interior design schools

For Thomasin Foshay, who works at Conant Architects, a New York-based firm that designs corporate offices, her path was an interior design program at a top-notch design school. She always knew a career in interior design was for her -- and she knew exactly where she'd fit in. "I wanted to be involved in corporate and commercial design rather than residential," she says.

Designing Her Future Dreams
With her mind made up, Foshay headed to the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York to begin creating her future. At interior design schools, like Foshay, you'll learn design fundamentals like textile science, computer drafting, hand drafting, art history, space planning, and basic architectural techniques. "In the program, you attend a design studio class where you actually design a project," she says. "All the other classes you take teach you how to put it together, develop it, and present it to a jury who critiques it."

Foshay presented her thesis project in her senior year, at a show where industry professionals were in attendance. Lucky for her, her project caught the eye of one employer who immediately acted on his impulse. "He saw my project and asked, 'Do you want a job?'"

Building Skills at Interior Design Schools
Although it seems like a job came easily for Foshay, she says programs at interior design schools definitely require hard work. In her case, an awesome internship helped her create her career-capturing project. "Doing an internship [at interior design schools] puts you at an advantage," she says. "It [provides you with] more knowledge, and aids your design work in school." Case in point: the internship Foshay participated in for three years while also attending SVA paid off big time. "I was able to learn things in the workplace before I even learned about them in class."

Interior Design Schools and Work: Putting it All Together
Now Foshay implements her interior design skills in the work world. And, she says, what she learned at interior design schools has helped her succeed tremendously. "I do a lot of drafting on the computer by using CADD (Computer Aided Design and Drafting), which I learned at SVA," Foshay says. "If you can't draft on the computer, it would be a severe handicap in the [interior design careers] market."

The End Result
Foshay has worked with Conant Architects for over two years, and says she loves it. "There's a great sense of accomplishment once a design is complete," she says. "It's very exciting to see it on paper and then become a finished project."

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