Do you have a ‘good eye’ for interior?

Growing awareness, specialisation in such field has brought great prospects for people who pursue this career.

A stupendous aesthetic approach, creativity on every move, dynamism in applicability with originality of your own and a hook to the latest trends. Do these attributes describe you and your competence? If your answer is in affirmation and you are nodding enthusiastically, then interior designing and decoration can be the perfect career option for you and could prove to be pretty lucrative in the long run. As Dorothy Draper, an American interior designer puts it, “I started this career because I loved doing up houses. I’d done three of my own and couldn’t keep on moving my family all the time, so I decided to decorate other people's homes and buildings.” The career calls for passion and a constantly evolving expertise.

A ‘good eye’ for the right design and an equally appealing colour proves to be the bull’s eye in the decorative aspect of interior. To know what complements what, is exactly your business if you aspire for this promising career avenue since it is the art and science of interior design. However, there is a subtle difference between interior designing and interior decoration. Interior design, it is said, is a combination of engineering and an innovative artistic skill that requires proper training. Designers are presumed to know reasonably more than the decorators with appropriate comprehension of the particular spaces being worked with according to their usage. However, since quite a few institutions in Pakistan offer these courses at present, the subjects do not vary much.

Career prospects

Growing awareness and specialisation in such a field has brought great prospects, even in Pakistan, for people who pursue this career. Employment opportunities for an interior designer might range from working in architectural firms or with independent architects to working individually for the building and designing of hotels, motels and resorts. Design consultancy firms, theatres and other companies carrying out exhibitions and other such events on a much larger scale tend to hire interior designers to have an organised touch to their events adding an aura of sophistication. These days huge organisations are more likely to host events like these while making sure to employ the best expert in town. This is where your chances of grabbing excellent opportunities of all times rest. The career prospect in starting your own business of interior design and decoration is plentiful.

The career growth of an interior designer depends upon the individual’s obsession with the work to constantly upgrade the acquired skills with changing times and demands.

What is required?

As it goes, ‘believe in doing the thing you feel is right. If it looks right, it is right.’ The right eye demonstrating a creative mind is the crucial necessity concerning this profession.

Whether you are talking about a house, an apartment, an office, a mall, a restaurant or any other structural space, interior designing and decoration involves designing and coordinating all the decorative elements involved in their interior. From choosing a colour scheme, painting and tiling of the wall and floors to fittings, furnishings and other architectural features, the designer is required to manage anything and everything. The knowledge of the functional aspects of the spaces and also the arrangement and rearrangement of indoor accessories as to make them aesthetically awe-inspiring tend to be the basis of this career. Interior designers are required to be flexible, according to the likes and inclinations of the clients so as to harmonise the expertise with client’s preferences.

Where to go?

A few institutions in Pakistan offer architecture as a major subject with interior designing or decoration as its electives. However, the following institutes offer specialised programmes:

• Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi (Four-year Programme in Interior Design)

• National College of Arts, Lahore (Professional Diploma and Masters Programme in Interior design)

•              Virtual Institute of Pakistan, Rawalpindi (One-year Diploma Programme in Interior Decoration)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2011.