Interview

I interviewed Steve Ellinger, certified architect and interior designer, and part-time professor at ACU. I chose to interview him because of his breadth of experience in the field and related fields.

1) What is the purpose of Interior Design?

The purpose of interior design is to first protect the health, safety and welfare of the public and second to properly design to the psychology of the space.

2) How do you think Interior Designers are portrayed in the media?

Although the media does portray designers in a positive light, they are not seen as having the primary purpose of promoting safety. The news media does a better job in this in cases such as the World Trade Centers investigations they talked about how the design of the building allowed for lives to be saved. But of course, there could always be more emphasis on the designer's responsibilities.

3)What is an average project length from the proposal to the finished project?

Projects vary in length according to size.

Typically 2 months is spent on the initial preliminary work in order to get the design bid. Another 2 months is spent on design and then another 2 months on the construction drawings. Overall usually around 5-6 months of meetings and design drawings

The construction process takes around 6-12 months.

4)What forms of the design process do you typically use?

You do whatever it takes to convey your idea to the client. The begins with research and knowledge of the project type. This con consist of meeting and traveling to the site. The client often cannot read or visualize a floor plan so building scale models can help them envision the project.

5) As the interior design or architect how much time to you spend on site at the project?

You should be at the job site at least once a month, but if it is local as much as 1-2 times per week to oversee the construction.

6) Do you often see a lack of appreciation for knowledge and preparation that is put behind the design, when it is viewed by the client?

Yes, often. You can create a design that wow's the viewers but when the door handles stops working they call and complain, when it is nothing that I can fix.

7) Do you feel that your career is misrepresented by the media?

"Pillow Pickers" Was a common term used on t.v. Talking about rated construction is less entertaining. Joining professional organizations is the most effective way for students and professionals to spread the word about what the professional industry is like.

Focus: The Design Process

How does what we do affect you?

Most of what we see through interior design in the media focuses on the end result, the product. Just like how in the first 20 images of googling "interior designer" resulted in images of completed rooms. The design process is where everything is worked out, the ups and the downs, but that is what creative people love. The trace paper that is in the trash, but that got you to the final product is just as important. Most shows on the media focus on the before and after, sending the family away and coming back to the final result. In our society we want the result, quickly and effectively. The interior design has to consider the aesthetics and how the environment is going to affect its occupants, when the occupants just get to enjoy the results.

Research Questions:

1. Does interior design have purpose beyond creating visual beauty?

2. How does the interior design arrive at the finished product?

3. Does the lack of showing the design process reflect the American desire to seek the end and not the journey?

My View based off of the Media

The list complied from my group members was a very accurate interpretation of what I view interior design to be. However, it is interesting that their impressions of my career choice varied greatly from what I have been finding in the media. Most of what they said reflected me as a person and what I am passionate to do with my life. The majority of the things that I put in the media category are there but are not blatantly obvious when watching HGTV. The ideas that they used to describe the this career were less tangible things than I would have expected them to put. This gives me hope that if the people of our generation can change this decorating stereotype, interior designers can have a new name.

Other's impressions

Media:

+ Likes to make things beautiful

+ Likes to organize things

+ Thinks nothing is too ordinary to be beautiful

+ Always wants to create

+ Feels that environment is important

+Thoughtful

+ Likes to know how things work together

+ Knowledge that your surroundings can have a greater effect on you than you realize

+ Sociable

+ A desire to impact surroundings

Not shown in the Media:

- Free Spirit

+ Wants to interact with all types of people

+ Takes risks, even with mistakes

+ Loves hands-on work

+ Self- Assured

+ Laid back but loves to work hard

True, False, Unsure

Accurate:

Through the descriptions that we have found over the past day, people do seem to understand that creativity is necessary for interior design. People have a basic understanding of what we do, but they do not realize that there is much more to it than their basic understanding. I was glad to find that in the pictures on Google the spaces varied and there were several commercial interiors.

False:

A reflection of what "interior decorators" did in the past still remains as a reality for many who do not know what an "interior designer" actually does. Many of the images displayed focus strictly on the completion of the project, revealing the finished space. Although this is the ultimate goal, the interior designer's work happens through the process. The design process is where my passion lies. The creative process from ideation through sketching, research and models is where the interior design thrives in their element. This process is not usually displayed in the images and even the media shows, and if it is showed it is glorified through reality TV.

Unsure:

The stereotype that was reoccurring was often that Interior Designers where female. Because I have not yet been in the workplace I feel like I still do not know if that really is the reality. There is also the stereotype that men who are interior designers are homosexual. Although many of them featured in the media are given this label I wonder how this varies from the actual workplace.

Images: Creating/Reflecting "reality"

The media is such a powerful force in today's society because of its ability to spread information quickly and to large quantities of people. We grow up seeing these images and they become our reality. But that reality can change when we have personal interaction or a personal experience with a person of that profession. Then their impression, good or bad, becomes our reality. Even if their are a few people that are fighting to change those impressions, if they do not have a media outlet to do so, the change is slow. With interior design we do have large media outlets through channels such as DIY, HGTV or TLC. However, some shows on these channels continue to perpetuate the stereotype of a "decorator", not accurately displaying the reality of the interior design. The building codes, calculations, structural restrictions, and order forms do not make good TV.

Coming Together

Throughout today I have seen these theories that we observed this morning coming as we have observed how other's view our major. Through the ideas of critical literacy, looking for the meaning between the obvious I have been challenged to think about why my major is stereotyped like it is. The themes that have emerged through my peers thoughts and the media's impressions are sometimes even offensive as they seem to undermine the skill set that I feel I am obtaining studying interior design. Challenging myself to consider why when I search for interior designer, on the first page there is only one picture of a human and she is a blonde female. I really do feel like the interior design industry is in a place of change and the rest of the world is uneducated of the shift from decorator to designer. Being aware of feminism and the ideas of gender equality when observing interior designers, you find that there is definitely a stereo type. Constructivism, learning theory, was helpful to think about as I observed that everyone else's view of interior design has developed through their experience. Through my studies and personal experience my view has developed to be completely different.

Youtube: INTD

Themes:

- Residential Interiors

- Helping Others

- Females

- Soft Music

- Before/After emphasis

There was a variety of clips after searching for specific topics. Under the general term "interior design" the results were very lame to say the least. Usually consisting of a woman picking out fabrics or bedspreads from the 80's. Reality tv has changed the face of interior design. Some for the better and some for the worse.

First 20 Images: Bio-Poem

Interior

Who is Creative, Female, Blonde

Who loves to decorate living rooms, pick out colors, and residential draw floor plans

Who thinks about where furniture should go, what color the wall should be and what color couch will match

Who gives ideas, inspiration, and decisions

Who would like to see a pretty room, matching colors, and an the finished product

Who seeks harmony, coordination, and the completion

Designer

When I grow up...

The drawings that others produced to represent my major all look relatively the same. Each one shows a room and an "interior designer" sitting standing in the room. All of them are thinking about or trying to decide which color/colors should go on the furniture or the walls. This was about the perspective that I would have expected. But it differs from the picture that I drew to represent an interior designer. When someone first saw my sketch they assumed that I wanted to be an architect and had no idea that interior designers play a role in the placing walls and dealing with the structural integrity and codes of a building. "Picking" colors is a common impression of interior design, but really it is about being given boundaries and finding "out of the box" creative solutions to fit within the given boundaries. Another common theme that appears is curtains. In the past 10 years the field of interior design has changed drastically. Interior decorators were responsible for picking colors and sewing curtains. I prefer windows without curtains, and making curtains is one of the last things that I want to do with the rest of my life.

Literacy

Literacy is the ability to interpret the world around you and to express your emotions, and opinions through various mediums.

We each see the world through our own set of glasses, to be literate you need to be able to form your own views.

From an education professor...

Spending my weekend in the classroom, surrounded by billboards that are covered in elementary education pictures, I expect to discover how to better educate others on my own major. When I think about preconceived judgements that I have heard many have about education majors, I am reminded of my own major and how often interior design is perceived to be nothing like what we are even learning here in school. As I am taught from a professor who teaches education majors I hope to come away with not only a better understanding of their profession but also a better more confidence to be able to share my passion with others without fear of their judgements.