During Kelly’s recent trip to the Chinese city of Tangshan, he had the chance to speak with interior design students from the The Decor School. David Shan, secretary-general of the Chinese International High-end Properties Alliance (CIHPA), was also on deck to answer student’s questions regarding Kelly’s extensive body of work and lasting career.
Inquiries ranged from how Kelly’s beginnings as an interior designer, to his creative process, and even his future career endeavors. The students will soon be entering the expanding Chinese interior design market to become integral figures in their own right.
On Monday morning, Kelly gave a special workshop to teach students how he creates a space organically using a wall veneer tile from the department’s storage. Kelly exhibited the step-by-step process of how he develops his designs. In the above picture, Kelly displays the drawing and planning function for the design’s placement working from paper to eraser board. Students got the opportunity to question him as he worked with the help of translator Nikki Zhang as he focused on the planning stage of a new design.
The school boasts several different rooms of merchandise for students to pull from and Kelly showed the students how to create a vision mock-up with items from the schools floral and accessory area that represents their design. Playing with the symmetry of objects, Kelly walked students through his design process putting the items together in different arrangements for the space. The faculty was excited for Kelly to speak with the students. It was a great learning experiences for students to have access to Kelly’s design process and see how to work with accessories and color palettes. In the above photo, Kelly puts together the ground and two walls to demonstrate the space and how to work with fabrics, pillows, and surfaces in this area. Utilizing tortoise, polished aluminum, and horn tiles, he showed the students how in-congruent features can still create a complete picture in unexpected ways.
Kelly and the students browsed through fabric books looking for combinations of texture and color while explaining why he chooses the fabrics he does within the juxtaposition of his designs. The fabric book is actually from a company out of Oklahoma, USA, Kelly’s born state called Fabricut. The Chinese school uses the Oklahoma Company instead of a Chinese Company. The students were given the task of picking three carpet samples which Kelly then mixed and matched to show them the range of variations and possibilities.
