Designer Spotlight : Pencil Planning

The founder of Pencil Planning, Sine J. H. Kim, is opening his own coffee shop in Kuala Lumpur after designing it himself. The grand opening took place on November 9th and the shop will be open 7 days a week from 10am to 10pm. He created a place where locals can socialize and relax while enjoying a great cup of Dutch coffee in a splendid environment. There will be lots of interesting events and promotions. Using gold filters and fresh coffee beans, he is selling high quality coffee at an inexpensive price. Sine J. H. Kim has been in Malaysia for 5 years and his interior design and architecture business is active since 2009. After living in the United Kingdom for a while and consulting an economic advisor, he saw the opportunity for his business to grow in Malaysia. After arriving here without any connections, Sine J. H. Kim faced difficulties when getting his business off the ground but continued to chase his dream to become a successful interior designer. Now, years later, his business is doing well and you can say that Sine J. H. Kim has achieved his goal. He was extremely motivated and never gave up. Today his characteristics can be seen in every aspect of the company. We sat down with Sine J. H. Kim and spoke to him about his business.

1. How did Pencil Planning come about?
Sine J. H. Kim (SK): After composing music in the past and discovering that this was a great way to express emotion, I found my passion to be designing and decided to major in architecture. When I came to Malaysia, I was struggling but once the first customer came in, more customers started coming in and slowly but steady I got to the point I am now. As of today, the company is driven by motivation to create unique designs and achieve goals that fulfil the creative spirit of the home owner, myself and the rest of the company.

2. What is the culture in your company?
SK: We are very organized and like having everything a clear path to follow. Pencil Planning is all about getting to know the home owner and his or her wishes for their future home. We like to be challenged by creating something unique and pushing our boundaries each and every time. Our company is very motivated to create something special and put in maximum effort to come to an amazing final result.

3. What is your firm signature style, one that home owners remember and share with their friends?
SK: The thing we find most important is the relationship with the home owner. We like getting to know all about their ideas. In our work we like to use a lot of vertical and horizontal lines. A home owner can also recognize our work because we like to optimize the space given and use it to its full potential. For the future, we are also considering to add a tiny logo of our company somewhere in our designs.

4. Where do you get your design inspirations?
SK: We think design is a form of expression. When I was younger I used to compose music and express my emotion through music. We find joy in creating a design that others like very much but at the same time adding our own touch as a company and expressing our emotions and feelings.

5. What kind of project do you dream of designing?
SK: As this moment, we focus on residential projects but when looking ahead and thinking of something different… I would love to design a skyscraper or a museum.

6. What designer tips you will give to first time home owners?
SK: From my experience, I find it very useful to meet the home owner and talk face to face about their ideas, wishes, and inspirations. That way we can start our creative side and get to work on the design.

7. What is your worst experience with home owner?
SK: Customers not fully enclosing their budget to me has a strong negative effect on our creativity. The creativity of Pencil Planning can be in full force once we have a clear budget to work with. This allows us to have a better final result.

8. What is the most memorable project you participated, and why?
SK: I recently opened my own coffee shop and I really enjoyed working on this project. I was able to express my personal feelings and at the same time create a place where locals can enjoy a great cup of coffee. Visitors often stay here for a longer time to work because it is a very convenient place to sit down and focus, but at the same time a good place to relax and chit chat with friends.

9. What is your design philosophy?
SK: We like to hear different views and create a combination of what the home owner likes and our own views into the final design. We want to differentiate by showing our personal touches on the work. We enjoy creating something that is fulfilling for both us as interior designers and home owners.

10. If you were to describe your ID style to home owners in one sentence, it will be ___
SK: Form follows function. We like this quote by Louis Sullivan. We like to believe that everything has a purpose in the design and should be used to get the best possible outcome. We care about the owners wishes and at the same time put in our own touch.

Years of Experience: 7
Projects completed to date: > 100

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