Have your say!

Comment on issues you like and dislike, ask awkward industry questions that nobody else wants to answer.

Send your opinions, complaints, requests and flatteries to website@sbid.org. We will seek a response and upload your comment.

Read the latest submissions below. You do not need to be an SBID Member to contribute to this area.

SBID invites comment on a wide variety of topics, including:

• Gossip & Propaganda - What have you heard?
• Government & Question time - How will our elected government lead change and support the design industry?
• Education - What is the educational standard for UK, Europe and USA. Is it the education we need, how do we measure it and what do practitioners think of graduates skills, and what do graduates think of the education they received now they have practical experience?

Terms & Conditions
You can withhold your name from public view by request, but SBID must first verify the owner of the comment. You may not comment on individuals in a derogatory manner, you may not use abusive or offensive language. SBID may delete and print comment provided at its own discretion.

10/02/2012

How can I become involved to represent my country while living here in Britain?
Emine Cural

Firstly check our Counterparts tab to make sure SBID is not already established in the country you would like to represent. If we are not, it may be that the qualifying standards have not yet been met or we may be in negotiation. If neither of these apply, let's talk... our door is open to business that can meet the SBID standard. Contact us at: corporate@sbid.org

11/01/2012

Architects vs Interior Designers - Can they share the same design space?

This video from the Society of British Interior Design and the Surface Design Show discusses whether Architects and Interior Designers can work together harmoniously, learn from each other or if they will constantly step on each other's creative toes.

Architects and Designers from Gensler & 1508 London give their views on the roles and interface between the two and you’re invited to share your comments on our LinkedIn page.

11/10/2011

Well done SBID on bringing the NCIDQ certificate system to Europe, a great step forward if you can get it adopted across the profession. Congratulations.
Patrick Goff, Editor HotelDesigns

Thank you. It has taken us a long time to negotiate, and it is a great opportunity for Britain to compete on a world stage at last. In a world without geographic boundary we must compete globally but first we must protect before we promote. We have all the bricks in place to include talented professionals from individual practitioners to global corporate practices to unite. But there is still a long way to go to convert the relevance from USA local state laws to UK law, a job undertaken by the British Testing Centre.

26/09/2011

I am a professional; I don't need SBID to tell me how to be an interior designer.
Anonymous

If you did, you would certainly not meet our accredited system as you would simply not qualify to be an accredited member.

You correctly identify that you should possess the knowledge to be accredited as 'professional' so as to separate your skill and position from 'hobbyist' designers. This is different from ‘qualified’, and different still from 'raw talent'. You cannot hold yourself out as professional if you do not possess trained knowledge.

This knowledge MUST be examined independently and with regularity. Failure to possess accurate knowledge and professional acumen will invalidate insurances if the advice you sell is not industry accepted as standard industry policy.

Your potential clients will look at your portfolio, they will look at how you tender for projects, how you pitch for work and how the fees you charge, paid by the client, will be protected. A potential client needs assurance from the designer that they will receive the correct advice and services on the correct date for the correct sum. This is particularly important for individual designers who do not have the benefit of scale by directly employed professionals in accounting, legal or basic administration services.

At the opposite end of the scale, trained accredited designers within a large design practice add the endorsement of designers’ skill sets to potential clients.

Membership of SBID endorses your professional and business procurement model reflecting compliance with regulations recognised across Europe. Membership exceeds a degree in education, it also provides direction on legal industry related advice, minimum insurance recommendations and legal obligations plus dispute resolution as standard. Combined, plus more, this becomes the SBID standard.

06/09/2011

Given SBID's move to a more flexible and inclusive admissions policy, how will you protect the status of your core graduate membership?
Anonymous

Our status remains unaltered; SBID was founded on a core value of training (four years education with a degree plus two years’ work experience to become an SBID Accredited Member). This standard is the European Standard established by the ECIA (European Council of Interior Architects) and adopted by all Member Countries. Our British standard aligns with an industry standard by imposing 24 hours CPD per annum and the international Code of Conduct and Ethics as standard conduct of behaviour and practice criteria thereafter. The ECIA has a 'translation value' to permit those established practitioners who have been in the industry for many years without a degree to be included and recognised within the profession as part of standard grandfathering entry policy adopted by many establishing industries. This is standard practice, generic across industry when developing a profession.

What you maybe referring to is the Kitchen & Bathroom Forum (kb Forum) which is a group of industry related bodies in this sector who have simply united to debate how collectively we can enhance industry standards through collaboration and standards. Thus far, the Head of Terms document has been drafted and is being circulated among participating bodies for agreement of the objectives and agenda. In this regard SBID holds a spectators role after drafting the document. Our Accredited Members have an international Code of Conduct and Ethics that is our standard, our aim at KBF is to find a method of separating and defining an industry standard for kitchen and bathroom design to enhance the image of the industry, provide recognition and sector definition to the designer 24 hours CPD per annum while protecting the consumer from risk from untrained, unmonitored designers. Therefore we are all talking to each other- it is the best way to grow and develop an industry reputation. We will NOT engage in any communication that is obstructive, aggressive or aimed to damage the reputation of an individual, an organisation or an initiative. This is unhelpful, and is typically a fundamental reason to stymie growth typical of interior design and a reason why SBID has grown so quickly.

If you would like to engage on the basis of pro-active development you are most welcome to join the Forum - as was the initial suggestion from Andrew Davis in his opening announcement of the idea. It is for us, the industry sectors, to grasp an opportunity and convert it by developing a standard for industry. It's not rocket science, it's not a fight and it's nit hostile. Our core membership will remain the same as the ECIA Standard - we have at SBID not wavered but we are open to any pro-active suggestions on building a better way to trade and a better industry.

01/09/2011

Why don’t you show your membership directory like other organisations?
Anonymous

It is SBID policy NOT to disclose our database because it is our valuable intellectual property. Members were canvassed and the overriding opinion confirmed our quality membership do not want to receive unsolicited emails and calls from third parties offering services and sales.

Our membership is, in the main, larger practices working in the contract sector on commercial and commercial-led residential projects. We recognise that compiling a quality database has a value, our membership is divided into three main categories with subsections therein so as to encompass all stakeholders.

In addition, we allow non-members to search for designers by contacting us directly with specific requirements, see here. And members get access to our list of PIPs (Professional Industry Partners) and of designers via the password protected Members Area portal.

29/07/2011

I'm so disappointed you have appointed an architect to your board. They emasculated anything in interiors within the Chartered Society of Designers, and with architects supposedly earning 40% of their fees from interiors they have no remit to support independent interior designers which is what I though the SBID existed for.
Patrick Goff, Editor HotelDesigns

Response by Owen Luder CBE, twice past president of RIBA, and on the SBID Executive Board:

"You appear to be living in the past, Patrick. The future is not architects and interior designers fighting each other but working closer together. The construction of many buildings today to shell and core stage means the “fit out” stage is far more than deciding the carpets curtains and furniture! Interior designers should be appointed far earlier in the design process. Developers and users of their buildings will benefit if the interior design is a seamless extension of the architecture not interior designers trying to make interiors work within what has been designed and built without their advice and input.

My role as a Board member is to help the Society raise the status of the Interior Designer to the professional level their contribution to the interior environment of buildings warrants. Setting standards so that SBID interior designers are recognised as fully qualified professionals alongside the other design and construction professionals with whom they work."