How do you become a professional interior designer?

How do you become a professional Interior Designer?

What is a professional interior designer and how do you get there? This is a question that I get asked frequently by readers. It is very difficult to answer because all countries have different criteria. So I will give you a brief overview of how I see the path to becoming an interior designer.

Firstly you need to have the desire and passion for interiors, if not you will never make it through the learning period.

Secondly, you need to be able to access quality education. This is easier said than done, and I get asked frequently to recommend education facilities worldwide. Unfortunately I do not have intimate knowledge about global interior design education facilities and who is best in each region, but I can give you some tips on finding the right education facility for you.

• find out from you local interior design institute or association what are the minimum requirements for you to become a registered or practicing interior designer in your country, then make sure that the education facility will provide you with that opportunity as a minimum.
• find out the time frame and make sure it fits with your current lifestyle.
• find out the price of the course and make certain that you are getting value for money by comparing the curriculum of different facilities available to you against how much they charge and how much tutoring time you will receive.
• check if they offer you one on one tutoring or question and answer time or are you just set assignments to answer and then receive grades. Feedback is very important for interior design as it is a creative vocation, and not simply black and white, yes or no answer education.
• ring around local interior design practices and see if you can get some work experience and make sure it is the desired vocation for you. If this is not possible, call them on the phone and ask what sort of education and experience would they require to employ an interior designer at their practice. This will start to give you an idea on how hard or how easy this journey will be for you

Thirdly, test the water! As I mentioned above, contact a local interior design practice. Ask if they would be happy to have you “hanging around” whilst you are studying to learn and get some real experience of how the industry works, this is so important, because interior design is not just about making interiors look good, there is a great deal of planning, paperwork, client interaction, and management involved and these areas can be very stressful, so if you aren’t an organized person, being a professional interior designer could be a struggle for you. Try short courses on interior design or areas of interior decorating that interest you, get some background training and make sure that you want to take the step to become a professional interior designer. Obviously interiordezine.com is a great place to do this testing as we offer you free courses on interior decorating, color and curtain design. These courses are extensive, cover a great deal of information and give you the wonderful opportunity of making sound decisions on your future. If you partake in these courses, enjoy them and feel the desire to learn more, then your decision is made. Get out there and become a professional interior designer.

Finally continuing education, as an interior designer it is vital that you constantly keep learning about your industry. It changes constantly like any other area that has trends and fashion.
At interiordezine.com we offer a website that will help back you up on your learning, you can do your research there, search for product and materials information, learn about fittings and fixtures, get ideas for brain storming design concepts, learn the “lingo” of designers by using the glossary and get prompted by our newsletters to read something of interest about interiors and keep your creative mind active.

So to conclude, some countries do not have any form of registration to become an interior designer, whilst this is good for you, it also means that the industry in your country could have “cowboys” or unprofessionals. This means that the industry will probably have a bad reputation, no set standards or guidelines which makes it difficult to quote or estimate for projects as you don’t know what your opposition will be pricing on and the consumer often does not have realistic expectations. The best thing to do here is set your own standards, get a good reputation and by word of mouth you should be able to succeed. For the countries with quality registration practices, then you know that if you pass, you have a high quality education and are employable, and the industry should have a good name.

I hope that this will provide you with some tools to help guide your career. If anyone has comments about any education facilities that have been to and liked or disliked, then feel free to share them with us by commenting below.

Chris Brown, has written awebsite specifically designed for professional interior designers. It has information that is useful to you in your current position. He covers areas like project management, contractors and consultants, marketing your business, presentation drawing, drafting and documentation, contracts, construction, CAD and more.

Willowcollege.com has very extensive courses on interior design, interior decorating, curtain design, color for interiors and a step by step course for starting a business as a color consultant. Go take a look now and see how you can become a professional Interior Designer!