Influences Of Interior Design

Joan Alexis D. Young

Professor Vincent Tan

INDREME

12 July 2016

A Study on the Influence of Interior Design Television Shows on the Youth’s Selection of Interior Design as a Profession

Interiors make up the modern world. Many people hire interior designers to design their houses or offices or stores, to be able to keep up with the trends. The different types of media, most notably the internet and television, are these people’s sources of trends. Lifestyle networks, for instance HGTV, ABC, Style, and FYI broadcast shows the focus on interior design. Popular interior design programs for example are Property Brothers, Clean House, Extreme Makeovers, etc. Shows like Modern Living TV, Interior Motives, and Design Para sa Lahat are aired in the

She mentions C.S. Martin’s ‘Six Design Myths’ that these programs perpetuate about interior design:

“Myth #1. The goal of the design process is to “surprise” the client.

Myth #2. Quality and speed are synonymous.

Myth #3. Anyone can be an Interior Designer.

Myth #4. Good design is trendy and cool.

Myth #5. Designing your space will be super expensive or super cheap.

Myth #6. Interior designers are zany, flamboyant airheads” (qtd. in Purnell 26-27)

She then questions the interior design shows based on myth number 3, “who is the designer and what are their credentials?” (Purnell 27). She quotes Deborah Philips when she expresses, “TV designers are not celebrated for skills and training, but for their ability to achieve a look with easily accessible and affordable products” (qtd. in Purnell 27). These authors have shown that teenagers tend to choose a career based on what they watch on television. However, the studies are set internationally. This study aims to conduct the same research, but in the Philippine setting, in hopes that it would produce the same results as the previous studies

in Purnell 23). Shows like Extreme Makeover, Property Brothers, and Clean House focus on this kind of phenomenon. The team takes on a house, one that badly needs repairing, and renovates it. The challege is to finish renovating the house in a span of one week (or in another show, Renovation Rescue, two days), and have that big reveal at the end. Usually, the owers are sent away for a while while the crew works on renovating a room or even the entire house. In other shows, the owners help with the renovation for a while, before being sent away, a couple days before the reveal.

Some make it into a competition between skilled and unskilled designers. House vs. House is a show in FYI where amateur and experienced designers team up and compete with other designers. Each team must come up with a design where they focus on DIY projects. Another show on the same network, Rowhouse Showdown, where three teams battle it out to transform rundown , dilapitated houses in Cincinnati, Ohio. “Taking on the rundown houses in a distressed neighborhood, the teams will renovate one home each – while also living together – in a bid to raise the property value of the community surrounding them” (FYI Network).

These kinds of shows gives you a glimpse on how the designing career works, but just like what Dennis Laker mentioned, these shows do not necessarily portray