Interior designers get protection of title

The British Institute of Interior Design is launching a register for professional interior designers.

Designer Working on a New Project

The British Institute of Interior Design is launching a new protected title scheme for professional interior designers.

The organisation claims that the new BIID Registered Interior Designer title “is a way for clients, designers and other built environment professionals to identity interior designers who have met the BIID’s rigorous professional standard”.

Qualification

To qualify for the new BIID register, interior designers will have to have six years’ of education and work experience, the support of professional referees and professional indemnity insurance.

They will also have to complete a face-to-face registration assessment, where they will need to demonstrate “extensive” professional practice knowledge and show a completed design project.

To stay on the register, designers will have to adhere to BIID’s code of conduct and also complete an annual continuing professional development requirement.

Once registered, designers will be able to describe themselves as BIID Registered Interior Designers and to use the term RegID after their name.

Other professions have legal protection

BIID draws parallels between its scheme and other registered professional titles in field such as construction.

The organisation adds: “[We hope] that the launch of this new title will bring much needed clarity to the current field.

“While in the UK the term ‘architect’ is a legally protected title, governed by the Architects Registration Board, there is no similar government regulation for interior design.”

Defining the term “interior designer”

BIID president Daniel Hopwood says: “The current widespread title confusion between interior designer, interior architect and interior decorator is not helpful for designers, students or clients.

“Interior designer is the best descriptor for the complex mix of knowledge, skills and experience required to design interior space, which of course includes extensive knowledge of interior architecture and interior decoration.”

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Comments
  • dacplm December 7, 2017 at 2:35 pm

    It depends if Interior designers what to be known for being good at art or being better at steeling pencil cases to stop other people from doing art?

  • Jo chrobak August 10, 2021 at 7:15 pm

    I fear that creating “protected titles” for interior designers creates confusion in the industry, mainly because there is such a broad range of services interior designers provide.

    Not all interior designers are the same – many don’t touch interior architecture at all, and those who do – in that case, there should never be any confusion for the general public as to whether they’re hiring an architect or an interior designer (as they will be hiring someone with architectural qualifications and skills – not a “licensed interior designer” – how confusing is that?) The architect’s title is already monitored by the ARB so no need for any more confusion.

    Licensure confuses the grey area into architecture and creates separation amongst the interior design community between the “haves” and the “have-nots”. It further isolates and segregates minority groups (who are less likely to be able to afford the time and money to do design degrees). This is the reason, States in the US are now starting to deregulate the profession.

    I’m a big fan of the BIID its a service very much required for supporting interior designers, but limiting who you support is a big mistake not only to those who need your support the most (the non-licensed designers who will never be able to qualify) but for the industry as a whole who are fighting for unification, not segregation.

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