Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Christine M. Piotrowski, FASID, IIDA, of Phoenix, Arizona, provides consulting services on business practices to interior designers. A former professor of interior design at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Christine has more than twenty-five years of interior design experience. She is the author of several books on interior design, including Designing Commercial Interiors, Second Edition and the bestselling Professional Practice for Interior Designers, Fourth Edition, both from Wiley.

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Here is the completely updated guide to today’s interior design careers―a clear and concise survey of the interior design field covering:

History of the profession Educational preparation Interviews with designers Certification and licensing The design process Where the jobs are Owning your own firm Design specialties

• Residential
• Commercial
• Sustainable design
• Corporate
• Hospitality
• Retail
• Healthcare
• Institutional
• Entertainment
• Restoration and adaptive use

“Becoming an Interior Designer is the go-to book for an inside look at the profession of interior design today. The advice from a broad range of practitioners and educators about the professional requirements and business of interior design make it an invaluable tool for those contemplating an interior design career. The added bonus is Christine’s ability to draw out from her interviewees the common passion for improving quality of life, which is a rarely referenced quality of a successful interior designer.”

―Suzan Globus, FASID, LEED AP, 2007 ASID National President

Aus dem Klappentext

The profession of interior design has received a lot of media attention in recent years, whether it's on the many "home makeover" shows or in the movies. The reality is, interior design in the twenty-first century is much more than selecting colors and arranging furniture. Today's interior designer is a multifaceted professional, with expertise in building and safety codes, project management, designing for seniors, sustainable design, and other important areas that require increased skill and training.

If you have a vision for creating the interior spaces of residential or commercial buildings, Becoming an Interior Designer is the first step to a successful career. More than a how-to book for finding a job, this helpful guide is a road map to the early stages of forming a lifelong career and finding your special niche in this burgeoning field.

This Second Edition of Becoming an Interior Designer will prepare you for entering and succeeding in the interior design field. It covers all aspects of getting into the industry, including updated information on the following:

• Licensing and certification
• The newest educational requirements, with a helpful list of accredited interior design programs in the United States and Canada
• Professional tips on portfolio preparation
• Discussion of work environments-- from home office to large firms
• Advice for finding clients and boosting revenue
• Helpful guidance on managing a successful career
• Photos of projects by professional interior designers from all major design specialties

The author interviewed nearly 100 professionals in the field who share their personal insights to help you discover what the interior design profession is really like.

With everything you need to start your journey, Becoming an Interior Designer, Second Edition will be your launch pad for a long and successful career in interior design.

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Becoming an Interior Designer

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

We spend over 90 percent of our day in interior spaces. Despite this, most people take interiors for granted, barely noticing the furniture, colors, textures, and other elements-let alone the form of the space-of which they are made. Sometimes, of course, the design of the interior does catch our attention. Maybe it's the pulsing excitement of a casino, the rich paneling of an expensive restaurant, or the soothing background of a religious facility.

As you are reading this book, you obviously have an interest in interiors and interior design. It might be because you have always enjoyed rearranging the furniture in your home. Maybe you like to draw imaginative floor plans for houses. It could be that a relative or friend is a contractor and you have been involved in the actual construction of a building in some way. Perhaps you saw a program on television and it inspired you to learn more about the profession.

The interior design profession is a lot more than what you see portrayed on various television programs. The profession of interior design has been defined by educators and professionals. This widely accepted definition is provided to help you understand what the profession is all about:

Interior design is a multi-faceted profession in which creative and technical solutions are applied within a structure to achieve a built interior environment. These solutions are functional, enhance the quality of life and culture of the occupants, and are aesthetically attractive. Designs are created in response to and coordinated with the building shell, and acknowledge the physical location and social context of the project. Designs must adhere to code and regulatory requirements and encourage the principles of environmental sustainability. The interior design process follows a systematic and coordinated methodology, including research, analysis and integration of knowledge into the creative process, whereby the needs and resources of the client are satisfied to produce an interior space that fulfills the project goals.

Professional interior designers are not interior decorators and interior decorators are not professional interior designers, although the public generally does not see any difference. "Interior design is not the same as decoration. Decoration is the furnishing or adorning a space with fashionable or beautiful things. Decoration, although a valuable and important element of an interior, is not solely concerned with human interaction or human behavior. Interior design is all about human behavior and human interaction."

Although a professional interior designer might provide interior decoration services, an interior decorator does not have the education and experience to perform the many other services of a professional interior designer. A decorator is primarily concerned with the aesthetic embellishment of the interior and rarely has the expertise, for example, to produce the necessary drawings for the construction of nonload-bearing walls and certain mechanical systems that are routinely produced by a professional interior designer.

What Do Interior Designers Do?

Interior design professionals provide the owners of homes and many kinds of businesses with functionally successful and aesthetically attractive interior spaces. An interior designer might specialize in working with private residences or with commercial interiors such as hotels, hospitals, retail stores, offices, and dozens of other private and public facilities. In many ways, the interior design profession benefits society by focusing on how space-and interior environment-should look and function.

The professional interior designer uses his or her educational preparation and training to consider how the design affects the health, safety, and welfare of occupants. Many projects today include careful consideration of sustainable design in the selection of furniture and materials used in the interior. Planning the arrangement of partition walls, selection of furniture, and specifying aesthetic embellishments for the space are all tasks the designer uses to bring the interior to life. A set of functional and aesthetic requirements expressed by the client becomes reality.

In planning a residence or any type of commercial interior, the professional interior designer engages in many tasks using a wide variety of skills and knowledge gained through education and practice. The professional interior designer must consider building and life safety codes, address environmental issues, and understand the basic construction and mechanical systems of buildings. He or she must effectively communicate design concepts through precisely scaled drawings and other documents used in the industry. Another critical responsibility concerns how to manage all the tasks that must be accomplished to complete a project as large as a 1,000-room casino hotel or as small as someone's home. The interior designer must also have the business skills to complete projects within budget for the client while making a profit for the design firm. And, of course, the interior designer selects colors, materials, and products so that what is supposed to actually occur in the spaces can.

This book helps you see clearly what the profession is about and what the real work of interior designers is like in the 21st century. It includes comments from professional interior designers in many specialties, sizes of companies, and areas of the country. These responses are presented to help you get an idea of what working professionals think about the profession. I posed the question "What do interior designers do?" to many of the designers whose work or other comments are in this book. "Problem solving" is a common response, but many other tasks and responsibilities are also mentioned.

What Do Interior Designers Do?

> Residential interior designers support their clients in realizing their dreams and creating a home for their family and friends. We research, design, document, and specify the interior architectural finishes, millwork, plumbing, lighting, cabinetry, and interior design details and work closely with the project team (client, architect, and contractor) to implement them. Second, we bring together the complete vision for the project through the design, research, and implementation of the interior furnishings-from all the furniture to the artwork and accessories.

Annette Stelmack, Allied Member ASID

> Create environments that support the human condition in whatever activities it chooses, including living, sleeping, working, playing, eating, shopping, healing, or praying. These environments must be safe, accessible, sustainable, and, in many cases, beautiful. But, most importantly they must be functional for the person(s) inhabiting them.

Lisa Whited, IIDA, ASID, Maine Certified Designer

> Interior designers create interior environments that are functional, aesthetically pleasing, and enhance the quality of life and culture of the users of the space. In doing so, they have an obligation to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.

Jan Bast, FASID, IIDA, IDEC

> We influence life patterns by creating healthy and safe environments.

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