Misconceptions

Painting a wall, hanging pictures and/or paintings, picking furniture, rugs, pillows and lighting fixtures. Tells you what? That you can adorn a room with stuff. Not much to it right? That's what most of these "design" shows on television do. Reality of television makes everything look simple, easy and quick. A lot of the television programs out their make the general public perceive interior designers as decorators, and that anyone can does this. There are a couple shows out their that do open people eyes that no not just anyone can do this. But those are few and far between. In all actuality this is not the case it is not easy and it takes time do design a room that fits just right for whomever the client may be and is functional and safe. That is just the design part it does take into account the process to make the space come into fruition. All these shows have not just the "designer" but they have assistants and a full crew to help them put the spaces in order in a day, two days or whatever days it may be. That puts pressure on actual interior designers because now they have to deal with the misconceptions that these shows provide. Yes, interior design is a young profession compared to others but we don't need the media to make us less than what we are.

I.D. Celebration

On August 4th, 2011, my school The Art Institute of Tampa got to host an interior design regulation celebration to thank and honor Florida senators and chairmen. The event was possible because of the Florida House Bill 5005 did not pass a couple of months back. What is this exactly...well people were and are still trying to deregulate the interior design profession. Trying to make it so you would not  have to  the education, experience and licensing needed to become an interior designer in the state of florida. Which if you knew everything you do need to know to be a great  interior designer you definitely need the all the criteria mentioned. For now Florida is safe and that is why the event was held. Over 200 people attended to show their support from current students to alumni, teachers, professionals and people who encourage interior design. The event was a few hours long and we all got to meet a variety of people from all over Florida. Overall the event was a success and it was a privilege to be able to be a part of something that I strongly believe in.

I Hope You Know

What do interior designers do? What is the value of having a design education? Are two good questions that coincide with one another because in order to be a great interior designer you need an education. Interior designers apply creative and technical solutions to spaces that are functional, enhance the quality of life and satisfies the needs of the client(s). What does all this actually entails is what most people don't know or just understand. A lot of people associate decorators with interior designers and think that is what we do. That my friends is not the case by any means, the NCIDQ website states the differences beautifully....."Interior design is the art and science of understanding people's behavior to create functional spaces within a building. Decoration is the furnishing or adorning of a space with fashionable or beautiful things. In short, interior designers may decorate, but decorators do not design." Anybody can decorate a space but to design a space while taking into consideration the health, safety and welfare of the public, adhering to building code requirements and to encourage environmental sustainability is no cake walk. Besides learning how to incorporate all this during our time at school we also learn all the steps it takes to complete. Research, programmatic development, formal analysis,space planning, ideation, construction documents, detailing, specifying materials and finishes, reflective ceiling plan, lighting, rendering, perspective drawings are just some of the steps that we do when designing a space. The programs one uses to accomplish your projects is another reason why one needs to go to school and learn how to use them. There are several programs that a designer can use to help design and render with. AutoCAD, Revit, and 3dMax, InDesign and Illustrator are just some of the programs you learns and uses. I just want people to understand that interior design is a profession and should not be taken lightly if you want a career in it because after all you are affecting how people interact and feel in a space.

The Chosen Fork In the Road

      Hey there I'm Ronald Roa, but for short Ron is just fine. I want to start off with a little background on me to let you know how I was influenced growing up to pick the career I am going to school for currently at The Art Institute of Tampa for Interior design. First ten years of my life I moved around alot until I got to the Tampa Bay area in March of '94. Being born in Queens, New York in 1983 only being there for about a year and a half then moving down to Miami lived there for a few years. After Miami we went back up north to Trenton, New Jersey lived there for a little over a year, then went to Salem, Pennsylvannia. We lived there a almost two years then moved to Good ol Chicago, Illinois. From there we finally got to Tampa and have been here ever since except for when I went back up to Chicago for a year after I finished high school.
      Moving around growing up I obviously lived in several different apartments and houses, so i got to see different designs and spaces throughtout my childhood. After we got to Tampa we first moved to an apartment and lived there for a little while until we found a house. One of the things I loved when we were looking for a house was going to all the various model homes in many communities in the Tampa area. I was exposed to that basically my whole life. Even now I still go to model homes just to look at different spaces. Growing up i Found Architectural Digest magazine which i absolutely love. So from there I knew I wanted to be in this field.
       After high school I moved to Chicago because I went to school up there for a little while going for accounting and worked at my families accounting firm up there. Well needless to say after that experience I could not do that for the rest of my life. So I came back down here and for the next few years I just kind of lived life and had fun. Finally at the age of 24 I said I need to start my life and go back to school. So I did some research on schools here and it was between going to USF for architecture or at The Art Institute of Tampa. Decided to go where I am currently getting my bachelor's for interior design. Chose the Art Institute because it is more hands on and smaller class sizes. Once I finish here am planning to hopefully get a job out there somewhere, work for two years then start doing the process to take the NCIDQ exam. After that whole ordeal I do want to go back to school and get my Master's degree in architecture at Sci-Arc in California. One thing I do know is that Cali is my final destination and will live happily ever after there.