subject: Commercial Interior Design Is An Area Of Study Within Engineering [print this page] The majority of people are more than capable of being able to paint their home or re-affix a fallen gutter, but, if you want to design the interior of an office, or block of offices - that takes the expertise of a professional who has had years of training.
Anyone who is involved in interior design on a commercial level has had to undergo years of formal schooling and probably grew up with a flair for interior design that wasn't realized until they were well into their early schooling.
There are so many facets to interior designing on a commercial level, that can make it difficult to choose a particular direction in which to go once you have chosen this field as a career. There are basics to be learned that every commercial interior design professional has to know and no matter which particular area of interior designing an individual chooses you will be faced with some of the same challenges in every project undertaken.
Perhaps the most critical of all tools in commercial interior design is computer software - commonly called Computer Aided Design, or CAD, and it is the tool that all commercial interior designers use to create their ideas and put them into a format that eventually gets submitted to the general contractors. With the aid of the CAD program it will enable you to create blueprints and design drawings that facilitate a project from only existing in plans and drawings into actual reality. You can try different layouts, furniture and custom window valances.
Without an expert working knowledge of CAD you will never be educated enough to qualify as a commercial interior designer.
The face of architecture and design has changed immensely over the last 50 years that now we have computers that design and draw architecture instead of people. To become an interior designer you need to learn to successfully manipulate the CAD software to enable you to get your design ideas into play.
Engineering
A career in design is a career in engineering too and your engineering skills are going to be brought into play with every new project you do. You need to be able to ascertain the relationship between the space available on an office floor and the need for cubicles together with how to add more space to a particular building that doesn't have it. You will need to know how to match furniture with artwork and even window valances.
If you haven't realized it by now - commercial interior design is about moving things around efficiently utilizing what space you have available and that does not necessarily mean working with existing space. There will be times you will be called upon to create space and that can require skills in engineering.
The field of interior design at any level can be a challenging one as it requires knowledge from a variety of disciplines in order to be successful. Be prepared to spend a lot of time studying - but, once you have completed your course - you can look forward to a very rewarding career.
