I specialise in custom builds – house, skyhome or commercial builds.
The FLW House
Inspired by the work of legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the FLW House is a one-off design intended to capture the quintessential style of his stunning designs and provide a highly individual home suitable for avatars in Second Life.
From the start, the intention was to design a house that was as faithful to Mr. Lloyd Wright’s 1930s signature style as possible while respecting the limitations imposed on building facsimiles of real-world buildings by Second Life itself, but without making the house overly huge or seemingly out-for-scale: intimacy of design being one of Mr. Lloyd Wright’s hallmarks.
Given that the location of his designs played an integral part of the overall look and design of his most famous house designs, great care was taken to ensure the FLW house reflected this, and so the build included landscaped gardens, complete with 30-second ambient sound loops. As water also frequently played a part in Mr. Lloyd Wright’s designs, the landscaping included a river, complete with rocks and waterfalls (again with sounds to enhance the ambience of the build).
A lounge designed by Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright
Mr. Lloyd Wright’s homes were very much a product of their era, incorporating what were then cutting-edge styles and decor to create a truly unique living environment. As many of his most famous houses were built during the early 1930s, the second half of the popular era of Art Deco in the United States, the FLW House was purposefully built to reflect this basic tenet of Lloyd Wright designs, incorporating lighting designs inspired by his own and demonstrating a similar use of rich wood effects and bright colours within the supplied furniture.
Also in keeping with its surroundings, and like many of Mr. Lloyd Wright’s houses, the FLW House deliberately used natural stone looks, together with a blending of wood-based furniture designed to enhance the ambience of the finished house and creating a feeling of something very unique and personal.
FLW House lounge
However, given that most residents in Second Life already have their own furniture, some of which may be particularly personal to them, it was important that the FLW House did not overpower the owner in terms of forcing a particular style of furniture upon them, but left plenty of room for personal and individual items to be placed out and used – as I hope is evidenced in the images here.
Elsewhere in the house, it was important to retain the overall look and feel that epitomised Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs, while maintain adequate room for both avatar and camera movement, avoiding the frequent issues of the camera being forced into walls, etc., as one moves around.
The main bedroom and terrace
Care was particularly taken in the two bedroom levels, where maximum use was made of both space and style to present rooms that were very much in keeping with Mr. Lloyd Wright’s designs, incorporating familiar features such as access to terraces, large, framed windows to provide plenty of natural light, the use of natural finishes (stone, wood, etc.), in order to provide spaces that were both unique while allowing the occupier to place their own stamp of individuality upon them without feeling at all constrained by the design.
Overall, I’m still very pleased with the finished FLW House, which I hope stands as a worthwhile example of both the kind of custom design I can produce, and also what can be achieved when combining the best of real-world designs and the capabilities of Second Life.
Custom Store Design
The look and design of your store can say as much about you as the products you sell. In a competitive market, a design that allows you to present your work in an environment that the customer can relate to and move around in easily can be as important as the range and depth of the items your produce.
When I was approached by Cheyenne Colasanti of Chey’s Spicy Outfits and asked to design a store that not only reflected her stunning rang of latexwear but which also suited the location she’d found for her new main store location, it was important that I came up with something both unique and striking.
Three elements influenced me in the development of the build:
- The nature of Chey’s products which, while fetish-based, are suggestive of something futuristic
- The pre-terraformed hills of Zindra in which the store must be located
- The amazing lake front vista available to the front aspect of the store
Together, these three elements inspired a design that incorporates very modern, clean lines, blending them into a futuristic, almost “space-ship” style of design which blends into the hills around it through a multi-tiered approach and which provides a large open-plan level that provides a magnificent view out over the lake itself.
The upper level and the open patio
The store comprises three levels, which rise from a teleport arrival point located under the main levels and looking across the lake, the large open-sided “patio” level with central stairwell and lighting fixtures, which offers the lake front view and plenty of room for free-standing and wall-mounted vendor boards, and the enclosed, sweeping form of the upper store, complete with a rez area in which customers can open their purchases and wear them.
Given shopping is a 24-hour affair in Second Life, and many people don’t like to change their environmental settings when hopping around the Grid, a vital part of any store design is to provide adequate lighting and illumination. Often this is achieved through texturing and the blending of textures. For Chey’s store, I opted for a different approach, using scripted lighting effects that are self-regulating: automatically coming on at local dusk and turning off at dawn. These provide a very unique method of lighting the store and help present it.
The store at night
A limited use of low-level glow effects has also been incorporated in the design, which help draw attention to the store at night, and which further enhance the “futuristic” look and feel. The entire build is finally topped-off with the all-important branding: the subtle use of the Chey’s Spicy Outfits logo in floor panelling on both the Teleport arrival platform and the open patio area.
I’m very proud to have been asked to provide Chey with her new flagship store, and would like to thank her for allowing me to use it as an example of my custom builds here on the blog.
I hope you’ll check out the build – and Chey’s outstanding range of saucy latex wear by visiting her soon! Here’s a review of her outfits, and a little comment on the store itself!
If you are looking for a custom store design – or indeed, custom home – drop me an IM in-world!
