On November 14, Alyssa Myshok, president of the Interior Design Institute of British Columbia, took The Vancouver Sun to task in a letter titled Biased article disparages interior design profession, in which she responded directly to an editorial that ran in the November 9 edition of the newspaper written by Kelvin Browne titled I Hate my Interior Designer. This is what she wrote to the paper:
I was disappointed to read Kelvin Browne’s article from November 9, “I Hate my Interior Designer: Clients complain about designers for their billing practices, lack of communication skills and incompetence.”
As a practising interior designer and current president of the Interior Designers Institute of British Columbia, I take exception to Mr. Browne’s sweeping negative statements about an entire profession based on an informal survey of friends.
Our association has over 200 registered professional members, all of whom meet a high standard of education, experience and examination. Our members design residential, corporate, institutional and retail environments. They create safe, accessible, and functional spaces for families, employees, patients and customers.
Our members abide by a code of ethics and standards of practice. The public may file a claim against any member who they feel has breached those standards.
Reading Mr. Browne’s article, one could assume that the entire profession is inept and unethical. Mr. Browne is educated as an architect – if one of his friends had a negative experience with an architect, would he dismiss that profession too?
I am surprised that the Vancouver Sun would print such disparaging statements without facts to validate them.
Interestingly, the Vancouver Sun cut the last line of her letter, which read “We respectfully request a retraction and apology to interior design professionals.” Was it a word count issue, or something else? Regardless, kudos to you, Alyssa. We wholeheartedly agree.