Some of the Bomb Squad Industries crew work quite a bit in the area of Spatial Design, usually connected with retail or marketing. Without fail though, it is working in this capacity where we find the greatest lack of understanding or confusion about just what it is designers in this field actually do.

Unlike other areas of the professional design sector, such as Graphics, Spatial Design (also known as ‘Environmental’ or even ‘Experiential’ design), and Spatial Designers, often confuses those that have to deal with it - the profession of designing ‘experiential’ branding as a physical representation is not a skill that is easy to define. Spatial Designers, in terms of professional ability, only add to the confusion, as the ‘industry’ is made up of people from various professions, the most common being either Interior Architecture or Industrial Design; there is actually no such thing as a qualified ‘Spatial Designer’, it’s a ‘learn on the job’ profession.

The draw of the two most commonly found professions in the Spatial Design field is quite natural. Interior Designers train to design architectural interior spaces, while Industrial Designers train to design products, big or small, that people interact with. The link both share is a firm understanding of materials and physical construction, both vital to the execution of the design. Interestingly, both professions typically deal heavily with brand identity - Interior Architects in retail spaces and Industrial Designers with products, both far more commercial and marketing orientated undertakings, than say Architecture (hence architects making up a very small part of the industry). As such, one will find that many Spatial Designers firmly understand the concepts of brand and brand building, often becoming part of the overall branding and brand building team.

Skills wise, Spatial Designers are diverse by necessity. The demands of designing and presenting concepts (quickly), then seeing them transformed into reality demand that they be capable of everything from basic sketching through to CAD drawings that are issued to builders. It is because of this that Spatial Designers are perhaps misunderstood or underutilised, with clients often only seeing a small part of what it is a Spatial Designer can deliver or add to a project. In this vein, Spatial Designers are often mistakingly termed ‘3D designers’, with the connotation being they only do CG (computer graphics) or animations - 3D. While 3D software is a critical tool for a Spatial Designer, mostly used to visualise and present a design, they are usually not CG artists, using 3D as one would a pen and a piece of paper. Conversely, people who can ‘drive’ a 3D application, be they bonnified CG artists (mostly found in the entertainment industry) or people who ‘dabble on the side’ are not Spatial Designers - there is a huge step between creating a ‘pretty image’ and making something that works in the physical world.

While there might be some grey areas, it is safe to say that a Spatial Designer can not only ‘present’ a design concept, but can then also ensure that that concept is delivered physically and ‘on brand’.

So what does a Spatial Designer do?

From a small 3×3 installation in a shopping mall, to an entire experiential showroom, Spatial Designers undertake the design, and production, of not just a physical space but increasingly a physical branding experience. Understanding how people interact with, and behave around, space and brand, a Spatial Designer constructs environments that deliver messages, subtle or overt, through a physical audience interaction.

Who do Spatial Designers work with?

Often a Spatial Designer will work as part of a team together with Graphic Designers and Marketing Creatives to develop a design that is part of a larger picture. In some instances they can work solo to deliver a solution that is a tightly focused stand alone.

What are the key skills of a Spatial Designer?

Sketch ideation: Pen to paper. From simple floor plans to more complex sketches, Spatial Designers can rapidly visualise their thoughts on paper for quick discussion and detail resolution.

3D CG: Part of the modern toolkit, 3D CG replaces more traditional mediums to visualise and present design ideas to clients.

CAD: CAD is the final process whereby the design and all its details are documented fully so as the design can be physically constructed.