Industrial design

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Industrial design is an applied art whereby the aesthetics and usability of products may be improved. Design aspects specified by the industrial designer may include the overall shape of the object, the location of details with respect to one another, colors, texture, sounds, and aspects concerning the use of the product ergonomics. Additionally the industrial designer may specify aspects concerning the production process, choice of materials and the way the product is presented to the consumer at the point of sale. The use of industrial designers in a product development process may lead to added values by improved usability, lowered production costs and more appealing products. It is important that in order to be an industrial design the product has to be produced in an industrial way, for example an artisan can't be considered an industrial designer although he may challenge the same aspects of a product. However, some industrial designs are considered as classic pieces that can be regarded as much works of art as works of engineering.

Industrial design has a focus on concepts, products and processes. In addition to considering aesthetics, usability, and ergonomics, it can also encompass the engineering of objects, usefulness as well as usability, market placement, and other concerns.

Product design and industrial design can overlap into the fields of user interface design, information design and interaction design. Various schools of industrial design and/or product design may specialize in one of these aspects, ranging from pure art colleges (product styling) to mixed programs of engineering and design, to related disciplines like exhibit design and interior design.

Definition of industrial design

According to the ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) "Design is a creative activity whose aim is to establish the multi-faceted qualities of objects, processes, services and their systems in whole life-cycles. Therefore, design is the central factor of innovative humanisation of technologies and the crucial factor of cultural and economic exchange" [1].

According to the IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America) www.idsa.org "Industrial Design (ID) is the professional service of creating and developing concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value and appearance of products and systems for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer."

Industrial design in USA

In the US, the field of industrial design first hit a high-water mark in the late '30s and early '40s, with several industrial designers becoming minor celebrities. Raymond Loewy, Norman bel Geddes, and Henry Dreyfuss remain the best known. In the subsequent years, the field has grown exponentially, and has begun to emerge from relative obscurity for a number of reasons.

The first is simple economics: a manufacturer's profitability is dependent on the price a product can command in a marketplace and the cost to produce it. As virtually all manufacturing for consumer products has been outsourced to Asia, there has been significant cost savings for manufacturers in the last decade. However, as these manufacturing services have become commoditized, cost savings are approaching their limit. Good industrial design allows a new product to command a premium price on a crowded shelf of other commodity items. This is what manufacturers and corporations call "top line growth."

The second is the oversaturation of advertising and marketing in our consumer driven culture. Consumers have become more jaded and wary of slick ads, color suppliments, promotions, etc. in the marketeers' efforts to build strong brands. Good good industrial design allows products to communicate brand atttributes directly through the product. Think about the feel of closing the door on a Mercedes, or the heft of an OXO carrot peeler, or the look and feel of your favorite soft drink bottle for example.

Thus the general consumer population in as a whole is gaining an appreciation and understanding of design, and the result has been a market boom for well designed products.

The field is still comparatively small, but still growing, given that everything that is manufactured must by definition be "designed" first. Most large corporations have a design department, but "Industrial Design" is usually bundled into and R&D program. Recently, however, design thinking has achieved greater status in corporate boardrooms and business press for the reasons outlined above.

The vast majority of products are still designed on a contract basis by consulting firms who's founders & employees trace their heritage back to the origin of the field, having worked with Loewy, Dreyfuss, Walter Teague, etc.

Industrial design in Canada

A history of industrial design in Canada can be read in the related article Industrial Design History in Canada

Association of Canadian Industrial Designers

Founded in 1948, the Association of Canadian Industrial Designers (ACID) promotes and represents the interests of its corporate and professional members to government and other international associations such as the International Council of Society of Industrial Designers (ICSID).

The Association is dedicated to increasing the knowledge, skill and proficiency of Canadian industrial designers through maintaining close contact with its corporate members as it represents them on both a national and international level. The Association also promotes the use and value of industrial design to industry and the public.

Industrial design in the UK

During the Great Depression and the Second World War, Britain had cheaply made "utility" furniture. To rebuild the economy after the war, particularly for export, stress was laid on new designs and was popularized in the Festival of Britain in 1951 for all areas of manufacture, not just furniture. Periodically thereafter stress was laid on the institutionalization of industrial design by governmental subsidy of training in this field.

In the UK, the term "industrial design" increasingly implies design with considerable engineering and technology awareness alongside human factors—a "Total Design" approach, promoted by the late Stuart Pugh (University of Strathclyde) and others.

Industrial design rights

Industrial design rights are intellectual property rights that make exclusive the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Under the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs, a WIPO-administered treaty, a procedure for an international registration exists. An applicant can file for a single international deposit with WIPO or with the national office in a country party to the treaty. The design will then be protected in as many member countries of the treaty as desired.

References

International Council of Societies of Industrial Design

External links