Fashion & Interior Design

For courses in Introduction to Interior Design, Professional Practices in Interior Design, and Design Career Preparation.

Offering a unique combination of professional practice and career development, this text includes self-assessments, personal resource management techniques, and career strategies specific to the interior design profession.  It takes a personal approach to the career search by first focusing on self-discovery and then showing how to identify (and ultimately land) design jobs that fit one’s own interests and abilities. The book covers professional practices in a broad sense and uses professional profiles to help students learn about various jobs in the field. Emphasizing individuality throughout, readers learn how to plan their career based on their own strengths and successfully design their own future.

For courses in Introduction to Interior Design, Professional Practices in Interior Design, and Design Career Preparation. Offering a unique combination of professional practice and career development, this text includes self-assessments, personal resource management techniques, and career strategies specific to the interior design profession.  It takes a personal approach to the career search by first focusing on self-discovery and then showing how to identify (and ultimately land) design jobs that fit one’s own interests and abilities. The book covers professional practices in a broad sense and uses professional profiles to help students learn about various jobs in the field. Emphasizing individuality throughout, readers learn how to plan their career based on their own strengths and successfully design their own future.

Hallmark Features

A career text tailored to the interior design field–and written at a level appropriate for the design student.

·        Offers a unique combination–a career book that includes self-assessments, personal resource management techniques, professional practices and career development strategies, all within the context of the interior design profession.  

Chapters 1-4 focus on self-discovery–and how to identify the personal characteristics each reader brings to their own professional journey.

·        Shows readers how to find good jobs that match their distinctive interests, strengths, and personal requirements.

·        Helps readers better understand themselves and how they fit into the design profession.

Chapters 5-7 discuss traditional and non-traditional job-search strategies–and techniques for finding and securing a position.

·        Shows how to effectively target employment opportunities, develop personal marketing tools, and prepare for and navigate the interview process.

Chapter 8-10-focus on job expectations, ethics and professional matters–faced during the first years of one’s career.

·        Helps readers understand some of the initial responsibilities and situations they may encounter during their first job.

Chapter 11 discusses how to plan a career path–and ultimately move toward achieving one’s individual professional goals.

·        Encourages students to think about long-term career strategies.

·        Shows the importance of professional development, the NCIDQ exam and professional organizations to one’s growing career.

Professional profiles–highlight real design professionals and their personal experiences in their chosen fields.

·        Helps students understand the wide variety of opportunities available to them, based on the career paths of other successful design professionals.

·        Helps students plan their own professional journey.

Activities–are included at the end of each chapter.

·        Encourage students to apply what they have learned and explore chapter topics in more concrete and hand-on ways.

Table of Contents

1.      Design and You

2.      Becoming a Member of a Profession: What Does That Mean?

3.      Professional Options

4.      Designing Your Professional Path

5.      Targeting Employment

6.      Self-Marketing: Show Them Your Best Self

7.      Successfully Navigating the Job Interview

8.      Professional Responsibilities: Finding and Securing the Project

9.      Professional Responsibilities: Designing the Project

10.  Professional Responsibilities: Implementing, Completing, and Surviving the project

11.  Career Planning: You’ve Only Just Begun

APPENDIX A: RESUME EXAMPLE

APPENDIX B: COVER LETTER EXAMPLE

APPENDIX C: CONTRACT EXAMPLE

APPENDIX D: REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

APPENDIX E: OTHER DOCUMENTS

Introduction to Interior Design (Interior Design)

Cindy Beacham, Ph.D.  is an Assistant Professor and Program Chair in the Interior Design program at West Virginia University.  She currently teaches introductory interior design courses, technical courses on codes and construction, and upper level contract studios.  In addition to an undergraduate degree in interior design, she holds a Master’s in Interior Design, a Master’s of Science in Architecture with a concentration on construction management, and a Ph.D. in child development.  She has a varied professional background, and has worked for major corporations, small-to-midsized design firms, and has been self-employed.  Positions have included corporate design, construction management, project management, free-lance residential design, and all of the activities that go along with  small-business ownership.  Her areas of design and research interest include children’s designs, design pedagogy, and design as a tool for advocacy.  The combination of 25+ years of professional design experience coupled with over 7 years of teaching and academic involvement fostered her interest in writing a textbook addressing many fundamental issues students face in preparing for professional life.

Barbara McFall, Ph.D.  is Assistant Professor, Interior Design, and Interim Division Director, Family and Consumer Sciences at West Virginia University.  Dr. McFall holds a BA in Business Administration, an MS in Housing, Interior Design and Resource Management, and a Ph.D. in Human Science-Organizational Systems.  Her research on the Personal Resource Systems Model is featured in this text.  Two decades of professional experience as owner/operator of small design and finance-related firms and experience as a professional development consultant further inform her contributions.  This text was piloted in her classroom for two years prior to release.  She currently teaches Interior Design Professional Practices, Design for Quality of Living, and Graphics II. She has also taught History of Furniture and Interiors, Residential Design, and Design Foundations.

Shari Park-Gates, Ph.D., IDEC, NCIDQ, ASID, is an Assistant Professor in the Interior Design Program at Auburn University in Auburn Alabama. Shari has taught undergraduate commercial design, rendering, graphics, design foundations, professional practices, history of design, and residential studios. She has also taught graduate level design students in research on current issues.  Shari has over twenty years of experience in the practice of commercial interior design with an emphasis on the work environment. Her practice experience includes working for architectural firms, dealerships, consulting, and as president of her own design firm. She has an undergraduate degree in Psychology from West Virginia University, an Interior Design degree from IDI in Denver Colorado, and is nine hours away from a degree in Fine Art. She has a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Charleston and a PhD in Interior Design from Virginia Tech.  Her areas of concentration are visual communication and creativity. She has exhibited her drawings on a national level and has done traditional research on the contributions and enhancement of creativity. Her belief in the importance of interior design as a profession and her background in business both played a role in the motivation to co-author this book. The major impetus was a concern for preparing students to make contributions to society through their role as a member of the profession of interior design.

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Pearson Higher Education offers special pricing when you choose to package your text with other student resources. If you're interested in creating a cost-saving package for your students contact your Pearson Higher Education representative.