My name is Pauline Joly and I am a senior Architectural Design major. During the summer of 2017, I was an interior design intern for Brad Weesner Design, a small interior design company based in Baltimore, Maryland. I have almost always known about my interest in interior design. It was confirmed in the summer of 2012 during my pre-college classes at the Corcoran School of Art and Design when I decided to take courses in interior design. Later on, when college applications were around the corner, I made the decision of pursuing an education in the design field, which led me to MICA’s Architectural Design program. This program was the closest thing to interior design that MICA had to offer. This 2017 internship was meant to give me a clearer sense of what interior design actually was about.
In order to find this internship, I did some online research and looked up interior designers in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The names and websites of several designers popped up. I then proceeded by sending each of them an informational email explaining who I was and what my intentions were. Unfortunately, most of them either didn’t respond or emailed me back to let me know that they did not have any more space for a summer intern. A week later I found Brad Weesner’s website and decided to contact him. His response was immediate, asking for my resume and portfolio. I then met with him in person to discuss his intern program and how it would all work. I started interning there three weeks later.
I believe I gained a lot of experience in interior design by working in a small office, which allowed me to see many aspects of the job and running a small business. As most artists and designers know, the design process is what gives a project direction. Without use of a proper design process, projects tend to have no direction or coherence with what clients want. Therefore, in the course of my internship, Mr. Weesner made sure to introduce me to every step of the design process. I also had the opportunity to see actual client project boards first hand, which helped me visualize the design process better than before I started the internship. Mr. Weesner is passionate about fabric and spent a lot of time teaching me about the proper use of material depending on circumstances and on the client’s needs. I am now able to recognize different fabrics just by touch! The office has its own design library, which includes a collection of sample materials designers use for client boards. I could thus spend a lot of time looking at and learning about different materials. Mr. Weesner also taught me about project management by showing me how to use a site called Studio Webware, which is a program his office utilizes to create client orders, invoices, and also track progress on current projects. Due to the summer’s shortened office hours for the permanent staff, I was asked to take on some of the office manager’s responsibilities when she was not in the office. These tasks consisted of, among others, answering the office phone and talking to existing and prospective clients. Mr. Weesner also took me to the Washington Design Center, where I got to know different design companies and their individual styles by walking around the showrooms and talking to the showroom managers.
This internship has
taught me a lot about interior design and owning and managing a small business.
With regards to interior design, I remain convinced it is a field I want to
specialize in. I have realized that owning and managing a small business is not
an easy thing to do. It is not enough to be a good designer, you also need a
lot of other skills to be successful.
