Interior Design Profession Legislation Regulation Licensing
Tag: Glam interiors
According to Martin Lawrence Bullard;
“Comfort is the hottest trend in home furnishings,”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/condiment/interior-design-trends-2013_b_2675342.html
Which of course means that the focus of the previous 10,000 years of trends was to have uncomfortable home furnishings. Brilliant…simply brilliant.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/25/hollywood-reporters-25-mo_n_2018837.html
Dang! Maybe next year.
Well Double Dang….if all the Hollywood stars become interior designers, because they can, then PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER does not stand a chance of making this list…….Wah!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/03/brad-pitts-furniture-line_n_2069061.html
Guess I am going to have to DABBLE at becoming a Hollywood Star……oooh oooh I wish upon a star……..
PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER was reprimanded recently by a LinkedIn group page manager for making unprofessional comments in an off topic debate about the profession of interior architecture; http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=956917&type=member&item=131084231&commentID=88314209&qid=7cb61ab1-2cde-4f62-9d96-ef7cd961a04f&goback=%2Egmp_956917#commentID_88314209
I was provoked and I lost my typical PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER literary cool- I am sorry. Unsure if I offended only the group manager or the entire profession…well okay the dozen or so professionals that actually follow that forum, I am now hesitant to post my real and honest thoughts on any public forum not of my own making. Not to mention the possibility of garnering a reputation as an obsessive compulsive self-righteous ego maniacal jack-ass with anger management issues and nothing better to do than hog any online discussion pertaining to the profession of “Interior Design”.
I should know better. On to my point.
I was just about to post a comment in reply to a new thread on the Interior Design Educators Council LinkedIn group discussion page http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=969667&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=%2Egmp_969667 which links to this blogpost; http://www.disd.edu/wordpress/2012/07/31/putting-the-id-in-idec/?goback=%2Egmp_969667%2Egde_969667_member_141039624. I appreciate Ms. Homme’s supportive words about the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) but when I scrolled to the picture of who I assume is Ms. Homme (I do not know her) sitting in her resource library I began to feel my blood pressure rising and my qwerty fingers twitching.
WHY DO ALL OBLIGATORY IMAGES OF INTERIOR DESIGNERS AT WORK INVOLVE FABRIC SWATCHES AND PAINT CHIPS?
The little censor guy in my left ear convinced me to chill down and not comment directly on the thread as it would undoubtedly be misconstrued and potentially offensive to the author. Fortunately the anarchist guy in my right ear was sleeping off a 3 day bath salt huffing bender so I acquiesced to the responsible voice.
That’s where this blog comes in handy.
So I got to thinking. If we want so desperately to free ourselves of the decorator stereotype (not that there is anything wrong with decorators) why do we continue to portray ourselves as such?
And AM I OVERREACTING?
Well of course I am overreacting but the former question remains unanswered.
So in the interest of vitally important research I Google Image searched “Interior Designers at Work”. Go ahead try it. Now Google Image “Architects at Work”. ID’ers are typically female and surrounded by paint chips, paint cans (not sure where that came from), fabric samples and the occasional simplified floor plan. There are no images of interior designers on construction sites wearing hard hats, pointing to some impossibly unresolvable mechanical/electrical/plumbing systems clash with a burly contractor hanging on every gesture and word. We all know that maybe 5% of our work involves finish selections…but I guess images of overworked and overstressed design professionals nodding off in front of their computer because it froze up on the 2 terrabyte rendering file they were trying to correct is not very visually appealling…I digress.
Of course typical images of architects at work show them wearing hard hats and leading interested groups of awed subordinates and clients surrounding large sets of complex blueprints on some monumental construction site.
PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER finds this dichotomous imagery both amusing and frustrating.
What should a professional interior designer at work really look like?
or this?
I think it can if we want it to.
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/27/3560335/ideas-to-steal-from-the-symphony.html
And these;
http://clawson.patch.com/articles/designers-show-house-showcases-pewabic-tile-d11ea57b
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-housing-works-8th-annual-design-on-a-dime-benefit
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20120428/NJNEWS/304280006/Mansion-in-May-Rooms-to-roam
It’s that time of year again. Many “designers” participate in their local, usually annual, design show house event. PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER has lamented on this aspect of our professional public relations effort before. Not to sound like a broken record but each spring the press is literally flooded with pronouncements and advertising promoting the local show house. It is without a doubt one of the profession’s best opportunities to convey its true value to society. A lot of time and effort can be invested in these events and granted many are held as fundraiser events- this is admirable….although does the local symphony count as a viable charity? I digress.
Unfortunately what are usually touted as “designer” show houses with many local prominent “interior designers” showcasing their best, or state of the art “interior design”, are nothing but a mélange of disparate furniture showroom vignettes. Basically the designers, or decorators, are simply throwing paint on the walls, carpet on floors, drapes on the windows and furniture in the space they have been allotted. All venues for these houses are huge mansions that only the 1%’ers could afford so who better to fill all of these rooms?
This is what the public thinks we do. That is sad on so many levels.
Sorry but I am here to say this is not “interior design” it is interior decoration at best and unsustainable temporary decorator showrooms at worst. And given the mish-mash of talent, budget and time I question if it is even good decoration- but then that is part of the draw. People like to see an extreme range of creativity and unaffordable gaudiness seems to sell. There is a voyeuristic quality to these events as well. It is like sneaking in to the rich neighbor’s house down the street and seeing how they live- who doesn’t like that? If HGTV is reading this there is a great new series idea for you. These show house events are chock full of forced stress and drama posing as interior design- how’s that for a free pitch? I digress yet again.
Of course there are exceptions and varying levels of design talent. Some of the general public can take away some inspiration and handy D.I.Y. tips but let’s face it- ultimately this is the Interior Design professions annual Halloween Haunted House event and it is a truly lost opportunity for us to enlighten and educate. Even the show Extreme Home Makeover has more cohesion and attention to a result that improves the lives of the owners. Why can’t we do the same?
Therefore this is PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER’s annual call for our professional interior design organizations to rethink this entire marketing effort.
Keep the fundraiser focus but maybe emulate the Extreme Home Makeover objective. Don’t just throw a bunch of crap in every nook and cranny of an unsellable monstrosity. Maybe you actually take stuff out to make it more useable. Maybe the owner is aging and the house is just too unmanageable. Or gee maybe you could take a 10,000 square foot McMansion and divide it into 2 or 3 smaller condo units that are redesigned to accommodate aging in place. This would require a level of expertise that would preclude most interior decorators posing as interior designers. Screw the huge mansion venue all together. Try using a more reasonable venue- you know like one that most of us live in. Maybe you could take some of the new stock of vacant unsellable class “B” spec office space, or a vacant strip mall big box retail venue, and turn it into a viable residence for the elderly or low-income. Maybe we could team up with local contractors to facilitate the construction/remodel work….maybe…..
But then who would want to see that?
Never mind.
P.S. In San Fran it is the “decorators show house” but it is done by “interior designers”- go figure.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/JonathanRachmanDesign/SFDS2012/prweb9444144.htm
http://www.jsonline.com/features/homeandgarden/someday-your-prints-will-come-9d66kkq-164505396.html
http://www.asid.org/news/pr/2011/January182012pressrelease.htm
This is an interesting choice although I am unsure how one can be an EVP & CEO……..Anyway it will be fun to watch how Mr. Fiser deals with the disparate interests within ASID and how that may influence the profession at large.
Stay Tuned.
http://www.torontolife.com/daily/hype/creative-types/2011/11/29/lenny-kravitz-bisha-hotel-toronto/
Not only no but HELL NO! Lenny Kravitz could give a rip about the profession of interior design as we define it. He is an interior designer because he can be- period. He is doing just fine with his natural talent and flair which he has in spades. Should he ever need a permit he can buy the services of an architect or a licensed interior designer to get it. That is how all of the star designers (from Barbara Streisand to Posh Spice) as well as other creatives like Karim Rashid and Phillipe Starck do it. They surround themselves with licensed, certified and registered design professionals- and why not? Which one of us would say no to Lenny Kravitz if he called and asked “hey PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER wanna hook up on my South Beach condo project?” “Um well Mr. Kravitz I am not registered in Florida so I will have to decline your offer“……Nobody will turn their accredited degree/licensed noses up to them- nobody. So what is my point?
Will we, the accredited and certified interior design professionals, as defined in the ID Body of Knowledge ( http://www.idbok.org/PDFs/IDBOK_2010_sum.pdf ), be recognized by the general public as somehow better qualified than Lenny Kravitz or Venus Williams ( http://vstarrinteriors.com/ ) ? How will NOT abiding by the tenets of professional interior design as defined in our body of knowledge “marginalize” the innately qualified? If somebody like Lenny Kravitz were to proclaim that he is a “professional” interior designer who would say otherwise? Now if he were to proclaim that he is a “registered” interior designer that would be another story but he will never have to go there as long as he can say that he is an “interior designer”. Semantic hair-splitting?
YES.
Unfortunately in the dearth of a unified and focused public relations effort our default mode of distinguishing “professional” or “registered” interior designers from the innately qualified is to lean on Uncle Sam to validate us. Is this the only way forward?
Too many questions?
Right.
PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER told himself not to continue punishing his hyper-sensitive identity complex by subjecting himself to another season of HGTV’s Design Star series. But lo I cannot avoid it. The HGTV juggernaut is omniscient- it is like being forced, with eyes propped open, to watch a slow motion train/school bus collision. The promotion of the series and its impact on the profession of interior design is unavoidable and in my not so humble opinion……devastating.
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv-design-star/show/index.html
If you are a professionally educated and/or trained interior designer who has vetted your knowledge and skillset via examination, continuing education and a commitment to ethical business practices you know what I am talking about. If however, you consider yourself an innately qualified interior designer who dresses professionally and has a flair for self-promotion and fashion but has no other validation of competency then you probably think I am an arrogant poop shoot. So be it.
I have ranted incessantly about the public’s perception of “interior design” and their subsequent level of respect and appreciation for our value to society. Many of us endeavor to distinguish ourselves from the publicity seekers and drama queens by clinging to acronyms such as “RID”, “CID” “NCIDQ® Certificate Number 000000”. Surely the public must understand and respect those credentials. But many professional designers do not fully understand the litany of abbreviations and letters posing as credentials- how can we expect armchair home improvement enthusiasts (A.K.A. “general public”) to grasp the nuances? Well we can’t and we have to stop wasting our time trying to change the paradigm.
In order to avoid the incessant stereotyping some of us have even created our own terms such as “interior workplace strategist”, “interior environmental designer”, and the inevitable “interior architect”. But ultimately we are still “interior designers” and we are subject, by default, to all of its misperceptions. Unfortunately, until we demand better of our professional organizations, even with their limited resources, and apply some out of the box strategic public relations effort we will forever be judged by whomever, or whatever, has the broadest impact on our chosen profession. Take a guess what that might be.
Gotta go buy some Orville Redenbacher Smart Pop (I am watching my girlish figure don’t ya know) and get my snuggie ready. It’s going to be a great season of Design Star.
P.S. If you missed the casting call for this seasons’s Design Star fret not! You should try this one….AaaaaaaaRrrrrrrrrrrrrGGGGGGGGGGhhhhhhhhhh!
