Outsource Virtual Interior Designer for AU Studios: What to Tasks to Offshore Without Losing the Design

Can you outsource interior designers in Australia?

Are your interior designers getting spread too thinly, like that last scoop of Vegemite on toast? So much so that you’re beginning to see the appeal of outsourcing virtual interior design assistants for your firm or studio?

You’ve always admired your team for their creative minds and, to a point, perfectionism in aesthetics.

Now? The larger block of a day-in-the-life of an interior designer is smeared with technical production and documentation work.

They barely have enough slack in their schedule for all that’s imaginative and creative. All that’s supposed to bring about a shaping and reshaping of spaces that function as beautifully as they appear.

But where do you start?

What tasks should you outsource, and what shouldn’t you?

 

What Does an Interior Designer Do Every Day?

Concepts, mood boards, client presentations, supplier calls – these are the general responsibilities of an interior designer in Australia. In a phrase, they’re the “creative work” behind their ideas and client briefs, which are realised into finished spaces.

Once the studio has two or three interior fit-out projects happening at once every now and then (or more frequently than this), the designers no longer spend most of their week on the enjoyable creative work described above.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of what an interior designer job entails, and what it becomes when a studio takes on more clients, more projects:

If you’ve noticed, and you probably already experience it in your studio today, interior designer roles have picked up some more descriptions. The ones on the right side of the table, which aren’t supposed to have a place in their daily grind.

Local Interior Designer Cost vs Offshore Production Support

How Much Are Interior Designer Rates Locally?

Many Australian studios are trying to make up for the awkward and skewed local cost + shortage tilt. They are. With one or two more local juniors. Not an awful solution, since it does work. But even with “junior” in that professional title, it still pulls along with it add-ons and business-related entitlements.

Salary, Super, leave, training, and others more. In local rates, of course.

How Much Does a Remote Interior Designer Cost?

If your firm or studio’s following a more conservative hiring or financial strategy, offshore interior design production support is a practical alternative. Costs have none of the Australian add-ons, and numbers are much lower because of the larger talent pool.

To deconstruct the jargon, it means outsourcing costs are highly dependent on where your hires are from. Outside Australia, that usually equals lower costs of living; hence, lower rates.

Very ideal if you’re adding heads to a hybrid team or are building a remote one from scratch.

So then, which tasks are to stay within the island continent and which ones, beyond its shores?

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What Tasks Can an Interior Design Studio Outsource?

What Should Interior Designers Outsource First?

Below are the types of work you can safely entrust to interior design professionals offshore, whether technical or repeatable:

 

Design direction, final product selection, and client sign-off stay with the local team throughout the four categories.

 

What Is the Cost of Outsourcing Interior Design Drafting?

For local CAD/Revit drafters, rates are $70,000-$95,000 AUD – base calculation average by SEEK; architectural drafting roles. 12% Superannuation Guarantee, leave entitlement, and add-ons not included. Australian interior designers have salary rates at $66,000-$89,419, or an average of $77,400.

Take these numbers as more general than fixed because each city has a different range for interior design professionals, too:

In Melbourne, designers are paid around $80,000. In Sydney, senior designers are paid an average of $95,000, while Brisbane’s designers have theirs at $105,000 (Bespoke Careers).

Salary Isn’t the Only “Cost” There Is, Locally

Your team’s work is probably paid per contract, just like how most interior design work is compensated. So each hour is that much more important as it goes by because nobody wants to be spending more time unnecessarily when you know how much a project is worth.

But workloads fluctuate. In fact, workload volumes increase, especially as studios partner with more clients. The work gets bigger, heavier; there are timeline pressures, too. And yet the pay stays the same.

More about Super in this Payday Super Employers Guide.

 

How Do You Maintain Drawing Standards When Outsourcing?

By Drafting Drawing Conventions

Australian architectural drawing follows AS 1100.301 for line weights, dimensioning, and sheet layout. As you send the first file, send your studio’s own template files. Send title blocks and layer standards out.

That way, the output remains consistent with what your team produces, regardless of where the new online interior designer is from.

By Organising File Access

Client files and proprietary design blocks need role-based permissions. Dropbox, Google Drive, and Autodesk Construction Cloud support this at the folder or file level.

Both of these should be set up once, before any live project goes out to an offshore drafter.

 

How to Outsource Interior Design Drafting: 4 Steps

1. Check the Last Few Week’s Work

Go back through four to six weeks of active projects and look at where the designers’ time was spent the most. You’ll have the obvious creative work: concepts, client decisions, presentations. Hours also get stuck in drawing revisions, schedules, and redlines.

Don’t forget about all the small production jobs.

If those jobs are found in most projects, or even several, zoom in and start there.

2. Show the Candidates a Drawing

Experience in AutoCAD and Revit is great, and having years of it on one’s resume – even better. Still, even the most experienced in such software will still need to adjust and learn the ins and outs of a new studio.

Number 2 is about giving them a small drafting exercise. Try a joinery detail or a section of a drawing set, with your instructions and a reasonable deadline. Check the finished work against the things your own team would look for, like accuracy, detail, dimensions, linework, and how well the brief was followed.

This is a safer, more practical approach to checking what a candidate knows and can do.

3. Let Them Explain “Handover”

Rather, let them explain something about past experiences regarding how their work got handed over to the next person.

This is where plenty of otherwise sensible arrangements can become messy.

Who sends the brief? Where do the latest drawings live? How are redlines marked? What happens when the drafter has a question about a detail that isn’t clear from the drawing?

Agree on how the work moves from one person to the next before the first project’s green-lit.

4. The First Few Projects Are a Trial Phase

Of sorts. Be a little bit lenient when it comes to corrections on early drawing sets. Expect it: minor errors and unfamiliarity with your studio’s processes.

A new drafter needs time to learn your studio’s conventions, so the early drawing sets will probably need corrections.

Keep an eye on how much they’re learning from those corrections and the time it’s taking to finally nail them. Keep an eye on redline accuracy.

The goal is for those corrections to become less frequent, and in turn, less micro-support from you.

 

Who Makes Offshore Hiring Easier

Remote Staff has helped Australian businesses build offshore teams for years, including professionals across technical, creative and administrative roles.

Your drafter can work within the systems your studio already uses, follow your documentation standards and take on the production work your designers no longer have enough hours for. The design direction, client relationship and final sign-off remain with your local team.

If interior design outsourcing is on your radar, Remote Staff can help you find someone suited to your workflow and the kind of work you need done.

 

FAQs

Extra Read: Learn about the Right to Disconnect Law Australia so you can stay compliant, while supporting and strengthening working relationships within your teams.

 

Creative Minds Need More Room to Think

There’s plenty of work behind a beautiful interior that clients never see. Drawing revisions, schedules, specifications, and joinery details have to get done. But they shouldn’t take up the same designers’ hours in a week, or more.

Interior design outsourcing gives Australian studios another way to handle that production work. Creative work shouldn’t be stifled by support design responsibilities. When you offshore the production work to professionals who specialize in it, designers can flourish in what their role entails.

It may be time to look at what can come off your local team’s desks. Let’s talk about where you can begin. Request a Callback today.