Unlike many other skills or professions such as Engineering, nursing and etc, the interior design industry is one of the most creative and artistic profession with unlimited potential and opportunities. Interior Designers can be creative and artistic while making a pretty good living doing it. One of the benefit being an Interior Designer is that you get to run your own interior design business and have your own clients. Most Interior Designers started out working for a company while freelancing on the side and then the freelancing turned into a full time design business.
Inorder to get started to become a successful Interior Designer, understanding how to practice interior design is no doubt important. Fortunately, learning interior design skills are not hard. Many beginning interior design students have no background in arts or even have any knowledge in interior design skills and have became successful and competent Interior Designers.
The 3 Essential Interior Design Skills You Must Learn in Interior Design
Rather you are getting your interior design training by going to Colleges, Technical or Vocational schools, online schools or by self-study, there are 3 basic areas of interior design skill sets you must learn in interior design. Once you have learned these skills, you will be on your way to a successful interior design career.
Skill Set 1: Interior Design Problem Solving Skills
Unlike a true Artist, Interior Designer is a Designer who solves a design problem for the client. This problem can be a functional problem, an aesthetic visual problem or a combination of them. This design problem usually is related to space, a 3 dimensional space. Within this 3 dimensional space, the Interior Designer’s task is to find and seek out the problem(s) based on a set of outlined goals, objectives, criteria etc and solve them creatively, efficiently and timely.
Inorder to solve a problem(s), the Interior Designer will use various sub-skills in interior design such as project planning, space planning, design thinking, drawing and sketching, design principals, elements of design, object design, project management and etc to initiate the problem solving process.
Problem solving is a skill that, as an Interior Designer and beginning interior design student must understand and learn.
Skill Set 2: Interior Design Process Skills
To assist the problem solving skill and resulting in solving the problem(s), Interior Designers utilize a method that assist them in this task. This method is called the Interior Design process or design process. Learning Interior design process skill is a must have skill inorder to become a successful and efficient Interior Designer or practice interior design. Without utilizing the design process, problem solving can be a difficult task in interior design.
To start, understanding the steps or phases of the design process is important. Each design process phase is distinct and built upon one another. Therefore, each phase of the design process must be followed and practiced carefully inorder to be effective before proceeding to the next phase. There are a total of 7 phases and they are: Phase 1: Planning Phase, Phase 2: Concept Development, Phase 3: Schematic Design, Phase 4: Design Development, Phase 5: Construction/Contract Documents, Phase 6: Bidding and Negotiation and Phase 7: Construction Administration.
Learning Interior design process skills will take practice and training. Once you have learned this skill set, you will be a much more effective and successful Interior Designer.
Skill Set 3: Interior Design Planning and Management Skills
Plan, plan and plan. Good interior design planning and project management skills are important to control the risks in a project. Every interior design project have risks and it is up to the Interior Designer to control, reduce and even eliminate these potential risks. To be an efficient and successful Interior Designer, Interior Designer must have effective planning and project management skill.
Furthermore, planning and project management skills are required during each phase of the design process inorder to effectively complete a project successfully. These interior design planning and management skills can include but not limited to: project coordination, project management, cost control, stakeholder management and communication, design coordination, construction documents coordination, risk management, administration, team coordination and management, organization and etc.
