What I LOVE About Design, Emily Berg
Fact: I am a huge planner!! I like to have things decided ahead of time so I know exactly where to go. I made up my mind in 8th grade that I was going to pursue interior design. From the time that I started reading “grown-up” magazines, my favorites were ones that involved floor plans. (I regularly received Log Home Living for Christmas, and I still have a soft spot for rustic abodes.) I would study the miniature plans like maps before I looked at the photos and imagine how the spaces looked in real life. I was amazed by the professional look the designers gave the homes, and how they made each one look unique.
I loved art class all through high school, and that love never faded. But I also loved math, so before applying to college I took an internship at a design firm working alongside both architects and an interior designer, so I could get a feel for both professions. By the end, I decided I liked interior design a lot better! While I appreciate the details and logic that accompanied architecture, I preferred the creativity of interiors (and the fact that I didn’t have to focus so much on the engineering of a structure).
By the time I went to college, the decision I made in 8th grade still seemed like a good one. I entered the interior design program at Cornell in my first year, and I LOVED it! Interior design as a career was even more exciting than I first thought. While I adored spending some of my classes simply measuring, drawing, and rendering, I also loved the scientific and research-based background that taught us why interior design is important. Even when we were focusing on picking materials and finishes for our projects, our professors were constantly reminding us how every design detail affects peoples’ reactions to their surroundings, the way they interact with items and others in the space, and ultimately their quality of life and work. With the combination of creative art, logical thinking and drawing, and problem-solving, I knew I found a career that perfectly matched my various passions!
As a planner, I’m glad that my career path was straightforward from high school through college, but more importantly, I am thrilled that I got to participate in a program that taught me the legitimacy and importance of something I already loved! I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my workday than visualizing creative solutions, researching unique new materials, and bringing to life the concepts that transform the spaces people enjoy everyday!
