As a design student, I have often heard that designers aren't the best at putting projects together on a construction level, they only know how to make it look pretty. Well, I do happen to be earning a 50K degree in "How to Make Things Pretty", but I hope to also change how others perceive what I do. Architects often depict us as designers like this...
Grown-Up Kindergartners.
In some cases I agree, this may be true. But for the MAJORITY of the time, 80% false. Yes we love colors and we know how each and every one will make you feel inside, but I'm here to tell you that our work is not as easy as the untrained eye might see it be.
My main focus for the future in the "Real World" as they call it, is to change the way others think of designers. Not just by telling, but showing the way that designers can implement building techniques into the designs by actually getting dirty. My father put a hammer in my hand as soon as I could walk and building has been a very big part of my life ever since. However, I had no desire to work as unskilled labor for the rest of my life, so first step was to go out and get my degree. And as miracle would have it, I was accepted into the Interior Design program at Arizona State University this summer. In my first year working towards my milestone portfolio I learned how valuable my background in construction was to my success.
For instance:
We were assigned a designer to draw inspiration from, and were to design a space using the characteristics of that designer's work. In my design I included a set of French doors, which for the size of the space seemed kind of odd to my professor. So she asked me about my design and why I chose this route for my interior space. I explained to her that I had designed the space in circular forms and therefore the bed in my interior was to measure 8 foot in diameter. Still not understanding what the bed had to do with the door, I went on to explain. After the completion of the building, in order to fit the bed into the room at its specified place there would need to be double doors in order to actually get the bed into the room. She then let me know that I would do just fine in the program.
In design we run into these issues where we need to think deeper about the space and what needs to happen for it to be successful. As an assistant to my father who works as a general contractor, I have often had to deal with these issues first hand. I've seen beautiful designs get contorted due to simple details not being recognized by the designer, which could have been prevented if that designer had just done a little research to find the distance between wall studs. As a future predecessor to my fathers residential construction business, I plan on being the beauty and the brains in order to get the job done to the highest satisfaction of the client. It can be easy to point your finger and say what looks good and how far to the left it needs to be, but I feel that involving yourself knee-deep in your work is the only way to get to that above and beyond level of precision.
This creative plan is a submission for the ModernAbstractDecor and NicholasYust "Students of the Arts" scholarship.
