Tag: Interior Design Colleges

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Interior Design News

Interior Design College Helps Special Needs Students

Students at an interior design school in Illinois took an opportunity to help younger students recently.

Students from the Advanced Design program at Lewis University took on a project to help design a new type of school in Bolingbrook, IL which will assist students with disabilities.

The Brooks Elementary School in Bolingbrook is launching a new program for students with disabilities aimed at helping those students find job training following school. The interior design students took part in the new launch by creating designs for the new building where the Secondary Transition Experience Program (STEP) will reside.

Advanced interior design students coordinated with the school district’s students and coordinators to gain information about the new structure and program. As part of their research, the interior designers-to-be took a tour of the campus, talked with employees of Brooks Elementary School, and helped the students in the STEP program design a painting for their new facility.

An instructor at the interior design school, Leslie Colonna, said “This project was a great opportunity for our students to step out of the classroom and to apply their design skills to a real-world situation. It was a great success to involve the STEP students in the actual making of the artwork for their school.”

Lewis University and the school district entered into a learning partnership some time ago, which spawned the effort between the interior design students and Brooks Elementary School. Interior design students garner important experience from projects such as this that allow them to coordinate with “clients” and develop concepts to meet the needs of their customers.

By enabling students to meet the needs of the community while earning important wisdom in their trade, interior design programs are able to create programs that have an impact in the lives of their students and the lives of others in the community. Students at the STEP program will use the new facility for their own purposes, likely remembering their time with the interior design class each time they glance at their cooperative art work.

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Interior Design News

Interior Design College Holds 15th Annual Exhibition

Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film is holding an interior design showcase this month to display student works in many categories.

The 15th annual Interior Design Student Exhibit will award prizes to tudents who exemplify superior designs in the show categories, with an emphasis and judging based on creativity, craftsmanship, and digital rendition.

The show will feature designs by students earning Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design and the interior design college. The exhibits will show off skills in different aspects of interior design to include introductory presentation, intermediate presentation, lighting design, furniture design, residential design, and commercial design. The final categories are in computer modeling, student portfolios, and sustainable designs.

The exhibition will begin this month on the 10th and will display student works until the 29th. The event will take place on the Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film campus in the Brownlee O. Currey, Jr. Gallery.

According the Watkins’ website, the awards at the interior design college will be presented by assistant professor Jennifer Overstreet and associate professor Cheryl Gulley. The ceremony will commence on the 20th of this month at 5:30 PM.

The interior designs school at Watkins boasts a rich curriculum that prepares students for a full-time career in interior design and claims to prepare students to become well-networked within their profession. The full curriculum in the interior design school is enriched by studies in the fine arts, contemporary design, and technology.

All of the interior design college’s students have been invited to participate in the exhibition, which is also open to the public with no admission fee. The public can view work from the interior design students at the Gallery on weekdays between 9:00 AM and 8:00 PM. The gallery will also be open on Saturday between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM as well as Sunday from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.

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Interior Design News

Interior Design School Leaders Begin to Offer Specialized Degrees in Healthcare Design

A recent conference regarding the rise in demands of the healthcare industry represents a sentiment shared by some of the country’s top interior design schools.

The 9th Annual Healthcare Design Conference wasn’t aimed at interior design schools directly, but did much in the way of pointing out the need for a targeted response from the interior design community at large.

Intuitive healthcare design pays attention to the traditional values instilled at interior design schools such as aesthetics and flow, but requires additional effort in the area of research and development. Certain interior designs are accommodating to both the patient and the staff who care for them.

One must consider not only the layout and lighting that is most beneficial to a functioning space, but how these decisions will ultimately affect the moods, behaviors, and productivity of people who spend the most time in a facility.

The 10th Annual Healthcare Design Conference, now setting up for November of 2012, will discuss the research surrounding the architectural and interior design of healthcare facilities. We can assume that much of that research will revolve around the newest data showing how interior design impacts a clinical environment – a clue for future curriculum development at leading interior design schools.

Interior design schools, such as the New York School of Interior Design, put much of their focus on this industry – teaching students about not only interior design as it relates to a clinical environment, but what it means to operate, administer, and manage a healthcare facility.

Pitching design ideas to a healthcare profession can be quite different than any other client that a future professional may encounter. The time seems to be upon us for specialized designers with extensive knowledge in the requirements and needs of this industry. Interior Design Schools like NYSID are very aware of this need and are launching new, specialized degree programs to prepare students for a career in this field.

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Interior Design News

Interior Design College Receives Needed Enhancements

The interior design college at the Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan continues to see an increase in enrollments following recent attempts at revitalizing the program.

The new program for the interior design school includes mandatory competitions for students, gaining support from an industry organization, and the addition of nearly seventy credit hours to offer an associate degree in interior design.

The interior design school is seeking full accreditation, something that requires support of an industry organization. The National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA), an industry organization that sets the standard in kitchen and bath design curriculum, seems to be the school’s ticket to full accreditation and is host to the mandatory competitions implemented in the new program.

NKBA competitions fulfill the new student curriculum requirements that include participation in a kitchen and bath design competition. Students must participate in at least one such contest each year during the course of their studies at the interior design school.

This particular portion of the program enhancement applies to a thirty-three credit hour program to receive a Certificate of Achievement in the Kitchen and Bath Design discipline. The certificate is required to obtain NKBA support for the interior design school.

“We need several students to fully complete the program as well as a site-visit from the NKBA before we become fully accredited. It is my hope that we will be fully accredited in the next two years,” said HFCC Program Coordinator Karen Wilmering, according to the school’s website.

The interior design school’s associate degree program was updated back in 2009, offering an advanced degree for students. This allows HFCC to meet the minimum criteria set forth by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA). Though the school still lacks full accreditation, they are getting close to this status.

“We need several students to fully complete the program as well as site-visit from the NKBA before we become fully accredited. It is my hope that we will be fully accredited in the next two years,” Wilmington said according to HFCC’s blog.