Interior Design Students Sweep National Contest

The November/December issue of Southern Accents magazine recently featured three Utah State University interior design students, who swept the competition in the 2004 Kravet American Society of Interior Design (ASID) Student Interior Design Contest.

 

Of the 45 national ASID student members who submitted designs, Utah State students Suzanne York, Matthew Dickamore and Liz Reimschussel took first, second and third place, respectively. 

 

“My goal at Utah State is to provide our students with the best resources and experience necessary to be competitive with other students, especially those students in major cities such as New York or San Francisco,” said Darrin Brooks, ASID member and interior design instructor at Utah State. “We are thrilled with the results of this competition.”

 

According to Brooks, the work done for the contest was part of the residential design studio, taught Spring semester 2004. For the contest the students were given a photograph of a room and were required to design an interior remodel of that room using Kravet fabrics.

 

Kravet, a fourth-generation family business, offers the widest range of fabrics and furnishings in the home decorative industry, and the students were given the opportunity to have full access to its showrooms. Being that the nearest showroom is in Denver, Colo., Brooks sponsored a design field trip to Denver so the students could get the required fabrics for the competition.

 

“The incredible aspect of the competition was the opportunity to allow our students to design, then work in a showroom and have all the necessary materials and samples at their disposal,” said Brooks. “They were then given the opportunity to implement their research and selections in their designs.”

 

According to the article, York said she found inspiration for the project by thumbing through old issues of Southern Accents. Her objective, she said, was to make the room classic and sophisticated, yet comfortable. York mixed pink and green Kravet fabrics, in stripes, florals and solids to create a “harmonious space.”

 

“The rendering itself caught all of the judges’ eyes immediately,” said Frances MacDougall, executive editor of Southern Accents and judge in the competition. “We were looking for a complete presentation from the winner – a great rendering, fabric and furniture choices, realistic placement, and awareness of the architecture and an inviting space. York’s presentation was so meticulously drawn and thought-out that you can actually envision the completed project.”

 

As part of her reward, York is currently working as an intern with Southern Accents in Birmingham, Ala. She began in early September and will continue through December. Her work will also be published in The American Society of Interior Design quarterly magazine.

 

“Our students are passionate and work very hard to produce such high quality work,” Brooks said. In accordance with that hard work, the Utah State interior design program is the only interior design program in Utah that is FIDER-accredited.

 

The Foundation for Interior Design Education Research (FIDER) is a specialized accrediting agency that accredits interior design programs at colleges and universities in North America. To be accredited, each school must go through a series of evaluations and reviews by FIDER committees consisting of interior design practitioners and educators. 

 

To find out more about The 2004 Kravet ASID Student Interior Design Contest or the interior design program at Utah State, contact Tom Peterson, the program’s director, at (435) 797-1556 or Brooks at (435) 797-1559.

 

Writer: Tracey Fox, (435) 797-5506, tracey.fox@usu.edu