So, what do you do for a living ?
Welcome to the world of design and building ! A career that offers a lifestyle to creative professionals who live life on their own terms. But talk is cheap. This is a job where ideas turn into reality. It's a huge responsibility. And of course it is very rewarding. Between meeting with clients and on-site visits, there's lots of challenges to take on. They may take you places, both locally and abroad.
There are things they don't teach you in school, but should have. For starters, you'll need a good dose of skills when you get into the job market and be business savvy by nature. People will comment on your work, especially if you present it and yourself online. Talking to people is a daily thing, so is working in tight spaces and in dust on-site.
There is no bachelor's degree in construction that exist, even to this day. But there are certifications for specific trades on-site, in engineering, architecture, business, design, geography, etc. With any of these backgrounds, you can take on residential, commercial or institutional problems and bring clever solutions.
Designing spaces
Transforming interior spaces is exciting ! It's a job that will have you discover the potential of a project and turn it into a functional, aesthetically pleasing and safe environment for users. Designers are masters at applying various principles and elements to a project in order to achieve their client’s vision. They work with materials and choose the best of lighting, colors, textures, patterns, furniture, home decor items and technology. They'll cover all the aspects in a project and develop concepts that factor in notions such as value, historical context, budget, location, etc.
Because no project is ever the same, it is virtually impossible to duplicate a concept. You can't cut corners on the way there. Principles and design elements in the industry are guidelines, basic common lifestyle rules come to define and test the limits, while everything trending in the biz challenge what you believed so far to be standards to live by.
A project scope will have you working with new furniture, a fresh coat of paint while another will have you plan a project from floor to ceiling with new flooring and window treatments. In the simplest explanation form, design is the placement of all elements in a space, living things -animals, people, plants and objects, in that order.
Building spaces
There's alot of work that goes into a project from start to finish. You'll be able to enjoy looking at the finished project, first hand. But you have to be able to accept that before it gets better, you have to demolish. In other words, before it gets better it gets worse, or so it seems. On the way to achieving fabulous signature designs, you'll sometimes encounter problems you cannot escape from on-site. Keep in mind that building and renovating costs are high. The customer is always right. Mistakes certainly have a cost attached to them and result in delays. Unfortunately they're not always preventable. While planning projects, we can definitely foresee alot of common issues that may lie ahead and be prepared to give an answer when they arise.
You'll be called to meet suppliers and professionals. Exchanging with them is how you get things done. After a project you may cross paths with them again on other projects.
Projects
The volume of construction projects is enormous in any given city. To find your market, scale your business to offer services that people want and need. Collaborations are necessary in this industry to expand your horizons and keep up with the latest news.
Designers reap the rewards of a project well done. They can choose what, when and where they work. You may want to work in-house with a company or as a freelancer. Working on a project, from home, on the road on or at the office.
The level of satisfaction you'll experience working as a designer depends on who you are, your revenue and the type of projects you work on. Some make the complexity of designing and -building look easy. Take a look at social media platforms and see for yourself the companies posting finished projects with impeccable taste.
A typical day in the life of a designer is making progress on projects. The worst part is going through the motions of entrepreneurship if you decide to fly solo, that and constantly reading motivational quotes about never giving up. Still you can thrive for decades in the construction industry, with its demanding deadlines, merciless cost-effective methods and head-spinning project cycles. The universe is a product of infinite ingenuity, design and build are ways you can shape your world.