Ideation
I designed the room the way I'd design a product: start from the real thing, explore side by side, then narrow down.
- References first. Everything starts from photos of my real things. When a drawing didn't look like mine, like my mouse or my Ember mug, I went back to photos of the real one.
- Versions side by side. Each thing got numbered versions, a bookshelf each, so I could compare them at a glance and pick and mix. Big changes went on the next bookshelf, small ones changed the one I was on, and nothing got deleted, so I can look back.
- One visual language. The first lamp, flat and straight on, set the style. Realer tries, like a frosted shade, a room in perspective and a hand-drawn doodle, didn't fit, so everything follows that lamp.
- Take out what's busy. When something made the room busier, not better, I took it out.
- Make it respond. What you can click lifts a little, every light is on one switch that turns the page dark, and the clothes, plants and disco ball sway as you brush past, or swipe past on a phone.
Point at or tap a version's number below to see what changed.
I don't know what I'd do without my Ember mug (not sponsored)
Lamp
Flat and straight on, with see-through amber glass and a small silver disco ball. The one I kept coming back to.
Solid amber glass with the inside drawn faintly, and a bigger disco ball.
Clear glass with amber edges and bubbles, and a mosaic disco ball.
Side on, like the real lamp: a pole curving over into an arm, a clear glass shade and a filament bulb.
Back to lamp 1, made the switch: click it and every light comes on and the page goes dark.
Snake plant
Traced from a photo of my shelf, in a guessed plain white pot.
In my real pot, from a photo of it.
Books
One book to start, Thinking, Fast and Slow, lifting when you point at it.
A full shelf. Each book comes out and turns to show its cover.
Opening bigger, so you can run along the row and open each in turn.
Made to look read: grain, fading and scuffs, and open big enough to read.
Calmer spines, so the row is quieter. A cover still comes out in full color.
Basket
The first drawing, from photos of it.
Its shape and handles redrawn to its real proportions.
Lighter shades.
A little bigger.
Headphones and DJ deck
Both from photos: the headphones standing up, the deck straight on and off.
The headphones set down, their cord in a loop. The deck bigger, seen from a little above.
The headphones on their side like the real ones. Drag the cord's plug into the deck and it turns on.
The headphones' band down on the board. The deck lies flat until it's plugged in, then tilts up and turns on.
A cord you can grab and drag. Plugged in, the deck plays: its faders slide and its jog wheels scratch.
Clock
Straight on, from a photo of my shelf.
A little bigger.
No change. The cuttings changed this time.
Minimal: a single gold dash at each hour in a gold rim.
First on the board, with everything on it spaced out evenly.
Cuttings
Straight on, from a photo of my shelf.
Traced to look real, with a thicker wire stand.
The leaves without their gloss.
True pothos leaves.
Spaced out, the leaves swaying in time with the headphone cord.
Camera
Comes out and turns round, to take a photo and leave it or see the ones left.
Bigger, off with its lens cover closed. It slides open to turn on.
Lying on its back. It stands up as it comes out.
Traced closer to the photos, with more color and shine.
A little smaller, beside the lava lamp.
Lava lamp
Traced from a photo of it off: slim, with clear glass. It glows when the lights are on.
Wider and taller, and it glows brighter.
Its glass sitting down in a bigger base, and wax that rises and sinks in blobs when it's on.
Clear glass meeting the base, cream wax that turns amber when it's on, and a softer glow.
Moved right of the camera.