Beginning interior design is a challenging, exciting adventure that one must be willing to endure sacrifices and even at times costly mistakes in order to complete this learning successfully.
If interior design is an activity that you are thinking about as a potential career, you owe it to yourself to invest the proper amount of time and energy into educating yourself in the field of creative design. If you are interested in learning about creative design for other reasons, such as designing your own space or home, it is better that you focus your attention on the particular area of design that is pleasing to you.
This being said, if you have the time and energy and would like to learn more about overall designing, then hey, go for it! You might become so good at it that it might be a potential career for you as well!
In any case, beginning interior design is not for the 'curious' entrepreneur who does not possess the patience to learn the essential elements and makeup of nicely formed design. It is instead, an employment that is mainly composed of educated, prestigious professionals who care greatly about their work and are passionate with their creativity.
A good starting point for beginning interior design is the object of much controversy in the industry. Many professionals moan and groan that there are too many ill-qualified persons out there representing themselves to the consumer as legitimate designers when they do not have a formal education in the subject.
I agree that many people represent themselves as having a grasp or an understanding of the field, while they are clearly incompetent. However, I do not agree that formal education shapes and molds the best designers. The best designers possess the ability to design before they are even able to understand the concept of interior design.
Beginning interior design for these candidates is basically giving them the tools to do what they naturally understand how to do already. These people are blessed with an internal sense of creative design. Beginning interior design to them is a natural process. These are the designers that seem to outperform and outshine all other designers.
If you feel as if you are not part of this group of gifted individuals and still have a yearning or driving force to learn about this growing industry, then beginning interior design is a very doable activity as long as you are open minded and dedicated to improving your knowledge and understanding of design.
Begin with the basics and propel yourself upwards on the journey to understanding the creative process.
A very bad reason for beginning interior design are money related motivations. I have heard countless people comment on their interest in interior design due to the income potential associated with the industry.
Remember, if you're not good at something, the likelihood of getting paid well to do it is not very high. The higher salaries in this business are almost always associated with talented, well-established designers who have made interior design their life's work. Talent and knowledge are keys to success in any industry and one should apply these rules when considering interior design as an income earning activity.
Interior designers come in many forms, backgrounds, and experience levels. Hard work, dedication, and creativity are values that you will find in any successful interior designer. Keep this in mind when beginning interior design work of any kind and it will aid in your ability. Work of any kind is exactly as described...work. Finding something that you enjoy and love to do is what makes work rewarding.