Employment Status Report
Goals and Philosophy
My short term goal in interior architecture and design is starting from having an internship in a well known interior design firm such as Jeff Andrews Design. Most of their clients are famous people such as Ryan Seacrest, Kris Jenner, etc. My long-term goal is having an interior design firm by myself and continue spreading my creative works in Indonesia. Not only that, but I also want to become a well-known interior designer who is not only in Indonesia but all around the world.
My art expresses me as a thoughtful and creative designer of the environment as well as a caretaker of people’s well-beings. For that, I am an interior designer. I am mostly inspired by renowned interior designer, Jeff Andrews. His concept of high design in quality, function, and comfort executed with the most aesthetically pleasing elements and modern amenities inspires me to push my interior design style forward. Not only that, he encourages me to consider all the relevant aspects that could help improve one’s well-being and quality of life. In other words, his amazing works have pushed me to pursue interior design as my career for I could showcase my works to the world and make an enormous impact in others’ lives and of course the environment.
I started off as interior architecture and design student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I will be graduating in Spring 2020 with a Bachelor of Interior Architecture and Design. The journey has been enjoyable, and it has continually taught me to improve and challenge myself. I believe that challenging myself by exploring different ways of making and envisioning space, studying and visiting more historical and contemporary interior design work would put me on the right path to be a successful interior designer. Moreover, throughout my journey, I have widened my views and perspectives about interior design, people, and environment. I learned that nature and humans are two aspects that would make an interior design successful. For that, I always think of a way to make each specific space to correlate with nature whether through materials and openings. By exposing humans to nature, their well-being will improve consequently. Thus I believe this is one of the essential ingredients to achieve my dream.
I remember when I took my first drawing class, and I was asked to re-design a two-level building with a lot of details. At that point, my mind was stuck and I had no idea where to start. I am the type of person that wants to get everything done fast, but at this point, I was so angry at myself because I still could not figure out how to make this old building look like a high-end building without changing the columns inside the building. I ended the fight with my anger and brainstormed from day to day. After a while, I could finally get my floor plan done without changing the columns inside the building, and even more, my instructor said that my design looked like a professional design. From this experience, I learned that I need to be more patient and never give up even though I cannot get everything done within a day. When I look back to those process that I went through, I always enjoy every second while working on my design.
Marketplace
As an interior designer, I have many exciting career options that range from consulting in a large firm to working in small design studios. Companies and individuals in various sectors, from the government to private to corporate, hire interior designers for a variety of jobs. Such as residential construction companies, furniture retailers, commercial construction companies, urban development planners, architecture firms, and homeowners. My competition is varied from interior design students and other graduated interior designers. Nowadays, interior design is developing rapidly and becoming an interior design more common, which leads to my competition being greater. According to glassdoor.com, the average salary for interior designers in the United States is $56,462. Additionally, the average salary for interior designers in Indonesia is US$75,000 (“Salary: Interior Designer”).
Skills and Tools
Becoming an interior designer is to create and design interior spaces to be visually and physically pleasing. While decorating the space is a prime responsibility, interior designers might also focus on architectural aspects of the space, such as crown molding. Interior designers have to be skilled in both architectural and decorating elements of interior spaces. When interior designers begin working with an area, they consider the purpose of the rooms. Also, interior designers have to examine characteristics of a space, including colors, lighting, and furniture. For this reason, requirements to be a licensed interior designer in the United States of America is highly strict. He or she needs to earn a Bachelor’s degree in interior design at least, and he or she “must meet internship requirements and pass the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) exam to earn state licensure” (“Interior Design Schools”). Also, they need to have proficient skills in illustrating their ideas and designs through Adobe applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, AutoCAD, Revit, and 3Ds Maxx.
I have joined several organizations that improved my organizational and communication skills. I have been involved in designing a room for my drama class back then when I was in high school. I designed the room from nothing to become a beautiful bedroom with all the pieces of furniture inside it. I choose all the furniture and decorative elements inside the room. Additionally, I became a volunteer at Salvation Army in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 2015 where I assisted to sort clothes, toys, foods, and drinks into the cabinets. In 2014, I often volunteered at Canadian Farm and Garden in Hamilton and Toronto. Another point worth mentioning is that, I interned at Santoso Furniture in Surabaya, Indonesia every summer holiday from 2017 till present. I have worked as an interior design coordinator and I closely attended the clients.
Currently, I have proficient skills in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Revit, 3Ds Maxx, and AutoCAD. In addition, I have been a very dedicated and hardworking interior design student, who continuously excels in interior design projects. Moreover, I have several skills that are highly needed in interior design firms. I have spatial intelligence with which I have the ability to comprehend three-dimensional images and shapes. Also, I have a great sense of design, strong creativity as well as a thoughtful and strategic mind. Not to forget that I am a fast worker, who is also a perfectionist. With these characteristics, I am able to produce quality works within a short period of time.
Technology is changing everything around us, but one industry that hasn’t had as much advancement over the years comes in the form of interior design. It’s traditionally costly, timely, and requires a designer to come out and take care of everything unless you’re one of those handy types. For instance, Occipital is working in the AR space to bring useful tools to everything from interior design to home improvement projects. While they have full systems that attach to iPads and offer large amounts of devices, their newest service uses nothing but an iPhone. The service, called TapeMeasure, focuses on quickly and easily measuring spaces and objects. You can create 2D floor plans and simple measurements, as well as use it for “Smart leveling,” to make sure your pictures are perfectly straight. The service also features something called 3D Room Builder which lets you create a 3D model of your space quickly, where it can then be uploaded to 3D modeling software, SketchUp. You can add doors, windows, whatever you might have in the space, and generate accurate models of your room because TapeMeasure constantly measures everything for accurate representations. (“Curbed”)
Networking
Networking is one of the most significant things that one can do to achieve goals. Several organizations and magazines could help interior designers to get more connected to other interior designers as well as architectural designs and news. The Organization of American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and International Interior Design Association (IIDA) are two instances of organizations that provide networking resources. They both assist interior designers in sharing ideas, experiences and thoughts with other interior designers. The ASID has been a non-profit organization that gathered American Interior Designers to exchange their experiences (“About”). On the other hand, IIDA gathers interior designers from all around the world and provide them with job opportunities, information and resources issue critical to interior design education in global (“FAQ”). Both of the organizations promote the sharing of ideas, knowledge, and thoughts from different people. Not only that, the availability of job opportunities that IIDA offers is important as it exposes architect students to the working environment. Additionally, magazines such as Architectural Digest (“Architectural Digest”) and Uncube Magazine (“Uncube”) provide interior designers with vibrant and innovative spaces, inspiring decorating ideas, culture and travel. Not to forget that they address topics that go beyond the conventional context of interior design discourse. Both could be digitally accessed, and one could subscribe to their monthly magazine issues. Nevertheless, Architectural Digest has less informative contents on its website than in its physical copies.
Other than that, social media platforms offer us with networking resources as well. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook also act as tools for self-promotion. These social media platforms contain pictures, videos, opinions, interactions with people and other rich contents and cause people care for (Summers). With that, it offers the opportunities to showcase and share our works as well as our thoughts.
LinkedIn is another social networking service. It is intended for those who are in the business community and “desire the vast networking power of social media without sacrificing the attention of the people using LinkedIn” (Harper). LinkedIn helps us to show who we are and where we have come from. The social media allows us to show off our projects and achievements. It then helps us to let others recommend us for our skills and past works. Most importantly, LinkedIn is a social media that is dedicated to professionals to find each other. To illustrate this point, many recruiters for companies search for potential employees through LinkedIn first. LinkedIn provides them with potential employees’ achievements, project works and such.
Personally, I use LinkedIn. Many people believe that LinkedIn is used for job-related or professional matters only. However, I have been using it to organize all my abilities, skills and educational institutions. Moreover, it helps me to keep track of my achievements as well as my project works and I can showcase them to the LinkedIn society.
The Future
I believe that having a one-year internship is important before I pursue my Master’s program in Interior Design in Europe. Being exposed to different types of interior design around the world is essential to widen my views and gain knowledge. After that, I believe that two to three years of working in interior design firms back in my home country, Indonesia would help me to grasp the way Indonesian interior design firms work thoroughly. As smoothly as my plan goes, I do hope that I would be able to set up a small interior design firm by myself and continue spreading my creative works in the country. And of course, I do hope for my future firm to be successful and to be one of the biggest interior design firms in Indonesia.
Work Cited
"About AD." Architectural Digest. N.p., 28 Sept. 2015. http://www.architecturaldigest.com/about-ad. Web. 19 February 2018.
“About the American Society of Interior Designers.” American Society of Interior Designers, www.asid.org/about. Web. 13 February 2018.
“FAQ.” International Interior Design Association, www.iida.org/content.cfm/faqs. Web. 13 February 2018.
Harper, Charlie. "20 Benefits To Using Linkedin Even If You Don't Sell To Other Businesses." Social Media Fuze. N.p. 16 Sept. http://socialmediafuze.com/need-linkedin-business/. 2015. Web. 19 February 2018.
Institute, ERI Economic Research. “Interior Designer Salary in Indonesia.” ERI | Salary Expert,
www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/interior-designer/indonesia. Web. 19 February 2018.
“Interior Design Career Information and Education Requirements.” Study.com, Study.com, study.com/interior_design.html. Web. 19 February 2018.
“Interior design career information.” Design Training,
www.design-training.com/interior-design/a/who-hires-interior-designers.html. Web. 19 February 2018.
“Interior Design Schools & Careers | How to Become an Interior Designer.” How to Become, www.learnhowtobecome.org/interior-designer/. Web. 19 February 2018.
Ro, Lauren. “Measure just about anything with this new augmented reality app.” Curbed, Curbed, 29 June 2017, www.curbed.com/2017/6/29/15894556/ar-measure-app-augmented-reality-ruler-measuring-tape-ios. Web. 19 February 2018.
“Salary: Interior Designer.” Glassdoor,
www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/interior-designer-salary-SRCH_KO0,17.htm.Web. 19 February 2018.
Summers, Zoe. "13 Ways to Use Facebook for Personal Branding." Social Media Today. N.p., 08 Apr. 2015. http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/2015-04-08/13-ways-use-facebook-personal-branding. Web. 19 February 2018.
Uncube. "Mission statement – uncube." Uncube magazine. N.p., n.d. http://www.uncubemagazine.com/about. Web. 19 February 2018.