In reaction to the legal challenges and effort to deregulate licensing of Interior Designers in Florida ASID and IIDA issued the following joint statement;
Joint Statement of the American Society of Interior Designers And the International Interior Design Association
“The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and the International Interior Design Association (IlDA) recognize and support each other’s role in the development of the interior design profession.
The two organizations each work to further the growth and success of the interior design profession in the United States, nurture the global design community and offer education and inspiration to members throughout their careers.
To that end, both ASID and IIDA strongly support voluntarily licensing that provides expanded practice opportunities for interior designers, allowing qualified designers to work independently in code-based built environments. This type of licensure for interior design is right for the economy, right for consumers, and right for the interior design profession.
Further, ASID and IIDA join together to oppose current attempts to deregulate the interior design industry. Licensing allows designers to establish independent small businesses that offer a full scope of services, hire workers, increase payrolls and contribute to the tax base. Regulation has helped create jobs in interior design as well as affiliated wholesale and retail sales.
This has, also meant reduced costs for consumers by increasing competition in the commercial design market. Licensing for interior design differentiates the responsibilities and services of each of the design professions, eliminating a monopoly for architects in the design of code-based built environments. Overall, licensing in Florida has created a robust design industry that employs thousands of Floridians and contributes significantly to the economy.
Deregulation of voluntary licensure in Florida will only serve to disrupt small business and remove key safeguards vital to keeping the economy on track, creating instability for business and uncertainty in the marketplace.
For these reasons ASID and IIDA are working to together to prevent the deregulation of interior design and to promote a vibrant and dynamic environment in which the design community can thrive.”
PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER is not sure when the statement was issued, or to whom, and that it was not formatted as a press release is interesting. None the less there are two take away points for those who see the effort to license the practice of Interior Design as our primary mode of professional validation (in PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER’S sometimes not so humble opinion);
- ASID & IIDA are collaborating on this issue.
- A clear objective for this effort has been identified-
…..both ASID and IIDA strongly support voluntarily licensing that provides expanded practice opportunities for interior designers, allowing qualified designers to work independently in code-based built environments.
Okay now we’re talkin’! That’s it in a nutshell elevator ride statement. Kudos to Don Davis of ASID and Allison Levy of IIDA for distilling down an incredibly complex and misunderstood issue. I hope that ASID and IIDA will adopt the above statement as their official policy regarding the regulation of Interior Design. As I have stated before “as interior design legislation goes so goes the profession” at least until we can synthesize a cogent public relations effort that reinforces our regulatory efforts.
Now that we have a clear objective all we have to do is come up with a strategy to achieve it. Guess who might have some thoughts on that?
Professional Interior Designer's Blog 
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