Scope of Interior Designing in India

Do you love arranging and decorating your living spaces? Are you good in space management, drawing, and combining different colour palettes? And most importantly, do you love meeting people? If your answers to these questions are ‘yes’, then interior designing is the perfect profession for you.

Interior designing is one of the most prospective and sought-after professions across the globe. The earning potential of established interior designers is limitless. There are endless opportunities for interior designers; starting from residential interiors to commercial spaces like offices, schools, cafes and restaurants, retail stores, salon and spas, hotels, etc.

A research conducted in 2017, reveals that there is a definite dearth for interior designers in India. The industry is rapidly growing and is expected to do so in the coming years. Unlike regular jobs, a career in interior designing allows you to work as a freelancer or take up full-time job. The ever-growing demand for residential apartments and commercial spaces in India has further boosted the scope of interior designing in India. For the city dwellers, living in an aesthetically designed home is not only a status symbol but a necessity. The increasing urban population, decreasing sizes of living spaces and improved standards of living have further elevated the need for a professional who can efficiently utilise the available space. If you are an aspiring interior designer, this is the best time to pursue this career.

In order to be a qualified designer, you can either take up diploma courses or a degree in interior design. The minimum qualification to apply for these courses is class 12 or graduation from a recognised university. There are many institutions in India which offer professional courses in both fashion and interior designing. There are short and long-term designing courses and the duration can range from 3 months to 3 years. The average course fee starts from Rs. 30,000 and will increase depending on the nature and duration of the course. Listed below are some of the reputed interior designing institutes in India.

 National Institute of Design

 Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur

 Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College for Women, Bangalore

 Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College, Aurangabad

 NID Ahmedabad

 J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai

 IIT Bombay

 Sai School of Interior Design

 Arch Academy of Design Jaipur

 IILM School of Design, Gurgaon

 JD Institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore

 Shri Devi College of Interior Design, Mangalore

 College of Architecture, Nasik

 Creations School, Pune

 Institute of Indian Interior Designers, New Delhi

There are many institutes in India which offer online designing courses. Some of them are:

 AICAD

 The Interior Design Institute

 Rhodec International

 Udemy

 Launchpad Academy

Through these online courses you can learn and master the art of designing at the comfort of your home. Most of the institutes also helps in building students’ portfolios through live and mock projects, case studies and quizzes which is necessary for job application.

What it takes to be an interior designer

Technical Skills:

While interior designing is a creative domain, technical expertise is necessary to exhibit your talent and creativity. Although it is a service industry, interior designing is a display business, unlike other services. You have to showcase your designs and solutions in order acquire the project. Customers prefer to see what their future home would look like, therefore a professional 2D and 3D presentation is required.

Along with the technical skills, an interior designer should be well versed with the products and materials available in the market. The design industry is constantly evolving and as such the designer should always be up to date with the market trends.

Visualisation:

An interior be creative and have great visualisation ability. Before creating the model, the designer should be able to survey, analyse and visualise various elements of the site. This includes the layout, available space, natural lighting, colour, decor and furnishing, which will suit the requirement of the client.

Good Communication and Listening Skills:

Knowledge and technical know-how are essential to be an interior designer. However, good

communication and listening abilities will shape the course of your career in this industry. An interior designer should be able to effectively communicate the concept and ideas to the customers, vendors, carpenters, and other team members. The designer should be a good listener to be able to capture even the minute details provided by the client.

Time and Project Management:

Interior designing is not a desk job. An interior designer has to work both in the office and on the project site. In this profession, one has to constantly travel for interacting with clients, selecting and purchasing materials, meeting vendors and monitoring the progress of the project. The designer should have exceptional project management skills to effectively complete the project within the stipulated time frame.

Interior designing is a rewarding career option and it gets better with experience. In this field, there are a variety of choices. You can work independently as a freelancer, work with property developers, start your own design studio, join interior design firms, or work as design consultant for town planning department, furniture manufacturers, hotels and resorts.

Rapid urbanisation and improved standard of living have opened up a lot of opportunities for interior designers in India. Our status-conscious mindset and shrinking apartment sizes are driving the need for interior designers in metropolitan cities and it is quickly extending to Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities as well.