Gobbi, Drew

My name is Drew Gobbi. I am 20 years old and a full-time student. As a emerge further into society as an adult, there are several things I have learned about the importance of my own identity. I have gained a lot of respect for myself and others which has led me to care a lot about the relationships I have with other people, especially family and friends. Something that has helped me establish positive relationships is being consistently generous and reliable towards others. This has helped built trust between me and others. Speaking and acting with gentleness in conversations also has made me feel confident about the perception of myself towards other people. Creating a good image and reputation for myself is something that has really benefited my opportunities and helped me to be an outstanding individual. I possess a lot of self-determination to maintain my character and push myself further in all directions of success. This is one of the characteristics that helps me have persistent work-ethic, expressive creativity, and devotion towards my passion of interior design.

Do you have any plans after this semester?

After getting some much needed rest, I plan to update my portfolio and get it ready to send off to apply to internships. I also am going to use some of my free time to continue working on my part-time digital marketing position for a small Mid-Century Modern furniture curation business.

What type of designer would you like to be?

I would love to work in the commercial design field. I am interested in hospitality and retail design, but actually really loved working on an office space, so maybe corporate workplace design is my path!

Can you tell me about any problems you ran into in the studio or outside?

Because of the workload and expectations of this semester, it was hard to not let school completely consume my life. Also, I feel like a few of the assignments either did not correlate with what we were working on at that moment, or actually impeded our progress rather than improve it.

What kind of place would you like to design next?

I would love to design a restaurant space or some type of retail storefront.

What do you think makes a good workplace?

A space that facilitates functional and effective productivity, yet takes the user out of the typical mundane work environment through dynamic and collaborative design.

Can you tell me what evidence-based design means to you?

To me, evidence-based design is when a space effectively reflects the technical goals and intentions that it was aiming for. It is backed by things like psychology, precedents, sociology, and human factors.

Compared to previous semesters, the semester may be challenging in many ways, but you may be able to see your accomplishments. Reviewing your accomplishments, what did you learn from this studio?

This semester really taught me the importance of a design concept. While I have had concepts for previous projects, they did not drive my design decision nearly as much as my concept this semester did. I feel like the fact that my concept was defined both creatively and spatially really helped me create the vision I was aiming for.

Would you like to share anything with future students of this studio?

If at any point during the semester, you feel like you might never make it to the end, do not doubt yourself! You are so much more capable than you may realize. Time management also.