A 5 Step-ladder to Help Decide Your Career as an Interior Designer

Interior Designing is a constantly evolving, lucrative career. A satisfying career for a person who is able to create:

• An experience
• An emotional value 
• The Ora story of surroundings for 

The designer should plan it in an organized manner and to please senses too. 

The professional needs an understanding of the interior, functionalities, colour schemes, fittings and furniture.

The place could be an office space, house, an apartment, or an amusement park.

The ideal way to go ahead in this profession is through:

• Conceptual Planning
• Aesthetics
• Technical and creative solutions
• Follow up on trends

So, to build yourself as the next brand of finest Interior Designer, excel the art of planning the decoration, the way textures and lighting enhance&make a structural space appear pleasing and functional, follow these steps-

Introspection

First and Foremost, get down to analyse and understand if this is the right career for you

• Familiarize yourself with the ongoing trends, the trends of the past, and history of the profession
• Sewing, tailoring, and measuring skills are essential. Willing to acquire and learn them?
• Colour palettes, working knowledge, sketching and architectural details are prerequisites too. Develop them.

If you are able to say a YES on these basic skills, while analysing your interest, you are ready to move ahead.

Education

After introspecting your inner desire to pursue Interior Designing as a career, it is highly important to get a firm foundation or degree to start with it. 

A good read about the eminent Interior Designer, their work, inspirations, and vision can also better shape the career.

So as you complete schooling, enrol for a degree in Interior Designing. It’ll help to better understand the nuances of the career. Acquaint yourself with the minuscule details that define and distinguish it. Get started to understand how the industry works. 

• At the associate level, the degree in interior design will introduce you to the basics only. The novice gets to learn spatial planning, furniture design, architecture and computer-aided design. 
• Graduates with a 2-year degree can often find work as an assistant to a licensed interior designer. Graduates gain important experience and opportunities to enhance their portfolio.
• With a bachelor's degree in interior designing, graduates work as an apprentice either for a licensed interior designer or in a design firm, at a furniture store or at an architect's office. These apprenticeships can be for a period between one to three years.
• By getting a Master's degree one can improve his/her chances of landing a job, in accordance to some interior design schools.

There are some of the top institutes offering Interior Design courses: 

• Vogue Institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore
• United World Institute of Design (UID Ahmedabad)
• Indian Institute of Art and Design (IIAD - New Delhi)
• Pearl Academy (Noida, Mumbai, Jaipur, New Delhi)
• Aditya College of Design Studies
• JJ School of Arts, Mumbai
• ApeejayStya University, Haryana
• IVS School of Design, New Delhi
• SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai

Choose among Specializations

All Courses act as a primer on the surface, to pursue the profession is another call. Interior Designing is a tedious, challenging task that requires patience, hard work in initial years. It is necessary to learn the tricks of the trade, handle pressure. One has to meet the deadlines while conforming to the client’s requirements.

Interior Designing is a huge subject, one can choose among the following specializations:

• Corporate or Commercial Interiors include office spaces, retail outlets 
• Interiors of Residential properties like apartments, bungalows, Flats, Duplex 
• Shopping Malls
• Brand Boutiques/Showrooms
• Educational institutions- Especially Play & K-12 schools

Portfolio Building

As a budding interior designer work to reshape and renovate home space or office space for friends and family, local organizations. Include it in your portfolio before bagging a challenging design project. Capture and keep a record of the photos of your completed work in hard copy as well as maintain an online portfolio. 

An interesting way is to maintain an active blog and interact with other designers, share your work and engage in discussions.

Work Experience

While building up a career as an Interior Designer, hands-on experience and exposure in the industry are important. One can work for small firms or find employment on a contractual basis. As an independent designer, one can operate own business too. Like the top reigning women celebrity Interior Designers of India - Twinkle Khanna, Gauri Khan, and Sussane Khan.

Interior designers if working with firms, have many growth opportunities.  They can advance to Department Design head, Chief Designer or other positions. These positions enable them to enjoy stature and be in charge of up-and-coming designers.

Another option is to teach at interior design schools, simultaneously working on private work for small client base.

As a budding Interior Designer with dreams to make it big in this arena, I hope these steps help you take a leap ahead in your career. Got any other tips or want to share your success story; then write in to us!