Karen and others,
By education and by professional practice I am an industrial designer. And I
have always been perplexed by the differentiation that some people wish to
make between industrial design and product design. Perhaps my state of
bewilderment exists because no one has ever provided me with a clear
definition of each. Moreover, I am a long-time ICSID person and tend to
identify with that flock.
Personally I use the term industrial design because of its connection to the
historical roots: design for industry. I admit that the term creates
challenges of other sorts such as the confusion with industrial engineering.
For this very reason some of my industrial design colleagues prefer product
design. For others it is the connotation that the term 'industrial design'
has to the Industrial Age. This they do not like and are quick to remind me.
"We are no longer in the Industrial Age," they say, "but in the Post
Industrial Age or the Information Age." Or whatever age we are in.
I have noticed a similar phenomenon of finer and finer definitions in other
design professions. We now have experience designers, interface designers,
universal designers, green designers, and so on. The list goes on as we
attempt to desperately find some kind of identity for ourselves. I say
desperately because in the end business people and industrialist have told
me more often than once, "Call yourselves whatever you want. It doesn't
matter. Just get the job done." And as crass as this statement may sound
isn't that the point? Does the title actually matter? Does it make a
difference to society that the artifact was designed by an industrial
designer or a product designer or a craftsman or the shop steward? I do not
think so.
Jacques Giard, PhD
Professor and Director
Cross-College Programs
BA/MSD/PhD
College of Design
Arizona State University
PO Box 2105
Tempe, AZ 85287-2105
T 480.965.1373
F 480.965.9656
The College of Design‹of the top global D-Schools as selected by
BusinessWeek
On 12/14/06 5:09 AM, "Karen" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> At 02:00 AM 14/12/2006, H. Dong wrote:
>> When we review our design programmes there was a debate on 'product
>> design' and 'industrial design'. It seems that people from different
>> cultural background tend to have different views on the terms and
>> their relationships. Some think that 'product design' is more
>> appropriate for a 'Science degree' and 'Industrial Design' an 'Art
>> degree' while others hold an opposite opinion. I'd like to survey
>> people from different cultural backgrounds (e.g. European, North
>> American, East Asian) about your definition of 'product design' and
>> 'industrial design' and your understanding of their relationships. Thanks,
>>
>> Hua DONG Lecturer in Design
>>
>
> This reminds me of my similar question about 10 years back to the
> late Prof Rolf Faste who was teaching at Stanford university. I had
> asked him about the differences between Industrial design and Product
> design. Today I see some interesting views about the two terms which
> to me is getting more confusing. I have always thought Industrial
> design was more 'craft' based whereas Product design was more towards
> the mechanical engineering aspect. But today when I see the 2 courses
> that are set up here in Singapore, the opposite seems to be true. The
> BFA Product design which is going to set up at the Nanyang
> Technological University is expected to go into a more craft based
> approach since the lead college behind the forthcoming new course is
> Domus Academy. I had expected the newer 3 Dimensional design course
> at NTU to be more engineering based. Then you have some course in the
> States that give ID degrees in BID and MIDs. I have going to swim
> over and think there would be a Ph ID going along that pattern.
>
> I was told my idea of ID is really more PD then, based on my
> definition. Now its the other way round. Isn't this weird ?
>
> Karen Fu
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