Interior Design Department preparing students for professional success

A new visitor to a lab in VCU’s Department of Interior Design is briefly met with polite smiles before the rows of faces return to their computer monitors. Nobody is surfing the Internet or e-mailing friends. Each student is simply locked into the latest project on their screen.

Sharran Parkinson, Ph.D., chair of Interior Design at VCU, uses words like “rigorous” and “demanding” to describe the curriculum in the Interior Design program. The hard work has paid off. The department was ranked in three categories this year in DesignIntelligence’s annual publication, America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools. The graduate interior design program was ranked No. 4 by regional firms of schools in the South and No. 6 by national firms, and the undergraduate program was ranked No. 5 by regional firms in the South.

Parkinson said the recognition was rewarding, particularly coming from professional design firms. She said it illustrated the department’s success in teaching students professional skills and in integrating high-tech advances in design with the traditional hand-drawn techniques that have long been in favor.

Parkinson said the department is blessed with dedicated faculty members that put an emphasis on the academic aspect of the study of interior design, but who also keep students focused on the practical implications of their work.

“We expect our students to be just as devoted as we are,” Parkinson said. “And the students here are very serious and very engaged in what they do. If you don’t want to be challenged, it’s not a good place to be.”

Zach Becker, a junior, said he appreciates his instructors’ desire to push their students. He points to one of the first classes he took in the department, a drafting class taught by Camden Whitehead, an associate professor of interior design, as an inspiration for him – a difficult but fulfilling experience that convinced him to pursue an interior design degree.

“He really made us think hard about things in a way that I hadn’t had to think before,” Becker said. “He made a point of taking us out of our comfort zone, and I really liked that.”

Parkinson and her colleagues have made it a priority to help students acquire more professional experience during their time in college, whether it’s working directly with firms or designing projects for competitions. The projects cover a wide range, including such contrasting settings as a hospital patient’s room and a toll booth.

“It’s an important way for students to understand the potential of the field,” Parkinson said. “It gives them a lot of self-confidence and really teaches them how to be professionals. It’s critical for that transition from college.”

It helps that faculty members have connections in the design community and that many are still active in professional design. 

“They don’t sugarcoat what the real world is like,” said Philippe Raoust, a sophomore. “They prepare you for it. I think you get a good sense of what it’s going to be like because so many of the faculty are still attached to it.”

A particular program that has provided students with professional opportunities is Inverse Function, an internship collaboration with professional firms in the Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., area. Students serve internships at the firms during the day, actively contributing to projects, and then stay for lessons taught in the evening by professionals at the firms.

“Teaching the students relieves the normal daily stress the professionals are used to and gets them to have some fun again with design,” said Kevin Wyllie, assistant professor of interior design, who coordinates Inverse Function. “And, of course, it’s great for the students. It changes their perception of the professional design world. They learn more about the realities of the work – things like deadlines and the cost of production.”

The ultimate goal with both real-world and academic lessons is to steel students to be unbowed by difficult assignments, eager to confront complexities instead of looking to avoid them.

“Interior design is about looking at the world and recognizing what the problems are and then working to decide how to fix them,” Parkinson said. “It’s really about solving problems. Our students understand that.”