Perhaps licensing could be granted for an associates degree. At least then the public would know that their stager has some verifiable training.

I can hardly count the times that I have been hired by a client to come fix the previous designer’s mistakes. Those previously employed designers were licensed by the state of Texas and members of ASID and yet their work product did not please their client, they pushed their own agenda into the project and charged the client outrageously while doing so.

As a young designer, this revelation really affected my perception of the importance of being state licensed as well as the validity and importance of achieving an ASID designation.

Originally, I believed ASID to be an organization that promoted interior design as a profession and held forth high standards for its members. However, after some time and observation, I changed my mind to believe it to be more of a social/status club for designers…like an elite country club membership that separated them from the ‘riff raff’.

Eventually, I lost interest in pursuing membership and after almost 3 decades of working with my clients I have concluded that an interior design degree and state licensing to be completely unnecessary in my design business.

To acknowledge the difference in my training from the degreed interior designers, I politely referred to myself as an interior decorator as opposed to a designer. I realized that a degreed, certified designer has been trained in more technical aspects that prepares them to remove walls, apply building codes to their designs, etc.

Even doing so, my clients still call me a designer and they are happy with my work and our time together. It really is a relationship & results business. Degrees and titles are not the principle focus.

There are enough design projects for everyone…with all types of skill sets. If all the players would ‘play nice’ and respect each other for what we individually bring to the profession instead of swiping at each other it would lift the entire profession up to a new level…which is what the ASID claimed to be about in the first place. Instead they seem to be vying to remain relevant in changing times.

The most important thing for any designer to do is to take responsibility for their own actions, access realistically what they can and can’t do and don’t presume to know more than they actually do. Subscribing to that thought, when my project involves areas beyond my expertise, I consult experts on the subject.

I don’t design for my ego. I design for my client’s long-term satisfaction.

BTW Mary, thanks for writing your book. It is well written and full of applicable information…even for someone that has been been a decorator/designer for a very long time.

Warmly,

Janel Jones
Dolan Jones Design

Last I checked this the land of the FREE. Free to pursue our dreams and businesses. Free to design homes without the big ASID breathing down our necks.
I have a bad taste about ASID, because they took a good friend of mine through agony over her title in publications and on her website saying she was an interior designer. They wanted to fine her $25,000. She did not have the 4 yr qualification or testing required. Yet she has decorated multi-million dollar homes. She was no small time girl working from her home, doing a job here and there. She is a serious designer, who works hard for her clients. Talent doesn’t need a license to paint walls, make pillows and drapes, and point where to put the furniture.
We are not endagering the lives of clients if we put there furniture in an odd place, or tell them to paint a wild color on the walls. However, they are endagering our ability to make money doing something we love, by making crazy requirements.