Professional Organizations

ASID is a community of people—designers, industry representatives, educators, and students—committed to interior design. Through education, knowledge sharing, advocacy, community building, and outreach, ASID strives to advance the interior design profession and, in the process, to demonstrate and celebrate the power of design to positively change people’s lives. Its more than 38,000 members engage in a variety of professional programs and activities through a network of 48 chapters throughout the United States and Canada. ASID membership also includes more than 12,000 students of interior design who participate via student chapters at colleges, universities, and design schools with two-year and four-year programs throughout the U.S. and a “virtual” chapter through Rhodec International.

IDEC was founded in 1963 and is dedicated to the advancement of education and research in interior design. IDEC fosters exchange of information, improvement of educational standards, and development of the body of knowledge relative to the quality of life and human performance in the interior environment. IDEC concentrates on the establishment and strengthening of lines of communication among individual educators, practitioners, educational institutions, and organizations concerned with interior design education. Its members are interior design educators, practitioners, researchers, scholars, and administrators in institutions of higher education. Membership is also offered to individuals who are interested in interior design education and the activities of IDEC.

For 27 years, IDC has served the Canadian interior design industry, advancing the profession through high standards of education, professional development, professional responsibility, and communication. IDC, with the support of its seven provincial association members, provides a forum for the unified voice of Canadian interior designers, so that the profession continues to grow and receive recognition and respect locally, nationally, and internationally from government, industry, and the public sector.

IIDA works to enhance quality of life through excellence in interior design and to advance interior design through knowledge, value, and community. IIDA is a professional networking and educational association of 12,000 members practicing in nine specialty forums and more than 30 chapters around the world. Additional information on how IIDA represents interior design professionals throughout the student to expert continuum is available on IIDA’s web site.

The core purpose of NCIDQ is to protect the health, life safety, and welfare of the public by establishing standards of competence in the practice of interior design. It serves to identify to the public those interior designers who have met the minimum standards for professional practice by passing the regularly updated NCIDQ Examination, considered as a universal standard by which to measure the competency of interior designers to practice as professionals. NCIDQ also administers the Interior Design Experience Program (IDEP), a monitored experience program for graduates of interior design programs, which provides the documented proof of quality interior design experience required by state licensing boards and provincial associations for licensure and/or registration. IDEP assists entry-level interior designers in obtaining a broad range of quality professional experience, and provides a structure for the essential transition between formal education and professional practice.