Interior designing is a career that entails aesthetic vision blended with creativity and imagination. Designing interiors is an art that involves shaping interior spaces using spatial volume along with the surface treatment. It draws inspiration from environmental psychology, decoration styles of the past and present, architecture, and designs that infuse a pleasant appeal. This creative profession requires an artistic bent of mind, combined with discipline, concentration, and the skill to transform imagination into design.
The Profession:
Since time immemorial, the practice of interior design has been alive and flourishing. People have always decorated their homes in various styles to enhance its beauty. However, this art has now become a profession, and various institutions have started teaching it as a formatted course. These courses teach students how to manipulate the architectural features of interior spaces, by creating a distinct experience of lifestyle, through the visualization of how the inhabitants of the space will use it.
Interior design courses enable students to:
a) Analyze specific needs of clients, their objectives and life safety requirements.
b) Integrate observation with intricate knowledge of interior design.
c) Formulate fundamental aesthetic and functional design concepts in congruence with the client’s specification.
d) Develop and present final design recommendations through presentations, incorporating suitable media.
e) Get certified to perform the job, as it is illegal to work unless you are certified.
f) Prepare and manage bids and documents of contract as a client’s agent.
g) Review and appraise design solutions both while implementation, and after completion.
Specializations
An interior designer can specialize in various areas according to their specific interests, skills and qualifications. It could include residential, commercial, corporate, hospitality, healthcare and institutional design. In addition, there could be further distinct expertise acquired, depending upon one’s inclination to specialize in a particular field. This could include restaurants and cafeterias, offices and general stores, medical facilities, and many more, which could require further certification.
Styles
Styles in interior design could vary from traditional to modern, environmental to residential, and others, but revolving around the basic concept of design principles. Design principles are the standard guidelines for artists involved in the profession of designing. It includes balance, proportion, unity, isolation, domination and repetition. Color, ergonomics, as well as the basic functions of design, help an interior design artist understand and develop designs in an aesthetic manner. The concept of form, mass, shape, line, pattern and texture add to the beauty of a design by enhancing style.
Skills Required
The profession of interior designing mainly focuses on the ability to satisfy the client’s requirement according to their specifications. In order to accomplish the job proficiently, an interior designer needs to possess the following skills:
a) Technical And Artistic Requirements: Interior designers should know how to plan and present a space so that the ideas incorporated can be communicated well to the client. They should also be knowledgeable about products and materials to enable them to decorate the space, defining texture, color, and lighting. Technical specifications such as health, safety and building codes should also be kept in mind.
b) Interpersonal Communication Skills: An interior designer needs to possess excellent communication skills, as it would be significant to convey the concepts of design to clients. This helps in presenting the final design and negotiating with clients in order to solve misunderstandings and arrive at consensus.
c) Management Strategy: It is very important to have a hold on project management abilities, as they frequently work on various projects under acute pressure of deadlines. Therefore, designers need to understand the basics of business planning so that they can market their brand name, designs, and maintain good business relationships with their clients.
Interior design is both an art and a science; it creates attractive designs and transforms dull spaces into lively ones, using the science of spatial design, color compatibility, and structure specification. It is certainly a profession for artistic people who possess the ability to sense and implement aesthetic elements in design.
