Hello,
My name is Justin Highlander and I am current graduate of Columbus College of Art & Design. I studied Interior designer in our four year CIDA accredited program. I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio but have been living in Columbus for the past six years. I enjoyed the school and learned as much as possible, and have been learning every day in the workforce.
On my pages you can see that I have a Fine Arts section and an Interior Design section. I graduated with a minor in Fine Arts to broaden my horizons and open my mind to think more creatively in all of my interior spaces I design. In the Interior design section, you can see that I have done many projects throughout the years.
Junior year (2009-2010) we started off with a project for ODYS (Ohio Department of Youth Services). We had real clients, and got to interview them and understand the programming to design and take a site visit to understand the building. We redesigned a juviecenter and focused on security issues, safety for guards, sight lines and how the juveniles would use the space. In the spring, we designed an office space and hospital space. This was a 24,000 sqft building located on Livingstone Ave, Columbus, Ohio. It was a two floor structure and the upstairs was the office and the ground level was the hospital. It was designed for CCFA (Center for Children and Family Advocacy) and focused on how the interior influenced the victims coming into the hospital. Color theory, space planning, how they interacted and used the space was the focus of my project.
Senior year (2010-2011) we came up with a senior thesis and wrote a paper about all our research and proposal of the idea we created. We learned how to organize our thoughts on paper and how to communicate the research and design through writing. At the same time we designed a historical hotel, The Hartman Hotel in Columbus, OH. We designed a multi-use space on the first floor and hotel rooms on the second floor. As a team, my classmates and I created a program of what we were doing to put in the first floor such as a restaurant, kitchen, coffee shop, music/art studios and a meeting room. This program and project was designed for our clients that were traveling artists. it was taking everything we had learned the past three years and used that knowledge in a renovation of a hotel and multi-use historical building.
I have learned a lot about retail design from the two internships at Limited Brands and one at Asset Strategic Group working for Express. I am currently working at Shremshock Architects & Engineers and I am being taught the construction side of retail design. I am gaining a lot of knowledge about all the construction details and how specific ways typical portions of the store have to be built. I am eager to learn more things from all the more experienced designers in the retail design industry.