Define your career. If you are a doctor, you diagnose and treat people’s food. If you are a hairdresser, you cut, color, perm and style your hair. If you are a police officer, you respect the law, investigate crimes and generally protect the citizens of the district in which you work. Almost anyone can describe most careers, at least briefly. If you have one of those careers, you are very lucky.
Before I entered the workforce and opened my own design firm, I never would have imagined I’d be getting calls to repair drapes, remove stains from carpets, figure out why a light bulb in a chandelier isn’t working… I’m an interior designer — Interior designs; but I can recommend a seamstress, a carpet cleaning company, an electrician… Then comes the dreaded question, “What do you mean you design interiors?”
Once upon a time, I thought that was an easy question to answer. Somehow it’s easier for me now to explain to a child why the grass is green.
Instead of trying to define interior design, I have dedicated myself to explaining the interior design process.
I analyze, I ask questions, I draw, I go over the budget, I draw some more while I ask more questions. Slowly what started as sketches turns into floor plans and other technical drawings. Some of the drawings are colored. I help my clients make informed decisions regarding the use of space, materials, products, color, lighting, layout, construction methods, other professionals… The drawings/plans then go to the contractors and specialized contractors. I review the shipping process with my clients: one shipment is higher, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing because the others are missing things. A contractor is selected, the contract is signed, and work begins; I will be there routinely while work is in progress. I basically act as a representative on behalf of my clients, as well as a protector of my own design. The schedules are reviewed frequently, the problems that arise are handled in such a way that my clients can later know the solution but not the headache that involves understanding and solving the problem. The work is finishing, only the final touches are missing but I am already preparing a list of things that must be finished, repaired or touched up.
What had been a noisy, dirty and smelly construction site has now gone quiet and cleaned up. He walked around looking and examining the life size of all the drawings she had done weeks, if not months ago. Back in the office, I edit the deficiency list started a few days earlier and send it to the contractor and clients. The work is soon completely finished, but my work is not finished yet.
My clients call, happy with the finished space. There are some last minute questions about the maintenance of some of the new items, where to find certain decorative items and accessories that suddenly have importance, the location of these items, etc.
About two months later, those customers are likely to call again. The voice on the other end sounds a little annoyed or even a little terrified. Tile grout is cracked in one area of one wall. It’s probably just because everything has had time to work itself out; I’ll stop by to see it and then I’ll contact the contractor.
Define my career. I am an interior designer. I am an analyst, an artist, an educator, a questioner, a project manager, a construction supervisor, a buyer, a space planner, a specifier, a decorator, a technician, a draftsman, a problem solver…
But can I help a client plan an outdoor project? Can I design a cabana or gazebo for a client’s garden? Can I design custom furniture or lighting? Do you work with other professionals to provide technical drawings for things that do not fall within the scope of an interior designer’s job? Working with clients and their real estate agent to help them select the perfect home or commercial space to meet their needs? Provide consulting services to do-it-yourselfers? Handle the expansion of a building? Do you work on both new construction and renovations? Planning to add or relocate a kitchen or bathroom? Do I know the building code? Can I help get renovation permits from the municipality? Designing spaces for the use of people with physical disabilities?… Yes, and more.
Hastily, I sometimes describe interior design as the career that fills the gap between architect and decorator, but the accuracy of that statement is something even I have debated. So I’m still left without a solid definition of my own career.