Our home in Florida was just really tiny, but when you go inside, you’ll definitely want to stay. That’s because of my mother’s magic touch–she has this knack for making everything so wonderfully organized and designed, that even in our little bungalow, we were able to squeeze in a 50 by 50 inch flat screen TV set, three bedrooms partitioned by aesthetic wooden dividers, and an indoor garden, to name some, and still have some extra space left! She was my inspiration when I took up my bachelor in fine arts course at the Ringling College of Art and Design, majoring in interior design.As a college interior design student, I took joy in finding not just beauty but art in every nook and cranny in the house–in the rooms, in the corners, the doors, the floors, the walls, the ceilings, everything.
I would always draw plate after plate of interior home and office designs, construct dioramas, do showcases, and do actual interior designing projects in school buildings, private homes, and business establishments. I would also be tasked to conduct research on the trends in interior designing, both during the past and at present, and from this data draft my own forecasts on the possible future trends in the field of interior designing. My favorite interior designing project in college was an international interior design showcasing event which was held in Milan, Italy. I headed a group of five students and prior to the event, we had to do research on a particular indoor structure in society that we think needed sound interior designing.
Inspired by my mother’s ideas, I settled for toilets, because based on data we garnered from our survey, it actually came out as the most important yet most neglected indoor structure in society. Then, we had to canvas for items to use in our toilet interior designing showcase, and do more research to enable us to come up with our own future trend in toilet interior designing. Our showcase won the gold medal in that event and landed me a junior designer job in a prestigious interior design firm based in Milan after graduation. My job enabled me to travel to various countries to learn about their interior designing preferences.
The most interesting so far were mostly from Asia, particularly the feng shui influences in China and the ikebana flower arrangements of Japan. In fact, during the course of my job I was able to design a young executive’s office using a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Latin American concepts.Right now, I am aspiring for a Master’s degree in interior designing from Florida State University. A Master’s degree will enable me to advance in my job, do more research in my field, and come up with more new concepts.
