What exactly is interior design, and what is its purpose? How do you tell good taste from bad?

Understand the key elements and principles that go into creating good-looking interiors.

Take a look at interior design through the ages: know your Rococo from your Art Deco so that you can confidently spot design influences from any period. 

Develop knowledge of the broad range of furniture and accessories available to the interior designer, including style and market level.

You will gain an understanding of the history of furniture and accessories and the evolution of design in context. You will be able to recognise key design movements. 

You will also explore of materials and manufacturing techniques will assist you in the development of design schemes and support the appropriate selection of furniture and accessory products and suppliers.

Learn how to select furniture and accessories in response to a client brief, and produce presentation boards to showcase your work in your portfolio.

Get to grips with the role of the interior designer, and understand the stages in the design process from client brief to project completion. Learn how to deal with a client brief in the real world. 

Understand how to navigate problematic issues that arise in projects and come away with key strategies for running harmonious projects.

Explore the potential of creative lighting in interiors and develop your knowledge of lighting design, lighting products and the materials used in their construction.

Look at a range of traditional and contemporary materials and consider how the construction and design of lighting products, and the utilisation of different lamp types, can contribute to changing atmosphere and ambience in an interior space. 

Key industry terminology will be introduced, putting this in the context of products and how a scheme can be built using layers of light and functionality. Lighting schemes and technical drawing plans will be developed to industry standards, in response to a client brief. 

In this module you get to meet your clients, and start creating a portfolio of work that you'll be able to use to market yourself in the real world!

Learn how to interpret client requirements, conduct research to help generate ideas and develop concepts to guide the rest of the creative process.

Extend your understanding of surface finishes in interior design, including the characteristics and suitability of materials for walls, floors and soft furnishings.

This will include developing understanding of key issues, such as responsible design, healthy living, and legislation, as well as raising awareness of technology and SMART materials in an interior design context.  

You will be introduced to the concept of combining colour, pattern and texture successfully; how to ensure these elements are balanced, rules of combination and the importance of scale and proportion. 

You will critically compare the advantages and disadvantages of materials and finishes in response to specific client requirements, whilst also demonstrating appropriate visual communication skills that effectively relay design intentions to meet a client brief.

Develop your understanding of colour theory and its physical and psychological significance to interior design schemes. 

You will be introduced to specialist terminology and you'll learn how to describe and identify colours in interior design schemes.  

Create a colour scheme based on a real client brief, and add this to your professional portfolio of work.

Pull together all of the work throughout your diploma into a final presentation of your portfolio, communicating your design intentions through a variety of media.

The resulting design scheme will enable you to present a set of sketches, presentation material, technical drawings and other associated project work that will form a portfolio piece to be used as an example of knowledge and skills for progression to higher study or to present to potential clients. 

You will reflect on the development of your work, as well as the realisation of outcomes in order to evaluate the levels of success in relation to design intentions. 

Learn to communicate your design ideas through production of scale plans and elevations with a high level of accuracy, utilising industry-standard conventions. 

Develop your sketching and spatial planning skills, and explore and evaluate a range of innovative ideas related to the utilisation of space and traffic flow.

Create a range of technical drawings that will be added to your design portfolio to show potential clients and employers.

Raise your awareness of the diverse possibilities for professional engagement and career progression within this sector, and prepare yourself to work successfully in the professional environment. 

Develop the personal and professional attributes and resources necessary for successful entry into this dynamic and competitive industry, whether working for an established practice or setting up an interior design business.

Explore methods of marketing and promotion that are relevant to working in the interior design industry today and develop the skills required for the costing of design projects and services.  

Deploy your skills of analysis and evaluation, comparing and contrasting a diverse range of progression opportunities and professional approaches that could be adopted, as well as the multitude of products and services available within the professional interior design environment.