Many more individuals are now plunging into the world of interior design. As tough and competitive as it might be, a crop of them stand out and remain relevant.
From working with clients to handling a team of designers, or dealing with architectural companies, working as an interior designer can be challenging. Yet, the zeal to stay at the top of your game and become a success in the career remains paramount.
Everybody needs some help along the way; the industry’s big names also had to go through various learning processes to make it to the top. To this effect, we will share with you 7 inspiring tips and secrets you would need to keep you going on your journey as an interior designer.
Table of Contents
7 tips for a successful interior design career
These are tips that many successful interior designers have discovered to be useful in their life’s work. You would come to find them timeless and essential for your success as you work your way to the top.
- Strengthen your communication skills
The importance of communication in business is one that cannot be overemphasized. Clients are persuaded to do business by your ability to convince, compel them, and express yourself clearly.
Clear communication helps you appear professional and puts you forward as knowledgeable in your field. For example, when a client asks why you have decided to go with a design, a good response will not be “because it’s lovely.”
Instead, putting forward the concept and strategy behind a design in clear terms will help you sell your potential. Again, with clear communication, you can design your work in line with your client’s needs.
It helps you better understand your client’s nature and preferences so that you can align your designs with their needs. Predicting what they need even before they request it is an offshoot of listening during conversations with them.
The art of listening is an essential tool for reading minds, and every client loves an intuitive designer. Lastly, strong communication skills are necessary for bargaining, dishing out instructions to employees, passing information across to colleagues, and building lasting partnerships.
All these are essential for building a successful career in interior design.
- Make the most of technology
Online interior design tools like Foyr ease up some design processes
Anyone ready to make it to the top of their interior design career should be very interested in technology. Technology has made a lot of feats in design easy and possible.
With different mobile applications, 3D model walkthroughs, and lots more, designers can now give clients a glimpse of the possibilities that await them when you design their homes. You can now take your client along every step of the way and modify designs to suit their needs.
Technology shoots you forward as an interior designer because, with it, you can put your business in the limelight, using social media, for example. There are also free Interior Design tools online that speed up some design processes.
Some interior design mobile applications or web tools are full of ideas that can inspire you and help make designing easier by automating some processes.
Tools such as Foyr’s floor plan maker or SketchUp give you 3D renderings of your design instead of manual paper drawings that may take twice the time.
- Get trained, educate yourself
No matter how you came into the field of interior design, some sort of structured training is necessary. Even if you took on interior designing as an offshoot from being a stay at home mom, you need to get formal training.
Thankfully, there are many ways you can invest in interior design education today. Vocational schools offer interior design courses that can give you the basics of interior design to boost your practical skills.
If you do not have a bachelor’s degree in interior design, you could also enroll in an online program that offers unique courses that would help you improve as a designer. Apart from getting educated (which gives you an edge in your career), you also open yourself up to opportunities.
Internships with interior design companies or top interior designers gives you practical on-hand knowledge of interior design. It can also give you links to potential clients and partners that can boost your business.
- Never stop learning
Seasons come and go, even in the interior design world too. What’s trendy today can be obsolete tomorrow, and it’s not unusual for some trends to make a comeback after many years. This is why you must stay on top of the trends in your field.
Some clients want a design that throws it back to the 90s; others wish for something that remains evergreen. How do you balance helping clients exist in spaces that depict eras that you may never even have lived in?
You need to immerse yourself in design trends across the years to understand what clients need as if you can read their minds. Be aware of what is going on in the realms of interior design. How can you incorporate past trends in the new? How can you adopt strategies of other interior designers and modify them to define your brand?
Understanding the answers to these questions keeps you at the cutting edge of the industry. Strategy and a blend of creativity make the strong statement that clients will come to see and love about your brand.
- Build your brand strategically
Ever heard the phrase ‘it’s all in the name?’ For some companies, it truly is. Some companies are still able to make waves in the industry by merely thriving on their brand name.
How well do you market your brand name? Does your brand have a name? A compelling brand name becomes a well-known brand name, depending on how well you push it. Are you selling yourself or selling yourself short?
A brand name is vital for being recognizable for your work and attracting prospective clients. The more you put your brand name out, the higher you sell yourself and your services. Branding is essential in businesses. It helps you expand your customer base and market your abilities to clients.
It is crucial to work with a team to build your brand strategically. This helps give your interior design business a boost. Color, style and even your brand’s voice plays an essential role in propelling your business to the frontline and the fore of your client’s minds.
- See the potential in every room
As a designer, you should find inspiration from all around you. Creativity is a mysterious skill that every interior designer needs to hone. A combination of creativity and practicability helps you to see the potential in every room.
Picture past designs that have already been done and try to make it better using your creative power. Keep up with the latest innovations in the industry and try to get a feel of what’s missing. Pay attention to the detail. Most of the time, designs are really an improvement of what already exists.
Watching other designers at work can also inspire you to find inspiration for masterpiece designs wherever you step into. While not every work can be perfect, meeting and surpassing the client’s needs is your goal. If you’re able to do that, you have done a job well done.
- Practice anytime, every time
Never pass up the opportunity to practice your skills. Experience is truly the best teacher. It becomes easier to handle heavy tasks when you’re already confident at handling small fry. The big-name interior designers did not get there by resting on their oars.
They mastered their skill by laboring in it through constant practice. Start from within, turn your space into brilliant designs as often as possible. Experiment with new ideas, new looks, fresh trends. Offer to design spaces, rooms, offices for a subsidized rate if necessary.
Design to keep occupied. Small jobs lead to bigger ones. Be professional and give every job your best shot. As you perfect your skill, you also up your prices and begin to choose the types of jobs you wish to take on.
Expert tip
Many experienced interior designers have this to say about their interior design journey:
- Stay passionate
It’s easy to lose sight of what really spurred you into interior design when the road gets rocky, and, oh, it will. The passion you feel about interior design is what will keep you going when it gets tough.
Your positive attitude towards interior design and the enthusiasm you felt at the start of your career are priceless gems that you need to hold on to when you feel like quitting the most.
Conclusion
Interior design is not just about the colors of the wall or the shapes that fit best in a space; it’s much more than that. The ability to read your client, exceed their expectations, improve on aged trends, and find inspiration from the most unlikely places is more like it.
To succeed in the world of interior design, you need to remain focused on why you started in the first place. Combined with these tips and guidelines, watch yourself climb up the ladder of success surely and steadily.
About Carson Derrow
