Some people have a knack for design. If you love design, colour, & working with people, becoming an interior designer could be the perfect career path! It allows you to combine your creative mind to design homes, buildings, offices, & more with your practical mind to take care of logistics, budget, customer service skills, & planning.
Before you start dreaming of room makeovers, consider first whether studying to become an interior designer is for you. As an interior design student, you can expect to face daily challenges & while some may not appeal to you, others you might find motivating & exciting.
Interior design is a multi-faceted profession about solving problems & putting the pieces together within a structure to achieve a built interior environment. It’s about finding creative design solutions for internal environments while supporting the health, safety & well being of occupants & enhancing their quality of life.
Let’s look at how to become an interior designer & things you should know before studying interior design.
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What to Expect When Studying Interior Design.
While fabrics, furniture & colour may play a large role in interior design, there are plenty of other things that interior designers have to do daily — many of which may seem less like fun & more like work.
Interior designers need to be educated in design history, buildings’ structural integrity, building regulations, ergonomics, spatial concepts, ethics, psychology, computer-aided drawing (CAD), & much more.
It may seem obvious, but you need to have an innate flair for colour, spatial arrangements, architecture, & textiles to become an interior designer. Do you enjoy decorating your home & get lots of compliments on your taste? That doesn’t necessarily mean you should go down this path, but it’s certainly a good sign.
While design students can offer a wide range of design styles to choose from, it is essential to remember that you are designing for (real or imaginary) clients to decide what works for them. Just because designers are educated & have good taste does not make their choices superior to their clients.
An excellent interior design degree will teach students how to offer various styles & direct them toward the right design choices while allowing them to feel in charge.
Once you graduate, you might find that you work as an interior designer for years & never design a house that suits your tastes. It is all about finding solutions for the brief & you must put your personal preferences aside.
Advantages of Pursuing a Career in Interior Design.
Studying Interior Design Leads to A Creative Job.
Many people have creative job. If you pursue a career in interior design, you have a platform to use your creative prowess. Interior design is fun. Designers play with colours, shapes, fabric, textiles, etc. every day. But what makes it hard, & a bit stressful is the many tasks & assignments.
When you’ve been able to design a project to full completion & see it all come together, it’s incredibly satisfying. The truth is that not all jobs have this factor. Sometimes you get called into colour consults or to do portions of an area where a client feels stuck. Those you don’t always know what the outcome is.
Interior Design is a Growing Industry.
Interior design is an industry that is growing at a rapid rate. But, due to modernization, interior design has reached new & exciting heights. There is plenty of work in this industry from hospitality & sustainability to corporate & automobiles. Additionally, companies, organizations, & firms all need the services of interior decorators.
Interior Designers Have Good Salaries.
Depending on the industry or studio you work for interior design can be a well-paying vocation. As an interior designer, you can set the price for your work. If you end up having your own practice, you may make a lot of money by buying, reselling, and installing the furniture and accessories, you specify.
Interior Design is a Sociable Profession.
Careers in interior design are exciting because you get to work with new people every day. But, interior design offers you this. You also get to use your creativity to enhance the interior of the spaces you are working on. Interior designers need to pay attention to detail & know how to combine components to create beautiful & exciting results.
Interior designers lead a client to their goals & vision. They can be on the job site in a hard hat, sitting at meeting with clients, & then working in a library full of architectural samples.
Interior Designers Get A Variety of Clients.
Because of client variety, there are plenty of opportunities to have unique experiences throughout your career. One day you may be decorating a hotel interior – the next it might be an office space. In some jobs, you will be working with colour in others you might be working in monochrome.
Another benefit of being a designer in the digital age is that (providing you have a good internet connection) employers & clients can reach out to you from anywhere in the world. Thanks to technological innovations such as Skype & design software, designers discover a whole new virtual design world.
Disadvantages of Pursuing a Career in Interior Design.
Interior Designers Get Difficult Clients.
Interior designers meet clients with varying lifestyles, personalities, & styles. Other clients may be uptight & want to control the entire design process. Some clients may interrupt, interfere with, & alter your design plans. Ask interior designers to share their experiences, & they will surely relate some horror stories of past clients.
People are demanding, especially when it comes to their homes. While some clients have clear goals in mind, others may think they know what they want only to discover that they hate the final product & are dissatisfied with your work.
Budget Restrictions & Salaries.
A client will give you a specific budget to work with for your design project. Hence, strict budgeting will apply for furniture & accessories. Freelance interior designers set the prices themselves & a lot of interior designers are freelancers.
Since the interior design market is highly competitive, freelance designers may not have a steady income from time to time. In-house designers do have good regular income; however, there will be a compromise on creative freedom & responsibilities.
Interior Designers Face Strict Deadlines.
If you’re not good at sticking to schedules, you might want to rethink going into interior design. Working with strict deadlines is common & may cause you to shuffle your tasks to complete the project on time.
Naturally, this can be stressful, but if you’re organized, it’s something you can get used to. Designing can be difficult when you get last-minute update requests from clients, but if you get the hang of managing your workload, this is unlikely to be too much of a problem.
Interior Design Is A Luxury Service.
Interior design is a service that is considered a luxury, meaning that in times of recession, the construction industries take a hit, & job scarcity may increase competition. When there is no work, or you’re between jobs can be very stressful.
It can feel so opposite of that satisfaction that you can end up getting quite discouraged. The key to success in this competitive industry is getting yourself noticed & keep checking in with your network.
A fantastic portfolio of work will help you land jobs, but a network of people who can refer you to clients is what really ensures you keep landing jobs. The more people within the industry you know, the better off you will be.
To stay ahead of the game you might want to consider looking toward population growth, accessible designing, modern architecture & sustainable design; education within these specific design fields will give you the upper hand in the job market.
Wrapping it All Up.
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