I ran across your posting and had to respond. You have great insight to be asking this question at this time in your life. There are MANY people that will give you reason after reason why you should wait to start a business and keep your focus strictly on I.D. Don’t listen to them!!! Yes you are young, but there is not a better time than right now to start your business!
A few points that were erroniously stated: “Freedom to design…” You will have more design freedom owning your own company than you will ever have under someone elses management. “You Need More Experience…” You will learn faster, and succeed sooner the earlier you start your business. “You will fail if you do it now…” You will fail regardless. Don’t be afraid of failure, in fact embrace failure. The sooner you fail the sooner you can learn from it and the sooner you will succeed. Edison Failed 10,000 times before he came up with a reliable incandecent lightbulb.
You mention that you believe the Industrial Designer is the one that invents and creates the product. You might want to talk to some Industrial Designers that actually work in the exact field you see yourself in. Most people change their major a few times in college because they didn’t realize what the major was preparing them for. Rarely do we end up in the field we think we were going to be in. Read the classified and see how many dream jobs are out there, and what the requirements are for those jobs. Who will get those dream jobs? It won’t be the person with the least amount of experience, will it?
Many people start out in Industrial Design thinking that they will get to design that one cool car that everyone imagines. The truth is, cars are not designed by one designer. Automakers don’t even do much of their own designs as they were back 20 years ago. Now a designer is hired by a tier 2 suppliers, designing a headlight, within a very constrained black box, usually on uninspiring soccer mom style vehicles. Most of your time may be spent trying to get a design that Engineering or Manufacturing will aprove or dealing with fit and finish constraints.
In regards to your schooling, you probably don’t have a good understanding or rather perception yet of what you will need to learn to get what you think you want. It sounds like you might bennefit from taking some Engineering courses outside of I.D. like Materials and Processes, Strength of Materials, Moldmaking/Fabrication etc. if you are serious about wanting to produce a product. I did the opposite where my degree was in Mechanical Engineering, but all my electives were in Industrial Design. Its not the name of the degree that is important, but rather what you can learn and apply to the area or business you want to own or be in.
They say 90% of what you learn in college you will never use, which is probably pretty close to being true. The biggest thing you learn in college is how to conform to common business practices. universities are geared toward supporting corporate manufacturing, not individuals starting thier own business. Therefore, don’t let the university structure what you learn, take ownership of your life and what you learn.
The internet is a great place to learn where to go and how to start your business. You started this the right way by posting your question. Keep asking, keep asking…don’t stop asking questions, always stay positive, never give up until you have what you want.
If you want to invent and produce a product, start with a need (problem) that you don’t currently know of a solution to. Then learn all you can about Design Patents, Utillity Patents, copyrights, etc. thru the US PTO. Do patent searches on what solutions others have come up with. Learn what technologies are out there, how the product was made, and always keep thinking how could I do this better.
Once you have an idea of what it is you want to produce, start a business plan, use FreeMind software to lay out everything you find and can learn. As your knowledge evolves your mindmap (outline) will help you organize your plan.
Don’t be afaird that your idea has already been patented by someone else, or that there is compitition in the sector you have chosen. Believe in yourself and you will find a way to do things better.
You will never get rich working for someone else, as you would working for yourself. So start this today, go to your local Small Business Administration building and they will help you get started.
Do it Today!!!