An interior designer’s role is to sell advice. As that advice can directly impact on wellbeing and safety of consumers, especially in a commercial environment, that advice must be qualified and independently measured. Inaccurate advice will incur cost, delay and risk to the consumer which will impact on the designer and their suppliers, causing industry complaints and bad reputation.
A designer must possess knowledge of a multitude of skills. From technical knowledge to costing, the skills of a designer must be fit for purpose, function and on budget for the consumer as well as meet the desired aesthetic on time. Interior designers operate in a variety of commercial and residential sectors such as public space design, retail, restaurant and bar, hotels and residential developments.
This multi-faceted profession is not simply a flair as many assume, but requires practical training and years of practice. Uniquely founded on education, SBID was created to address the fact that in the UK, interior design is not a legally registered profession. In striving to create a protected professional title, SBID was set up to engender consumer confidence in a profession that currently does not require a formal training path in the UK.
SBID was the first organisation in the UK to recognise education by degree as a condition of membership as laid out by the ECIA Education Charter. We promote the skills that a designer must possess and we provide the tools to assist those who, on occasion, need assistance to strengthen their skill sets. In 2009, SBID received the pre-eminent status as the sole British interior design representative in the European Council of Interior Architects.
Read more about the distinctions within the profession of interior design below.
