While there are many different careers in interior design and several exciting and rewarding career paths that an interior designer can chose to follow, quite often an interior designer will decide to specialize in more than one area of practice.
Design Institute of San Diego will help you develop the skills you need to succeed in today's interior design field. From hospitality and residential design to amusement park design, sustainable building and furniture design, there are dozens of career options to choose from. At DISD, students explore and pursue their passions through our unique, CIDA-accredited curriculum. Our approach utilizes small class sizes, a talented faculty of working professionals, and a focus on hands-on studio work to offer our students the best education to prepare them for a career in interior design. Our faculty is also committed to mentoring tomorrow’s interior design leaders, teaching good stewardship ideals, including social accountability, global awareness and environmental responsibility. See where your degree can take you, check out some of the Career Opportunities in Interior Design.
MOST INTERESTING CAREERS
Some designers only work on theme parks, using fantasy, sights, sounds and smells to develop exciting and colorful visual components that are consistent with the park theme and that enhance the rides, walkways and exhibits. Theme park designers are responsible for developing permanent and temporary animated displays, unique signs, specialized fixtures, or designing and planning the many service areas of the park such as the restaurants, restrooms, and souvenir shops. Due to the large number of people that visit theme parks each day, theme park design is also about safety, effectiveness, efficiency and profitability. The design of way finding systems to help people understand how to navigate the site is an art in itself.
Homes, hotels, hospitals and other office buildings that are constructed using energy efficient and environmentally sensitive materials and products are becoming so prevalent that some interior designers are electing to become LEED accredited (Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design). LEED Professional Accreditation distinguishes interior designers as professionals with the knowledge and skills to successfully demonstrate a thorough understanding of green building practices and principles. Given the fact that they are so closely involved with the products and materials that go into buildings, it is logical that many interior designers would become involved in green product design; working with manufacturers and production facilities to create environmentally responsible paints, finishes, surfaces and furnishings that have a low or no impact on the earth's resources. Green building philosophies, product resources and education are rapidly gaining momentum and so interior designers who have a sense of responsibility to the environment are getting involved in green design on many different levels.
This specialty encompasses all sizes of ships and boats used as pleasure craft. Cruise liners are "floating villages", requiring that interior designers interested in this career path create spaces that offer travelers a wide range of amenities in addition to sleeping accommodations - such as swimming pools, spas, health clubs, casinos, art galleries, ballrooms, walking and running tracks, and a variety of restaurants. The crew areas of cruise liners have certain basic requirements and, because crews are confined for long periods, staff dining rooms and living quarters must be as attractive and well planned as the upper decks. The interior of private yachts, on the other hand, allow the designer more opportunity for creative design and often require that the designer specify products and materials made specifically for marine use.
Interior designers study furniture styling and space planning and, as a result, are very knowledgeable about how furnishings should look and where they should be placed in an interior space for optimum visual impact and effective use. Some interior designers choose to design their own furniture collections; working with industrial engineers and designers to build it. Ergonomics – a science devoted to improving living and working conditions for humans by basing the design of products on the physical interface between people and furniture – is an interior design specialty that offers many exciting opportunities for designers. Ergonomic design factors - which can be applied to furnishings, equipment, and their arrangement within an interior environment - take into consideration human sensory capacity, body function, safety, and emotional satisfaction.
The hospitality industry is constantly changing and, as a result, interior designers who specialize in hotel design need to be creative, flexible and able to adapt to meet the requirements of a rapidly changing market. Whether creating design concepts that exude local charm or planning a design that evokes the mystique and allure of a foreign land, a hotel designer understands that a hotel is far more than planning the interior of floor after floor of guest rooms. Many hotel facilities today are immense; offering travelers convention and exhibit halls, restaurants and dining rooms, training centers, pools & spas, comfortable lobbies and living-rooms, gardens, health clubs, business centers, and educational spaces. Some design firms specialize in hotel lobbies and corridors, others design only dining spaces; others design guest rooms and suites.
Much like theater design, stadium and arena design involves designing for a completely different dimension and purpose. The design is very technical, including special concerns, such as air quality, acoustics, and site lines. In addition to designing seating, stadium and arena designers must provide areas that sell products. Safety and security measures are also critical.
Each medical specialty requires a complete line of research in office design. Dentistry, a leader in good space planning and time management, was one of the first medical fields to train its practitioners in the relationship of time and motion. Other medical fields are now making strides in these areas. Each profession is demanding; and we have found that designers who generally work in this area ordinarily specialize and travel from state to state.
At one time considered the most common area of design, residential design can also be the most lucrative. It requires knowledge of human behavior within living spaces, an understanding and ability to communicate with people, and the social respect of the client. We generally find that people use residential designers with tastes and communication skills similar to their own because clients want to be able to understand their designers.