10 Online Courses For Interior Designers

Being an Interior Designer demands a lot of knowledge and skills apart from the Design Education.

Here are the 10 Online Courses for Interior Designers which can help you to brush up your skills as a Designers and enhance your Design practice and Design Business from teaching you to creating a successful relationship with your clients to taking photographs for your Professional portfolio.

1. Design Research: Enhancing the Designer-Client Relationship– Lynda.com – LinkedIn Learning

The effective exchange of knowledge between the client and the designer defines the success of the designer and the design business. This course teaches you how to create a more productive client-relationships, earn more buy-in, and ultimately strengthen the knowledge base with your design process. Topics like Defining the problem and settling early goals, Understanding your client’s organization and expertise level, Establishing your research questions, Invite the right players, Leading a workshop, Identifying trends, patterns and outliners and Creating documentation that explains your design and research are included in this course.

USPs:

1. Learn about practicalities like how to effectively bring your client into your design process and how to utilize your knowledge base to help you understand what your client is asking for and establish right research questions.
2. An explanation of how to facilitate effective workshops, how to harness your most significant findings to develop a stable foundation for decision-making throughout your design process.

Tutor: Andy Schwanbeck
Duration: 1 hour, 52 minutes
Price: Subscription to Lynda.com – 1400/- INR for a month plan and 900/- INR for a month in an annual plan (April 2020)

For more details: www.lynda.com/Graphic-Design-tutorials/Design-Research-Enhancing-Designer-Client-Relationship/651195-2.html

2. Design Thinking– Learning Space – Open University

This course from Open University will show you how to structure your natural creativity to come up with solutions to all kinds of problems. It teaches how to investigate and think creatively about design problems and opportunities and develop visual literacy and articulacy to explain design decisions.

USPs:

1. Creates awareness of how design thinking can be applied in a whole range of contexts, from the personal to the global.
2. Teaches to use computing tools and online environments to aid design thinking

Duration: 10 hours
Price: Free

For more details: www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/design-innovation/design-thinking/content-section-0?active-tab=description-tab

3. How to Work with Interior Design Styles Like A Pro– Udemy

This course is to learn about 18 Interior Design styles like Traditional, French, English Country, Art Deco, Contemporary, Bohemian and many more, to enhance the skillset and creativity of an Interior Designer. It lets you explore through all the styles articulate the defining furniture characteristics of each main style. It will also teach you to Define Furniture characteristics, Common materials used in each style, Appropriate colour schemes and patterns for each style, Window and floor covering options for each style, Lighting artwork and accessories appropriate to each style and Retailers that carry furnishings for each particular style

USPs:

1. Not only it teaches you 18 different Interior Design styles but you can also learn to mix styles using a simple, formulaic approach so that they can experiment with all the styles
2. With 2 real-life case studies, the course also offers style quiz after learning each style to help you find out which Interior Design styles are best suited to you based on your preferences.

Tutor: Erikka Fogleman
Duration: 6 hours, 37 lectures
Price: 700/- INR (April 2020)

For more details: www.udemy.com/course/learn-how-to-work-with-interior-design-styles-like-a-pro/?

4. How to use Colour like a Pro Home – Udemy

Colour is one of the most important elements of Interior design, this course helps you create fantastic colour schemes for any space. Concepts like Colour theory and Colour psychology, use of the colour wheel, using colours according to different moods, mixing patterns effectively, and some knowledge about paints are discussed in this course.

USPs:

1. The correct use of the psychology of colour to create the perfect mood according to space
2. Use of textures and patterns and mix them successfully according to the interior design style.

Tutor: Erikka Fogleman
Duration: 2 hours
Price: 420/- INR (April 2020)

For more details: www.udemy.com/course/learn-how-to-use-color-like-a-pro/

5. How to use Lighting Design to Transform your Home – Udemy

This is a great course for designers to learn more about how to effectively design and build a residential lighting plan. Principles like Use and control of both artificial and natural light, 3 layers of light to elevate the lighting design, the right type of lighting fixtures based on the function of the room and use of lighting to make the room appear larger or small are explained and taught in the course.

USPs:

1. This course is all about the basics of Lighting in Interior Design including both Artificial and Natural light when Lighting sure is a very essential part of ever Interior Design project, the knowledge can expand the project quality.
2. An availability of hands-on opportunity to improve lighting in 2 case studies and build your own customized lighting design scheme for any room in your home.

Tutor: Erikka Fogleman
Duration: 2 hours
Price: 432/- INR (April 2020)

For more details: www.udemy.com/course/lighting-design-to-transform-your-home/

6. Interior Design Basics: Simple steps to your Perfect Space– Skill Share

The course teaches how to transform your home in your style or budget. All the basics and fundamentals of Interior Design are covered one by one in this 11 class-course. The four principles which are mainly focused on: Identify your personal design style, Curate a colour palette unique to you, Create a sense of rhythm and balance, Choose pieces you’ll love for a lifetime. Designers can end up with tools that identify as their personal and individual style and unleash their creativity.

USPs:

1. Best for learning about a Residential project and Design transformation of homes.
2. All the fundamentals like Colour, Balance, Scale & Proportion, Rhythm & Repetition and Design Style are taught with fun videos and printable reference guides.

Tutor: Laura Cox – Interior Designer working as a Design Program Manager in Denver

Duration: 1 Hour 27 Minutes, 11 lessons
Price: Subscription to Skill Share – US$24 annually or US$8 monthly (April 2020)

For more details: www.skillshare.com/classes/Interior-Design-Basics-Simple-Steps-to-Your-Perfect-Space/241319736

7. Interior Design: Interior Decorate like a Boss – Skill Share

This course lets you learn the fundamentals of Interior Design and create a great space from start to finish with a step by step process. Methods like How to layout the floor-plan, work with colour, accessorize are explained. Fundamentals like Function, Seating, Storage, Special Needs, Mood and Principles like Contrast, Repetition, Movement, Scale, Proximity, Alignment, Variation and Balance are covered in this course. Many other lessons and Practical aspects of being an Interior Designers are taught in this 51-lesson course.

USPs:

1. A wholesome package of every aspect of Interior Design is covered in this course which is a brief overview of many fundamentals, methods and principles.
2. A course which will brush up the basic skills as the Interior Designer

Tutor: Rose Stanek
Duration: 1 hour, 4 minutes – 51 lessons
Price: Subscription to Skill Share – US$24 annually or US$8 monthly (April 2020)

For more details: www.skillshare.com/classes/Interior-Design-Interior-Decorate-like-a-Boss/1697023891

8. Interior Design Photography Course– Udemy

As an Interior Designer, it is important to maintain a portfolio with the best quality photographs. Doing this also enhances the designer’s skill set and makes an impact on interested clients. This course teaches tricks and tips to take photos and retouch photos for Interior Design. It covers fundamentals like How to shoot small spaces, Basics on retouching interior design, How to erase elements in a photo, Making a high key effect on a white room and How to retouch the front of a hotel.

USPs:

1. With software Lightroom and Photoshop know how to shoot Interior design photos
2. Learn how to edit and retouch the photos that would look best in your Interior Design photos

Tutor: Serge Ramelli
Duration: 3 hours, 30 lectures
Price: 432/- INR (April 2020)

For more details: www.udemy.com/course/interior-design-photography-course/

9. Running a Design Business: Writing and Pricing Winning Proposals– Lynda.com – LinkedIn Learning

As an Interior Designer practitioner, to learn how to run the Design Business comes in handy when you are out there in the field of Design Business. The process of writing estimates and proposals can be time-consuming and frustrating, especially if it doesn’t result in new business. This course shows how to write and price winning proposals, from vetting prospective clients to set price and more. The course includes topics like Questions to ask prospects, How to talk about budgets, Proposal Strategies, Pricing Strategies, Hourly pricing, Package pricing, Crafting retainer-based relationships and Presenting your prices.

USPs:

1. Learn to obtain the information you need to choose the right pricing structure, then following a strategy to create your winning proposal.
2. Know proposal writing and pricing principles as well as common mistakes to avoid.

Tutor: Emily Ruth Cohen
Duration: 51 minutes
Price: Subscription to Lynda.com – 1400/- INR for a month plan and 900/- INR for a month in an annual plan (April 2020)

For more details: www.lynda.com/Design-tutorials/Running-Design-Business-Writing-Pricing-Winning-Proposals/2800332-2.html

10. Kelly Wearstler teaches Interior Design – Masterclass

America’s award-winning designer Kelly Wearstler teaches Interior Design in this class which includes learnings all about Aesthetics and Grandeur. The course demystifies interior design and teaches how to make any space larger, and choose colours, materials and textures. More suitable for those who are interested in Aesthetics and Decoration, it shows how to select art pieces and cultivate an individual style. The 17 class-course includes classes like: Sources of Inspiration, starting a Project, working with a space, Materiality in Design, Experimenting with Colour, Discovering Texture, Learning Patterns, Movement and Scale, Lighting, Furnishing and Life as an Interior Designer. It also includes videos on Field trips for a better experimental approach.

It is a whole-package course which focuses on almost every aspect of Interior Design briefly with a downloadable workbook for each class.

USPs:

1. Learn about the design elements like Colours, Materials, Textures and the likes that influence a space
2. Learn how to furnish different types of spaces to give it a desirable outlook

Tutor: Kelly Wearstler – An award-winning designer in America
Duration: 2 Hours 13 Minutes, 17 lessons
Price: 2 passes (with access to all classes) for 15,550/- INR (April 2020)

For more details: www.masterclass.com/classes/kelly-wearstler-teaches-interior-design