Interior design titles that get mixed up

Interior design is a licensed or certified profession in a lot of states, and it is also a word people use for someone who picked a sofa. The firms we work with mean the first thing. Commercial interiors. Workplace, hospitality, healthcare, multifamily amenity and unit packages. Drawings, codes, specifications.

A project designer develops the work: plans, finishes, the presentation, the documentation. A senior designer does that and checks other people. A studio director or design director decides what the studio will stand behind, hires, and sits with the client when the budget and the idea disagree.

FF&E is its own craft. The schedule, the vendor, the lead time, the install. Some designers are good at it. Many are not, and they should not be punished for that. If the seat is procurement, say procurement. If the seat is design, do not bury someone in a purchase order system and call it growth.

Healthcare interiors fail in specific ways: a finish that cannot be cleaned, a station that ignores how the unit actually runs, a specification that the facility has already banned. Hospitality fails in other ways: a chair that photographs well and dies in a year. Ask for the sector. Look at rooms that were built.

NCIDQ, or the state registration where it exists, belongs in the conversation. It is not a substitute for a project the candidate can walk you through.