Tag: Interior Design Students

As a group of interior design students recently learned, design involves heavy problem solving skills and a mind for creativity. Sometimes it involves drawing from their experiences. Designers put a little piece of themselves into each interior design project they complete, but in the end it is the client’s style that counts. Students at MSU-Great Falls were afforded the unique opportunity to create interior designs that draw on their own, unique backgrounds:

Five interior design students from MSU-Great Falls College of Technology performed well in a recent national design competition, and their leader couldn’t be happier.”We may be small, but we really have a gem,” said Julie Myers, MSU-Great Falls interior design program director. The students took part in the National Kitchen & Bath Association Student Design Competition. KC Smelser placed third for his kitchen design and was awarded a $1,000 scholarship and a paid trip to the 2012 Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Chicago on April 22.

According to the Power High School graduate, his design aptitude and imagination comes from his farming and ranching roots in Fairfield. “We have always had to be creative in a pinch,” Smelser said. “We build a lot from scratch.”

Smelser’s project required designing an open-area kitchen and dining room to meet the needs of a couple who has purchased a Federal-style row house. His project was called “Federalism for the 21st Century” and included an overall theme of old meets new. Smelser designed two rooms that featured an emphasis on symmetry and uncluttered lines that kept them modern. Two-toned cabinetry resembles inlaid marquetry and furniture of the late 18th century, while gray granite recalls stainless steel, giving the space a modern feel.

The floors are finished in golden oak parquet, the walls are a historical … read more from Great Falls Tribune.

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Students from Honors design class help renovate public library

Interior design students are rarely afforded an opportunity to work on a live interior design project. While many schools make way for projects that co-opt community resources, allowing students to get real-world experience, few are able to offer actual renovation projects to their students. When the opportunity does come up for an interior design school, it is great practice for students and can be a sobering experience.

As pointed out in an article recently, students working on this type of project become very aware that their dream is about to be a reality:

You could call it a friendly competition with satisfaction on a job well done as the ultimate prize.

Two groups of interior design students at the Centre for Arts and Technology Okanagan (CATO) in Kelowna unveiled their handy work Wednesday morning at the ‘Dwell’ development on Ambrosi Road.

The eight students, who will graduate in September, put their design skills to work on two show suites in the newly completed third phase of the Mission Group development project.

Mission Group President, Randy Shier says the students were asked to take on the task because they fit the age demographic of the development.

“We could not be happier with the results,” says Shier.

“The results have already exceeded our expectations.”

Each four member team was provided with one show suite to decorate from top to bottom including walls and furnishings.

One suite was designed for a single male the other for a young couple with no children.

Lauren Mason who worked on the suite designed for a single male says the concept came from a piece of fabric that contained green, black, a beige colour and some greys.

“We just fell in love with the fabric and everything sprouted from there. That’s where we came up with the stripes on the wall,” says Mason.

“We tried to incorporate everything from those colours. That’s why we have the black couch.”

She says it’s been a great real life experience.

Read more about the interior design students’ experience from Casanet

More Reading on Interior Design School activities:

Fogarty Awarded First Place in Design Challenge

Interior design schools with strictly traditional objectives in their design classes are being faced with a new challenge in recent years – students who want to learn more than how to pander to the highest paying clients they can find.

Thanks to a generation of young design students who are coming of age in an era of economic uncertainty and glaring gaps in income levels in the country, forward thinking art and design schools are revamping curricula to accommodate the growing desire to make interior design a more socially conscious profession.

Once upon a time (less than two decades ago), interior designers were thought of as a group of professionals hired primarily to fulfill the needs of the world’s wealthiest consumers. It was a common concept among the general population that only those with enough money to pay top dollar for aesthetically pleasing architecture and interior design needed the services of an interior designer.

Thanks to the help of some heavy-hitting, widely recognized players in the industry however, interior design is now on a path to become part of a growing trend in socially conscious professionals that are beginning to take over architecture and design industries.

A famous example is the Rural Studio Program at Auburn University. Sambo Mockbee started the program in the 90’s and died a decade ago, but his humanitarian ideals are perpetuated at Auburn and other schools of interior design and architecture throughout the country.

With a new generation of students keenly aware of the potential to make a positive impact on society bolstering this concept, these programs are becoming exceedingly popular at interior design schools. And while interior design classes still educate students on the finer things in life when it comes to architectural design, aesthetics, and sustainable systems, the landscape of interior design education is changing to match the industry’s desire to take a more active role in humanitarian efforts.