by Mary | Apr 30, 2014 | Design News, Interior Design
10 FREE Design Tips:
- The least expensive changes you can make that still gives you a “bang for the buck”: paint and lighting.
- The reclaimed wood look will peak this year, but still be specified for the next five to six years.
- To look your best, freshen the lobby (entry)
- Exterior finishes are going darker.
- Interior finishes are going lighter.
- Quartz is the new granite.
- The use of graphics in interiors is growing.
- Favorite wood finishes are still dark but watch out, the light tones will come back soon.
- Metal and stainless finishes are not going anywhere.
Today, information and inspiration is a “click” away. We can “Google ” perfect paint scheme and be given ga-zillions of options for paint perfection. You want affordable office furniture? The internet will direct you to so many sites that you start to not value any of them. ( A couple of pages we follow include: designophy.com, designmilk.com, designntrend.com )
But what is the best advice r.o.i. Design can give you?
- Understand your goals for a design and make sure the changes you make in your business, school or home are going to help you meet those goals.
Asking the right questions and helping focus our customers on what’s important is equally valuable as picking the right color. So when you hire a designer, please expect more than aesthetics. You get what you pay for.
by Mary | Apr 25, 2014 | Church Design, Design News, Interior Design, Project Management
Completed Renovation
The Burpo family experienced a miracle that resulted in the book and now the movie, “Heaven is for Real”.
That miracle is bringing a lot of attention to the Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska. (heavenisforreal.net) Anticipating a new wave of attention, Pastor Todd Burpo and Executive Pastor Phil Harris, knew this opportunity meant updating their sanctuary to make sure it was a very welcoming place. A few years ago, they had expanded the church’s footprint with a large multiple purpose room, additional offices and classrooms because their ministry required those spaces. But now the vintage pews and dated lighting had to go; their story and their ministry was far more dynamic than their worship space.
Design became real. (more…)
by Ryan | Oct 10, 2013 | Design News
Our new LED Task Lights.
Lighting is a drug.
It can improve our alertness, sleep, mood, visual acuity, performance and sustainability. Now, the new generation of tunable LED lights (a semiconductor diode that emits light when a voltage is applied to it) give us control of our own environment.
This September Mary Jane Caster, executive designer from r.o.i. Design attended the Lighting Forum XV, hosted by Crites, Tidey & Associates. Included in this seminar was a presentation by Stan Walerczyk, entitled “Human Centric Lighting” With over 50 white papers and published articles to his credit, Stan is actively promoting Human Centric Lighting, saying that Human Centric Lighting may become more significant than Edison creating the light bulb!
Here are the fun facts on our new lights:
1) User can customize personal mood setting from warmer light for a time of relaxation to a daylight setting for a focused work environment.
Bright Mode – READING 4500K-4700K, stimulates concentration and reduces eye strain with mid-range color
Cool Mode – CONCENTRATION 6200K-6500K, increases attention and concentration of high range color temperature
Warm Mode – CREATIVE & RELAX 2500K-2700K, promotes relaxation and improved mood with low-range color temperature also encourages a deep sleep with comfortable soft light.
2) Timer Function
It goes off automatically after 50 minutes
3) Energy Saving
LED technology offers reduced energy an maintenance costs when compared with conventional light sources.
4) Long Life-Time
It’s rated 40,000 hours and 25 years life span under normal use
5) Easy to adjust color temperature and illumination
6) Environment Friendly
It’s free of UV and IR radiation minimizing discoloration and fading of materials.
Lighting affects our mood.
At different times of the day we need different types of light. A blue sky at noon is 14,000K (Kelvin) (*) and if we are lucky enough to be outdoors, we benefit from this light. But indoors, increasing the blue spectrum and increasing our typical 3,500K environment to 5,000K promotes visual acuity, and our circadian rhythms, as well as energy savings. As the sun is lower, our light should get warmer. Studies show that SAD (seasonal affective disorder) can be treated using Human Centric Lighting.
Lighting affects our productivity.
Using 12,000K light for the first 30 minutes of your day or before an important meeting will energize you and promote alertness.
How do we get control of our lighting needs? Getting rid of parabolic troffers and using dimmable and Kelvin changing lighting is a start. Here is what some folks have done:
- 3rd shift workers in air traffic control have increased their office lights to 17,000K to keep alert and reduce mistakes.
- For window users, there is an app that reduces the blue light on your screen that is great for eye strain. www.justgetflux.com
- Philips School Vision video on You Tube documents a student’s day with artificial light changes. The first 30 minutes are at 12,000K (equal to 100fc) then are set at 5,000K to 6,500K for working. After recess the lights are set to 2,700K for relaxation at nap time. As a result, test scores have increased.
LED lighting is energy saving.
LED lighting has always been promoted as economical, but just in the last six months there has been a 30 to 35% increase in the energy savings of LED lighting. The technology is changing rapidly.
Some manufactures of LED controllable lights are Lumex, Osram, Philips, Telelumen and PlanLED.
(*) Photographers and lighting designers speak of color temperatures in “degrees kelvin.” For example, 3200K represents a typical indoor color temperature and 5500K represents typical daylight color temperature. In the context of lighting, a specific kelvin temperature expresses the color temperature (dull red, bright red, white, blue) corresponding to the physical temperature (warm, hot, extremely hot) of an object.
by Mary | Sep 30, 2013 | Design News, Exhibit Design, Interior Design, Project Management
In 2012, a friend of r.o.i. Design, Tim Chester, introduced us to the Grand Valley State University’s development office project- the Bill Seidman Timeline.
Bill Seidman on the Cover of the “National Journal” 1990
GVSU has had a busy year, with the opening the new library (Mary Idema Pew Learning Commons) on the Allendale campus, and the L. William Seidman Center (School of Business) in downtown Grand Rapids.
As part of the L. William Seidman Center’s presentation, a prominent 20 feet section of wall space in the lounge was dedicated to honor the life and achievements of Bill Seidman. While GVSU has thousands of curated works of art, a complete in-house marketing department, expert public relations and communication experts, their experience in creating a museum quality exhibit was more limited than they were comfortable with for this important assignment.
Larry Hutchinson, center, Mary Witte, left, September 23, 2013
r.o.i. Design, Mary Witte, was hired to manage the process of hiring the designer, managing scope, budget and timeline. Through this process r.o.i. was very pleased to meet Larry Hutchinson, Hutchinson Studio, who designed the exhibit, (casework and graphics) and (along with r.o.i.) researched the content.
To support the process, r.o.i.’s Ryan Bright provided graphic design for the media presentation that Springthrough (local media and marketing company) compiled to create a multimedia touchscreen experience.
Visitors can learn more about the exhibit, scroll through a timeline of Bill’s life, and watch vide0s of Bill speaking.
Pioneer Construction, who built the L. William Seidman Center building, built the casegoods that house the exhibit.
(more…)
by Mary | Aug 7, 2013 | Design News, Interior Design
In 2011, we received a call from Gaylord, MI. Scott and Janice Lampert had purchased property in their hometown and wanted to create a landmark spot on the site.
“We have been so blessed by the land, we wanted to give back to the land” , reported Lampert. “This site is so amazing in its intimate northern Michigan way that we wanted to make it available to today’s recreational and educational user.”
Very influenced by retreat centers, spas and boutique resorts they have visited, the goal was to create a resort that would compete on the highest level for aesthetics and experience. “There is definitely a spiritual side to this place,” Janice Lampert explained. “Partly because of its history and the hundreds of visitors who came to this spot since the 1950’s, but by far, it is the soul of the land and nature that lives here that gives it it’s spirit”. (more…)
by Mary | Feb 28, 2013 | Design News
Our friends at Hooker De Jong Architects in Muskegon, MI asked us to get involved with this unique health care project in 2010. Now in 2013, we are working through the management of furnishing purchases and FFE receipts to fulfill the requirements of the staged openings of the new facility.
Meadow Brook had a vision to create a residential care facility that organizes around smaller household groups verses the more clinical “halls” and “floors” of the traditional mode. This is best described by excerpts from the Antrium Review posting on the Meadow Brook web page, as seen below.
Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2012 3:00 am Antrium Review
A series of articles regarding nursing homes in Michigan that ran in the Detroit Free Press in mid-December reported some good news for Meadow Brook Director, Marna Robertson, and her hard working staff. …a recent evaluation by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (reported) …Meadow Brook was ranked within the top ten percent among the state’s 428 licensed nursing home facilities.
…None of this comes as a surprise to most of the people who have witnessed first-hand the care a family member has received at Meadow Brook.
That care can only continue to get even better with the culture change planned for Meadow Brook that will create what Robertson characterizes as “person centered care,” designed to put residents at the center of decision making in a more home-like environment. While that concept has already begun with simple things like extended meal times and a wider variety of food selection, the concept will only be fully implemented with the completion of planned construction of a new three story building and renovation of existing facilities that will house residents in private rooms clustered in small household units that will give them the privacy they desire while providing the opportunity for the social interaction they need.
At the time this was especially important to David Layman, President of Hooker De Jong, who had just gone through the process of trying to select housing for his mother and came away from the experience stunned that there wasn’t more hospitable and residential options in senior care. “Why can’t it feel like home?” he insisted.
r.o.i. Design agreed with that sentiment and began the work of making Meadow Brook a place for seven households each with either The European Bungalow and the Vintage Farmhouse or Woodland Cottage Theme. “That meant three groups of selections, three groups of finishes and furnishings” reported lead designer Mary Jane Caster. “It looks great on paper, we can’t wait to see it come to life”.
The phased openings begin April 2013 with the new three story addition and then over the next three years the remodeled existing portion of the home will be completed.
