 I have always found jewellery fascinating. Even as a young child, the sparkle of gems and crystals always caught my attention, more so as they glowed when worn by a truly beautiful woman. But what also caught my attention was the sculptural quality that a necklace, a tiara or a ring had - the forms, the curves, the way the gems are positioned specifcally. That's why I consider jewellery, such as tiaras, as wearable pieces or art. And what separates art from mass produced items is the intent and the narrative behind each piece. In creating this concept tiara, dedicated to the Rose of Limerick (who then goes to compete in the annual Rose of Tralee Festival), I tried to capture the rose as the central theme. As the Limerick Rose, she radiates and sparkles for all to see, that's why I went for crystals. The crystal rose is then set to float amongst the "waves" of the Shannon River, which is also representative of Limerick's dynamism and flow. In this design, I captured what I felt was the essence of the woman and the county she represents. I hope that like in this concept tiara, i could work with people to create bespoke jewellery that not only looks great, but also tells a story and embodies a certain spirit. These are then pieces that truly mean something and are worth keeping (click the link below if you would like to collaborate with me on a piece!)
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 Scandinavian... clean, geometric, minimal. Yes, that's why it's such a perfect choice for a home office. Remember the blog I made before on Home Office Design? Here in this case study, I aimed to address all the points I've raised, plus be able to make a interesting, practical design while adding touches of texture (such as in the warmth of the rug, the wood and the wicker) and colour accents. And what's more, this fits a very tight space of 3 x 1.4 mts, and on a budget (and can be ordered online) courtesy of Jysk. Their newest branch has recently opened here in Limerick. I'm also thrilled to be able to model this in 3D, since with any client, nothing communicates a design better than through seeing it in a proposed sketch or 3D view (like a good Before and After view). This is what sets us apart in iSCO Designs; in this way, you know what you are investing on AND it makes the remote working process go smoother.  This is the Mood Board I propose, again most items are from Jysk (except of course the paint colours, which are Dulux). Now, you can visit www.jysk.ie, or visit them in Parkway Retail Center should you wish to get these items. REDUCE THE NOISE By having more surfaces and soft finishes, noise is diffused rather than echoed. The Villin Rug is of enough size to accentuate the area where the desk sits, while creating a warm, textured effect. The Hidra Curtains are in linen, and enough to shade from glare. Do hang them on black, cast iron poles. A TALE OF TWO LIGHTS General lighting (plus natural texture) is provided by the Sigvard Light Pendant, while the more important task lighting is provided by the adjustable Ernsty Table Lamp. SHOW YOUR TRUE COLOURS The clean, calm palette is created using the cool White on White by Dulux, while the rest of the accents and ceiling colour is in crisp Vivid White. Now the visual interest comes through the black + wood combination on most of the furniture items and Valter Picture Frames. The natural colours of the storage baskets, rug and curtains then creates a softer Scandinavian effect, and is much more pleasing to the working eyes (feels great to the touch, too!).  ERGONOMICS, PLUS THE CHAIR!
Invest on the Abildholt Swivel Office Chair - it's adjustable PLUS swivels to allow your to reach around. And when needed for your Zoom conferences, or to keep your screen at eye level, use the Suldrup Laptop Stand. And much needed storage is within reach with the Trappedal Shelves. DESK, 'NUFF SAID The 1.2 meter wide Abbetved Desk is not only funky, but provides enough surface area to work on, while having extra stationery space in the drawers underneath. STORAGE IS THE RAGE The Trappedal Shelves again work as an interesting, and much needed, storage solution. The uneven shelves allow for different sizes of items, while the Lars Storage Baskets act as "drawers" for items you want to keep hidden. And don't forget the drawers under your desk! NATURE = GREEN = WELLBEING Introduce as much nature into your office space. Here, I recommend a large potted plant, and several smaller plants; perhaps on the shelves or even on the window sill. This will not only be a welcome respite for your eyes, but also helps clean the air! PERSONALIZE & MOTIVATE - THE RIGHT IMAGERY Use the Valter Picture Frames to your advantage; try black & white family images, or scenery you find inspiring, or maybe even the house or car you're working towards. By using these black frames, the images tie in with the rest of the design. And use the Halvor Brass Clock to make sure you're on time, and to remind you to stop for the day! Design done! If you feel that this is something you would possibly like to have in your own home, or want to work on another room/s, feel free to drop me an email via [email protected], and I will be very happy to see how we can collaborate!  image source: Yahoo Finance Zoom, Skype, Messenger Chat, you name it. As part of the WFH (work from home) normal we are waking up to, online conferencing or meetings have become a necessity. In offices that I helped design in Europe, a video-conferencing room was actually a requirement in every single location, and were designed with requirements aimed at right visibility, sound and lighting. Now, we don’t have the luxury of a dedicated conference suite, but we can, with some design know-how, make any space work for you (and make you look professionally good online!) First though, some personal basics. Please wash your face, apply light make up (if necessary, enough to emphasize your eyes and lip movement), brush your teeth (no spinach teeth) and keep your hair tidy. Professional looking jewellery is good, but with enough of a personal statement. Wear an outfit that is more solid colours rather than strong, garish prints. Sit down with the right posture, with relaxed relaxed shoulders and no slouching. AND make sure you have no nose hairs or boogies peeking! Now, the set-up of would be as follows:
 image source: CNet/Libe Ackerman
An example of good and bad framing and lighting for a Zoom conference
BE DIPLOMATIC, take down, I repeat, take down anything that may offend anyone you will be talking to. Just Look at Bryan Dobson’s set-up below, that bookshelf says a lot about him being an erudite newscaster.  image source: The Irish Times/Bryan Dobson "Bodhi"
€289.00 - €339.00
Limited Edition Prints* (of 250), signed and numbered by Francis Lanuza VARIOUS PRINT SIZES AVAILABLE Original is an acrylic painting with diamante detailing on unframed canvas, 70x50cm Based on healing visions with Ayahuasca/Natem. *All prints are on Epson Somerset Velvet archival fine art paper 255gsm, and printed using Epson Ultrachrome Pigments. These are the highest standard of print materials in the world of artwork reproduction. All materials are 100% acid free and will not discolour with age, they are also light resistant for up to 150 years. All sizes quoted are the "print dimensions" - a 2.5cm/1" border is provided all around, adding 5cm/2" on each dimension (e.g. 30x30cm/12x12" print dimension = 14x14" paper dimension). This allows for matting when framed. Dispatch & Shipping: all prints are packed and posted in durable cardboard tubes. FREE SHIPPING to Ireland and the UK. Turnaround time for prints is 5-10 working days from receipt of your order. "Celeste"
€249.00 - €309.00
Limited Edition Prints* (of 250), signed and numbered by Francis Lanuza VARIOUS PRINT SIZES AVAILABLE Original is an acrylic painting with diamante detailing on unframed canvas, 50x60cm Based on healing visions with Ayahuasca/Natem. *All prints are on Epson Somerset Velvet archival fine art paper 255gsm, and printed using Epson Ultrachrome Pigments. These are the highest standard of print materials in the world of artwork reproduction. All materials are 100% acid free and will not discolour with age, they are also light resistant for up to 150 years. All sizes quoted are the "print dimensions" - a 2.5cm/1" border is provided all around, adding 5cm/2" on each dimension (e.g. 30x30cm/12x12" print dimension = 14x14" paper dimension). This allows for matting when framed. Dispatch & Shipping: all prints are packed and posted in durable cardboard tubes. FREE SHIPPING to Ireland and the UK. Turnaround time for prints is 5-10 working days from receipt of your order. "Meta"
€219.00 - €309.00
Limited Edition Prints* (of 250), signed and numbered by Francis Lanuza VARIOUS PRINT SIZES AVAILABLE Original is an acrylic painting with diamante detailing on unframed canvas, 40x50cm Based on healing visions with Ayahuasca/Natem. *All prints are on Epson Somerset Velvet archival fine art paper 255gsm, and printed using Epson Ultrachrome Pigments. These are the highest standard of print materials in the world of artwork reproduction. All materials are 100% acid free and will not discolour with age, they are also light resistant for up to 150 years. All sizes quoted are the "print dimensions" - a 2.5cm/1" border is provided all around, adding 5cm/2" on each dimension (e.g. 30x30cm/12x12" print dimension = 14x14" paper dimension). This allows for matting when framed. Dispatch & Shipping: all prints are packed and posted in durable cardboard tubes. FREE SHIPPING to Ireland and the UK. Turnaround time for prints is 5-10 working days from receipt of your order.
That’s it, and I do wish you good luck on your next Zoom conference. The others online will appreciate seeing you, well, in a better light.  image source: goodhousekeeping.com Strange times we live in indeed as more and more people are working from home. Here are some design tips to help you design your work space. As we ease out of the current Covid19 lockdown, we have learned to accept the reality that we will need work from home (or WFH) if ever there's another virus looming. Nowadays, some companies do encourage a day or more a week working from home. If you're like me, though, this can be a BIG challenge, as the need to separate work and home life is sacrosanct (aaah!). But working from home is here to stay. Now, don't make the mistake of copy-pasting a "pretty" Pinterest home office to your own space; a typical office space is designed primarily to be function over form, and there are regulations specifically made for this. Offices are a completely different beast from my experience of designing and working in corporate environments - they are specifically designed to get you into "work mode". Nevertheless, you DO need to make it your personal space. it's your HOME office. As such, I've put together a detailed list of some things to take into consideration as you transform your study, home office, or under stairs niche into your new home office. I want you to get it right, your productivity depends on it! ZONE IN (OR OUT) Make sure that your space has enough visual and audio privacy to allow you to tune into work. If you can close it off, the better. This is your work space, make sure it allows you that zoned feeling. The best place in the house, for me, is the kitchen - if there's no space in the house for a separate study/office. Avoid the bedroom at all costs, and if it is in the living room, keep the TV off! REDUCE THE NOISE Offices are designed, as much as possible, to ABSORB noise, not bounce it. it helps to reduce reverberation or echoes that are disruptive to one's focus. And you don't want your phone conversations to be broadcast around the house. Aim for carpeted floors, or an area rug would work. Soft or textured surfaces don't bounce off sound, rather absorbs or disperses it. Bookshelves with books are a great example, or curtains/drapes, plants too! (But hey, a bit of ambient music on your speakers or headphones does work :)) A TALE OF TWO LIGHTS Always have more than one source of lighting. Daylight or ambient lighting (something that is above you, plus window light flooding into the room) goes hand-in-hand with desktop task lighting. Glare will be an issue for your desk lamp, so get one that points light directionally, rather than throws light all over, and also one that can be adjusted to point where it's needed and redirect glare. The clean balance of light not only allows you to see what you're doing, but it psychologically boosts productivity. And please leave the cozy warm bulbs behind and instead go for cooler daylight or LED.  image source: YLighting SHOW YOUR TRUE COLOURS Learn how to personalize your home office space with a good colour palette. I suggest more calm and neutral tones (harsh colours will tire and bore you easily). Colours that are more blue are calming, while greens will encourage you to absorb and learn more. Neutral and greys will work, but don't go overboard with black. A good warm white or off-white will be fresh and easy.  image source: Dulux ERGONOMICS Your body MUST be confortable in working, and right seat and desk heights, plus posture is key. Below is an easy diagram to follow:  image source: The Mayo Clinic DESK, 'NUFF SAID Go neutral if possible, or light wooden colours such as oak, cherry or beech. From my experience, you need this light neutrality to provide the right contrast to any paperwork you have. Darker tones, or worse bold colours, will just tire your eyes. I remember being requested by an office team leader some time ago to go for red desks (?!) as part of their branding. My response was simple; "do you want your eyes to bleed after 8 hours?!" Also, I personally find that having desk space on both sides of my laptop (or PC) to be a ideal, enough that I can lay flat an A4 sheet on either side. A CHAIR IS NOT A CHAIR... ...if it is too soft and comfy. Have a good firm one with ample back support, can swivel and be adjustable if possible (see the diagram above). Or a good kitchen chair with a comfortable seat pad and back pillow. A foot pad (or shoe box) is a nice touch, to get your hip-knee levels right. Also, if you have the space, a reading chair nearby would be a welcome addition and a great alternative chair to work in. STORAGE IS THE RAGE Bookshelf...check! Filing cabinet...check! Pen holders...check! Make sure you have a variety of storage options (not just furniture) to make sure there is enough space to store EVERYTHING, and they will be easy to find and reach. IMPORTANT: I abide by the "clean desk" policy; at the end of the day, make sure you store ALL work related items, all books/notebooks are closed, laptop/PC powered off and your desk kept clean, so that by the off chance you pass by your desk in the middle of the night, nothing will hypnotize you to get working when you're supposed to be resting! See if this can work for you  image source: Getty/iStockphoto WIFI, WIFI, WIFI! Be good to yourself and have good WIFI especially in your work area, and wherever you decide you'd bring your laptop to (which leads me then to...) ROAM FREE You'll get bored and tired working in your desk, I guarantee that. That's why in office designs I have worked in, the future direction is in having multiple work locations - an open office design. That's where your kitchen island would come handy. Having a standing work station will not only stretch your muscles, but also would also cut the monotony of working in your desk. Or sit on that reading chair I was telling you earlier, with a small coffee/side table in front as your mini desk. AVOID the bed or couch though!  image source: Getty Images NATURE = GREEN = WELLBEING One of the best rules of thumb I've learned was to bring green in as much as possible. Health and safety was always a challenge for offices, but a home office allows your to be as green as possible. A nature view is always desirable, just make sure that the sun will not glare you too much (have a curtain/blind if necessary). OR if not possible, a plant, or two or three; they will provide extra texture and interest, or even some photos/pictures might be enough. Greenery and nature have a restorative, morale-boosting effect when one gets bored, tired or overwhelmed - especially when working from home.  image source: Pinterest PERSONALIZE & MOTIVATE - THE RIGHT IMAGERY
In the end, it is YOUR workspace, the luxury you have in working from home is you CAN personalize it. Add things that will inspire you, not distract. Family photos will remind you what you're doing this for. Or some toys or figurines that motivate. Art DEFINITELY helps (and in my next blog, I will explore some good options). Imagery, from what I've learned in graphic environment design, have the power to set the tone and inspire you. Now that's quite a lot, and I do hope I have covered all the important bits. Remember, these suggestions (if you can achieve as much of them) will allow you to own and delight in your home office, rather than resent having to work at home. And hey, this is the future, embrace it!  I have always been reluctant to view and review art from an intellectual point of view. Indeed it is important to understand context and biography in an artwork; but I do feel that we've intentionally been missing something, something profound that cannot be boxed in mere intellectual constructs. It's no secret that I have been through my own psycho-therapeutic journey - a lot of it aimed toward unlocking emotions. And it's also no secret that I have had experiences with healing psychedelics/psychotropics. Though all of these, I have gained an immense appreciation in the "experience" of beauty - that emotive power it holds - and how we as artists have the privilege of chronicling these experiences. I have come to believe that our works stir something more in the heart than in the head.  Not quite hippy, new age dogma I preach. But what I do know is that it's in beauty that I have experienced the closest to opening up a frozen heart.
Imagine, at the corner of your eye while walking down the seaside, you glimpse a golden sunset. It catches you off guard, you gasp and suddenly blanked in a sense of awe. Your thoughts, your neurosis, your worries and regrets, in that brief instant, vanishes, and you're suddenly in just WOW. I mentioned before, it is probably the closest to enlightenment that I've experienced; it is in these moments that I personally feel connected to everything, that non of my bullshit matters. That is, perhaps, why I choose the be an artist. It is an amazing opportunity to get healed, to step out of the conditioning that we have experienced, and to just be. To be full, and perhaps grateful, that we are offered a special window to a divine space. That we can then capture it and share it to a wider audience. And in all our intention-filled works, we also capture emotions and feelings and offer this to an audience who, perhaps, have been starved, as modern life has been more of an assault to the intellect. Beauty is feeling and emotion, and that brings colour and healing to anyone's life.  "Meta" (2012) by Francis Lanuza, limited edition prints available One of the first things that people ask for when interviewing an artist (or when applying for a commission), is their “artist statement”. And I knew that this was a major block that I had when I was starting, knowing that I was just figuring out who I was, not just as an artist, but also as a person. I have read through a lot of how-to’s on the subject, but to no avail – the first few statements I created did not come out as authentic. You see, I grew up in a society where who I truly am was not nourished nor valued. As “trophy kids” or achievers, we were raised to specifically bring pride and prestige to our families through university degrees, awards, academic distinctions and, inevitably, a titled job (in my case, as an architect). But no matter how much I accomplished, it felt empty, even depressing. These are all hollow accomplishments that never really touches one’s true self. This is where art, and being an artist, comes into the picture. For me, it is not just about the romantic notions of Michaelangelo or Da Vinci’s creative endeavours. For me, with a fragile sense of self that I had, this was refuge, this was salvation, this was my truth. Art connected me to who I was inside. This was made clearer with my own experiences with Ayahuasca and other consciousness-expanding substances. In my psychedelic journeys, I found that inner being that was kept asleep. And through a whole tug-of-war of emotional recovery, I found that it was in art that I have a voice to express who I truly was. It is in art that I found myself. Art was the one thing that I wasn’t trained in growing up, when I reflect on it, and I have always grown up having an innate confidence and sureness in the art that I create.  "Chrysallis" (2012) by Francis Lanuza, now available on Etsy (click image for link) And how beautiful it was to, in these experiences where my consciousness was opened, that I have found a bigger realization. My journeys have shown me that it is in beauty that we have a glimpse of enlightenment. All neurotic thoughts dissipate when we are awe-struck on seeing beauty, may it be in nature or in artistic creations. It is in art that every one of experiences release and emotional repose.
I have seen that my life was no longer just about self-centered, empty endeavours. I was given a peek into the bigger universe where I and everyone else are connected harmoniously, in beautiful, calm serenity. By painting and writing about them, I am given the privilege to share this amazing, and inevitably healing, journey to people. This is my true artist’s statement, and my artistic mission. |
Author
Francis graduated cum laude as an an architect, and has since worked in a world Top 100 architectural firm, as well as in the Brussels EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asian) innovation hub of one the world's leading brands. He is also a visual artist (with commissions for the HSE), interior and graphic designer, and creates fashion jewellery and millinery. Art and design, he says, can be very healing and restorative, and will always tell a story - and this is part of his creative ethos. If you need his services, please send an email to: [email protected] ArchivesCategories |
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