Lesson 1

The Reading Module

Read the text: Your Future with an Interior Design Education

You can have a great future with an Interior design education. Having a good education and a degree in interior design can offer numerous opportunities for a great and potentially rewarding future to any prospective interior designer. Studying interior design can open doors to various fun and challenging career opportunities.

What you do with your degree and your knowledge depends on your areas of interest and your design specialty. You may either be employed by a firm specializing in interior design or architecture, by a retail store as their in house designer, or you could work for the design division of a multinational corporation or for other institutions that focus on design. You may also opt to be self-employed and start your own design business.

With interior design, the possibilities for work are virtually endless. As an interior designer, you can exercise your creativity on different work sites ranging from residential sites to commercial, including numerous renovations and places where you need to work from scratch. Here are some project types and sites where an expertise at interior design would be of great use:

Planning, designing and decorating for government offices and facilities, including locations such as airports and train stations;

Museum and theater design or renovation, for designers with a degree from a theatre set design school;

Design planning for hospitals, including designing and decorating doctor's clinics and offices;

Making the design or doing the renovations for hotels, restaurants and resorts;

Designing and decorating for individuals, working on their houses, apartments or condominium units.

Each individual site is unique, has its own feel, dimensions, design potential and limitations therefore, all these work sites will require a different and unique approach in design. Interior designers have to plan, create and develop the right kind of environment appropriate for the site, allowing the interior of the structure to exude an ambiance and an atmosphere that is well suited to the people who work land frequent these places.

There are a lot of disciplines related to interior design. Designers with a degree in interior design can branch out into any of these areas. You have several choices. As an interior designer, you can work on set designs for stage and screen productions, including lighting design. Interior designers can also help develop products and design furniture. Designers also have the choice of going down the academic route and teach interior design. Computer rendering and illustration is also another choice, same with facilities management, as well as working on preservation of historic sites. However, most interior design graduates go into the most obvious field related to their degree - interior design.

The interior design field is expected to grow and prosper in the next few years. Competition among the designers will be immense with several work opportunities up for grab. However, despite the overwhelming demand for interior designers, a bachelor’s degree, business smarts, lots of practical experience and an exceptional level of creativity are needed to succeed in this discipline.

Having a job in interior design entails a lot of hard work and creativity, requiring you to put in several hours of work and being constantly busy. This kind of job needs you to be on top of every task. You may feel that your life has been overrun by architectural plans, paint, design books and color charts. However, a job of an interior designer can also be very rewarding, and I’m not just talking about the financial rewards. Seeing your work and the looks on your client’s faces as you unveil your design will make it all worth the hard work.

I. Reading exercises:

Exercise1. Read and memorize using the dictionary:

interior design, retail store, focus on design, creativity, scratch, renovation, exude, computer rendering, furniture, facilities management, graduate, grab, bachelor’s degree, color charts, make worth, unveil, challenging career.

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. What is interior design education?

2. What can you do being an interior designer?

3. What are the possibilities for work?

4. What are typical project types and sites where interior design would be of great use?

5. What will high reward for your hard work of a designer be?

Exercise 3. Match the left part with the right:

1. Studying interior design	1. planning, designing and decorating.
2. Interior design would be of great use in	2. can open doors to various funs and career opportunities.
3. Each individual site will require	3. is expected to grow and prosper in the next future.
4. The interior design field	4. a unique approach in design.

Exercise 4. Open brackets using the right words:

This kind of job (needs/doesn’t need) you to be on top of every task.

Each individual site (isn’t/is) unique, (has/hasn’t) its own feel, dimensions, design potential and limitations.

The Speaking Module

II. Speaking exercises:

Exercise 1. Describe interior designer; sites; decorating; creativity; rewards; screen production using the suggested words and expressions as in the example:

interior designer open; doors; various funs; career opportunities example: Studying interior design can open doors to various fun and challenging career opportunities.

sites would be; great use; different work; exercise creativity; from residential sites to commercial; appropriate for the sites

decorating doctor’s clinics; government offices; airports; train stations

creativity hard work; be busy; architectural plans; color charts; design books

rewards financial; high; clients faces; be on tops of every task; make it all worth; hard work

screen production work on set designs; for stage; for screen; include; lighting design

Exercise 2. Ask questions to the given answers:

1. Question: ____________________________________ ?

Answer: You can have a great future with an Interior design education.

2. Question: ____________________________________ ?

Answer: What you do with your degree and your knowledge depends on your areas of interest and your design specialty.

3. Question: ____________________________________ ?

Answer: Here are some project types and sites where an expertise at interior design would be of great use.

The Writing Module

III. Writing exercises:

Exercise 1. Complete the sentences with the suggested words: having; requiring; being:

_____ a job in interior design entails a lot of hard work and creativity, ______ you to put in several hours of work and _____ constantly busy.

Exercise 2. Fill in the table with words and expressions from the text:

	What aim?	Where?	What for?
A bachelor’s degree, business smarts, lots of practical experience and exceptional level of creativity are needed
Sites would be of great use
Interior designers have to plan, create and develop

Exercise 3. Compose a story on one of the topics (up to 100 words):

“My friend is a designer”

“Great future with an interior design”

“What makes it worth the hard work of a designer”