According to a survey conducted by the British Institute of Interior Design, 29% of interior design students are from an ethnic minority background. So why aren’t 29% of interior designers from an ethnic minority background?

To help address this we will introduce any studio or practice to graduate designers from an ethnic minority or underrepresented background, without charge.

The service remains the same. If you are hiring a graduate designer, we will actively identify suitable candidates through university connections, we will screen candidates through interviews, we will write notes outlining their experience and interests, we will facilitate the interview process and answer questions that arise from both parties throughout. The only difference is that there isn’t a fee.

This is available to any practice or studio. They do not need to be a client of ours and they do not need to intend to be clients of ours either.

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“The world of interior design is currently shaped by the dominant culture of white males and white prestige. You only need to look to the popular top interior designer lists where there is a distinct lack of Black or Asian representation”. – Na Li, Co-Founder Holloway Li.

If there is one thing we know at Folio, it’s people. We regularly meet with founders, partners, associate directors and senior designers of leading studios with experience and contacts they would be willing to share with the designers of the future. 

We are facilitating a mentoring scheme between third year students and graduate designers from ethnic minority and underrepresented backgrounds, and experienced designers, to offer career mentorship. 

We have established guidance for the mentor and mentee to understand the expected level of commitment required from each party. To make the mentoring sessions helpful as possible, we have outlined talking points for each session with prompts for measurable outcomes.  

If you would like to be a mentor or like to me mentored then please get in touch. 

A study by Oxford University found British citizens from ethnic minority backgrounds have to send, on average, 60% more job applications to get a positive response from employers compared to their white counterparts. 

Dr Valentina Di Stasia, the reports co-author, told the BBC, “It suggests that employers may simply read no further as soon as they see a Middle Eastern-sounding or African-sounding name.”

For that reason, to mitigate any unconscious bias, we will give clients the option to receive anonymised CVs. 

According to the Office of Budget Responsibility, the ethnicity pay gap in London is 23.8%. Across the UK, the gender pay gay has risen to 7.9%. To avoid perpetuating these salary disparities we will only disclose what a designer’s salary expectations are rather than their salary history. 

This is a policy mandated in almost half of US states and the Harvard Business Review has found that in those states, the salary gap has decreased.