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Turning an Interior Design Vision into a Visualization

An Interview with Jessika Wendel

Interior Architect Jessika Wendel shares how everyone can learn how to create an interior design.

"Learn to observe your surroundings properly and to look at what surrounds you! Only then will you be able to implement your ideas perfectly in drawing."

Jessika Wendel - I would like to start with a fun fact: in fact, I never wanted to study before - I did not think I needed to! Nevertheless, things often turn out differently than you expect.

My name is Jessika and I am the person behind "Visualisieren können alle", I am now an Interior Architect, and have gone through four stages of education within 12 years. I live in Germany and currently have three different jobs. I work part-time as an Interior Architect, teach "sketching techniques" a few hours each week at a technical school, and work as a freelancer, giving webinars and taking on design contracts. With a lot of patience, perseverance, discipline, ambition, and most of all with a dream, I got to where I am now.

Interior design is always about materials, colors and patterns. Especially tile laying types and parquet floors are very common. To make it easier for me to draw, I created these patterns as brushes. They are now available to all designers in the Concepts Brush Market.

My job as a freelancer is my dream job. It was actually born out of a crazy idea in 2016. When I was looking for teaching material for my tutorial at the University of Applied Sciences, I realized that there was hardly any German literature on the subject of drawing and interior illustration. Therefore, I made the decision to create a book out of it, which became my Master's thesis. I had the vision to offer courses in addition to the book, as I noticed the great interest in it at that time. It was not until I bought my first iPad at the end of 2019 that the idea became more realistic.

On the recommendation of a friend, I created an Instagram profile in 2020 and much faster than I ever thought, this account became popular. The first requests came and in the meantime, it has developed into incredibly great projects and inspiring contacts worldwide. I get to pass on my hard-earned knowledge to others in the form of webinars. The practical relevance to my profession is very important to me. I want to help others get their ideas down on paper quickly and easily with the digital possibilities we have. The unique handwriting of each person, as well as a personal creativity can be discovered, and then outstanding ideas and sketches arise.

I have turned my hobby into my profession and stand behind my promise: "Visualization is something everyone can [learn to] do!"

What do you feel defines your design work and style? What are your goals when creating a design?

My gut feeling helps me the most. Sometimes it is hard to describe or express, but I know when something is right and exactly how it should be! It was only many years later that I realized that there are also simple rules and principles behind a design and that I unconsciously got it right.

My goals are always based on the needs of the user and the requirements of architecture. Functionality, suitability for everyday use, taste, feel-good atmosphere and the right mood play a big role. I deliberately do not commit myself to one design. Every person is an individual and that should be reflected in the design.

Drawing perspectives is not so easy. The most important thing is the proportions. To get these better, I often put a grid underneath and draw over it. This is how this drawing was created.

What is your design process like? Where do you gather your inspiration and what prepares you for creating an architectural design?

I cannot really say whether I have a classic design process. Some say the design process is always chaotic, but in the end, something great comes out of it. I stopped counting how many drafts I discarded again. However, in the end, something always came out of it.

My family say that I “steal” with my eyes. I internalize everything I see. Nothing escapes my gaze - consciously and unconsciously. My photographic memory helps me enormously. In addition, I also search specifically for ideas. Especially in magazines, on social networks and in my environment. Only then do I begin the draft, quickly sketching my thoughts; it does not yet matter whether it looks good. Only the idea is in the foreground. Finally, it is the turn of the finished drawing.

I have been drawing on this project for a few months now. It is mainly used to create exercises for my webinars. I am also using this project to try out new techniques. I am always asked a lot about functions and approaches in everyday life. This way I am able to answer them.

What tools and programs do you use in your design process? How does Concepts fit into your work?

I have not gone anywhere without my tablet for two years now. Even on vacation I have it with me and sketch something quickly. Besides the app Concepts, I also like to use Procreate. I think they complement each other perfectly. Of course, I also use the Adobe Suite, but I notice that I am much more flexible with the tablet.

What I like about the Concepts app is the ability to scale. What I used to do with a sketch paper and pen, I can now create digitally anywhere. As often everything starts with the floor plan, the first draft is always created in the floor plan, and for that, I need measurements.

The new perspective feature is awesome for me. I love to use it to quickly implement a design in perspective, because that is what customers often fail to do in their imagination.

This was actually a self-experiment. My community has asked me, "How fast can I get a presentable result?“ Not knowing the answer to that, I started an experiment. I wanted to draw this bedroom, picked out some inspiration, set the stopwatch and started drawing. In fact, I was able to create this sketch in half an hour. I was surprised, myself, by the result.

Finally, I no longer have to scan a sketch and post-process it in Photoshop. I can directly reuse the created work, which saves a huge amount of work in the process.

I love that I can also create my own brushes. If you have always been used to drawing with markers, colored pencils and pens, it is hard to get used to the digital medium at first. So at some point I had to create my own brushes and pattern brushes. These are now available in the Concepts app for designers.

In my webinars, I am always waiting for the moment when someone says, "This is exactly what I was looking for and this is what I want to be able to create!" Many are looking for exactly the functions which the Concepts app offers. Especially those who used to use pen and paper are now delighted with the app and the many ways they can use it.

Would you be willing to share a floor plan and walk through how you made it?

Everything starts with the first sketches. Usually there is already an old floor plan of a building and the goal is to improve and optimize it. Therefore, I first draw my thoughts and ideas with red over it.

I look at the shape of the room, where the daylight comes from and where are movement areas. Then I can arrange the furniture.

Step 1 - First thoughts are sketched in red.

When I am happy with the design, I trace all the walls and usually fill them with a dark color. The windows and doors are of course also crucial.

The Measure function is a great help. In parallel, I use it to check whether the doors are big enough and the furniture has enough space.

Step 2 - Trace and fill walls.

Then comes the nice part. With the help of the library objects that I have created over time, I fill the floor plan. In this phase, I also test out again whether the intended arrangement of the furniture makes sense.

With the possibility of object groups and the rotation of objects, I can quickly fill the room with furniture and try out a lot.

Step 3 - Try furniture layouts.

Next, I always fill out the floor. There is mainly a psychological reason behind it: when I have finished this, it looks like I have already colored almost everything, because the floor always takes up the largest area.

My self-made pattern brushes are a great help to me. Very quickly, I can suggest materials with different patterns.

Step 4 - Color in the floors.

Finally, the furniture and fixtures are colored, and light and shadow are added.

This gives the drawing a certain three-dimensionality and depth.

I always tell my students, "Do not forget to sign your work, because you can be proud of it!"

Step 5 - Add shadows and light.

With such a floor plan drawing, the customer can already very well understand how the room concept should look - which object will be placed where and which floor coverings are planned.

With the help of the layers, possible changes can also be made quickly.

Can you tell us a bit about your design challenges and any other projects you’re currently working on, or any future projects you’re excited about creating?

Something I have been waiting for for many years is to be able to teach 100%. I want so much to pass on my hard-earned knowledge to others who are truly ready to learn. This desire was born in 2016 and since then I take every opportunity to teach.

Instagram has brought me a lot closer to this goal over the past two years. I would so much like to create and offer several online courses in German and English on the topic of presentation techniques. Especially through my Master's thesis, in which I started to write a book about it, I noticed that the demand is high. This also means that the completion of my book remains a goal of mine.

In addition, I have many ideas and smaller projects going on, which I hope to be able to make public soon.

I have been planning bathrooms in my job for a good six years now. Therefore, it is necessary that I also draw one in Concepts.

Do you have any other design tips that would be useful to others?

Oh, yes, so many! Some of them are on my Instagram profile. Nevertheless, if there is one thing I have learned that is incredibly important when representing spaces, it is this:

"Learn to observe your surroundings properly and to look at what surrounds you! Only then will you be able to implement your ideas perfectly in drawing."

And never forget: you can learn to draw, because everyone can visualize!

Jessika Wendel is a technical draftswoman, designer for interior and object design and has a Master of Arts in Interior Architecture. In addition to her profession, she teaches the topic "Sketching Techniques in Interior Design" at the Technical College for Wood Technology and Design. She also gives webinars on graphics programs and digital drawing apps for the tablet. She has been drawing with the iPad since late 2019. The content of the webinars is based on her maxim: "Visualization is something everyone can [learn to] do!"

You can find Jessika Wendel @visualisieren.koennen.alle on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and her website.

Discover more of Jessika's work here on her Concepts Creator profile.

Interview by Erica Christensen

Turning an Interior Design Vision into a Visualization

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