How to Improve your interior design skills
Interior design is a vocational profession. One doesn't follow this career path unless they are utterly and unequivocally passionate about the world of interior design. That combined with a keen eye for aesthetics and functionality, a strong artistic vision, and a desire to create and innovate can turn you into a highly successful interior designer.
But you can't always count on the design gods and the gifts they have bestowed upon you to fuel and further your career in this competitive industry. No matter how talented you are or how much you love what you do, you'll also encounter obstacles along the way. Motivation and inspiration can be both fleeting and elusive. Passion can fade away and your creative well can run dry. Routine can settle in and make you fall out of love with your day-to-day activities. You get the gist.
What happens when you remain stuck, disheartened, and unable to come up with new ideas or bring them to life? Do you just quit and start a new career in a different field? You can certainly do that if a career switch is really what you wish for. But more often than not is just a matter of rekindling your passion for interior design and finding ways to stay motivated and inspired. So, here's what you can do to avoid or overcome designer's block, depending on the situation.
Stop Chasing Perfection
There's nothing wrong with being ambitious, wanting to do things the right way, and constantly looking to become better at your craft. On the contrary, this growth mindset is going to help you refine your skills and improve your work performance, shielding you from mediocrity. However, if you take things one step too far, you can get stuck in the perfectionism trap.
The pursuit of perfection is a battle that you'll never win and that will keep you from achieving your goals. Since perfection is unattainable, striving for it is like chasing a mirage. It will drain you of all your energy and creativity and make you feel like nothing is ever good enough. The pressure of creating something flawless can send you down a spiral of procrastination, frustration, and negative self-talk, which are obviously detrimental to creativity. So, instead of wasting your time and energy on an illusion, and blocking your inspiration in the process, you better direct your focus on achieving things that are reasonable and realistic, so you can encourage the flow of new ideas.
Check Out The Latest Trends
An unwritten rule says that great designers don't chase or care about trends either. What they do care about is originality and authenticity and that doesn't align with fleeting fads. They have their internal compass to guide them in their work and carve their own career path, without letting external influences sidetrack them from their journey.
That being said, becoming oblivious to interior design trends is not the smartest approach either. While you may not follow the crowd and choose to dance to the beat of your own drum for originality's sake, trends can be quite useful as a source of inspiration. You don't have to do what everyone else is doing, so just because blue kitchens are in, doesn't mean you have to adopt this aesthetics in all your designs. It's about being open to newness and keeping your finger on the pulse of the industry. Therefore, familiarizing yourself with the latest innovations, styles, and developments in interior design can help you keep things fresh and interesting and encourage you to get out of your rut.
Look Beyond Your Usual Assignments
When you get wrapped up in your work and dedicate all your time to completing projects for other people and keeping customers happy and satisfied, exhaustion and habit often replace excitement and passion. As satisfying as it may be to receive positive feedback from clients and see that your work is appreciated, it can also be incredibly monotonous and restrictive to always deal with client requirements and constraints. And so, your love for interior design gets buried under the daily workload, making it harder for you to feel motivated and inspired.
A great way to beat the humdrum of work assignments and break the cycle of low motivation is to engage in personal projects that are for your own interest and benefit. Designing for yourself gives you the freedom to explore different styles and experiment with new ideas, allowing you to make your own choices and pursue your vision without having to worry about someone else's opinions. Think of it as an exercise to spark creative thinking and rediscover the many joys of interior design.
Try Something Different
Don't be afraid to take chances and do things differently from how you used to. After you've worked in the industry for a while, you may find it increasingly difficult to try new things and step out of your comfort zone. You become complacent and comfortable. But the price for taking the safe route and not crossing self-imposed limits is boredom, lack of inspiration, and drive, since comfort and safety often come at the expense of creativity and innovation.
The solution is to switch things up a bit and push yourself to do things that challenge you and push you to think outside the box. It can be anything from exploring other art forms to spending time in nature to recharge your creative batteries or travel and enjoy a much-needed change of scenery to get a new perspective on things and reignite your passion.
It's not easy to work in a creative field like interior design and stay motivated and inspired in a world that forces us to be pragmatic and realistic. But at the same time, if inspiration seems to elude you, there are plenty of ways to bring it back and flip on the creative switch.
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