Expert Says Interior Design on Track to be a Fully Recognized Profession

The practice of interior design is well on its way to becoming a recognized profession within the United States and Canada, according to Caren Martin, Ph.D., an assistant professor of interior design at the University of Minnesota, director of InformeDesign®, and author of Interior Design: From Practice to Profession, a new ASID publication. Interior design has achieved all of the hallmarks of professionalism in a majority of the US states and Canadian provinces, says Martin, and will be considered such in the remaining states and provinces as legal recognition is achieved in each. Tracing the professionalization path through practices such as law, medicine and engineering, Martin found in her research that interior design is moving at a good speed toward the goal of recognized professionalization, as compared, for example, with architecture, which in America took more than 100 years to reach full professional status. Visit www.asid.org for more information.