Enjoying the economic boom

Have you looked at the design of your toothbrush lately? Every ergonomic detail is important in the study of interior design, says Angel Bruton, head of DIT's design department. She says more and more people are becoming "design-conscious" - partly due to television programmes such as Beyond the Hall Door and Our House.

"Interior design is a fabulous profession," she continues. "It touches on all aspects of everyday life. It's so alive and interesting." The range of jobs that graduates go into include TV set design, theatre design, design consultancy and exhibition display. There are up to 1,000 applicants to the DIT school of art and design each year for about 150 places in a range of art and design-related disciplines. About 30 students are taken onto the BA (Design) interior and furniture each year.

"What we look for is a good all-round art portfolio that shows they can draw, that they have a good sense of colour. They don't have to do art in the Leaving Cert," says Bruton. DIT Mountjoy Square will award the first interior design degrees to graduates this autumn.

Second-level students should note that it is computer skills rather than mathematical abilities which are essential for those who want to study interior design, as Bruton explains.

As for job prospects, she says, "at the moment there's absolutely no problem whatsoever. We are in a boom period and architects are always happy to engage interior designers to take care of the smaller details".

This is the only degree programme in this specific area as listed in the CAO handbook. This four-year programme provides education and training for those who want to pursue careers as creative designers in the areas of interior design, exhibition design, theatre and TV set design and furniture/product design. They work in textile and furniture manufacturing firms, architectural firms, private practice, semi-state companies, research, education and manufacturing industry. All applicants must present a portfolio of work and final selection is by means of portfolio assessment and the student's Leaving Certificate results.

Gerard Looney, principal of St John's Central College in Cork, one of a number of Post-Leaving Cert colleges offering design courses, shares this view about the buoyant jobs climate. He also says that interest in the area has grown and grown as is evidenced by the growing student intake each year. St John's is a two-year course for Post Leaving and mature students who want to gain skills in interior design and decoration.

A number of graduates from the Cork college have set up their own business, others work with established interior designers and more have gone into retail outlets, working in the design area. Of the 80 or so first-year students who register with the college each year, up to 50 complete a two-year NCVA Level 2 certificate course, while a further 20 to 30 go on to complete a diploma course, which is awarded by a British-based institution.

The internationally-established designer, Paul Daly, who studied at the National College of Art and Design and later at London's Goldsmith College, is designer and co-owner of Nude, the latest, hippest restaurant in Dublin. "I just started doing interior design and I loved it. When I look back on it I realised I always made spaces around objects anyway. I was always creating an interior." He says interior design is "about how you use simple things from hardware stores. I wanted to make it approachable. The whole idea for me is that it's always approachable, that it's trendy, that it's now."

"I hate work that's pretentious. It has to have an approachable but slick appeal." Looking around at his handiwork, he says: "It feels like a new century."

Kevin Kelly, president of the Irish branch of the International Decorators and Designers Association, believes Ireland "has a long way to go" where training and courses are concerned compared with Britain where the structure and content of courses is "very sophisticated". Some courses in Ireland, he says, "are very expensive and some are very new. It's hard to get definite feedback . . . Most of the courses we find are very design-orientated and not decoration-oriented."

Some private colleges offer courses in interior design also. Griffith College, Dublin, offers certificate and diploma programmes in interior architecture.