Commercial, Residential, or Both?
Making the Call for Your Interior Design CareerBy Dawn West
dawn.west@interiordesignschoolreview.com
Interior Design School Review Columnist
Most interior designers dabble - a little residential here, a little commercial there. But most also end up choosing sides. After all, designing the interior of a department store is different from designing the interior of a bedroom. Specializing further in an area like hospitality and restaurant interior design, healthcare facility interior design, or historic residential interior design can help you find your niche in a competitive field.
You'll come away from interior design school with the training you need to pursue any type of interior design career. But figuring out what you're interested in early on can help you head in the right direction from the get go. Consider the following, and you'll be well on your way to knowing what type of interior design career fits you best.
Learn more about The Art Institute Online's Bachelor Degree program in Interior Design.
Clients
If you specialize in residential design, you're likely to spend time working directly with individuals and families. You might find you love helping people to design the rooms in which they'll live their personal. On the other hand, you may find you prefer working with professionals, collaborating with architects or facilities managers and others to design the interiors of commercial spaces. If the excitement of a family thinking about a home gets you going, think residential. If you draw energy from other designers and love bouncing ideas of a group of knowledgeable peers, you might find yourself better suited to larger commercial projects.Scale
Any interior design career requires attention to detail, and interior design school will help develop your eye for that detail, regardless of the types of projects you complete along the way. But whether you find more satisfaction transforming a bathroom or transforming a museum is an entirely different matter. If bigger seems better, chances are commercial interior design will present you with larger scale opportunities. If you feel like you can really sink your teeth into the details of smaller spaces like a den or a nursery, residential interior design may be the ticket.About the Author
Dawn West is an avid gardener and freelance writer. When she's not gardening, her previous experience includes working for the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance, a not-for-profit in New York City, developing programming for a business news radio station in Boston and serving as the director for several educational programs for at-risk youth. Dawn holds a B.A. in English from Harvard University, but was also educated in the yard by her green-thumbed father.
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