When Construction and Interior Design collide

EVIT Construction and Interior Design students are putting the finishing touches on their miniature houses this week in preparation for the Block of Dreams Open House coming up on April 28th.


The Construction students have spent the entire school year constructing the two-room homes, and now the Interior Design students are adding their own special flair with paint and decor.


To get an idea of the final result, check out last year's houses here. Hope to see you all on the 28th!

Prepping for job interviews

Students in EVIT's Interior Design program got some practice doing real, live job interviews on Friday.

Human Resources representatives and industry leaders visited the class and met with each student for 10-15 minutes. They asked the students questions about their experience and then gave feedback on how to improve interviewing skills.


The first-year students prepared resumes and the second-year students compiled portfolios of their work to present to the interviewers.

The interview practice will help students prepare to land an internship or job, instructor Kim Foulger said. Ms. Foulger's goal is to help each student get an internship before they complete the program.

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Paige Bartlett, a Highland High School student who won the EVIT Interior Design Program's Room Makeover Contest!

Paige was nominated for the contest by her friend, Teal Rutledge, an EVIT student in the medical assisting program. Paige will get a full bedroom makeover, complete with new furniture, bedding, lighting and artwork!

Paige (in the center, holding the certificate) was surprised with the announcement at the end of the EVIT Expo event on Jan. 29.

The Interior Design students are ready to get crackin' on the new design for the room. We'll post before and after pictures here once the project is complete!

Sittin' pretty

The second-year Interior Design students wrapped up a big project this week -- the chairs that will be featured in the annual Spring Fashion Show later this year.

The Interior Design and Fashion Merchandising students are collaborating for the second year in a row for a special feature during the show. Fashion students will design garments that coordinate with the Interior Design chairs. The second-year Interior Design students presented their chairs to a panel of students and administrators.

The students were given themes, such as travel, art, music and people. From those themes, students had to find a more specific inspiration.

Here are a couple of the finished chairs:



To see more pictures of the chairs and presentations, click here.

EVIT Interior Design students head outside

East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) Interior Design students became "Exterior" Design students today as they studied and analyzed the outside of EVIT buildings.The morning students took advantage of comfortable temperatures and studied and drew the EVIT architecture, paying attention to spatial differentiation and depth perception. The afternoon students stayed inside and took in the tall ceilings in the lobby of the Administration Building for their studies.

An open house ... of the "mini" variety

The interior design and construction students put the final touches on their mini-house projects this week, in preparation for the public open house happening from 5 to 7 p.m. tonight (Tuesday).


The "Block of Dreams" Open House will be held for one night only, so make sure you stop by to see these amazing houses. The students have been working on them all school year, and they are impressive, to say the least.

Interior Design students decorate mini-houses

EVIT interior design students are helping the construction students wrap up their year-long miniature house project by adding a splash of color and pizazz.

The construction students have spent the year building the frames, laying the drywall and wiring the electricity into their tiny houses. Here are a couple of pictures from their work over the first few months:


The houses have come a long way since the beginning of the year! Now, the interior design students are adding paint and various design elements, including curtains, to spruce them up:

EVIT spring fashion show a success

The EVIT fashion students put on two amazing Spring Fashion Shows last night.

One especially fun part was right at the beginning of the show. Fashion students teamed up with the interior design class to create matching outfits and chairs. The interior design students decorated the chairs in whatever style they were given (country, rock, 1920s, etc), and the fashion students created a garment that coordinated.

Then the students, models and designers all came out on the runway with the chairs and matching outfits. It was really something to see! Here is one of the country-themed chairs:


And matching model:


The rest of the show was just as great, filled with beautifully designed clothing from the first and second-year fashion students.


The multimedia students took lots of amazing photos, too, which I will post next week. Here is one of those students, hard at work at the show:

Interior Design unveils sets for Video class

EVIT Interior Design students held an open house this week to show off three sets they designed and built for the video productions class.

Each set was on display for a day or two in the video productions area. Video students will be able to use the set designs for a variety of class projects.

First up was a living room/dining room set:


Then a college dorm room set:


And finally, an office set:


I'm hoping their next project is my office.

And then there were frames...

The last time I visited the construction class, the students had just begun their big class project -- building miniature houses. The houses were sort of hard to envision, because this is all there was:


But I went back on Monday, and imagine my surprise when I walked outside and saw this:


When they're all done, the houses will have doorways, windows, drywall, stucco ... maybe even a sink!


The interior design students will partner up with the construction students toward the end of the school year to help decorate the houses, too.


By next week, I'm told there will be roofs!

Lending their expertise

Second-year interior design students were working on a project today for the video productions class: a new set.

The set will be able to transition from an office to a bedroom or a living room to a dining room, depending on the video students' needs.

Here are the plans, drawn by the interior design students:


And the students, hard at work: