Before going into the interior design profession you should seriously consider this question. Do you have what it takes?
Interior design is challenging but can also be very fulfilling and rewarding if, and only if, you are willing to put in the hard yards.
Interior Designers are creative, they are artistic and they are imaginative people. Others may think that
this business is all about picking out colours and working with beautiful fabrics and shopping all day long. Nothing could be further from the
truth. It is about being a skilled business person who must be disciplined and
organized.
Keys to Success In order to be successful, the interior designer must be
able to combine learned knowledge with creative vision.
• They need to be able to determine good design from bad design. What is in fashion at the moment is not necessarily good design
or good taste.
• They must be able to make the most of space, determine what the end use of a room will be and create this use for each
individual.
• They must understand basic design principles and know how color, scale, proportion texture, lighting and other factors combine
and interact in the overall design picture.
• They must also understand structural requirements of plans, building codes and health and safety issues as well as other
technical aspects.
People Business Interior Design is a People business.
• They must be comfortable meeting and dealing with the full realm of personalities. Customers will vary culturally and economically in their
attitudes, personalities and lifestyles.
• They need to be good at teaching. They will have to teach their clients about quality, good design, good taste, types of floor coverings,
fabric etc.
• They must be capable of encouraging clients to express their own individual personalities as this is the most important design ingredient.
• They must also be good team leaders and team players. They are often dealing with architects, contractors and other service providers on a
daily basis. They must be able to mediate and negotiate in order to solve problems.
Management Interior Designers must have a management strategy.
• As they are often working on more than one project at a time, interior designers must have excellent time and project management skills.
• They must be able to sell. This is what the interior design is about, selling ideas. They must be able to create informative and persuasive
proposals and presentations.
• They must be accurate in what they do. They must fine tune projects. They must keep accurate billing records, track orders, figure up
estimates, make bids and trouble-shoot problems as they arise.
• They must also be able to handle stress everyday. Murphy’s Law reigns supreme and if anything can possibly go wrong, it will. If you don’t make
a mistake then ‘the butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker’ will.
Conclusion
As you can see, interior design is a challenging profession but there are major advantages. There is a vast array of advancement and with the
expanding economy; interior design and the need for it will grow. Within each town or city, there is a community of like minded, innovative and
creative individuals driven by their passion for what they do and it is design that allows them the freedom to do so.
View this Interior Designer video featuring Aura Interior Design.
