Interior design major high tech and time intensive
Students better watch who they call “decorator.”
One of the most expensive, time-intensive and competitive majors on campus, interior design apparently involves more than just watching paint dry. In fact, if all majors were like interior design, 60 percent of USU students would be rejected from their program by sophomore year.
“It’s not all the fun and games people think it is. We’re not just in a fabric room picking out fabric all day,” said Liz Rich, a senior in interior design. “It’s definitely more technical than what people think.”
USU’s program is the only four-year accredited interior design program in Utah, according to Darrin Brooks, an assistant professor. And as the program has gotten better, it has also gotten tougher.
“The caliber of the program is becoming nationally known, and it makes for a very competitive process,” Brooks said.
To succeed in that process, students in interior design must be fluent in AutoCAD and be able to draft a building that could actually be constructed. They must understand building code and lighting and electrical systems. They must be able to choose carpets and fabrics that will be durable, furniture that will be comfortable, and still style them to be beautiful on a budget.
Last week, Brooks and four other faculty members conducted the sophomore review, which is the process through which students are accepted to the studio emphasis of the major. Fifty sophomores turned in 10 projects each and were judged based on design ability, technical ability and motivation. Brooks said 20 of the 50 students were accepted. Those not accepted can go into the sales and marketing emphasis or change their major.
“We just want to set people up for success, so if it’s not a good fit, we want to be able to recognize that,” Brooks said.
Students in the senior studio said once accepted, it is necessary to put in long hours and sacrifice sleep to keep up with the course load.
“I think yesterday alone – oh my gosh, this is so sad – I think I worked 15 or 16 hours on my project,” senior Haley Neil said.
“Yeah, that sounds about normal,” responded senior Kasey Golightly.
Neil said the time spent on projects is a result of the design stage, which takes several weeks to get right, and then the rendering stage, which is the physical draft created for potential clients.
“You design for like two to three weeks, and then you’re trying to make that into something tangible in like, a week,” Neil said. “The design stage is most important. I don’t think people actually know what we do.”
Projects cost more than just time. Each project can cost $50 to $100 each in printing costs and supplies, and all the students are required to buy a high-end laptop to design with.
Golightly said though the program requires a lot of him, he never gets burned out.
“I’m always thinking (design),” he said. “Like, watching a movie, people are like, ‘Ooh, look at the love scene,’ and I’m like, ‘Ooh, look at the hot chair in the background.'”
Brooks said most of the program’s students go on to work at architectural firms, designing the functionality of things such as where outlets are located in a room.
“Our job is to make an office and a house efficient,” Brooks said. “If a space is really aesthetic and looks pretty, but doesn’t function, the client isn’t going to be happy.”
Brooks said another big part of the interior design program is teaching students about safer, higher quality products, such as flame-retardant carpets and materials that stand up better to wear.
Many of the students said such safety and quality considerations are not elements of the popular TV shows that do quick redesign jobs in people’s homes, such as “Trading Spaces” or “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”
“They don’t show on the show a week later when everything falls apart,” Neil said. “I think one thing that’s frustrating for us is we go to school and learn all this stuff, and we see the designers on these shows and they’re getting all this exposure, and they have no training, and they’re doing terrible design.”
Rich said students are so serious about getting credit for their training that the program is lobbying to get a bill passed in the next Utah legislative session that would require anyone calling themselves an “interior designer” to have passed the National Council for Interior Design Qualification test. Anyone who did not meet that standard would have to instead be labeled a “decorator.”
“Not that there’s anything wrong with people who just go out and do it themselves, but they really don’t have the knowledge that we have after going through four years of schooling,” Rich said. “We want clients to be able to distinguish that.”
For those interested in seeing what four years has produced, the graduating interior design class is hosting its senior exhibit beginning this week. The exhibit will showcase projects from all 20 seniors in the Twain Tippetts Gallery of the Chase Fine Arts Center, and will be open April 9 through April 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
-jenbeasley@cc.usu.edu