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| Iconic products by industrial design team at Apple Image source :http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/28/tech/best-design- 100-years-zaccai/index.html |
I would like to start with product design since that has
been my area of focus. I was introduced to product design during my
undergraduate course in architecture. We had one elective named product design.
One interesting assignment of designing a chair with one adjective intrigued
me. I further followed it, did post
graduation in Industrial design and then professional career. Those who have
enquired about this course as career in universities must have come across the
term ‘industrial design’ as well. So what is it actually? Is it the same thing,
product and industrial design?
Technically, role of product designer and industrial
designer is more or less the same.
Both the terms are mostly used interchangeably.
As the name suggests industrial design is about designing
for industries, something that is mass manufactured in industries. It is
designing of things which are mass produced. If we think of such things around
us we can enlist vehicles, furniture, machineries, gadgets etc. Thus industrial
design has further subsets such as transportation, automotive, furniture,
product, ceramic, packaging and so on.
Product design as the name suggests focuses more on consumer
products used in day to day lives like electronic appliances, kitchen and
household products, stationary products, tools etc. It is a branch of
Industrial design.
So one can say this that all product designers are
industrial designers but all industrial designers are not necessarily product
designers they could be automotive or packaging designers.
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| Sketches by designer Verner Panton Image source :http://designgallerist.com/blog/
panton-the-worlds-first-moulded-plastic-chair/
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| First injection moulded chair by Verner Panton Image source :http://designgallerist.com/blog/panton-the-worlds-first-
moulded-plastic-chair/
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Role of product designer is to make the product easy to use, good to touch and feel (aesthetically pleasing), comfortable to use, cost effective, easy to mass produce. To achieve this designer works in coordination with different teams. They interacts with sales, product planning and marketing teams to understand what is it that they look for in the next version of the existing product or a new product, what are other benchmark products. Designer interacts with different users, observes them, their environments to find out what users seek from the product. Based on this designer comes up with new sketches and 3d visualisation of the new product using their imagination and creativity. They further work with engineering team to materialise their concept into a real physical product.
It’s an intensive process. It takes around 6 months to 3
years of time for a product to take its shape from designer’s sketch till it
reaches in the consumer. The time varies depending on the complexity of the
product. A new car takes almost 4 years to run on road from the designer’s
sketch book!
One might wonder how come a same designer who is designing a
juicer grinder can design a sleek pair of sunglasses. Both these products and
their mechanisms are so different. Well, that’s the beauty of the ‘design
process’ which is meticulously followed by all good designers!
Some useful links
Note:
The writer has no rights on the images used here.
Very good explanation.
ReplyDeleteA good source of information...Thanks Rupali.
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