Interior Design as Profession

ESSAY WRITTING

Zahra Kazmi | Professional Practice | 4 June 2021

INTERIOR DESIGN AS PROFESSION

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERIOR DESIGN PROFESSION

DEFINITION;
“Interior Design is a multifaceted profession in which creative and technical
solutions are applied with in 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. Design must adhere to code and regularity
requirements and encourage the principle 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.”

“Interior design is not the same as decoration. Decoration is the furnishings or

adoring a space with fashionable and 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 behavior and human
interaction.”

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INTERIOR DESIGN AS PROFESSION

WHAT DO INTERIOR DESIGNERS DO?

 Interior design professionals provide functionally successful and aesthetically

attractive interior spaces to home owners and many kind of businesses.
 An interior designer might specialize in working with private residencies or with
commercial interiors such as hotels, hospitals, retail stores, offices including other
private and public facilities.
 Interior designer consider how the design effects the health, safety and welfare of
occupants.
 Provide careful consideration of sustainable design in the selection of furniture and
materials.
 Interior design profession benefits society by focusing on how space and interior
environment should look and function.
 Planning the arrangement of partition walls and specifying aesthetic
embellishments for the space.
 The professional interior designer must consider the building and life safety codes,
address environmental issues, and understand the basic construction and
mechanical system of buildings.
 Communicate design concepts through precisely scaled drawings and other
documents used in the industry.
 Another critical responsibility concerns how to manage all the tasks.
 Interior designer must have the business skills to complete projects within budged
for the client while making the profit for the design firms.
 Also select colors, materials and the products.

Comments from professional interior designers about “what do interior designer do?”

- Create environments that support the human condition in whatever activities it

chooses, including living, sleeping, working, and 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.

- Interior designers solve problems. Our clients come to us with questions, wants, and
needs and through design development we answer those questions and provide
solutions for those wants and needs—all while protecting the health, welfare, and
safety of the public through our knowledge of local and national building codes.

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- They are problem solvers foremost. They assess and identify the design problem and
they develop the design solution through critical thinking.

- The NCIDQ (National Council for Interior Design Qualification) definition is the
best example to me of what interior designers do. However, I believe one of the best
definitions is in an article by Jill Pable at Florida State University (and her colleague)
that discusses the difference between “filled and fulfilling spaces.” I believe that
interior designers do not fill, but design and create “fulfilling spaces” based on client
needs and desires within a given budget and timeline.

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INTERIOR DESIGN AS PROFESSION

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
Table 1-1.

Highlighted chronology of the growth of the interior design profession.

1878 First-of-its-kind semiannual furniture market. Held in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

1904 First real use of term interior decoration. First courses in interior decoration
offered at the New York School of Applied and Fine Arts.
1905 Elsie de Wolfe obtains her first commission as an interior decorator. She is
credited with being the first interior decorator.
1913 Elsie de Wolfe publishes the first true book on interior decoration, The House
in Good Taste.
1920s Greater effort is made by department stores to market home furnishings.
Manufacturing centers of home furnishings begin to develop. Art Deco period
creates greater interest in interior decoration of homes and offices. Dorothy
Draper credited with being the first woman interior decorator to specialize in
commercial interiors. Decorator clubs begin forming in larger cities. Design
education strengthened in many parts of the country.
1931 Grand Rapids furniture show. Meeting to create a national professional
organization. In July, American Institute of Interior Decorators (AIID) is
founded; William R. Moore elected first national president of AIID.
1936 AIID’s name changed to American Institute of Decorators (AID).
1940s Post-World War II industrialism encourages new technologies in furniture
manufacturing. Industrialism produces increased need for, and importance of,
nonresidential interior design.
1950s Development of open landscape planning concept in Germany by Quickborner
Team.
1951 First time a state considers legislation to license interior design.
1957 National Society for Interior Designers (NSID) founded from a splinter group of
the New York AID chapter.
1961 AID changes its name to American Institute of Interior Designers (AIID).
1963 National Office Furnishings Association (NOFA) creates NOFA-d (NOFA-
designers), a professional group for interior designers who work for office
furnishings dealers. Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) founded to
advance the needs of educators of interior design
1967 NOFA and NOFA-d change names to NOPA and NOPA-d, respectively, when
NOFA merges with stationery and supplies dealers to form National Office
Products Association.

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1968 Introduction of “Action Office,” designed by Robert Probst for Herman Miller,
Inc. First true open-office furniture product.
1969 Institute of Business Designers (IBD) incorporated. NOPA-d is parent
organization.
1970 Charles Gelber elected first national president of IBD. Foundation for Interior
Design Education Research (FIDER) is founded. Is responsible for reviewing and
accrediting undergraduate and graduate interior design programs.
1974 National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) incorporated.
Charged with the development and administration of a common qualification
examination. Louis Tregre, FAID, serves as first president of NCIDQ.
1975 American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) formed from the merger of AID
and NSID. Norman de Haan is first national ASID president.
1976 The first Canadian provincial associations—Interior Designers of Ontario and
the Interior Designers of British Columbia—were admitted as members of
NCIDQ.
1982 Alabama becomes first state with title registration legislation for interior design.
1988 First major discussion of 1995 Hypotheses, the document that begins a
discussion of unification of interior design professional associations.
1992 Passage of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which establishes
accessibility standards for all public buildings.
1993 U.S. Green Building Council formed to promote sustainable design.
1994 Unification of IBD, ISID, and CFID to form International Interior Design
Association (IIDA). The existing code councils form the International Code
Council (ICC) to develop a new universal standard of building codes.
1995 First International Code from the ICC is published.
1996 Federal government officially recognizes interior design as a profession.
1990s Numerous states pass title, practice, or certification legislation.
2000 ASID and IIDA leadership begins discussions concerning potential merger. Talks
discontinued in 2002.
2002 ASID and the Government Services Administration (GSA) sign an agreement to
promote interior design excellence in federal buildings
2003 Inform Design® is initiated as a Web site to locate and make available research
on interior design practices.
2006 The Council on Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) replaces FIDER as the
accrediting group for interior design education.
2010 Update and revision of the Interior Design Body of Knowledge.
2011 Regulation and licensing continue to be sought after for the profession.

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INTERIOR DESIGN AS PROFESSION

INTERIOR DESIGN VALUES

The interior designer must communicate his or her value and worth to a project on the basis
of factors beyond how nice it will look at the end and the discount the client will get on
furniture. The designer brings value because of his or her professional education, knowledge
of how to make a space work better, be healthier, improve the users’ comfort in the space,
and, yes, look better.

The value of interior design also increases in the minds of clients as they see that the design
community is committed to community service. Providing their problem-solving skills to
nonprofit organizations.

Interior designers know well, the colors chosen for an interior can create excitement or calm.
The fabric chosen can reduce maintenance issues or explode them. The products themselves,
if not chosen wisely, can sabotage basic safety in an emergency or emit poisonous and
harmful fumes.

THE BUSINESS OF INTERIOR DESIGN

For a business to exist and (we hope) succeed, it must have at least three elements.

i. It has to have people who are committed to operating and 12 Interior Design as a
Profession participating in the business.
ii. It must have customers or clients who will purchase whatever the business provides
in terms of services and possibly products.
iii. It must have adequate financial resources for operation.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
“Sustainable design seeks to meet the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

Concepts in sustainable design in architecture and interior design have emerged since the
1970s though, of course, concern for the environment goes back many more years.
Sustainable design is sometimes thought of as green design. Sustainable and green design
seeks to create not only designs that utilize materials wisely, but also manufacturing and
construction processes that result in as little harm to the environment and the user as
possible while meeting the needs of the building’s owners and users.

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INTERIOR DESIGN AS PROFESSION

The U.S. Green Building Council is a nonprofit t organization that has brought architects,
contractors, product manufacturers, interior designers, and others in the built environment
industry together to find ways to increase knowledge and practice in sustainable design.
Their educational programs help all these different entities understand how to design
buildings that are healthier for the occupants and save resources. A program developed by
the USGBC is the LEED Certification program. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design. It is a way that building owners and designers can voluntarily create
buildings that are healthy and environmentally responsible. “LEED Certification validates a
building owner’s efforts to create a green building.”

ETHICAL STANDARDS
In the case of interior design, ethical standards are guidelines for the practitioner’s work
relationships with clients, other interior design professionals, employers, the profession in
general, and the public.

Keeping promises made to those you work with and for, only taking work for which you are
experienced and capable to accomplish, abiding by the laws within your state regarding the
business practice of interior design, and respecting the client and others.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBLITY
Interior designers make Interior spaces:

1. Functional ( Functionality and Accessibility of the Spaces)

2. Safe (safety is the primary concern)
3. Aesthetically pleasing / Improvement of the Aura of the overall space.
4. Selection of Essential and Decorative items that are further divided into:
 Color
 Light having two types:
1) Natural Light (Day Light)
2) Artificial Light (General/ Ambient/ Task Lighting: Halogen Lights/ LEDS/
Fluorescent Light etc.)
 Materials/ Textures

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INTERIOR DESIGN AS PROFESSION

Social Responsibilities:
 Interior Design is about finding creative design solutions for interior environments
while supporting the health, safety and wellbeing of occupants and enhancing their
quality of life.

Ethical Responsibilities:
 Every Interior Designer have some principles that often points out their
responsibilities towards their clients, with each other, responsibity towards the
environment, fees compensation and basic conduct.

ALLIED PROFESSIONS
The interior designer or client, to provide expertise in specific areas of an interiors project,
may hire professionals and consultants in allied fields.

Architecture: The profession of designing and supervising the construction of

buildings of all types.
Construction: General contractors oversee the tradespersons that are needed to build
the project. Subcontractors are hired by the general contractor (or
owner of the building) to build certain parts of the project such as
framing, plumbing, and the electrical components.
Engineering: The planning and design of various technical aspects of a building or
its interior. Types of engineers that might be involved in an interior
project include mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and heating and
ventilation, and structural engineers.
Facility Synonymous with space planning. Facility planners often work for
planning: client corporations

Graphic The design and development of a wide variety of graphic media for
design: print, fi lm, advertising, books, and other areas of commercial art.
Interior Many consider this profession synonymous with interior design;
architecture: however, state boards of technical registration require that the term
interior architect be used only by individuals who have graduated
from a school of architecture or been certified as an architect.
Kitchen and The specialty design of residential and commercial kitchens and/or
bath design: baths.

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Space The planning of interior spaces, especially in commercial facilities.
planning: Generally, the space planner has less responsibility for the decorative
aspects of the interior than the interior designer.
Lighting The specialty design of artificial and natural lighting treatments to
design: enhance the design and function of an interior or exterior space.

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