Beyond Your Degree: Expanding Your Interior Design Career

An interior design degree is not the be-all, end-all of a successful interior design career (though it's a good start).

by Joe Cooper
Interior Design School Search Columnist

What could be more important than a proper education? Building your resume, of course.

A Good Design Career Path

Georgia interior designer Lisa Morgan has enjoyed an exemplary career in interior design. After dreaming of working as a designer since childhood, Lisa began to realize her dreams in 2005, when she earned her associate’s degree in interior design. It would prove her first wise career move. Her second came when she joined the American Society of Interior Design and the International Interior Design Association. Morgan then worked as a design consultant for six months, using her home as an office. After that she took her interior design career to the next level by opening her own store, an emporium dealing in designer fabrics, furnishings, and accessories. She has continued her design consultancy meanwhile.

Building Your Career

Beyond a degree, membership in professional organizations, professional certifications, and design consultancy experience can show potential clients that you mean business. And with keen competition in the field, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, you’ll need to supplement education with experience to gain a competitive edge.

If you find the overlap between design and retail intimidating, opening your own design store may not be for you. However, as Lisa Morgan has seen, it can be a good way to drive your consultancy business, especially if—like three out of ten interior designers working in the United States today— you’re independently minded enough to go into business for yourself.

About the Author

Joe Cooper writes home services and design articles and edits medical literature. He holds a bachelor’s in American Literature from UCLA.

Source(s)

Tribune-Georgian
US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Posted on June 13, 2007 at 5:10 PM

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