Industrial design is an applied art whereby the aesthetics and usability of products may be improved for marketability and production. Industrial Designers often utilize 3D Software such as 3D CAiD Computer-aided industrial design and CAD programs to move from concept to production. Product characteristics 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 they may challenge the same aspects of a product. However, some classic industrial designs are considered as much works of art as works of engineering: the iPod, Coke bottle, and VW Beetle are frequently-cited examples.
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. The values and its accompanying aspects which industrial design is based on vary, both between different schools of thought and among practising designers.[1]
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.
Also used to describe a technically competent product designer or industrial designer is the term Industrial Design Engineer. The Cyclone vacuum cleaner inventor James Dyson for example could be considered to be in this category (see his autobiography Against The Odds, Pub Thomson 2002).
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" [2].
According to the IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America) "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 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.
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