Jacques,
Thank you for the informative commentary on US based Industrial design education and structure of accreditation. We seem to be moving toward a concept that an industrial designer working in different parts of the world needs a contextual map, to ensure they continue to be viable within the region in which they wish to work.
I think this is complementary to a number of other discussion strands in currently being discussed on this forum.
Whilst the variables that make up the constituent parts of 'what is a professional industrial designer' may stay more or less constant, the balance and mix appears as fluid as society itself.
Following the Darwinian option, it is good to hear and learn from and about others who appear successful in a professional market place. It would be interesting to have a taxonomy of attributes and their value to industrial designers in different parts of the world. I know the CSD in the UK have put a form of skills, knowledge and values taxonomy together. It would be good to hear of colleagues who have an opinion on this too.
Best wishes
George
-----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 Jacques Giard
Sent: 28 August 2013 13:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Must a designer be trained as a designer?
George,
Your response was thorough and extremely informative. Thank you once again for sharing this information, which leaves me impressed, by the way.
Instead of responding to your individual points, allow me to sketch a picture of the American scene in industrial design as I know it.
It appears that two words - designer and context - are at the heart of this discussion and responsible for the different positions that are developing.
Let's begin with Don's comment about Mark's reaction to who could be called a 'designer.' On this question, I side with Herbert Simon; that is, anyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing an existing situation into a preferred one. From this perspective, Richard, the young man in the video link that I sent in my last note, is a designer. He recognized an existing situation, imagined a preferred one, and went about creating a course of action. He even provided a sketch and a prototype. However, he is not an industrial designer. The latter entails much more in the form of education and skills. You make that point extremely well in your last response to me. Once a qualifier is added, e.g. graphic, interior, engineering, etc., the situation changes. Not only does it become more specific it also implicates 'context,' the second word mentioned above.
In some ways, the educational and professional contexts for industrial design in the US are similar to those in the UK, but I believe that there are some important differences. Carma alluded to one or two of these as did Gunnar in his response. Let's deal with industrial design education as this is my area of expertise. Like the overall American marketplace, education exists in a 'buyer-beware' environment. In other words, there is an implicit responsibility on the part of the buyer of goods and services to be mindful of what is being purchased. Nothing new here except that this attitude applies equally to university education including industrial design. Consequently, anyone can establish a professional degree-granting program in industrial design. There is no need to be associated with a university, institute or college. In practice, this rarely happens because I sense that it would not be a lucrative proposition. That said, there is never any guarantee that an industrial design program is credible even when it is associated with a university, institute or college. In the US, only two factors appear to make an industrial design program credible: reputation and accreditation. There are several industrial design programs - RISD, Art Center College, Stanford to name but three - that distinguish themselves from the rest by way of reputation, usually well earned I must add. Most other programs go through what is called accreditation. In part, this is why the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) was established many decades ago. It accredits all manner of programs in art and design, and identifies those programs - including industrial design - that meet their standards. Such accreditation allows students to distinguish between programs that are accredited and those that are not. American parents often ask us if our program at ASU is accredited (it is); when I was director of a program in Canada that question was never asked principally because the university system is different from the one in the US.
NASAD connects to the industrial design profession via the Industrial Designer Society of America (IDSA). That is, it is the IDSA that establishes NASAD's accreditation standards for programs of industrial design. This situation is both good and bad news. The good news is that the IDSA, as the representative of the profession of industrial design, has a direct input in the accreditation standards; the bad news derives from the different academic approaches in American industrial design education, i.e. from art-based to more science-based curricula. As a result, the accreditation standards reflect a kind of lowest common denominator that, in my opinion, make them somewhat ineffective. By the way, it should be remembered that the IDSA is not a chartered association. When I practiced in Canada I was a member of the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers (Ontario) or ACIDO. Despite being much smaller, qualification for membership for ACIDO was very different because of its charter.
Perhaps my comments about the IDSA and the NASAD accreditation standards begin to situate Carma's comment about the ISO standards that you mentioned. Like Carma, I do not believe that these are taught in programs of industrial design. Why? Maybe design educators are not be aware of them or, if they are, do not consider them to be important. The ISO standards are certainly not part of the NASAD accreditation standards for industrial design. And why is that you ask? Maybe because the IDSA does not consider them important or, more likely, does not want to be overly prescriptive.
And it is with the latter position that context becomes so important. Not only is the US a buyer-beware context it is also a context with a kind of Darwinian streak; that is, you succeed or fail because of your individual ability, skill, determination, whatever. In other words, the system - especially the government - should not intervene except in the most fundamental way. As a case in point, the introduction of ISO standards, let alone their imposition, could easily create a knee-jerk reaction because these could be perceived as government intrusion. This does no mean that large US corporate entities are not using such standards but they do not appear to be mainstream.
I must end by stating that the above sketch is a generalization. As always, there are exceptions.
Jacques
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 27, 2013, at 7:21 AM, "George Torrens" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Jacques,
If we go through the points you've made, it may help clarify the discussion:
1) Should a designer who is doing commercial design work (getting paid to do it) have some form of qualification/standard(s) of practice (knowledge, skills, values) to which they should be able to demonstrate they can achieve?
2) Should such a qualifications/standard(s) be regulated by a professional body or Government?
3) Why are qualifications/standards needed and who do they help/save guard?
4) What are appropriate qualifications/standards to be used as metrics for designers?
Before we can respond to these questions, we do have to provide a point of reference from which to construct a framework of answers.
I can only provide a viewpoint from industrial design. A different framework would be needed for other defined commercial design professions, but this version may contain a number of generic points. The point of reference is a definition of a specific commercial designer. In my case, an industrial designer.
An industrial designer provides social and cultural functionality within the constraints of physical function, manufacture and cost.
How do industrial designers do this? They do it through the manipulation of physical stimuli, (heat, light, sound, touch, movement, taste and smell), to deliver meaning (semantics) to a product or service.
Money is the baseline for all commercial work and so is the common metric for design work produced. Repeatable success, shown through reduced risk on an investment and optimised profits are the goal.
Now we have a point of reference, the questions may be answered.
1) Standards are already in existence for design management (BS 7000 series, linked to ISO9001). This provides an audit trail of design decision-making for both client and designer if there are any disputes or future issues linked to liability arising from the design outcome. If designers don’t follow some form of accountable decision-making they leave themselves open to financial ruin. I'm sure colleagues have experienced clients who deliberately question issues with a delivered design outcome to avoid paying the full fee or any fee at all. Whilst the design students, with whom I am involved, understand the consequences of not following these guidelines each UK Institution is variable in what they teach relating to design business and management.
2) The Chartered Society of Designers in the UK, along with other bodies such as the Institute of Design Engineering already provide some check/regulation of Industrial designers. This is in part because industrial designers may be involved in safety critical aspects of a product's function (engineering). In the UK industrial designers do or should have product liability insurance in practice, often provided through their employer (such as the example given of automotive manufacturers). The Government currently only regulates industrial designers through the standards mentioned, but all Government contracts use an ISO90001-based framework for working and so those consultancies having some form of accreditation are more likely to make it to the second round of a bid review.
The portfolio and outcomes are still the first point of choice for most organisations or investors. However, I would suggest it is assumed by a client or employer that someone who says they are an industrial designer will have skills, knowledge and values aligned with good working practices to deliver the specified outcomes. At the very least, non-payment of fees would be the outcome of an unsatisfactory outcome, linking back to the audit trail within design management.
An additional hidden value that a designer brings to every design outcome is ethics. An industrial designer trained in the UK is likely to have discussed the ethics of their professional practice. Victor Papaneck, was fully aware of the influence an industrial designer could have on society. All designers trained within the School in which I lecture are fully aware of the consequences of their design decisions.
Industrial design qualifications should provide an employer or client with an initial assurance of competency when choosing a new employee or sub-contractor.
3) As mentioned in answer 2) qualifications provide an initial assurance of competency and a standard of practice to clients and investors. The training provides a framework of transparent decision-making that reduces risk of litigation for the designer.
4) Metrics for accreditation and standards for an industrial designer are specific to the profession. In the UK they are a mix of Government regulatory standards, (BS7000) , industry standards (relating to mainly the physical function of a product) and academic qualifications.
The competencies outline above are base-line requirements to which creativity, ability to synthesise available market research and realise an artefact or service may be added.
There is a need for metrics to evaluate the efficacy of the social and cultural function, (a core deliverable), embodied within a product or service. Such metrics would inform and benefit both clients and designers, hopefully resulting in the profession being valued more highly within industry. The posting by Carma provides some indication of the value of design in the US, but also the issues facing commercial designers. As far as I'm aware no design-related Institution in the UK teaches research methods until Masters degree level. However, my own Institution is moving towards including this knowledge and skillset to enable undergraduate industrial designers to validate their designs.
I hope this provides some focus to progress this discussion. I'm sure there's much more detail I've missed.
Best wishes
George
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
