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Design Institute of San Diego Equity and Inclusion Scholarship

Angela Moebius – Fall 2020 Winner

Design Institute of San Diego (DI) has awarded the first Equity and Inclusion Scholarship to Angela Moebius, a third-year BFA student. The Equity and Inclusion Scholarship is designed to help make attendance at DI more obtainable and to promote equity and inclusion for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students who are underrepresented in the interior design profession.

We connected with Angela to find out more about her background and how she plans to leverage her education, and this scholarship opportunity, to promote equity and inclusion in the field of interior design.

Angela was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia and moved to San Diego after earning a master’s degree in nutrition from Northeastern University in 2015. She found her calling for interior design when she began decorating and designing her own apartment.

Angela believes that there is “no ceiling to what you can do in interior design,” and she plans to use this scholarship to enhance her vision of more equitable and inclusive spaces for people of color.


Q&A with Angela Moebius

Why did you choose to pursue a career in interior design?

Interior design is something that I have always been interested in for as long as I can remember.

Before I came to San Diego, I was living and working in DC and there weren’t very many avenues for creativity, especially because I was working for the government. DC itself, with the hustle and bustle, felt very serious.

My design aesthetic is much more bohemian and care-free, and the only way to bring that into my life was through interior design. I am a little bit of a Turkish rug collector and I came across so many rugs when I was DC. I really learned to appreciate the work that goes into a hand sewn rug.

Designing my bedroom, and designing and decorating my own apartment was a lot of fun for me. I’ve always been a creative, and I’ve always had different avenues to express this. Working in DC, I needed some sort of creative outlet, and interior design was that for me.

When did you first come across the idea that interior design was a valid career path and not just a creative outlet?

When I was living in DC, I had started collecting my carpets and I was following the designer, Justina Blakeney. Her décor style to me screams eclectic and fun. Following her, and seeing how much she was able to grow her own brand, showed me that I could do this too.

I was very involved with doing Bikram yoga to keep me active. I would go into some studios and they were horribly designed and the entranceways were crammed. As an interior designer, you are the physical creator of how a room can feel when you walk in. I was floored by the idea of being able to successfully create a space for a client that fits their needs.

I started doing some research to see how successful a career in interior design really could be. Seeing how far Justina Blakeney was able to take her career as well as the people on HGTV, truly helped kickstart my career as an interior designer.

There is no ceiling to what you can do as an interior designer, and that’s probably what I love most about this profession.

What do you hope to accomplish in your career?

I have always helped people. In almost every aspect of my career, I helped people. My first undergraduate degree was in kinesiology and my master’s degree is in nutrition. At the time, I was really interested in the nutritional, holistic well-being of an individual. I successfully ran my own business at 25 years old. The ability to help people on that physical level was so satisfying and I feel this same satisfaction with interior design.

As designers, I feel that is our duty to create a functional and beautiful space. As interior designers always say, “form follows function.” I think that is very true here. You could be designing a building that needs better ADA requirements, but you also can help people.

You get to help people feel better through interior design. It makes me happy helping people and I want to continue that going forward.

Do you see yourself having your own firm or would you like to work for a firm?

I am kind of a serial entrepreneur. I have started my own business when I was working in DC. I am also a silversmith so I have my own business creating silver jewelry. I would ideally like to start working for a firm to get my feet wet. The designers I heavily look up to are very eclectic, Justina Blakeney, Kelly Wearstler, and the other way-out-there ladies that I love so much. In a perfect world I would work for Justina Blakeney.

I can definitely see having my own firm in the future, but I would love to start at a firm that specializes in commercial design and public service design. What I’ve seen lately, is that there is so much need for improving buildings that are used by people of color.

Can you share about how equity and inclusion are personal to you and how the equity and inclusion scholarship impacts you?

I was super excited that DI was offering this scholarship and super honored that I was accepted for the scholarship. In light of what is happening in 2020, I am proud of DI for acknowledging their need to be more inclusive. I am personally affected by diversity and equity issues because I am a person of color originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and I was adopted as a small child. So I am an immigrant, and I am also black. I personally have experienced a lot of situations in life that aren’t acceptable, and I think that we need to be the change to make the change as designers. People of color in the design industry need to lead the way for more inclusion.

One of the first things I noticed about the design industry was that as a person of color, I would feel out of a place in a room of interior designers. I am more hopeful that in the future I will be seeing more people of color. Inequality still exists and the only way to fix it is to make change and step up.

What type of changes do you see yourself making as an interior designer and how can you bring a more diverse lens to this industry? What type of impact do you want to make?

Designers of color need to feel empowered to speak up about inequalities and also feel proud to be one of the few people in an industry that is full of people that don’t look like us. I do my best on Instagram to try and connect with designers of color, and I’ve started my own design page on Instagram, where I’m trying to be vocal about the inequality in the industry. If I can do it, we can all do it!

I want everyone to have the same opportunities, and DI is at the forefront of showing other design schools that they need to be contributing to the growth of opportunities for BIPOCs. Ultimately, my goal is to help design better facilities that people of color primarily visit. Places such as mental health wards, women’s shelters, homeless shelters, orphanages and ICE camps. As an immigrant and an adoptee, pictures of immigrant camps really hit close to home. Some of those places look like cages. There’s got to be a better way to design these spaces.

In terms of homelessness, homeless people living in DC don’t want to stay at these homeless shelters because they are poorly designed and don’t offer true safety. The goal of homeless shelters is to get people off the street. How do we keep these people off the street? The design aesthetic is one aspect that can help these groups, through elements like natural lighting and biophilic design that are proven to help elevate people’s moods.

Again, I’m adopted and I feel this way about orphanages. I’ve gone back to the orphanage I was adopted from and some of the classrooms and rooms that the kids were in are shocking. I want to help people in that way.

What are some of your favorite things about attending DI?

The class sizes are great. I previously went to a state school and I’m not used to only having seven people in one class. Right now, I only have seven people in my classes at DI, which is so great compared to a state college lecture room.

The professors at DI are all very, very friendly, and really willing to help. It’s so nice to be able to walk into Jackie’s office, if you have a financial aid question, and she’s like, “Oh, Angela!”, and we’re sitting there having a 20 minute long conversation before we even start talking about financial aid. It’s just such a joy to have people really know you. That is the art of a small school, and DI does it so well.

All of the professors are also working professionals or have been at some point. They really know what’s going on in the design industry, currently, and I love that. There are also so many opportunities for networking, offering experiences or tours or volunteer opportunities, as well as an externship to just get you into the real world. I think those are the key points to what makes DI great.

What is the most important thing or one of the most important things that you’ve learned so far at DI?

They have taught me that confidence is key. To be proud of your work. That creativity is key, and to let your mind run wild. I finally feel like in my third year I am starting to go with the flow.

And the other thing is that patience is a virtue. It’s going to take time, and space planning is not the most fun for people and it’s incredibly tedious. Knowing all your dimensions and everything that you need is hard and tedious work, but at the end of the day you should just be proud of how much time you’re putting in. And I think absolutely, it has taught me that you’re never done learning, and there’s always an opportunity to learn either at DI or in the industry. Again, there’s no ceiling to the amount you can learn. I think those are the things that DI has definitely fostered within me, and I’m very thankful for that.

What is your favorite class?

I would probably say it’s been my Visual Communications III class and that’s because you are tying together your ID III class with Vis Com III, so everything is kind of coming together. Professor Praluck is a great teacher. He gives you great feedback and he’s picky, which I like because then you can get down to the nitty gritty of changing elements on a page. You’re using your SketchUp skills, you’re using your rendering skills, you’re using everything that you’ve learned previously, and you’re also bringing your ID III hotel design project to light as well.

What goals do you hope to achieve with this scholarship?

I feel like there is a ton of room for change with inequality in the spaces that we use today. It is up to designers to touch people’s lives and that opportunity is something I want to be a part of. I am very passionate about my community and my dream is to become an interior designer, and use my skills to help people. 2020 happened, and here we are, inequality is at the height of it, and I am excited to be part of a movement and part of a school that really values their students of color. I hope to be part of the development of a conference in which BIPOCs could meet together to mingle and network and become part of a community of interior designers of color.

If you would like to become more involved with equity and inclusion efforts at your school or in the design industry at large, see how you can help below:

Design Institute of San Diego Equity and Inclusion Scholarship

Design Institute will award one Equity and Inclusion scholarship to an eligible student entering or currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master in Interior Design programs at DI. The scholarships have a maximum award of up to $25,000, or $3,100 per semester. Please visit the scholarship page on our website for more information.