There are more and more schools offering interior design classes than ever before and this is due to the rising interest in this field. People enjoy spending money redesigning their homes, and business and the commercial sector are in an ongoing need for creative and talented interior designers. This results in an abundance of opportunities for you after you complete your interior design certification.
What do interior designers do?
Interior designers have a goal of creating functional areas out of spaces in buildings. They design environments for living, working and functioning according to the needs of the client. Graduate interior designers can find work in architectural firms or as a freelance interior designer. Some speciality areas of expertise for interior designers include:
- Kitchen and bathroom design - Lighting - Retail store design - Office planning - Health care planning - Universities and schools - Historic locations
Interior designers by nature must be creative people. Although most of the skills can be learned at interior design schools, creativity generally comes naturally to someone choosing interior design as a career. Creative skills that will be studied in school include color choices and compatibility, textures, space, cultures, materials and more.
...a discussion of education and career choices for interior designers.
By W. Randy Hoffman InteriorDesignSchools.org Contributing Writer January 27, 2003
Do you enjoy TV shows such as "Trading Spaces," "Surprised by Design," or at least half of the HGTV network schedule? When you visit a friend's house for the first time, do you find yourself thinking about how the furnishings could be improved or better positioned? In a cathedral or museum, do the room spaces interest you as much as the art they contain? If so, you might make a good interior designer. You can get a wide variety of interior-design training from many institutions; if you do well, the continuing strong demand for professional interior-design services virtually assures you a rewarding career.
For most of the world's history, interior design was reserved for large public buildings and the dwellings (in life and in death) of the extremely wealthy and powerful: palaces, temples, tombs, and the like. "Ordinary people" hardly had the resources to survive, much less beautify the places where they lived. But when a middle class began to emerge during the early Renaissance, interior design spread to the masses; designers have been improving the look, feel, and usefulness of even the smallest of homes and other buildings ever since.
Interior design is about more than ornamentation; it's about creating a total environment inside a building or vehicle that best allows or induces people to do the things that the building is meant for. Sculptures, computers, and drill presses can be designed without being overly concerned about where they'll be placed, what other things will be nearby, or what people will be doing in their vicinity besides using/appreciating them. That's decidedly not the case for interiors. Interiors are inhabited; they are art that people live, work, and play in. Because they involve such complex webs of interaction between space, objects, and human needs and behaviors, designing interiors can require much more consideration and planning than other design types.
You can learn interior design at several types of schools:
Numerous career schools now offer interior-design certificates and diplomas (and some degrees), including Brooks College in Long Beach, CA; Harrington College of Design in Chicago, IL; Antonelli College with campuses in Ohio and Mississippi; the Art Institutes with campuses across the US; the International Academy of Design & Technology with campuses across North America; and American InterContinental University with campuses across the US and in London.
Many community colleges and junior colleges offer certificate, diploma, two- or three-year associate degree programs, or even higher degrees in interior design, including Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, CO; Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, WA; Delgado Community College in New Orleans, LA; Lansing Community College in Lansing, MI; and HKU SPACE Community College in Hong Kong.
You can get many types of degrees in the field from traditional four-year colleges and universities such as the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL; Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA; Ohio University in Athens, OH; Ryerson University in Toronto, ON; and the University of Salford in Salford (Greater Manchester), UK. Depending on the school's philosophy and emphasis, four-year interior-design degrees might be Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, or Bachelor of Fine Arts; graduate degrees will be similarly diverse.
As Net-based education grows in popularity and availability, it will be more and more possible to earn certificates, diplomas, and even degrees online. Online interior-design education is already available from several institutions, including the Art Institutes Online, and Rhodec International.
Choosing an interior-design program is very much like choosing any other type of educational program. But in addition to considering class sizes and the locations, costs, lengths, and types of programs, as you would in other fields, you should investigate the facilities of any campus-based interior-design program: How good is their design studio, and the computer hardware and software you'll use for design work? Also, what are the qualifications of their faculty? Does the program have relationships with architectural or interior-design firms that will help you get real-world experience as a student? You'll probably want to attend a program accredited by the Foundation for Interior Design Education Research (FIDER), which has been holding schools in North America to a single standard for interior-design education since 1999. And perhaps the most important question: What percentage of the program's graduates have historically gone on to successful careers as professional interior designers?
Here are some of the different subjects you might learn if you study interior design:
Drawing, drafting, and perspective are vitally important; you'll need to be able to draw what you're designing, and to translate loose architectural drawings into realistic scale representations, in order to make sure that a design will work before you actually try to install it. Computer-aided design (CAD) makes producing and working with 2D and 3D drawings much easier, and is an essential tool in the modern design industry. Learning modeling will help you to turn your drawings into those scale-model site plans that companies love to put under glass in the front lobby.
The history of art and the history of interiors will teach you to recognize and selectively use styles and designs that have been used in previous years (and centuries).
Form and space might seem basic, but it takes training to perceive some of the ways that they influence how people see their environment and use the things in it.
You need to know the properties of materials: not only how they hold weight or hold paint, but also the temperatures at which they burn, the gases they release when they burn, whether they reflect or absorb sound, and more.
Learning concept presentation is a good idea, because you'll have to use oral descriptions and written proposals to persuade your clients that your visual ideas are their best options.
To actually build or install your designs, you'd better know construction, construction documents, and building codes.
You can accessorize nicely if you have a good grasp of textiles (woven goods such as linens, carpeting, and tapestry) and furniture design.
If you plan to incorporate living plants into your interiors, you should study gardens or horticulture.
Ergonomics, the study of reducing the stress of positioning and moving the human body, will help you to make safer interiors that seem easier and more natural to use.
The Oriental design philosophy of feng shui, which tries to balance and harmonize the flow of "life energy" through interiors and their occupants, is currently popular and can often prove useful even in the most Western of settings.
Not all projects involve designing new interiors from scratch, so you'll need to know the special requirements of additions, the preservation and restoration of older spaces you want to keep, and the renovation and reuse of older spaces you want to make over.
If you hope to be a partner in or proprietor of an interior-design firm, you should take business courses.
Which brings us to what happens after you graduate. Interior designers have terrific employment opportunities with architectural firms, corporations, industrial concerns, retail stores and chains, government agencies, and many other companies. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment for designers to "grow faster than the average for all occupations" through the year 2010, although competition for positions will be keen. However, even if job competition is high, people who have been trained in interior design are better suited than those in many other occupations to create or partner in their own businesses. The BLS notes that "[t]hree out of 10 designers are self-employed�almost 5 times the proportion for all professional and related occupations." According to 1997 business-census calculations, the US was then home to almost 10,000 interior-design firms, averaging only 3.5 employees per firm. Here are some of the career specialties that an education in interior design can prepare you for:
Interior decorators concentrate on the aesthetics of an inside space -- how the paint will look under various lighting, how the upholstery will feel, how the chairs will complement the carpeting, and so on. (By contrast, interior designers are concerned not only with aesthetics, but with such things as electrical and fire safety, usability, acoustics, and whether or not design elements meet specifications -- in short, how to make an inside space most fit for use by the people who live, work, or visit there.)
Residential interior designers plan and specify what goes into people's homes, focusing not only on finishes and materials, but on patterns of foot traffic, child safety, home security, the cabling and space demands of everything from refrigerators to home theaters and computer systems, and much more. Because a majority of home-construction spending goes toward renovations, and bathrooms and kitchens are the parts of homes that are renovated most frequently, some residential interior designers specialize further as kitchen and bath designers.
As opposed to working on private residences, commercial interior designers plan and design the insides of public buildings, including but not limited to hotels, restaurants, theaters, stores, malls, schools, churches, museums, libraries, office buildings, hospitals, and even prisons. Each type of building has specific design needs and limitations, so many commercial interior designers specialize in particular types.
Exhibit designers work with curators and preparators to design building installations -- including cases, pedestals, display tables, wall and lighting fixtures, entire galleries, etc. -- with an eye toward the harmonious display, lighting, and preservation of the exhibited items, as well as the flow of visitor traffic past or through the exhibits.
Rather than concentrating on the colors and functions of interior objects and surfaces, space planners creatively arrange spaces. Given the people and things and activity that a room or building must contain, a space planner's task is to make sure that those contents are situated so that the room or building remains as space-efficient and comfortable as possible.
Set designers work with production directors and art directors to design sets and backgrounds for stage productions, films, and live-action computer games to maximize the experience of the audience while staying within production budgets.
Lighting designers use lighting systems to make interior spaces more visually satisfying, keeping in mind their other design elements and the relevant energy, maintenance, and electrical-code issues.
What careers can you learn by attending graphic design school? You might be surprised at the huge variety of professions you can master at a graphic design college. Here’s a list for starters:
Graphic design
3D graphic design
Website graphic design
Flash website design
Layout artist
Art director
Illustrator
Multi-media designer
Photo editor
Logo designer
Brand identity designer
As you can see, there are a wide variety of different fields to consider if you are interested in attending graphic design school. But how do you know if you have what it takes to pursue a career in graphic design?
Do you seek out and admire good design in any application? Do you linger over well-designed websites, and drool over hip magazine layouts? Are you picky about how your home, clothing and surroundings look? Graphic designers live for good design in every aspect of their lives. Visual communication is all about capturing and holding people’s attention, and graphic designers learn to do it in as engaging a way as possible. You may work in print, online, or in multimedia, but in whatever field you choose, knowing the elements of good design is key. Learning the technical aspect to support good design is also vital.
This is where attending a reputable art school or graphic design school comes in. While all graphic designers start with a good eye and an innate sense of design, this is a field that requires technical expertise, too. It is such a booming profession, with so many interesting jobs being developed all the time, that attending graphic design school will give you a huge leg up on your career.
Because graphic design is a popular profession, there are many colleges and universities which offer degrees in the field. However, you will also find a number of reputable art schools which offer you specialized training in a concentrated period of time. These graphic design colleges and art schools can get you on the right path to a career in your chosen field quickly.
Start your search for graphic design schools online, with one of the many art school directories that are available. Through these websites, you can compare information about many different art schools and request more information from each of them. You can consider location and many other aspects of the school’s program, such as whether they have small class sizes, who is their faculty, what are their career assistance programs, and how up to date is their equipment. You will also want to make certain that your potential school has a program in the specialty you are interested in.
Narrow your search to several graphic design schools and apply to all of them. Once you’ve begun the process of applying to art schools, you can sit back and relax for a bit. Take a breather while you can, because soon you will so engrossed in a fabulous new career in graphic design.
Just as you can find interior designers in many different types of locations, you also have the option of choosing from a large variety of different schools in a variety of places. Perhaps you are looking for a change of scenery and you would like to go to a school on the other side of the country? Perhaps you have always lived in a very rural area and are craving a taste of city life? Or perhaps you love your current location and would like to study interior design from home? You are in luck! We have options available for you. There are two lists of schools provided below. One list has links to schools located all over the country, and the other list has links to online design schools. The options are endless! Click on a state and see what it has to offer!
Choose a State Below to find the Right School for you:
Choose a City Below to find the Right School for you:
Any of the top ten interior design schools can turn you into a talented professional. Interior designers are responsible for planning and beautifying the interiors of houses, places of work, and other living spaces for comfort, attractiveness, and convenience. Graduates with interior design degrees pick wall paint, fabrics for furniture, and floral arrangements to decorate a living space.
Interior Design Online School There are several considerations to make if you plan to study Interior Design. Choosing the level of education you desire is the first step in choosing your online school, and it can narrow your scope considerably. You can now get a Masters in interior design online, with quite a few courses of study to choose from.
The design of this restaurant space within a University provides a template for a program that combines eduction & industry. Housed on the 5th floor of an institutional building, the School of Hospitality, Tourism & Marketing at Victorian University wanted to create a marketable educational environment to provide students with an indication of the future [...]
