Interview with:Yelena Kublitski [yelenakublitski]
DESIGN
 | What is your specialty? I teach homeowners how to choose the right paint colors for their homes, and how to create balanced color schemes where all the colors work/coordinate with one another. |
| Where can we view your portfolio online? You can find hundreds of painting ideas, instuctions for DIY projects and color lessons at http://www.HousePaintingTutorials.com |
| What made you interested in design? It's hard to explain WHY you are drawn to something! Let's see... I am a very visual person and react strongly to color. I can also detect subtle color nuances - which allows me to put together color combinations that work. I also know how to put color in words. And when you are good at something, you tend to do more of it! |
| What has been your professional career path? Our house painting business allowed me to get hands-on experience choosing and coordinating paint colors for our customers. My website helped me to learn how to articulate my color knowledge. |
| Have you received any awards for your work in the field of design? I am not interested in any industry awards - I gauge my work by what my customers and website readers say about it. |
| What is your motivation? What makes you get up in the mornings? I love teaching, sharing and inspiring people - that's what makes me feel alive. |
| How would you define your design style? In my own home, I like French colors. When I help other people, I become a clean slate and focus on what they prefer and what suits their homes. |
| How do you promote and move your work? Most of my customers find me and my website via Google. Some come from Facebook on a friend's recommendation, yet others "stumble" upon me on Twitter. |
| In which new areas would you like to experiment? I love the character of faux painted finishes, and am planning to explore this further. |
| Shapes, color, concept: where do you usually begin when conceiving a design? I start and end with the goal in mind: what mood/atmosphere are we going for here? How would we like to feel in this room? Everything else is the means to this end. |
| What are your sources for documentation and to generate ideas? I get my best color ideas and inspiration from Nature - you can never go wrong if you copy Her colors. |
| Which festivals or awards in your field do you find most interesting? I can't think of any in my industry...! |
| What is your favourite type of customer? It's weird but I love it when a person doesn't know what they want/like. I feel like a detective trying to figure out and articulate their natural color biases/preferences for them. It's very gratifying for me to help people discover who they are through color. |
| To a certain point, is copying justifiable? When it comes to color, you can never really "copy" in the true sense of this word, because color changes drastically in different lighting and in different contexts - it never looks the same. You should try to replicate the feeling instead. |
| List some things you dislike seeing in design. When trying to play it safe, people end up with blah and boring. |
| Do you believe the newer generations are better at designing? I don't think age has anything to do with our sense of beauty. |
| With which type of client would you decline in working for? It has never happened to me yet - so far I've been attracting some pretty wonderful people! |
| How do you calculate budgets for a design project? I charge a flat hourly fee. |
| Which professionals in your field -contemporary or past- do you most admire? The ones that I interviewed for my website. |
| Which software applications do you most utilize in your work? Photoshop - to help customers visualize the end result. |
| Up to what point do your designs reflect your personality? Very little if any - when working with customers. The colors I choose for their homes is all about reflecting their personalities. |
| How do you distinguish passing fads from mainstays in new trends? Mainstays are more liveable (subtler) colors, fads are usually more jarring. |
| If you weren't a designer, what would you be doing? I would be a personal development, health and business teacher/coach. Yes, all at the same time! |
| At this moment, what would be your dream job or project? I would love to teach color to a group of people. |
| Can you see yourself in this field twenty years from now? I can, although it may evolve into something that will include my other talents and passions as well. |
| Which design resources online do you frequently visit? Mostly design and color blogs. |
| 
514 visits Whohub
Yelena Kublitski
Oceanville, NJ USA
|
99700 interviews created
![[yelenakublitski] Yelena Kublitski](http://www.whohub.com/_pics/44282.jpg?1369477863)
INVITE YOUR FRIENDS