Holiday decorating  

I'm still working on my Bacholars degree and I am trying to find ways to get some experance. The holiday decorating thing didn't work out at all. I guess I don't live in an area that needs it.

I am hopeing to get some experance soon, my internship did not work as well as I would have liked as I didn't get any experance with it. So I am now looking for something else to do. I have thought about going to stores and seeing what they would like, but I live in a small town right now and I think that I may have to wait until I move to go back to school to start any type of search. But any advice is helpful.

What type of design are you wanting to do? Residential? Commercial? Furniture sales? Commercial design repping? There are so many options out there! I grew up and went to school in a small town. Before I could get a serious internship, I had to move to a big city, but I'm now doing high end commercial design for one of the top 5 largest firms in the world. But you can do design in a small town, but first narrow down the niche you want to be in.

I'm sure there's an architect around that you could work with as his assistant in helping him select interior finishes for clients. That might be one place to look.

Let me know what you're interests are, and I'll be happy to help you brainstorm.

I am really into residental. I'm hopeing to attend Eastren Michigan University and finish my Bacholars degree. The only thing I have studdied is residental design, so I really want to see what is involved with commercial design. I would love to do spa and hotel design, but again I'm not sure it's for me. I've tried contacting a few designers just to see if I can shadow them, but no luck so far.

I'd definitely encourage you to get your Bachelor's degree. I've never done residential design, but I assume it's more focused on individual owner's preferences and color and furniture choices.

I mainly specialize in hotel design but have also done some retail and condo work. While commercial design does have a lot of work with colors, furniture, and fabrics, the main difference is that it is very concerned with building codes: egress, accessibility, fire codes and flammability ratings of interior materials. For me, I love commercial design because I get to have the creative part, but I can also focus on the technical side as well--which keeps my job interesting, and avoids my getting burned out on doing the same thing day after day.

The one thing that surprised me about commercial design is the amount of red tape you sometimes have to go through to get a decision. In residential design, you may have to wait months while the wife picks out the idea throw pillow. In commercial design, you can do the space planning for a new prototypical model room, and then it has to go before all these committees--from the internal design review to upper management, to franchisees, then to market research testing of actual guests!! Granted, that only happens when you're working with a large corporation as a client.

Overall, I'd encourage you to explore both options. I've found that what I thought I wanted to do is actually different now that I've been exposed to various types of design.

Good luck. It can be a brutal profession, but it's so rewarding when you see something you put blood, sweat, and tears into (not kidding!) actually built!

You sound alot like a teacher I had! I am working on getting into a Fider accredited school as I see many places want people to come from those schools. I loved where I was going but there not accredited. unfortunatly I have to pay them before I can get my transcripts. :( I am more interested in residental design, but I also love the idea of designing hotels and resturants.