Interior Designer

An interior designer is responsible for the design of interior environments of buildings, to meet the needs and preferences of the spaces’ inhabitants.

A general misperception about interior design is that it concerns solely the aesthetic aspect of the interior space. This is not entirely true. An interior designer is responsible for creating a visually appealing and functional space, through renovations, structural alterations and lighting, just to name a few.

You will be liaising directly with clients most of the time, so excellent communication skills with a friendly attitude are a must. Listen to understand what the clients want to achieve and it is always a good practice to sketch out some preliminary ideas (such as perspective, spatial drawings) during your discussion to make sure you are aligned with the customers’ visions. Your assignments can have a wide scope, think offices, retail or commercial outlets, or homes. It is important to equip yourself with knowledge on building codes and legislations as they need to be accounted for in your proposed design concepts.

There are full time and part time opportunities for this role and you can work in a studio or from home. Even with that said, you may need to be outdoors from time to time, be it to visit customer sites or out sourcing for products and furnitures. Sometimes you may find yourself working late into the night (or many nights) trying to ‘perfect’ some design solutions for customers. This is a part and parcel of the job as design work is generally very iterative in nature.

Usually, interior designers will spend the first few years of their career lives developing the essential skills, gaining experience, building portfolios and networking. Once they are fairly established, they can choose a specific field to specialise in (kitchen and bath designer, lighting designer etc) or set up their own practice.