Interior designing, sounds exciting to you? It is one creative profession that many artists want to pursue. Are you one among them? To become an interior designer, you need some skills, a degree, and most importantly the drive for it. While these are a handful basic skills, there are many other skills that you would want to adopt if you want to have a successful career in interior designing. In this article, we will be talking about the professional and personal skills that you require to become an interior designer. We will also be mentioning the top colleges where you can study interior designing and the best companies to get employed.
So, without any delay, let’s get started…
Skills Required to Choose a Career in Interior Designing
Professional Skills
Educational qualification
To become an interior designer after 10th or 12th, you can take up B.Sc, B. A, B.Des (Bachelor of Design), BFA, M.Sc, M.Des (Master of Design) degrees in Interior Designing from reputed colleges or universities.
Computer Know-how
Computer know-how is very important for modern-day interior designers. With the help of latest technology, creators can sketch innovative designs and make renderings as per their vision. Advanced technology enhances creativity and helps in turning the designer’s concepts into reality. It gives them the freedom to craft designs based on their client’s needs. You must be able to use applications, web programs and create 3D models to give your client an overview of the final outcome.
Certifications
If you go for for a certificate or a diploma course in interior designing, it will be treated as an added advantage. Clients will be more eager to accept your services.
Work Experience
Work experience is not absolutely essential but it looks good in the resume. By doing part-time jobs, freelancing or internships you can enhance your understanding and upgrade your skills on interior designing.
Good portfolio
A good portfolio of designs is a must if you want to showcase your skills to your clients and convince them of your talent or capacity. You can have a good portfolio once you complete your degree program. You may also create a portfolio online with a cloud-based web application.
Personal skills
Passion for interior designing
First and foremost, to pursue any career you must have passion or a drive for it. While getting a degree or work experience will have you a better job, passion is something which will help you grow and scale new heights. If you have a sense of style, functionality and accessibility you will become a better interior designer. Moreover it is not a necessity that your degree is a ticket to having more clients. You must be diligent and treat interior designing as a delicate work so as to give higher output.
Innovative and creative
You must be creative to choose interior designing as a career. Brainstorming is very important to get new and unique ideas on designing. Thinking out of the box or deviating from the ordinary is what an interior designer aspires for. Moreover, if you can work collaboratively, you will have different ideas from different people. This will improve the performance of your project. You must be familiar with art forms, colour theory and design theory to make your work appear the best.
Project planning
The interior designer must chalk out an effective plan as per the client’s demands. He must also ensure that the plan gets executed in a precise manner with minimal faults. He must exhibit strong financial and numerical skills so as to make proper use of funds at different stages of designing.
Problem-solving
The interior designer may come across several problems and challenges while designing an interior space. He must have the capacity to face and find solutions to them. There may be unexpected delays or a tighter budget, the designer needs his creativity and prowess to work them out effectively. Additionally, the designer needs to have a plan B ready in case plan A didn’t work out. By staying prepared in advance for expected issues, he can save a lot of time and effort.
Structural Awareness
The interior designer must have a good understanding of distributing the available space into occupied and unoccupied zones. He must have a good sense of structural or spatial awareness. For example, the designer must ensure that people moving in office have sufficient space to move around. Therefore, the office space needs to be designed in an organized manner. With such capacities, the designer will be able to improve the structure of the space. Spatial awareness is one important criterion that must be inherent to an interior designer.
Eye for detail and aestheticism
Any design should be an aesthetic one, it must be appealing to the eye. Therefore, an interior designer should make beautiful designs so that the customer is impressed at a glance. If your work does not appeal visually, it will be drab and uninteresting. You must also have a keen sense of detail to make your work accurate.
Good visualisation and Representation
An interior designer must have visualisation skills where they will be able to see “what goes well with a particular space”. Does the curtain match with the furniture and the wall colour? Before they execute their ideas in highly specific computer programmes, visualisation is a key skill which a designer requires in order to understand how to better utilize the space available. Exact representation of the visualised content is important to make the client happy.
Strong Focus
Pursuing a career in interior designing is about understanding the needs and preferences of your client. So, you must lend a good ear to your client so that you can do justice to the trust they placed on you. Listen carefully to what they have to say, what do they really want and what they don’t. When you have taken proper notes about the specifications, you will be better able to execute the plan of interior designing.
Collaborative
An interior designer must also collaborate with architects, decorators, builders and other designers. They must not only work with software but also be present on the site to supervise the work, maintaining an amiable work environment. They must ensure a good rapport between the client and the workers on the job. Working in collaboration gives off positive results and leads to superior performance.
Interpersonal skills
The interior designer must not only lend an eager ear to the client but also be able to communicate properly. He must put across his ideas and plans in an appropriate way. Good communication is the key to bring the desirable designs to life. When there is a competition, you need interpersonal skills to impress the clients.
Other Steps to become an Interior Designer
Practising your vocation
What you must learn, you must also practice. There is a great difference in absorbing things that we read and that we experience. We remember the latter one much better than the former. Therefore, whatever you have learnt regarding space planning, color theory or design theory, practice it so that your intuition develops. In the future, when a client is describing to you about the design, you will already have a desirable castle built in your head.
Having good connections
Maintain a contact list of contractors, sub-contractors, suppliers, clients and potential clients. You must know who to contact to execute the interior designing in a budget-friendly way and in a reasonable manner. If your clients are impressed with your work, they might refer your contacts to their nearby connections.
Moving Out Of Your Comfort Zone
You need to move out of your comfort zone to get the clients. Get out in the real world, showcase your skills of interior designing through your portfolios, find your potential client, propose your design plans to prove that you are the real professional designer that everyone is looking for.
Staying up-to-date with current trends
To keep up with the modern designing trends, you can follow your favourite designers to have a peek into their work. Research and read about current trends through websites, blogs etc. You may also take part in design-related programs and most importantly, take a break to let all those creative juices flowing.
Types of Interior Designing Careers
- Interior and Spatial Designer
- Production Designer
- Lighting Designers
- Exhibition Designer
- Visual Merchandizers
Sectors you can join to launch your Interior Designing Career
- Interior Design companies
- Event management companies
- Construction companies
- Set Designing Companies
- Designing Consultancies
- Exhibition Centres
- Retailers
- Architectural agencies
Top Colleges to Pursue Career in Interior Designing in India
- Pearl Academy, New Delhi
- Garodia School of Professional Studies (GSPS), Mumbai
- Ganpat University, Mehsana
- Jagannath University, NCR Haryana, Bahadurgarh
- CREO Valley, Bangalore
- Karnavati University, Gandhinagar
- World University of Design, Sonepat
- NSHM Knowledge Campus, Kolkata
- Apeejay Institute of Design, New Delhi
- Sushant University, Gurgaon, Haryana
Top Companies Hiring Interior Designers
- Interia
- Acropolis
- Tag Concepts
- Livspace
- Urban Ladder
The average base salary for a career in interior designing is Rs 307,994 per year.
Final Thought!
Now that you know what you must do in order to have a career in interior designing, it is time to take action. Ask yourself the question, ” Is it my passion?”, if you get a nod back, it is time that you treat the subject with sincerity. These professional and personal skills will polish you up and make you stand out of the crowd. Whatever career you choose, make sure it is the best one.
Would you like to mention any other skill(s) that interior designing careers require?
