With designs on a creative career

The rapid paced urbanisation and influx of several multi-national companies and offices in the country has created a never-before-expected demand for professional interior designers. Indians are becoming more and more conscious of their surroundings and do not hesitate to spend a good bit of money to alter the home and office spaces they inhabit. As a result the right brained students of India have never had it so good, considering the fact that they have a plethora of options to pursue a course that matches their interest.

Housekeeping no longer remains the domain of homemakers. Ambitious and creative students can actually pursue a course in interior decoration and make a brilliant career out of it. An enthusiastic professional will find each project challenging for he will be expected to come up with resourceful and ostensible solutions in order to achieve a dream interior setting chalked out by the client. Candidates with creativity, aesthetic sense and the ability to transform a vision into reality can opt for the course. Interior design courses offer excellent opportunities for those who wish to be self employed, or work part time.  It is one of the few professions where one can operate from home with a minimal investment.  

Just about anybody who has completed his or her intermediate or graduate studies from any discipline can take up the course. But unless the candidate has the aptitude for the job the course will amount to fitting round pegs in square holes.

These days several interior design schools have cropped up in all the major cities of India. They offer courses ranging from a period of anywhere between one month to three years during which time the students are taught the nuances of working in a three dimensional perspective and spatial flow. Students are also given training in lateral thinking, drawing both on paper and also on computers. Courses which run for a longer duration familiarise students with history and the role of decors in the ancient and medieval world. Most interior designer schools in Bangalore revealed that they also conduct classes in spoken English and basic arithmetic to help their students to communicate more effectively and to reckon with the necessary transactions while dealing with the job when they are on their own.

The students are given several practical sessions in their in-house studios and they are also encouraged to do a short internship with leading architects. Most students consider this aspect to be the most valuable part of their courses for though designers work over flexible timings they invariably have to work towards fulfilling looming deadlines.

A random survey revealed that serious fledgling designers generally opt to work with leading architects for a song to learn the ropes of the trade. Once their mission is accomplished they quote their price or simply drift away from the mother company to initiate one on their own. Divya Ponnappa, leading architect revealed that graduates in interior designing from the universities of Delhi or Mumbai had a better welcome in the market because they were considered serious students in the profession. Anuradha Palekar successful designer who has done her course in the famous JJ school of Art from Mumbai endorsed the view and added that the certificates mattered only in the initial stages but in the long run it was not where and how the course was taken but the performance which was rated. The architects of Space Artists revealed that they were not very concerned with the certificates as long as the candidate displayed his or her intrinsic aptitude and flair for the job.  

Gayathri Vissa who has her own firm confirmed that once the initial struggle was over and the goodwill of the market was earned life for interior designers was good.
Successful designers have an entire retinue of carpenters, electricians, tile layers, and masons on their pay roll. They also have regular suppliers of fabric, paints, artifacts and such paraphernalia to deck up a home. It was amazing to note that a successful interior designer will have the ability to activate employment and in turn step up the economy with his dedication.

It is clear that if a potential interior designer has tons of creativity and a tremendously observant eye for beauty and when moulded by experts in the field by way of training he will find the world to be his oyster.