Interior Design
Space planning, materials and rendering.
What this major can become
Real roles our students grow into, the industries that hire them — and why this path is a good bet.
Jobs you can do
- Interior Designer
- Exhibition / Retail Designer
- Lighting Designer
- Stylist & Staging
Industries that hire
Design studios, hospitality & retail, real-estate staging, residential design
Why it’s a good bet
- Client work starts early — many designers freelance before graduating
- Every home, restaurant and office is a potential project
- Combines spatial thinking with materials, colour and people skills
Recommended schools
Programs our Interior Design students most often apply to — and get into.
What you'll learn
A staged path — fundamentals first, then specialization, then the portfolio itself.
Foundation training
Spatial skill is built on drawing, not software.
- Observational drawing and still life
- Perspective and interior spatial construction
- Proportion, scale and human measure
- Light, shadow and atmosphere
- Colour, material and texture studies
- Composition and drawing as communication
- Sketchbook and space-observation habit
Interior specialization
Designing space people move through.
- Space planning and circulation
- Drafting plans, sections and elevations
- Materials, finishes and mood boards
- Lighting design and mood
- Interior perspective rendering
- Scale model building and a full project
Portfolio & application
Drawing-led, process-heavy, clearly presented.
- Curating a drawing-led interior portfolio
- Documenting process and iteration
- School-specific requirements (Parsons, RISD, OCAD)
- Artist statement and design rationale
- Photographing models and portfolio layout
- Mock interviews and portfolio reviews
Why students choose NPC
Portfolio prep is crowded. What is rare is a twenty-year record of actual offers, and mentors who have done the job.
20+ years and 3000+ graduates
Offers from Harvard, Cornell, RISD, Carnegie Mellon, Parsons, ArtCenter and USC — 590 offers and $19.6M in scholarships in the last six years alone, published school by school.
Mentors from the industry
Art directors and artists whose work spans Disney and Nickelodeon films, LEGO films, Tencent and AAA games — people who know what a portfolio has to survive.
Fundamentals first, always
Admissions committees reject weak drawing before they ever reach your concept. We build observation, perspective, value and colour before specializing.
Built to each school’s requirements
CSM, Parsons, RISD and Sheridan all ask for different things. We build to the schools you are actually applying to — not a generic portfolio.
Interior Design — made by our students
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Start with a portfolio assessment
Portfolio and AP tracks are by enquiry only. We look at your goals and current work first, then plan the course and hours around you.