Drawing Out Creativity: The Art of Self-Expression through Design
What is your background?
I go by the name Ames and currently residing in Jakarta. I am a designer at studio.talk, I delve in architecture, interior design, and graphic illustrations among other things. I've had the opportunity to live in a few different countries while growing up which has instilled a sense of resilience and curiosity up until today. Language learning was a big aspect during those days. The struggles and breakthroughs of that have definitely shaped my way of always trying to be clear and well articulated in everything i do, such as conveying ideas - similar to communication.
What inspires the design aesthetic behind your work? Do you have any favourite architect or designer that you look up to?
I've noticed that my inspiration keeps changing as i grow - or should I say evolving. Similar to trends I also experience phases of favorite design styles every now and then, but end up feeling surprised every time I realize that I don't favor it anymore as time goes by. However, I've always enjoyed the experimenting part, finding what I like while I create in that moment, and the accumulation of creations, while hitting every needed requirements. A pair of well-known designers who I look up to and also embody experimenting are Charles & Ray Eames, who have such a prolific portfolio of vast mediums.
What does sensory of smell means to you?
Part of memory. A decision maker. Even to the extent of way finding.
Do you have any special memories regarding certain smell?
During days where I commute on public transport, the hustle and bustle of rush hour can certainly become intense. One time I was in a really packed train ride home. Imagine being squished in a sea of people after a hard day's work and most of the passengers by then - pardon me - have unpleasant body odour. While trying to navigate a comfortable standing position, I stumbled upon a whiff of somehting pleasant. In such a chaotic situation I found comfort by someone who I assumed had the courtesy to put on a bit of perfume before getting on packed train. The experience has certainly left an imprint on me, to think that a pleasant scent can create such comfort in a difficult situation - and also to practice to put on perfume before going into a crowd.
We asked you to interpret our three fragrances into an abstract illsutration. Can you describe your thought process and what inspired you to come up with such design?
I started by interpreting scent into something visual in the simplest form. At that time a simple graphic "line" was the best way to start. I characterized the three fragrances into three expressive graphs as scent profiles, which then interpret the overall nuance for me to create each illustration. As perfumery are made with recipes, I too prepared my "recipes" for the illustrations by abstractly extracting feelings and expressions of individual ingredients of all three scents - which then through many experimentation form new visuals. These illustrations are meant to bring about more expression of one's self.
Out of the three scents, does any of our fragrances represents your personality? If so, which one describes you the most?
#019 is definitely a scent that I relate to the most. While trying to interpret the fragrances, the graphic scent profile for #019 has this presence of "constant". To me this fragance comforts me in a way that it is a reliable scent and I would say it gets the best of both worlds from the other two fragrances.
What are your 3 favourite moments in life?
All moments that have breakthroughs in them, these are only a few out of many:
- The moment after studying a language from zero and then all of a sudden able to speak fluently.
- The moment after finishing exams and looking forward for holidays.
- The moment you receive something or something has happened to you that you yourself didn't know you really needed it.
Lastly, is there any other field of interest that you want to explore outside of your day-to-day work?
I have always wanted to dump my brain and turn it into a book or a similar form. Who knows maybe one day I'll get to it. Other than that, I'd love to be more hands on and create product designs of trinkets and sorts, I've always been quite the tinkerer so anything that involves fixing and/ or creating something is fascinating to me, so to have workshop for me to experiment would be quite awesome.
Photos courtesy of Ames Pujianto