Interior designing is a very attractive and an interesting job profile. If you have the knack and love for designing homes or interior spaces, then interior designing is just the job for you. As an interior designer you have to deal with safety, function and the aesthetics of the various interior spaces that you design.
As an interior designer you are meant to deal with various colours, furniture, textures, lightings and ways in which you could style and lay them out in the limited space that you have. It is not only homes and private residences that an interior designer has to deal with. This job profile also entails designing offices, restaurants, hotels, airport terminals, theatres, shopping malls to name a few. Also schools and hospitals make the list. It is an interiors designer’s job to make any stipulated interior space habitable and attractive, as this does help increase the sales, attract high profile clientele and improve the market value of the respective edifices.
Conventional interior designer’s work mainly used to entail selecting a style and colours, selecting and arranging furniture, flooring, lighting etc. But today, an interior designer does all that and much more. Many interior designers today are also involved with the architectural aspects of a building and its planning layouts. So, today the aspiring interior designers are also trained to read blueprints, building and fire codes etc.
Many interior designers work in partnership with architects, building contractors and electricians so that they can work out designs and see to it that they are safe and conducive to the building and construction requirements.
Irrespective of the space stipulated to work on, most interior designers follow a set routine. The first step they take is called as programming. Here, they learn a client’s demands, wishes and requirements thereby, setting a benchmark they can work about. For this, a designer has to meet the clients in person and discuss and chart out a plan and budget. It is very important that as an interior designer, you understand the client’s point of view. Then the designer needs to visit the location to work on to observe the space and formulate a rough draft.
After that, he begins to formulate a design plan and chart out the budget and the estimate costs. Today, most designers use computer aided design (CAD) to generate designs. CAD makes detailing easier and much more accurate than hand made designs. After having come up with a design, he will put forth his piece of work to the client and discuss it with him and make the necessary revisions as per client’s taste.
Once the design is accepted and finalised, the designer will now focus on the different materials that will be required to give a face to his designs like the furniture, flooring, artwork, lightings etc. If the design is complex and involves intervening with the building’s core construction and structure, then the designer will first get an approval from the construction specialist or inspector to ensure that his project meets the building codes. If his project involves structural work, the designer might work in collaboration with an architect or engineer. Designers also work with various contractors for performing the technical tasks like electrical, plumbing and wiring.
Finally, after everything is decided upon, he will give an estimate date or a deadline by which the job would be done. The designer will supervise all the tasks and installations.
Majority of the interior designers handle different kinds of projects, while there some who specialize in any particular niche of interior designing like they might specialize on the type of building that they will work on – commercial or residential. They can also specialize in various types of designs. These days, environmental/green, elder and ergonomic designs are getting extremely popular.
As an interior designer, you could either be employed by one of the many big corporations or some design firms and work for regular hours or you could work as a freelance designer and work on contractual basis. So, this way your work schedule could get erratic.
To become an interior designer, you need to have at least a bachelor’s degree to be academically qualified after which you get to work as an assistant or join many of the apprentice programs for budding designers for a certain period of time to be qualified to give licensing exams.
But to become an interior designer, a degree or license is not all that matters. You need to have a creative streak, be imaginative and be good at communicating your ideas and thoughts. You need to be ready to work under pressure of various deadlines and schedules. Also, if you plan to become a freelance designer or open your own designing firm, you need to be endowed with good business sensibilities.
Career in interior designing is quite a lucrative one and is creatively stimulating and satisfying.
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