Joy Weese Moll

Q420

October 10, 2003

 

Subject Guide for Interior Design

 

Interior design is a combination of art and science, with success requiring talent, training, and diligence.

—Susan A. Lewis, Interior Design Sourcebook

 

 

Interior Design Organizations

 

By far, the largest professional organization of interior designers in the United States is the American Society for Interior Designers (ASID). They publish a trade magazine, hold an annual conference, and maintain a helpful website:

www.asid.org

 

Many interior designers go through a certification process, including an exam, which is administered by the National Council for Interior Design Qualification.

 

Interior Designers divide themselves into two main groups by the types of projects they work on—residential or commercial. Commercial designers are divided into several subspecialties including retail, office, and health care.

 

 

Magazines and journals

 

The primary literature of interior design is the photo layout in the glossy magazine. These publications range from popular shelter magazines to trade publications both in and out of the interior design profession (hospitality trade magazines, for example, frequently publish interior design articles about hotels, restaurants, and the like).

 

Since there are very few academics in interior design (only 8 universities in the country issue a PhD in Interior Design), there is only one academic journal in the field. Academic research about interior design is also published in psychology journals like Environment and Behavior or Human Factors. An excellent resource for finding this material is the Informed Design database of research summaries (not the full text of the article, but more information than an abstract) maintained by ASID and the University of Minnesota. This database is available, free to all, at this web site:

http://www.informedesign.umn.edu

 

The following table lists the major trade publications, the one academic magazine, and the premier shelter magazine in the United States along with information about accessing them.

 

Journal Title and Description

Electronic notes

Physical location notes

Architectural Digest

According to Katz, “This is the basic domestic design title for public and academic libraries.”

Indexed in Art Index.

Abstracted in Avery Index.

St. Charles County Public

St. Louis County Public

St. Louis Public

And several college and university libraries

Contract

Formerly Contract Design

Trade magazine for commercial designers

EbscoHost MasterFile Elite has full text and lists photos since May of 2002.

 

Maryville University in St. Louis

St. Louis Community College

Interior Design

Trade magazine

Although available full text in several MU databases, the only high quality source (i.e. good color photos) is Gale (Expanded Academic ASAP) which has an easy InfoTrac interface

St. Louis County Public

St. Louis Public

And several college libraries

Interiors and Sources

Trade magazine for residential and non-residential designers. Web site has Directory and source guide.

This magazine puts full text on its web site, but not pictures:

http://www.isdesignet.com

Not in any libraries in area

Journal of Interior Design

The only peer-reviewed academic journal in interior design. Published by the Interior Design Educators Council.

According to the publisher’s website, it’s indexed in these three publications:

  • Art Bibliographies
  • Ergonomics Abstracts
  • Sociological Abstracts

But it’s not in MU’s SOCIOFILE which is supposed to be the electronic form of the last one.

Not in St. Louis, but MU Ellis has it.

 

 

Monographs

 

The LCSH subject is “Interior Decoration” although many resources, including Wilson’s Art Index, use the term preferred by the trade, “Interior Design.” On the shelf, books will be found in both the Art stacks and the Home Economics stacks.

 

There are many books published each year for home owners that are invaluable to interior designers for inspiration and for understanding the current trends in design. Some interior designers, like Sir Terence Conran and Mary Emmerling, have made themselves brand names by publishing glossy books with numerous color photos. These are widely available in libraries and bookstores.

 

Books for professionals that detail building codes, explain the wear and safety properties of fabrics, and explore other more scientific aspects of interior design are most likely to be available at college libraries with accredited interior design programs. The accrediting agency, The Foundation for Interior Design Education Research, lists these programs on its website:

www.fider.org/direc.htm

 

The best local collections for interior design are the large public library systems, St. Louis Community College at Meramec, and Maryville University of St. Louis (which has the only accredited Interior Design program in the area). The other accredited program in Missouri is at the University of Missouri—Columbia, which also has a good collection.

 

Nationwide, some of the best collections are at the New York Public Library, the Chicago Public Library, and the University of Minnesota.

 

 

Gray literature

 

Interior designers create drawings, floor plans, renderings, and sample boards but they are rarely published and are usually seen only by the designer and the client. Occasionally, renderings for upcoming large public projects are published in newspapers. These could be accessed by the project name in a newspaper index. Organizations publish drawings of future building projects in their magazines and newsletters to garner support for them but these would be difficult to access at a later time. A library that wanted a collection of these types of materials would likely have to resort to an old-fashioned clipping file.

 

A showhouse, where a different interior designer has decorated each room, usually produces a program with photos and text describing each room’s design. The major annual showhouse in St. Louis is sponsored by the Symphony in September. The program, which is handed out at the door, is published as an advertising supplement in St. Louis Homes and Gardens. With effort, someone could probably track down a previous program with that much information. It would take more effort to discover the sponsoring organizations and related publications for showhouses in other locations. Occasionally, they are showcased in shelter magazines like Traditional Home.

 

At one time, most designers produced brochures that included photos of their work. These have largely been replaced by web sites.

 

The best way to attain gray literature may be to contact the designers. Fortunately, there’s a biannual Who’s Who for the field:

Who's Who in Interior Design. Laguna Beach, Calif: Barons Who's Who, 1988-.

 

 

Electronic Resources

 

Interior designers depend on having access to product catalogs and directories. These are now easily accessed on the web. ASID maintains a product directory as do each of the trade magazines. Here are the trade magazine web sites:

 

Contract:  http://www.contractmagazine.com/contract/index.jsp

Interior Design: http://www.interiordesign.net

Interiors and Sources: http://www.isdesignet.com/index.html

 

 

Bibliography

 

Ash, Lee. Subject Collections. New Providence, N.J.: R.R. Bowker, 1993.

 

Blazek, Ron and Elizabeth Aversa. The Humanities: A Selective Guide to Information Sources. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2000.

 

Encyclopedia of Associations. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 2003.

 

Katz, Bill and Linda Sternberg Katz. Magazines for Libraries. New Providence, N.J.: R.R. Bowker, 1997.

 

Lewis, Susan A. Interior Design Sourcebook: A Guide to the Resources on the History and Practice of Interior Design. Detroit: Omnigraphics, Inc. 1998.

 

Library of Congress Subject Headings, Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2001.

 

 

 

 

 

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