Our Mission:

Protect the public--and the public's right to:

• Freely access interior design services, as provided by the marketplace for more than a century, without restrictions imposed by a special interest group.
• Decide their interior design needs and choose which service best suit them.
• Ascribe free-market value to interior design services.

Support design professionals by:

• Sustaining a free marketplace in which interior design professionals are not coerced into meeting a one-size-fits-all standard that focuses on non-residential applications.
• Promoting awareness of professional design-focused organizations(1) and design professionals who successfully practice their trade without the demonstrated need for government regulation.(2)
• Forming a network of design professionals, including interior designers, interior decorators, architects, educators, interior design students, and industry partners, for the purpose of sharing resources and assisting each other in respective areas of expertise.
• Assisting other states in defeating anti-competitive legislation.(3)

Alert Legislators by:

• Supporting the Washington State Department of Licensing Sunrise Review of Interior Designers, dated December, 2005, which found:

1. No state licensing of interior designers be required at this time, since there was no clear evidence that the unregulated practice can clearly harm or endanger the health, safety, or welfare of the citizens of the state.
2. The public can reasonably expect that an interior designer is a competent practitioner through certification, testing and experience, as required by professional associations.
3. The public can be reasonably protected by mechanisms currently in place such as the Attorney General's office, Business and Fair Practices Division.(4)

• Correcting the unsubstantiated claim of American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) -- The major propoponent and contributor to the licensing lobby--that every arena of the public's health, safety and welfare is at risk unless interior design becomes regulated by a government agency.
• Providing accurate information and a true picture of the scope and nature of the field of interior design and the breadth and impact of its practices.(5)
• Exposing interior design legislation rhetoric as an attempt of a spcial interest group to regulate competitors, drive entrepreneurs out of business and, thereby, gain monopolistic control of an industry.(6)
• Revealing the pro-legislation faction as a well-financed "special interest group" promoting a single-source approach to an industry that is essentially creativity-driven and well-served by a spectrum of design professionals--who are NOT "special interest groups" opposing interior design legislation, as the ASID claims.(7)

(1) Such as IFDA (International Furnishings and Design Association), IDA (Interior Design Society), NKBA (National Kitchen & Bath Association), NCARB (National Council of Architectural Registration Board), BSA (Boston Society of Architects), NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design), NHFA (National Home Furnishings Association), and more. 

(2)  Over 85% of those calling themselves "interior designers" in this country practice their trade without government regulation.  National Council of Architectural Registration Board;  June, 2000, Annual Meeting Summary, as found at http://ncarb.org/newsclips/june00.html.

(3)  Interior design regulation was found unconstitutonal by the State of Alabama's Supreme Court (Alabama vs. Diane Burnette Lupo, Case #1050224 October 2007).

(4)  http://www.dol.wa.gov/about/reports/SunriseInteriorDesigners.pdf

(5)  There have been only 52 lawsuits in 100 years with respect to interior design and almost all of those have been related to contract issues.  Dick Carpenter, Ph.D, "Designing Cartels: How Industry Insiders Cut Out Competition,"  The Institute for Justice, September, 2006.

(6)  Ibid.

(7)  Suzan Globus, ASID President, as interviewed by Design Trade Magazine.