Design Resources: Environmental/Interior Design

Basic sources for researching topics in visual communications, interior design, and industrial design.

Professional Organizations

American Society of Interior Designers. Founded in 1975, the Society's 18,000 practicing interior designers work in all areas of both commercial and residential design.  Professional members of ASID must pass rigorous acceptance standards through a combination of accredited design education and/or full-time work experience and a two-day accreditation examination administered by the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ).

IIDA, International Interior Design Association. A professional networking and educational Association of 13,000 Members in 10 specialty practice forums and 29 Chapters around the world. Website includes links to full texts of articles on interior design that are searchable by topic, by client type, or by resource type. Also includes a Message Board, an Event Calendar, and a listing of Continuing Education options.

Selected Journals

Abitare cover

Abitare, 1964-. Text in English & Italian. Presents a broad spectrum of lifestyles and living environments by reporting on houses, architecture and places from around the world.

Dwell cover

 Dwell, 2000-. Presents residential architecture inside and out and explores the way a community shapes its houses and the houses shape a community. 

Interiors & Sources cover

IS (Interiors & Sources Magazine), 2002-. Focuses on commercial interior designers who recommend and purchase products and services used in commercial structures.

Online Product Data

MatWeb: Material Property Data, Data sheets for over 68,000 metals, plastics, ceramics, and composites. Database searchable by physical properties, alloy composition, material type, manufacturer name, trade name, and metal UNS number.

ThomasNet, The most comprehensive database of manufacturers in the United States and Canada. You can search, view company websites, online catalogs, and CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawings. Updated frequently and contains listings for 650,000 manufacturers, distributors and service companies, 152,000 brand names, 67,000 product and service categories, and over 800,000 products.

Interiors Databases

Domestic Interiors Database, developed in Britain to bring together specialized sources representing the domestic interior represented in film, catalogs, paintings, drawings, trade literature, advice manuals and magazines, and textual descriptions from the Renaissance through today. Freely accessible but, by registering, the user can save records. Initiated in 2006 and not being updated.

Selected Books