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.