Career: Interior Designer

Today I will be talking about Interior Design as a career path.

An interior designers job is to create indoor spaces that are both visually pleasing as well as maximally functional. They are responsible for understanding what their client would like and how they will interact with the space, and can design anything from housing to office space. They must also ensure that anything they design, other than being functional and aesthetically pleasing, is safe and cost effective for their client. They also need to have good communication skills. An interior designer must work alongside others like engineers and contractors while designing an area, as well as be able to present a design to inspectors. They must also have good time management and a good feel for deadlines.

To become an interior designer you would typically need at least a bachelors or associates degree. While your major does not necessarily affect your ability to be hired, most interior designers will have some form of fine arts education. Experience with business and finances is helpful as well, especially if you are self employed working as a designer and not working through a firm or larger company. Obviously, the higher your education level the better, and interior design programs at higher levels do exist, even up to the level of a doctorate if you are interested in teaching interior design.

If you are looking to pursue a degree in interior design in Virginia, there are programs at many different colleges, such as VCU, or Virginia Tech. Within the US, the Savanna College of Art and Design has a particularly well known program, as well as other colleges such as Pratt Institute and Cornell University who also have high quality interior design programs.