Mark and Lubomir point to the role of 'profession' in defining design as an activity.
Viewing design fields in terms of 'professions' and 'semi-professions' appears to be a useful way of viewing the issue.
The seven essential elements of a profession are:
1. Single organisation that represents the profession legally in a jurisdiction
2. Ability of professional organisation to control who enters a professional group
3. Explicit definition of criteria that must be satisfied to join the professional group
4. Ability of professional organisation to limit who can work in the professional area of activity in that jurisdiction
5. Appropriate organisaitonal processes for professional development as individuals and the organisation develops
6. Legal and financial responsibility by individual professionals for their actions
7. Names of specific professional activities are accurately and carefully defined, particularly in terms of qualifications.
Semi- professions have only some (or none) of these. For example, 'lawyers are a 'profession' and 'legal secretaries' are a semi-profession; 'doctors' and 'nurses' are professions and 'first aiders' are a semi-profession; teaching in school is usually a profession and university-lecturing is (nowadays) a semi-profession.
Some design fields, in some countries, are professions, others are semi-professions, and some are neither.
For example, architecture is a profession and interior design is commonly a semi-profession.
Engineering design is a profession in the US, Australia and most of Europe, and only a semi-profession in the UK.
Engineering design in the UK provides an example of two consequences of the difference between a profession and a semi-profession: a) it is an ongoing complaint by UK engineering designers that they are not taken seriously and don't have status and pay equivalent to other professionals such as doctors; b) in spite of organisationally being a semi-profession, UK engineers want to blur and extend the definition of profession to include them.
This "wishing to extend the definition (and benefits) of 'profession' to semi-professions " is a common call by semi-professions who do not want to go through the development process to establish the above seven professional characteristics.
'Industrial Design' and 'Product Design' are typically semi-professions and as such the title of the field and its meaning does not have to be well defined (an exception is 'Product Design' courses that sit within Engineering in jurisdictions in which undertaking engineering design is regulated and the Product Design courses satisfy the legal requirements of licensing to operate as an engineering design professional.
This suggests that if 'Industrial Design' and 'Product Design' fulfil the above 7 characteristics of a profession in a jurisdiction, then it will be important to define accurately what the terms mean - otherwise not.
Best wishes,
Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Evans
Sent: Thursday, 2 June 2011 6:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Whats' in a name - Industrial Design or Product Design
Hi Miles
Thanks for raising this as it’s an issue that’s hounded me for many years in my roles as an admissions tutor and PhD supervisor. I’m unaware of any academic papers that define the terms and have seriously considered writing one myself. However, I do have an opinion.....
After making countless presentations to potential students and having supervised PhDs that have a focus on industrial design, I believe that ‘industrial design’ describes a clearly defined professional activity. Whilst this embodies a broad range of knowledge and skills that include understanding users and manufacturing processes, the distinctive focus involves producing proposals for beautiful and innovative products and an ability to confidently sketch 3D form. There are two major associations that support these activities, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). I’m unaware of any similar associations for product design.
The UK is somewhat unusual in that there are undergraduate courses in both ‘industrial design’ and ‘product design’. Industrial design courses involve the activities as previously identified. Product design courses can be identical to industrial design courses; have a focus on engineering design; or be hybrid variants. This also extends to job titles given after graduation.
So, to summarise, I’d say that industrial design is a well defined term with a long history of professional practice. Product design can be used to describe anything from industrial design to engineering design.
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