Student Journeys: From Commerce Graduate to Interior Designer

“Honestly, I am going to be recommending this course to my dad too”

When Pawanjot Singh Juneja, a student pursuing our Interior Design Diploma course, agreed to e-meet and discuss his journey so far, I was excited at the prospect of the interaction. True to my expectations, our conversation, which I had to begrudgingly keep to an hour, was a gripping one. Pawanjot revealed how he went from being a Commerce graduate working in his family business to enrolling at AND Academy for learning Interior Design, and spoke passionately about the growth he then observed in his knowledge, skills and problem-solving ability as a designer within a short time. He even went on to showcase two projects that he had worked on, and these bore clear testimony to his remarkable career transformation.

Here's a quick overview of what we discussed:

Contents:

• 1) Pawanjot’s background
• 2) Why he chose Interior Design
• 3) Why he decided to learn with AND Academy
• 4) Whether the course lived up to his expectations
• 5) The challenges he faced
• 6) His experience of working on projects
• 7) Residential design project - overall experience
• 8) Residential design project - details
• 9) Residential design project - learnings
• 10) Commercial design project - cafe design
• 11) Learning experience at AND Academy
• 12) Advice to other learners

Intrigued? Let’s dive right in!

Hello Pawanjot! Could you tell me a bit about yourself and your background?

Sure! I am from Ambala, India, and currently enrolled in the Interior Design course at AND Academy. I come from a business background and studied commerce, so I'm not your typical design aspirant, but the transition has been relatively easy. When I'm not in class, I'm working on projects for our family’s real estate company.

That is interesting! So, what made you want to pursue Interior Design?

Well, first off, I always had an interest in the design of the places that I visited, to the extent that I often found myself saying, “What a beautiful design!” or “How good are these interiors!” whenever I came across impressive new places. And then, once I ‘told’ Instagram about this liking, I kept getting bombarded with Reels related to Interior Design, which nurtured my interest.

Besides this, my stint in the family business also played a role. My father is a realtor, and prior to joining AND Academy, I spent a year working with him, trying to learn the ropes and understand the business. During this time, I was actively involved in vendor management and construction, and noticed that we outsource a fair bit of work to interior designers. Since I was eager to add value to the business, I decided to develop skills that would help ensure the interior design work was handled in-house in future.

Wow! It's good to see such clarity of thought in a young designer.

So what did you decide to do next, and how did you discover and decide on AND Academy?

I must confess that, despite my interest in Interior Design, at this stage in my journey I possessed absolutely no organised knowledge of art, crafts or design. That is why, once it became clear to me that I wanted to pursue Interior Design, I set about looking for a high-quality course that would help build a strong core skill set in the field.

It was during this search that I came across AND Academy and its Interior Design courses . Google zindabad ! I could see that I would be training under the best here, and also loved the kind of work that its students were putting out. This made AND seem like the right place for me.

That's wonderful!

So did we live up to your expectations? Did you find everything that you were looking for?

To be honest, at the outset, one of my reservations about the course was the fact that it was an online offering. I was sceptical that it wouldn't meet my expectations of being immersive and comprehensive.

However, the native use of software - such as whiteboard tool Miro, learning management system Canvas, and Microsoft Teams as the course collaboration and videoconferencing hub - have all given the online sessions a classroom-like feel and made the course much more interactive than I’d expected. The way the mentors have taught and guided students throughout the course has also been extremely beneficial for my learning.

To give you an example, we got multiple tasks throughout the course, which were to be completed on the days set aside for self-study. We were required to upload this work on Miro for the mentors to review. Within an hour of uploading the work, I’d have reviews, comments and suggestions coming in from the mentors. This sort of support and real-time feedback amazed me, and made this course ideal for me.

I completely agree with you here. Nothing like quick feedback, while the work and the thinking behind it are still fresh in your mind, to help you learn effectively and smoothly!

What about challenges, though? Did you face any major ones during the course?

When I was starting out, I knew there were some areas that I needed to work on. I was unable to sketch well and come up with creative ideas, and soon I noticed that my peers in class were far better than I was in both these respects.

I resolved to overcome this challenge, though, and the cohort-based learning format of our course presented a solution. I started learning these skills from my classmates and in due course, my ability in both these areas improved substantially. This, combined with constant feedback from the mentors, helped me ride over this bump in my journey.

Well done for taking the ‘less-trodden’ collaborative path out of a difficult situation! I am glad that you leveraged the opportunity to learn from your peers.

Can you now tell us something about the project work that you did as part of the course? How did this add to your knowledge and skills?

The structure of my course was such that we worked on two projects simultaneously. There was the demo project which we worked on during the live sessions, with feedback from the mentors at the end of each session. And then each of us was also assigned a project to work on outside classes - this one simulated real-world challenges even more closely, and was to be used to practice what we learnt in class. This approach was extremely useful, and I found myself learning at a surprisingly fast pace.

Let me explain what I mean with an example. For the in-class demo project, our Course Lead, Rahat Ma’am, created a mock client and a brief covering the client’s likes, dislikes and various other aspects. Each student was asked to design an interior space for the client, according to a theme assigned to them - pop, classic luxury or ethnic. For the out-of-class project too, we were to use design themes, and my options were pop and classic luxury. This was a residential design project with a real-world client, but with a mock requirement.

At this stage, I didn't even know what a ‘theme’ meant. Terms like ‘contemporary’, ‘luxury’ and ‘ethnic’ were alien to me. I wasn't familiar with the elements that could be called luxurious or the principles one needed to follow to achieve any particular theme in the final design.

So when I was working on the project with ‘luxury’ as my theme, the mentors went out of their way to help me identify the elements that one needs to be aware of when designing a luxurious interior. This is how I learnt about the process to make the interiors of a place look like they belong to a certain theme, whether luxury or contemporary or ethnic.

Interesting!

Could you share your overall experience of working on the residential design project you undertook during the course? My understanding is that this was based on a mock requirement, but for a real client.

Yes, that is correct! We went about the residential design project in the same way as a practising interior designer would. We were asked to design the bedroom, balcony, bathroom and passage area for the client. So, I took measurements of the area, had a detailed discussion with the client, created renders on the Coohom software and shared designs in both themes - pop and classic luxury - for the client to choose from.

All this was happening alongside my classes. As I said earlier, I applied the learning from the demo project to my real-world project. For instance, in our previous class, we learnt about colour and lighting, so I was able to apply these to my client project. Learning in the sessions translates into progress on my project. We have classes on costing coming up, so I look forward to applying that learning also to my project.

That sounds like such an effective way to learn!

I’m quite intrigued and fascinated by that sneak peek into the project work, I have to say. Could you please go into more detail about it?

I’d be happy to!

For this project, unlike many students in my batch, I picked a home that needed a re-design, as opposed to a newly constructed home that was being designed for the first time.

I started by understanding the background of my client - a 55-year-old lady named Vandana who owned a house in a society in Ambala. We discussed her occupation, how she spends her time at home, her likes and dislikes, her emotional and functional needs from the bedroom and bath, and her style preferences, to name some. Based on her inputs, I created a Development Board that laid out all the specifications, requirements, preferences and actions to be taken.

My themes were pop and luxury, as mentioned before, so I created moodboards for both options and presented them to the client. I also took detailed measurements of the entire space and created three 2D layout models, including a Vasstu-compliant one. These were then presented to the client, along with an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of each. After some feedback and iteration, a moodboard and a 2D layout were approved.

The final step was to create 3D renders on Coohom (an Interior Design software), and to draft Call-out Sheets specifying the material, surfaces and finishes to be used when executing the design. And that was that!

Understanding the client’s background

Making a Development Board

Layout option 3 - Vaastu-compliant (approved by the client)

Rendering the final output on Coohoom

Wow! That sounds like a commendable amount of work!

What was your most valuable learning from this project?

There were several learnings, really. But perhaps the most valuable one was understanding the importance of creating a solid questionnaire. I have reached a stage now where I have been able to distil down to the 4-5 questions I must definitely ask a client in order to accurately gauge their needs.

Great!

You also worked on a commercial Interior Design project during the course, didn’t you? Would you mind taking us through that too, step by step?

Not at all! Let me take you through the entire process.

For this project, I had to design a cafe in a mall. At the start of the project, our mentor shared the plans for Select Citywalk Mall (available publicly) as a reference point. I started off by marking the entry and exit points of the mall. Then I tried to figure out other important factors - how mall visitors would find the cafe, distance to the lavatories and the location of the electricity room. Once I covered these fundamentals, I started to design the cafe.

I was assigned Lipton as the client for whom I had to design this space, and had two weeks to conduct thorough research on the brand. I compiled data from three different sources - Lipton’s website, its advertisements, and conversations with its consumers to understand what they would expect from a Lipton cafe.

Through my research, I realised that the Lipton brand has much to do with nature, and I wanted to integrate this learning into various aspects of the design. Feedback from the mentors also suggested that I was on the right track, so I went on to incorporate several natural elements, such as leaves, wood and stones, into the design.

Moving on to other aspects of the design, keeping in mind the size of the furniture and maximum seating capacity, I opted for cluster seating. I also went on to analyse brands in the mall that would be our direct competitors, such as Starbucks, Burger King and Pizza Hut, in order to understand how I can differentiate the cafe from the rest.

Then I went on to create moodboards to show what the final cafe design would look like. Once these were approved, I moved on to making the 2D layouts on Coohom to understand whether the expectations concerning seating capacity are being met and also to understand how people will move within the space. As the final step, I rendered the final output - in the form of 3D models - on Coohom.

Select Citywalk floor plan

Understanding Lipton’s branding

Conducting competitor analysis

Creating moodboards

Rendering the final output on Coohoom

That's a lot of project work to have completed on a 6-month course! Thank you so much for sharing details of both those projects with me.

Could you say something about how the learning experience at AND Academy has helped you grow?

My learning experience has been great so far. I am still a part of the course and am having a lot of fun. I am now even more confident that I will actively pursue a career in this field. In the near future, I wish to first practice on my own kothis and then start my practice in Ambala. The scope of Interior Design is on the rise in Ambala, and most people are trying to find inspiration on Pinterest! As a result, the homes often end up having extremely tight spaces and limited room for movement. With my training, I feel equipped to address this problem with professional Interior Design solutions.

What advice would you give to someone who is charting a journey similar to yours?

Whether you are someone who has prior experience in design or someone who is completely new to the field, do not hesitate to enrol for the course. If you feel you are weak in sketching, ideating or any other skills, don't worry about it! Honestly, I am going to be recommending this course to my dad too, as it will help him upskill and launch a new business where I will be able to add immense value.

Thank you so much for speaking with me today, Pawanjot. It was truly a pleasure learning about your career transformation journey. Good luck in all your future endeavours!

Inspired by Pawanjot’s journey? You’re just a click away from following in his footsteps!

Check out our 34-week Diploma Course in Interior Design and see what it has to offer in addition to what you have just read, and launch your own career in Interior Design!

We also have a 18-week Certificate course in Interior Design, in case you wish to explore your interest in this field before committing to a career.

Alternatively, if you’d jump right into an intensive and full-time course, consider enrolling for our 1year PG Diploma course in Interior Design.

We are sure you have questions. Get in touch with a Course Advisor, who will be happy to go over all the details of our courses and address your queries over a quick call.