General Purpose and Audience

Interior designers communicate through writing with a variety of different audiences about visual materials. Interior design majors write professionally for the purpose of both obtaining employment and explaining aspects of their profession. Possible audiences include vendors, collaborators, contractors, engineers, clients and potential clients, members of the press, the general public, and other interior designers. Writing to communicate about design should focus on showing rather than telling; therefore, descriptive, active language is preferred.

Types of Writing

  • Proposals: description and vision about why the writer is the person for the job; may contain technical writing and discussion of prices or fees

  • Concept statements: known as “the big picture” with three major functions: to state and understand a design problem, explore design solutions, and present the design mission 

  • Advertisements

  • Marketing and Public Relations

  • Professional communications such as email and letters

  • Project Orientation Sessions: often presentations with visual elements

  • “The Brief”: condensed document stating the facts and issues surrounding a project

  • Observation Studies: graphics with precise descriptive captions

  • Client-User Profiles: write-ups describing the needs or interests of the client, based on observations, interviews, and questionnaires 

  • Business letters

  • Website design

  • Publications about completed projects

Types of Evidence

Interior designers depend on a variety of types of evidence to create, justify, define, and explain their choices to multiple stakeholders. The types of evidence used will vary according to the audience being appealed to and the type of writing being done. Description and analysis form two important categories for what is considered evidence in writing about design: 

  • Description is an important feature of evidence in design. Designers must be able to convey their vision in words to potential clients as well as translate that vision into technical terms for the engineers and other workers with whom they collaborate. Likewise they must be able to take clients’ descriptions and turn them into technical details.    
  • Analysis involves looking at the entire picture objectively and impersonally from the perspective of many stakeholders. The designer must look at a project in terms of the “best route possible” to achieve the clients’ ends and the space’s purpose.  Analysis in design translates the designer’s vision into an argument for action and organizes data. Elements of the analysis should be based on the process and focus on the description and the vision.
  • Understand the value of evidence-based design decisions.

In writing about interior design, students should be ready to rely on both quantitative and qualitative evidence as well as understanding the difference between primary and secondary research. Students should become familiar with the needs of various stakeholders, what kinds of evidence they value, and when to use the appropriate type of evidence to satisfy those audiences.

Writing Conventions

  • Be concise and get to the point quickly.

  • Communicate about all parts of a project clearly and professionally.

  • Create a platform or be aware of your specific audience before beginning any piece of written communication.

  • Be prepared to adjust tone, style, and level of technical language for genre and audience awareness.

  • Writing strategies may often overlap. (For example, business or professional writing may be combined with explanations of color theory or art critiques.) 

  • Use short focused sentences and paragraphs. 

  • Organize ideas carefully and separate thoughts and elements accordingly.

  • Carefully explicate visual elements as appropriate.

  • Use headings to show the organization of a message.

  • Be able to cite primary sources of research findings to support design decisions.

Terms / Vocabulary / Jargon

  • Project file
  • Observation diary
  • Evidence-Based Design
  • Precedent Studies
  • Concept Statement
  • Pre-Design
  • Schematic Design
  • Programming
  • Design Development
  • Specifications
  • Working Drawings/Contract Documents
  • Post-Occupancy Evaluation

Documentation Style

As interior design students may find themselves writing in a variety of different contexts for diverse and varied audiences, they should be flexible in their ability to identify sources of information and give credit where credit is due for ideas and concepts that are not their own. 

When writing in academics, a writer should always check with instructors about what citation style they prefer and use credible sources such as the University writing Center (http://writingcenter.appstate.edu/), the OWL at Purdue (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/) or a hard copy source for formatting and citation guidelines.

Sources Consulted

Eakins, Patricia. Writing for Interior Design. Fairchild Publications, 2005.