Make your passion into your profession

Updated on: Monday, December 07, 2009

Do you have an interest in physical spaces? Do you keep doing up your home? Are you creative or artistic? If your answer is yes, you have the potential to wear an interior designer’s hat!

There was a time when architects, while entrusted with the task of designing the exteriors of a space, were also those who decided on the interior designing of a space. Not anymore. Today interior designing has developed into a full-fledged career that is scaling new heights of professionalism. People have become more conscious of the design of the interiors of their offices, factories as well as of their residences. This new approach to designing has opened the door to a large number of professional interior designers.

So what exactly is interior designing? Explains well known Interior Designer Anjali Goel of La Sorogeeka, who has over 250 clients nationally and internationally, “Interior designing is the arrangement of living space. To put it more simply, it is the art of organising, managing and planning the interiors of rooms at homes, offices, retail shops, showrooms, hotels, airports, exhibition halls, conference centres, theatres, TV and film studios, commercial establishments etc. It is an originative process where you understand the needs of people using the space and provide them with creative, safe, aesthetic and functional solutions keeping the architecture, theme, product design, environment etc.” Thus interior designing is really a 24-hour job, as you have to think, eat and sleep your work to be innovative and creative. Apart from possessing the required technical skills, you need as dedication and energy as well.

While some would say it is just the art of putting some furniture together, interior designing is much more than that. “From document or plan level to a conceptual design and reviewing/ monitoring the process to producing a final cut design, finalising a theme, furniture, colour scheme, artefacts etc, an interior designer has to work on everything including the lighting pattern,” informs Goel.

Communication skills, an orientation towards design, negotiation and interpersonal skills and a strong commitment are other qualities that are required to excel in this profession. However, to join the industry, you need to be degree-qualified or the equivalent. A graduate degree (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in interior designing from any reputed institute is the way to go. A number of institutes like the National Institute of Design and the J.J School of Arts, Mumbai provide undergraduate programmes and diploma courses, which are industry recognised.
Says Dr. CB Paul Chellakumar, Chennai-based education counsellor, “Professional education equips students with technical skills as well as the knowledge of various concepts and processes. But hands-on training is very important, as it is here where students can actually play with their creativity. It is popularly said that you need five years of passionate work before you are considered a full-fledged interior designer.”

Once you are established, you go places as there are umpteen work options in India as well abroad where the Indian aesthetic sense is widely appreciated.
So are you ready to make your passion your profession.

Make your passion into your profession

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