“Designers are really trained at looking at a whole space and working through an entire process that brings about the best result for the client,” Schmidt said.

“Most people just see the pretty part of it … but there’s a lot more knowledge before being able to do that.”

The competitive edge

With a project deadline rapidly approaching, last week was crunch time for interior design juniors.

For Annette Dimeck, that meant practically living in the Union, where she said she worked all week in a computer lab from about 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.

“Time management was a huge issue for this project,” Dimeck said.

The assignment involved designing a 3,000-square-foot jewelry store, incorporating everything from floor plans to furniture.

Dimeck, an interior design junior, said she called her store Nature’s Gift, stemming from the idea that all jewelry ultimately comes from nature.

She designed it so all the materials used were environmentally sustainable, such as cork board and a material made from tree bark.

After grading the projects, faculty members choose the top 10 to be judged by Kevin Flynn, executive vice president of Kiku Obata & Company, a retail design firm in St. Louis, Mo.

Flynn, who will be returning for the third time to judge the projects, will narrow the 10 down to three, which will be announced on Thursday and then sent to a national competition.

“It’s a pretty realistic program,” he said. “It’s a good experience for what they’ll find in the real world.”

Dimeck said it wasn’t until taking an art class during her senior year of high school that she learned she could make a career out of designing.

“(I like) seeing how you can make people react and feel better about the space you’re in, and affecting people in such a positive way,” she said.

After graduation, Dimeck said she hopes to design office spaces, and she knows she’ll use her project as an example when interviewing for jobs.

“It’s definitely a project I’m like, ‘Wow, I did a really good job on it,’ and I’m very proud to show it to other people,” she said.

Since the assignment is part of a competition, Dimeck said students were very secretive about their ideas at first, but eventually everyone started helping one another.

“We all wanted each other to get the best grade,” she said.

Schmidt, who oversees the junior class, said it’s probably the largest project they’ve done to this point.

“We hope they’ll use all their design skills and actually go to the next level in terms of their design talents,” Schmidt said.

The final test

Floor plans and material scraps were scattered across the tables in 305 Human Ecology Bldg. on Thursday, as interior design seniors worked in one of the last stages of their senior thesis project.

The project requires designing 30,000 square feet of the inside of the abandoned J.W. Knapp Co. building in Lansing. After visiting the building to see the area they would be designing, students could turn it into whatever type of space they wanted.

Interior design senior Kylie Diem chose to design the office of an advertising firm, using the theme of a graphic novel.

She said the reception area of the office was inspired by Batman because it uses mostly black and white, with colorful accents.

“It’ll have accents of yellows because they kind of reminded me of his belt,” she said.

Last semester the class learned the programming side of the project, which included working with AutoCAD on the computer and learning about security and safety issues, Diem said.

After creating rough floor plans, students finalize them and start choosing materials.

Erica Donnell, whose thesis involves designing parts of a hotel, said because of the amount of work that goes into being an interior design major, every student has to be extremely dedicated.

“You have to love it by this point,” she said, explaining that only 40 students are accepted to the program each year.

Interior design students are kept busy with time-consuming projects and studio classes.

“A lot of times when you say, ‘I’m an (interior design) major,’ they say, ‘Oh, what a fun field,’ ... and you have no idea what this major entails,” Diem said. “We’re in the studio till all hours of the night working on these projects and it’s a very deadline-oriented field, a lot like architecture.”

She said students learn time management early because of tight project deadlines.

“If you don’t utilize those skills, you will not make it through the program,” Diem said.

After graduation, many students will go on to take an intense exam through the National Council for Interior Design Qualification, Brummel said.

She and Donnell are working to get legislation passed that will require people to get certification in order to be considered an interior designer in Michigan, which would include going to school, getting field experience and also passing the national council’s test.

“You don’t have to go to college to call yourself an interior designer,” Brummel said. “The point of the legislation is to recognize people with qualifications.”

Donnell said it has been an educational experience for her because the students are working to break misconceptions people have about the field.

“But I think the student work and seeing all the steps we have to go through has helped,” she said.

Twenty-six other states already have laws in effect to license interior designers, Brummel said.

Donnell said the ultimate goal of interior design is for a room to function well and for the people using it to be happy.

“Think about being in a classroom you absolutely hate: You dread going to that class because that chair is so uncomfortable and you have bleacher butt by the time you leave, and you can’t stand how boring it is and how hot it is,” she said. “(It would be different) if you got to work in a room that was comfortable, suited to you.”