Important Interior Design Skills to Have in Kenya
Interior design is great career option for creative and passionate individuals. Ikigai college of interior design helps you turn your passion to profession through rigorous training in this career. The schools helps you grasp necessary skills for interior design profession. Interior designers are required to create impressive spaces for commercial and residential use.
Apart from interior design knowledge, designers needs to have certain skills for their career use. Moreover, successful designers are well equipped with quality training and relevant skills.
If you are willing to exercise interior design, here we will take you through key skills that will help you exercise this profession successfully.
Key skills of interior designers
-
Creativity
Interior design is a creative career choice. Apart from education qualification, you need passion in order to prevail in this field. Ikigai college of interior design aims at improving students creativity through hands on training to showcase their expertise. Just like other artists, you need creativity to develop unique designs that are appealing to clients eye.
The ability to think critically helps designers to sketch a rough draft of what you envision to design. With creativity, you are able to draw manually, create and refine with a software. Creativity helps you deliver more polished and better final designs.
-
Attention to details
Interior designers needs to put clients needs in mind when improving different spaces. You will need to be strict to observe clients expectations, budget, and schedule. Interior designers needs to avoid negligence which may make them mess up with clients needs and expectations.
Just like lawyers, doctors, engineers and other professions, interior designers needs to pay attention to details. You cannot succeed as interior designer if you are not attentive to given instructions and guidelines. Moreover, designing software and techniques needs to be applied by designers who are keen in their job. Further, you might be required to find solutions for small spaces, complicate renovations, and unusual color palettes.
-
Communication skills
Ikigai college of interior design offers communication classes to it’s interior students. These classes helps students understand how to communicate they ideas to their clients. For example, interior designers may have strong sense of vision and creative thinking which might be absent to their customers, hence it will be necessary to communicate their ideas to help them understand better. Plus, you will need to be an active listener to understand clients needs. Accordingly, project proposal can only be approved through good communication.
Effective listening and good communication skills helps you understand clients better and meet their expectations. As interior designer, you need good communication skills to coordinate well with different parties that includes clients, vendors, and architects. Communication is not all about writing emails but conducting visual impressions that draws user attention. It is a wide area that covers presentation, Therefore, good communication helps you understand your clients expectations and needs.
-
Team work
Interior designers needs to have teamwork spirit while practicing this profession. Plus, interior designers works alongside architects, engineers, and contractors. Collaborating favorably helps to improve your functionality and ability to meet clients expectations with much ease. Again, you will be able to consult other professions where you feel any doubt.
Ideally, people will not understand your intention and ideas if you do not communicate effectively. With good communication skills, you will be able to communicate your logical and innovative ideas with team members
-
Critical thinking
Interior designers are visual thinkers with ability to reason beyond less creative professions. They are able to identify potential in empty, dysfunctional, and outdated spaces. In most cases, interior designers offers solution where people feel it’s impossible. To be a successful designer, you need to think critically and offer solution especially in messed up spaces that requires wise solutions.
Critical thinking is a crucial skill that makes designers give solutions even in complex projects that appears hard. You should be able to divide projects into small portions and deliver seamless results within a given period. Interior designers are people who offer valuable answers that genuinely makes a difference in specific projects.
-
Strong organization skills
Interior designers needs to have strong project management skills. You have to meticulously organize all aspects of your project from initial planning, budgeting, coordination, execution, and designing. Interior designers must plan and organize their project to accommodate entire project and unexpected changes. It is also accomplished through strategic planning where designers needs to self disciplined to organize, and implement project promptly.
If you are interior designer, you need to determine amount of time you will spend on given project with and without supervision. Interior design is a serious career that needs good organization skills to carry out the project successfully. For example, you might be required to divide a given project into small accomplishable units and deliver quality and on time. Furthermore, as an interior designer your work needs to be more organized that will help clients and team members understand your intentions.
-
Design trends and styles knowledge
Interior designers needs to understand different design trends and styles applicable in this field. For example, a given client may want a French country aesthetic and another a mid century outlook which you are expected to meet promptly.
Whether you are upcoming or practicing designers it’s necessary to keep up with all design trends and styling elements. As interior designer, you’ll need vast knowledge on furniture art, design history, and sustainability. After all, interior design is a fast changing career that needs constant learning to keep updated on up to date design trends and styles.
-
Knowledge on color basics
Color plays vital role in interior design. It has great transformative power that can either break or make a space. If you want to be a proficient designer, you will need good knowledge on color theory. That includes, vast knowledge on complementary shades, hues, and wheels that will help you find pleasing pellets for different clients. Although, mastering color theory is a daunting task, understanding this concept will help you compete favorably with other interior designers.
-
Budgeting skills
Many clients wants you to come up with a favorable budget for their needs. In most cases, interior designers are given ideas on how to improve spaces where there are required to give appropriate budget. Good budget skills helps you find a creative solution to clients needs with use of given cost estimates. Budget skills helps interior designer give their clients realistic amount of cash their will need for they design projects.
Interior designer needs vast knowledge on budget that includes labor, hidden costs, and furnishings. Additionally, you will need to ensure transparency when giving out budget which increases your clients trust. Moreover, you need to be a honest negotiator and good record keeper especially on those projects that hidden costs.
-
Time management skills
In interior design, delivering work on time is essential that increases creates trust. Good time management skills helps to create a positive impression and commitment in your work. Time management is a vital skill in interior design, where you have to offer a realistic timeline on a given project.
You will need good organizational skills to give clients precise due date, and problem solving skill will help you tackle your project promptly and avoid lateness.
-
Strong marketing skills
Interior designers needs to be obsessed on marketing and how to keep up with new ideas and trends. Focus on developing good content on constant basis to improve marketing skills. Again, you need to share your thoughts constantly to attract potential clients and increase their trust.
Like marketing agents, business vendors, and advertisement agencies, you need specialized knowledge in marketing. You need to look into programs and websites that improves your marketing skills. Make sure, you adopt good marketing skills to improve market brand and attract more clients.
-
Good understanding of spatial balance
Spatial balance is a vital tool in graphic design. It helps to create a good environment for clients without affecting their feelings and mood. Spatial imbalance attracts uncomfortable feeling once you enter a place. Ideally, the set up of a room may help to create harmony and change people mood upon entry.
For that reason, as an interior designer you need to observe lighting, finishing, and furniture layout to set a good tone for clients space. For example, many restaurants adopts red and yellow color schemes that improves appetite. Therefore, if you create good designs that boosts harmony and balance you will improve space functionality.
Final Thoughts
Interior design is a creative career that draws wide range of skills. The fast growing career needs you to have multiple skills. If you are will to venture interior design, you will be required to possess some or all of these essential skills.
However, you should not limit yourself to these skills but you need to be more focused on improving your skill set. Growing your skills helps you to thrive and compete better in interior design industry.
