It is also important to realize that the client who has contracted with the designer is often only one of the users/stakeholders that must be satisfied. The satisfaction of employees and the public or the clientele of the business directly affects the success of the design and future business. Not understanding and designing in relationship to this issue can result in a nice‐looking interior for an unhappy client.
Facility Planners
Many corporations and institutional organizations realize the economic benefit of having their own planning and design team. Facility planners are part of the facility management department, which is responsible for the physical plant (the building and its systems). The facility management department ensures that everything involved in the business—building, equipment, and people—is organized and arranged to best function together to meet the management's goals.
Designers might work as facility planners or be hired by the corporation to work with in‐house facility planners. Specialized degrees in facility planning are available, but many facility planners are interior designers or architects.
The job of facility manager, sometimes in the same department as a facility planner, is a more specialized career and requires additional training in psychology, physical plant management, and engineering.
Lighting Designers
Although all designers learn something about lighting concepts and lighting design as part of their curriculum, lighting interiors to create special environments involves skills and experience that the average interior designer does not have. Designers can specialize in lighting design, continually learning about new products but also about all the intricacies of lighting science and design application. There are firms that specialize in providing consulting to other designers, as well as to clients, in the lighting design of all types of spaces, both residential and commercial in context.
Sales Representatives
Sales representatives, also called sales reps, may work in retail furniture and furnishings stores and dealerships, in manufacturers' showrooms, and as outside sales reps for manufacturers. Sales reps in retail stores might be referred to as sales associates. A sales associate is not always an interior designer, but rather someone who is skilled in sales techniques. Many retail stores and office furnishings dealers hire interior designers to be sales associates. Additional information on sales representatives and dealers is provided in Chapter 11.
Barrier‐Free or Universal Design
A career option for some designers experienced with barrier‐free design concepts is consulting to businesses to help them comply with standards—either before or after a lawsuit is filed. For example, the prime designer might not be knowledgeable about current barrier‐free requirements; in this instance, that firm may engage a consulting designer to review plans for new or remodeled facilities to be sure that the plans will meet the legal requirements prior to submittal for building permits.
Sustainable Design
Sustainable design has become far more common as a specialty in the last several
