showing triangular areas of yellow, green, and red paint coming to a point. Zoom in on cardboard model of one workshop interior, with blue, yellow, and red triangular areas on the left wall, blue and red triangular areas on the back wall, and green and yellow triangular areas on a small wall with pops forward on the right.
Wall of bathroom pop-out volumen cut diagonally in half in green vs yellow paint, with its door painted in chalkboard paint, The wall to the right of it reversing direction of green and yellow paint, enlarging the perspective toward the front. The part of the wall beyond the highest green paint area, and up behind the bathroom wall, is painted red.
Wall of bathroom pop-out volumen cut diagonally in half in green vs yellow paint, with its door painted in chalkboard paint, The wall to the right of it reversing direction of green and yellow paint, enlarging the perspective toward the front. The part of the wall beyond the highest green paint area, and up behind the bathroom wall, is painted red.
The left wall painted in large triangulated areas relating to the roof structure of blue at the bottom, then yellow, then reddish-magenta, and yellow again, with part of the back wall showing painted blue.

Being incredibly deep and narrow, the space was almost impossible to photograph. It is a good example of the difference between designing for (in-person) experience rather than for photography/marketing.

Side view into cardboard model shows brick wall in one space, and painted wall in the other, with triangular areas in blue, yellow, and red expanding toward the front.
Zoom in on bottom back corner showing triangular areas of blue, yellow, and red paint coming to a point.
20 ft tall workshop interior with walls colored in angular shapes, mimicking a perspective emanating from the back wall out. Paint colors are red and blue on the back wall; reddish-magenta, blue, and yellow on the left wall; and yellow and green on the right wall and on the short bathroom wall which pops out into the space. The ceiling, which angles up and down in complex directions, is of exposed wood plank and framing, as are the large beams which cross the space above.
Side view into cardboard model shows brick wall in one space, and painted wall in the other, with triangular areas in blue, yellow, and red expanding toward the front.
Zoom in on top corner of bathroom wall which pops out into the space showing triangular areas of yellow, green, and red paint coming to a point.
Interior of children's classroom with red brick walls on left, warm wood angled ceiling-roof, and colorful triangulated areas of color on back and side walls in green, blue, yellow, and red. A big rainbow colored Iridescent logo hangs on the brick wall, together with some framed art. The tables and chairs are in a light colored wood.
Interior of classroom focusing on triangulated painted back and right side walls, in reddish-magenta yellow (the most prominent), green and blue.
Zoom in on model showing triangulated areas of color, mainly yellow and reddish-magenta.
Zoom in on lower bathroom walls at the back of the space painted in triangulated break up of yellow and reddish-magenta, with the bathroom door painted with black chalk paint.
Zoom in on many electrical conduits in metal pipes running between the slanted wood roof-ceiling and the painted wall below, triangulated into areas of green, yellow, and blue.
A large interior wall, double height, is painted in triangulated areas, with blue at the top, yellow in the center, which gets bigger toward the light in the front, and reddish-magenta at the bottom.
A large child’s colorful paper model of a house, in red, yellow, and dark blue, next to the small model of the studio paint design.

next project

Illustration showing hummingbirds in various positions – roosting, nesting, flying, eating – set against a flowery backdrop of trumpet vines, trumpet honeysuckle, and rhododendron.

LIFE OF
BIRDS

STEM APP+