A more radical route abandoned the use of ornament altogether, as in some designs for objects by Christopher Dresser. At the time, such unornamented objects could have been found in many unpretending workaday items of industrial design, ceramics produced at the Arabia manufactory in Finland, for instance, or the glass insulators of electric lines.

In a 1941 essay, the architectural historian Sir John Summerson called it “surface modulation”. Decoration and ornament has been evident in civilizations since the beginning of recorded history, ranging from Ancient Egyptian architecture to the apparent lack of ornament of 20th century Modernist architecture.

1. Leaning art on the wall

The wall isn’t the only place where you can display art. You can simply place the picture on the floor and lean it on the wall or furniture. Try placing two art pieces of different sizes, one leaning over the other, partially covering the other one but still leaving most of the art visible.

2. Placing art on a shelf or gallery ledge

You can mount a gallery ledge on the wall and place pictures across the entire length of it. Randomize the arrangement of pictures by having some of them slightly overlap each other. Use pictures of different sizes and put the smaller sized pictures in front. This can also apply to placing pictures on the shelf above the fireplace.

3. Use creative hanging apparatus

Instead of mounting your art directly onto to the wall, use a hanging apparatus to hang your art. This can be done by mounting a horizontal bar against the wall close to the ceiling. Support your picture with 2 ropes. Tie one end of the rope to each corner of the picture and knot the other end around the horizontal bar. You can hang 2 or 3 pictures next to each other this way to make it look like a contemporary art gallery installation. Displaying art this way saves your wall from unsightly holes drilled into them.

4. Use ribbons to suspend art

Use 2 or 3 ribbons with thick widths running down half to three quarters the length of the wall. Attach one or two pictures one above the other to the ribbons and just let it hang. Suspending pictures from ribbons this way adds a unique touch to your home decor. Use ribbons with complimentary themes, like floral motifs. If you want to display art this way, use pictures that are light in weight so that they can be supported by the ribbons.

Another creative way of using ribbons to suspend your art is to use one ribbon for each picture. Fix one end of the ribbon at some point on the wall near the ceiling and loop the other end through both corners at the top of the picture. Then tie the remaining end of the ribbon back onto the main length of the ribbon. Adjust the ribbon so that the portion supporting the picture looks like a triangle shaped hanger. Just let the picture suspend against the wall like that. Make sure also, that the strength of the ribbon can support the weight of the picture.

5. Keep it all level

If you’re aligning a series of pictures on the wall, draw an imaginary line across the wall to use as a guide. Use a small leveling gauge to check that the pictures are level once they are hung. To avoid the pictures from tilting to one side, stick some double sided tape or adhesive clay to the side corners to secure it to the wall.

If you want to market your interior design business and see results, follow some simple guidelines to put you ahead of the game in your industry. You should first research your competition. Learn what they are doing to attract business. Find out where they are marketing their business and who they are targeting.
Take several pictures of your work and publish them in trade publications. Also include any specials or other items of interest you want to promote. Arrange speaking engagements whenever possible and have a professional sounding, well prepared speech ready.

Another great idea for interior design marketing is to create a portfolio with plenty of samples of your work. Put it together in a format that is easy to add new items or update. Rent a booth at trade shows or buy advertising time on radio or local television stations.

Any lead is a potential customer. Don’t presume any lead is not worth the effort. Even if a particular lead does not turn into a future customer, they may send others your way if you keep a professional demeanor and treat each lead special.

If all else fails, don’t forget cold calling. Okay, calm down. Take a deep breath. I know, I know, cold calling is every business person’s least favorite part of the job. However, for every ten cold calls, you will receive one positive answer. So if you make ten calls and you get one appointment, that’s one more than you had before. Persistence is the key in cold calling. It will be frustrating and discouraging if you make 25, 50 or 100 calls and get no more than one or two appointments but don’t give up. It will pay off in the end.

If your current clients are happy with your services, ask them for referrals. If they are truly pleased with what you have to offer, they will be happy to send more business your way. Equally important as gaining customers is keeping customers. Be sure you keep your clientele happy by resolving issues as soon as they arise.

Always, keep a positive attitude and display confidence in your demeanor. People will be more likely to hire a self-confident business professional. Give your customers a reason to come back. Offer something that your competition doesn’t offer or find a unique way to promote your business. Anticipate a client’s needs or questions and have the solution ready.

Following these simple tips and ideas will not only help you generate business, but will help you keep that business for years to come. Not only will you keep the business of loyal, return customers, soon you will be receiving the majority of your new business from referrals from satisfied customers and your client base will continue to grow.

Architecture did not start to become professionalized until the late nineteenth century. Before then, architects had ateliers and architectural education varied, from a more formal training as at the École des Beaux-Arts in France, which was founded in the mid seventeenth century, to the more informal system where students worked in an atelier until they could become independent. There were also so-called gentlemen architects, which were architects with private means. This was a tradition particularly strong in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lord Burlington, designer of Chiswick House, (1723-49) is an example. Some architects were also sculptors, such as Bernini, theater designers such as Filippo Juvarra and John Vanbrugh, and painters, such as Michelangelo and Le Corbusier.

As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures by a person or a machine, primarily done to provide socially purposeful shelter. A wider definition often includes the design of the total built environment, from the macro level of how a building integrates with its surrounding man made landscape (see town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture) to the micro level of architectural or construction details and, sometimes, furniture. Wider still, architecture is the activity of designing any kind of system.

As a profession, architecture is the role of those persons or machines providing architectural services.

As documentation, usually based on drawings, architecture defines the structure and/or behavior of a building or any other kind of system that is to be or has been constructed.

Architects have as their primary object providing for the spatial and shelter needs of people in groups of some kind (families, schools, churches, businesses, etc.) by the creative organisation of materials and components in a land- or city-scape, dealing with mass, space, form, volume, texture, structure, light, shadow, materials, program, and pragmatic elements such as cost, construction limitations and technology, to achieve an end which is functional, economical, practical and often with artistic and aesthetic aspects. This distinguishes architecture from engineering design, which has as its primary object the creative manipulation of materials and forms using mathematical and scientific principles.