Interior Design to me:

Almost 20 years ago, I serendipitously fell into a position in interior design.  I knew nothing of the subject, only that my background in art, theatre, service industry, and a good business sense somehow helped me land my first position as a showroom designer for a tile company. 

What I imagined a professional career in interior design to look like is very different than what I know about the profession and industry today.  I imagined interior design to be a glamourous process of selecting beautiful things and putting them into place for clients.  That false expectation (what I often see on design shows) is what I consider now to be the “10% jewel” of the project. If I were to quantify the process as percentages from beginning to end, the final product is 90% planning and the 10% “jewel”, the “fun stuff” we see on all the design shows on television.   

Architecture, design, and construction are much like a meticulously planned and executed theatrical production with the opening night being the certificate of occupancy.  Teams of design experts work together facilitating their piece of the puzzle towards the approved user group’s vision.  The final product of what you see, the built environment, is the byproduct of countless hours, days, and most often years of coordination between skilled design professionals and trades.  Large building designs, such as museums or airports follow the same systematic approach, the design process, as would a designer for a small powder bathroom.

Thoughts for new designers:

One thing I can promise the new interior design student and practitioner, your design career is that of practice and growth, hence the term “practicing design” as it is, and always will, change. 

Learn, apply, practice, repeat.

Just as we see new products hit the market, better products surface then the next best thing is launched, so are the patterners of our industry.  It is constantly seeking “better” as advisors to our clients, for our buildings, and for our planet. 

As our user groups are diverse in age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic backgrounds, so are their needs.  Our design solutions for the built environment should therefore be human-centered design solutions; adaptable to change for the sake of longevity, flexibility, inclusiveness, and timelessness.

My mantra for those who are exploring this rewarding career:

• Chameleonize yourself.  This is not about you; it is about your client.
• Find your mentor(s).
• Interior designers do not always feel creative every day.  Have a roadblock? Some days you just need to control something to feel like you have accomplished something.  My favorite thing to do is clean my room or office. Or paperwork, that is an endless task to complete!
• Once you “fail” (and you will), get up, own it, and move forward.
• Lucky us for finding our passion career!  What do I love so much about this industry?  There is always a beginning, a middle, and an end:)!
• Another bonus for this fabulous career: If you get bored, switch it up!  There are endless opportunities for focus in this career!
• As a business owner, find teammates who align with your personal values. 
• Hire the professionals, you get what you pay for.
• Source locally when you can, it is a personal relationship.
• Learn to speak design and business language asap.
• My sentiment and trademarked tagline for my business, “Design with Life in Mind”.  Do your research!

Nowell Allayla Vincent, M.S.

nowell.vincent@frontrange.edu

970.204.8170

LEED AP ID+C, NCIDQ No. 28859, CMKBD

Soft Skills:

1. Organization of digital files and folders.  Recommendation: Find your method and stick to it.  Digital organization is learned in the first semester of our program.
2. Communication of Design: verbal, narrative, illustrative, technical and presentational communication. Recommendation: Learn to be comfortable with adjectives and using words to paint a picture.  You will be creating Design Statements in all your projects!  Save all your work from the beginning for portfolio.
3. Teamwork and Collaboration:  Share ideas, leverage your strengths and learn from others to create “the vision”.  Recommendation: Leave the ego at the door.  Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is becoming a standard practice in our industry, allowing for maximation of production, investment and is in the best interest for client satisfaction on a project.
4. Understand ethical decision making to promote professionalism.
5. Presentation Skills:  Learn, through practice, how to present to the audience as the client.  Recommendation:  Find a presentation template early and use this for every project.  Develop templates to quickly access per project.  Practice in the mirror with your visual graphics.  Smile even if you aren’t excited about it.  Be excited about it (never apologize) even if it is not your best work.  Dress the part.  Never say “I”, always regard the solution for your client.

Technical Skills:

1. Programming and Research.  Learn to validate your design decisions through Case Studies. Recommendation: Not every idea is a good one for your client.  Align the “Design Problems” with design solutions that are appropriate for the client/application.  Don’t let your client be the guinea pig!  Research projects that have successful solutions of the studied material or application. Love an application or product?  Don’t put all your great ideas into one project, put it in a file and spread the love!
2. Conceptual Design: Creating a visual concept based on your research.  This concept will develop through various mediums including (but not limited to) sketches, mood boards, Pinterest, Houzz and other platforms for your projects.  They are collections of graphic images including natural and manmade objects, spaces and abstract forms using the Elements & Principles to create a unified concept.  Recommendation: Try not to use designed spaces by others, your client will either expect to see that photo you shared, or it will be out of context and misunderstood.  Click here for more on Mood Boards.  Click here for a great, free mood board creator.
3. Schematic Design development.  Through various diagrams and matrices, you will organize your ideas from the Programming phase to help develop visual aides to guide your space organization and criteria.  These help clients understand how you got from A to B. Recommendation: Always keep these, scan them in for your portfolio.
4. Design Development: you will create various architectural floor plans, reflected ceiling plans/mechanical plans, demolition plans/construction plans, elevations, details, sections, installation drawings, perspectives and schedules to aid in the finalization of construction documents for subcontractor RFP’s, shop drawings for construction and product procurement.  Manual drafting and CAD software will be used to facilitate residential, commercial and kitchen and bath portfolio projects.
5. Develop multiple design software proficiency for Construction Document Sets and Presentation.  Recommendation: Jump into it, fumble around and learn through tutorials.  No single class will prepare you for proficiency. Touch 5-7 software each project for practice.  Find one software to master for CD sets and renderings.  Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable in software, it is ever- changing.
6. Understand and practice Contract Administration through specification, communication and quantification.