How To Tell If A Career In Interior Design Is Right For You

It is a myth that one is always sure of what career path they should choose, or what their life's work will entail. In fact, many young people in fashion colleges or other universities remain unsure of what they really want to do throughout the process of obtaining their various degrees. However, you might have an inkling of a career path inside of your natural passions. For instance, an interior design school education might be right for you and you don't even know it yet! Read on to see if you can identify with any of these vital signs that could point you towards a rewarding career in design.

Take a moment to ask yourself a few simple questions. Do you have an interest in spaces? When you are in a new place do you pay a lot of attention to your surroundings? Are you often making changes to your house or apartment and its design elements? Are you creative and artistic? Are you crafty? Do you work well in a group or team dynamic? If you have answered yes to some or all of these questions, an interior design school degree might be just what you need to get your career off to a great start. The experience you will get at a top-notch design college will prepare you with the knowledge and skills you will use in any number of rewarding professional projects. For instance....

1. Artistic and technical foundation. Design students will learn how to draft plans for a space and communicate those plans to others. They will also familiarize themselves with a number of different design and construction methods and materials to create and furnish a space. Additionally, students learn how to accent a space with textures, colors and light.

2. Communication. A strong interior design degree program will also emphasize to its students the importance of interpersonal communication skills in the professional world. Often, a designer working on a project will be responsible for communicating with several different people all at once. Between clients, contractors and a design team, you must learn to command attention and also to listen carefully.

3. Strategies. Another important skill you can practice at design college is how to strategically plan out all of your projects and work. It is common for somebody in the interior design business to work on several different projects at once, often with demanding time constraints. A strong designer will carefully plan out their schedules and installation dates so they can satisfy their clients with a job well done.

An interior designer is somebody who possesses a wide variety of skills. A good designer must obviously be creative, artistic and have a knack for, well...design! But that is far from all. A truly good interior designer must also be innovative, precise in their designs and able to communicate idea and plans both to clients and to their work staff. An interior design school can teach you a lot of technique, but the true interior designer's flair must come from within. Do you have what it takes?

Interior Design Tips and Disciplines

Interior design is in line with architecture. It has little to do with the decoration of the interior of a building. It includes renovation of homes, floor plans and codes of construction. Interior designers are people who design the interiors of buildings. Creativity is a key aspect in this profession and it works in unison with the establishment of an abstract course.

Interior Design Disciplines

There is quite a wide series of disciplines in the interior design career. They include specialized performance, function, computer technology, skills for presentation, social disciplines, aesthetic, promotional and professional disciplines. Cultural implications also play a disciplinary role in relation to interior design. In order to pursue this career, a person needs to have attained a degree in architecture or technology.

The Design Process

The process of designing the interior of a building is similar for all types of buildings. It begins by identifying a client's objective, budget and timescale. This is what interior designers refer to as brief taking. The main aim at this stage is to improve the client's returns.

The designer provides the client with a Cost Proposal, which gives the total estimated costs of the interior design that is to be performed. Most designers prefer to use the Computer Aided Design but a few others use hand sketches. The later portrays individuality. Computer aided design is mainly used to correspond solutions for design in sensible views. This program saves time as compared to hand sketching, which is time consuming.

The preliminary concepts are then presented for authorization. Once approved, the designers begin to make floor plans. Afterwards, specifications are made in connection to the furnishings, alterations and finishing. Repositioning of windows, doors and walls is done if necessary, at this stage. While this is being done, the designer must have the exterior plans in mind as well. If the performance handles project management, then the interior designers may naturally take up this role.

Specifications of the design are incorporated in a package which is later on used by the building contractor to finalize the client's design. The design phase can be done years or even months after the completion of the design requirements.

How To Get Great Home Interior Design Ideas

If you like the idea of coming up with your own home Interior design, you are not alone. Lots of folks these days are planning out and then executing their own interior designs. But how do you come up with great home interior design ideas? Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

Probably one of the easiest ways to get home decoration ideas is to simply watch television these days. There are several shows that are dedicated to the subject of completely redesigning an entire house room by room. The biggest problem with watching these television shows is having something in front of you as documentation. So a couple of ideas that may help out is to have a pencil and paper available to take notes as you go, and also to record the program for viewing later on.

Even though you may get some great home interior design ideas from these television shows, ask yourself whether or not they will fit well in your particular home. Just because they look great on television in someone else's home does not mean that it will fit in well in your home. So try to visualize the whole project from beginning to end in your house. And plan, plan, plan. By taking extra precaution in the planning stages, you can ensure a more problem free application.

However, television is not the only source for home decoration information and ideas on Interior design. There are several great books on the subject that are able to help designers of almost any background and experience level. The advantage of books is that the documentation is already done for you. It usually has a very well thought out plan for implementing any kind of home interior design on its pages. And usually you'll be able to have more than enough photos and pictures to help get a good mental picture of the process as it goes.

Another way to get excellent ideas for interior design is to look through magazines on the subject. There is no shortage of magazines that are devoted to home decoration and interior design. Believe it or not, even many professional interior designers collect large quantities of magazine articles and pictures and store them in a way that will help them have a larger pool of ideas to draw from in the future. Not being a professional yourself, it may be a good idea to start your own scrapbook of home interior design articles and photos that you can separate according to a specific theme or room type. Sometimes, the best decoration ideas are a combination of things that are brought together from several different sources to form a unique, one-of-a-kind design.

As you become more comfortable with your own level of creativity, you will be able to combine aspects of one design with another more adeptly. However, as you start out it may be best to stick to the overall themes and suggestions given in the magazine for achieving the look that is desired.

If you begin right away to assemble this archive of home interior design ideas, it won't take long for you to have a really sizable reference guide to help you come up with almost any idea that you could ever need.

So as you can see, gathering information and ideas from several different sources and compiling them all together in an easily researched form can be one of the best ways for you to get great home interior design ideas quickly and easily.

Office Interior Design Ideas

When putting together a home office it is important to remember two things: it is an office, but it is also in your home. Too often, we will end up with an office that has too little "homeyness", or an office that has too little office. In this article, I will discuss how to balance the varying goals of building a home office, including how to keep it function while at the same time keeping it warm.

First, make sure your space is actually functional. This isn't a compromise on what I just said above; every home space should be functional first and decorated second. Make sure you have a wide enough desk for any projects you will be engaging in, room for your computer and room to store any files and books you use regularly. If you don't like moving your computer on and off your desk, try to have two desk surfaces as a part of an "L"-shaped design. Make sure you have a strong lamp or lamps to illuminate the surface.

Now comes the tricky part. You'll want to decorate your office now more like a part of a home than like a part of an office. Office decor is not designed to be functional; it is designed to be cheap. You don't need to be cheap in your own home. Bookshelves look very nice in an office, as they match the functional shelves near your office while also evoking the style of a library.

Now, you'll want to work against the harsh "officeyness" of your home office by introducing some homey touches. Be subtle, but be firm. Using plants is one of the best ways to offset the functional feel of a lot of office furniture. In addition, use some paintings, artwork or other touches that match the overall style of your home. Finally, include a sofa, since it allows your family to visit you in your office without feeling like a client.