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Study tips


Interior Educators conference 2024 thumb

Interior Educators conference 2024

The main reason to seek out opportunities such as these is that it helps you keep up to date with current thinking (around whatever the subject matter is) and exposes you to new ideas that you may not have thought about before.

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The seven stages of rest thumb

The seven stages of rest

National Stress Awareness Yesterday was National Stress Awareness Day, which also happens to fall within Men’s Health Awareness Month. If you’re doing anything to support Movember as well, you’ve got a triple whammy of activities related to supporting mental health.  It’s a difficult time of year as well. Here in the UK, the weather is […]

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Writer’s Block (From the Perspective of a Composer) thumb

Writer’s Block (From the Perspective of a Composer)

The creative process and the editorial process are completely different things. When you are creating things, encourage the editorial part of your brain to take a nap, so you can work fearlessly, with no inhibitions. Then, when it is time to edit what you have done, make amendments, and focus on the detail, wake the editorial part of your brain back up. 

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Interior Design: Reflecting on your work thumb

Interior Design: Reflecting on your work

As tutors, I realise we ask you to reflect on your work and your feedback a lot. Thinking back on my own experience, being asked to reflect on my own work was often the last thing I wanted to add to my constantly growing to do list as a student.  However, it quickly became apparent that this idea of reflecting on one’s work is actually something I’d need to do for the rest of my career as a designer.

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Study tips for distance learners thumb

Study tips for distance learners

You’re a distance learner? Great! That means you can study wherever and whenever is convenient for you, right? Yay! But how do you stay motivated, beat distractions, and avoid feeling isolated or anxious? Here are a few tips that students have shared with me over my 14 years tutoring for the OCA. 

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Presentation tips for Interior Designers thumb

Presentation tips for Interior Designers

While interior designers’ priority is designing spatial environments, so much of our job is also communicating our ideas for these spatial environments. One of the realities of this industry is that a great idea that’s presented poorly will almost always lose to a mediocre idea that’s presented well.

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