10 Things to Know About Becoming an Interior Designer

Interior Designing is a very popular profession in the present day and is sought after by many in India. With each passing day, the city dwelling population is increasing and correspondingly, the available living spaces are shrinking.

This makes the efficient use of existing space a vastly important task. In today’s day and age, the increased standard of living in urban India combined with the new mindset of the younger generation has led interior designing to become an entirely independent field of its own that does not fall in the shadows of architecture and civil engineering.
In the current scenario, 1,00,000 interior designers are needed in India alone to fulfill the requirements for freelance projects as well as the jobs that are available in establishments such as architectural and construction firms and furniture companies. If you are an aspiring designer yourself and would like to take up interior design as a career, here is a list of all the things you must know about this popular career domain.

1. Interior Decoration Is Not the Same as Interior Design

There is a lot more to interior design than you might think. If you are good with colors, textures, selection and placement of home décor objects and have received immense appreciation for your ability to decorate interior spaces, it does not necessarily mean that you have what it takes to be an interior designer. Interior decoration is a subcategory under the domain of interior design and only aids in the overall process of design, which requires much more than decorating skills.

2. Interior Design Is About More than Just Design

Interior design is not entirely about design and related concepts, unlike the other domains of design. Skills such as technical drawing, space design, furniture design, material knowledge, as well as familiarity with the tools of interior design are not the only things you need proficiency in to be an Interior designer. You are also required to have great interpersonal and communication skills, the ability to maintain a good network of clients, contractors and suppliers, and of course, have the competence to market your interior design services the right way and keep them updated.

3. There Is a High Demand for Interior Designers in India

As has been mentioned before, currently there is a need for 1,00,000 interior designers in India alone. Instead of saying that there is great scope for interior designers in India, it would be better to say that ‘there is a grave scarcity of interior designers in India’. The interior design industry is growing at a rate of 20% every year and the trend is expected to continue right until 2018. So if you are planning to take up interior design as a career now, this is your moment!

4. It Is a Highly Rewarding Job

It is a fact that interior designing is one of the most lucrative career options in India. Even though it will not be a quick climb up the rungs of the ladder of success and you might have to work for lesser pay (or even free) when you first set out, the tables will certainly not take too long to turn. On average, the pay for an entry level interior designer could be around 4 lakh rupees per annum. As for a senior interior designer, the typical yearly income might reach up to a whopping 30 lakh rupees per annum!

5. Interior Design Specializations

Interior Design is so much more that designing and planning residence interiors and other living spaces. Interior designers are needed for commercial and office spaces, industries like healthcare and retail, public exhibits and art galleries, the whole of the hospitality sector that includes all the hotels, cafes and resorts, and even furniture manufacturing units. Each of these is categorized as a different area of specialization within the sphere of interior design that you could choose to dive into.

6. Formal Education Is Not Mandatory for Interior Design

There will always be a handful of employers who look for academic excellence with many of them putting importance on your professional background and portfolio. However, the most important qualities of an aspiring interior designer are creativity and people skills. There is no denying that a formal degree in interior design could come to your benefit and shoot your value up as a designer. There are numerous popular design schools in India including National Institute of Design (NID) which offer graduate and postgraduate interior design courses. If you are entirely new to interior design and do not have your own portfolio yet, Launchpad’s ‘Interior Design Course’ is a great place to begin your career as an interior designer.

7. It Shall Not Be a Boring Office Job

Interior designers have very exciting work lives! They are needed to move around a lot more than other working professionals. As an interior designer, you will have meetings with clients, contractors, architects and suppliers, design plan revival, updating to the existing design, on-site work, review of the completed work and a thousand other reasons to get out of the office. So if you dislike those boring and mundane jobs and prefer creative work where your ideas and artistic spirit get appreciated, interior design is definitely your calling.

8. Designers Are Needed to Know Local Laws and Codes

Building codes and local laws are doldrums that every designer needs to go through in order to get established in the profession. The details of it can certainly be boring but they are mandatory knowledge for interior designers. As an interior designer, you will be expected to know all about plumbing codes, electricity and load-bearing, etc. Staying abreast of such things will certainly give you the upper hand and marketability that a decorator will not have.

9. Virtual Designers Have Vast Opportunity Too

When someone is looking to hire an interior designer, it does not always occur to that person that hiring can be done from any corner of the world. Don’t believe it? Thanks to innovations in technology, with the advent of platforms such as Skype and design software, designers are able to discover a whole new world of virtual design. Even though there are numerous free virtual room design tools available online to the general public, interior designers have the upper hand on this competition to the credit of the exclusive relationship that they share with elite design lines. For instance, there are many high-end textile companies that offer discounts to the interior designers who are engaged in the trade, thereby enabling them to get their clients the best prices. This makes the interior designer much more desired than a virtual design tool.

10. It Won’t Be Super Easy

You need to be a well-known figure in the interior design industry if you wish to have your own interior design firm or a workspace flooded with multiple projects from high-end clientele. It goes without saying that you need to have years of experience and a terrific interior design portfolio whereby you can showcase your works to potential clients. It takes tremendous hard work to have a well-built network of contacts. At the end of the day, a never ending supply of creativity will be your key to that level of fame and experience. Once you have reached the top position, there is of course absolutely no turning back!