Explaining what you do for a living-Industrial designer

That is some pretty funny reading. I miss Steve P as well, and CG! Though CG and I hang out from time to time now that we both live in SoCal. Would be great to get some of those guys back in here!

The forums back then were pretty hilarious. Not as helpful or constructive, but funny.

I usually just read comments and absorb… but found I had to comment on this topic:

It is still very perplexing to most people and drives me bonkers when people ask me to decorate their homes or give them decorating tips!? I am still surprised that most Americans know what a graphic designer or interior designer or architect does, but when it comes to ID or how products come to life, they are either clueless or assume that engineers are product designers or that ID is interior design.

Lately, I just say product designer… the one who drive the aesthetics, color, form and ergonomics behind a product. I then throw in that I am not an engineer but that we work closely with them to figure out the mechanics of the product. That usually works for me.

I just about always defer to ICSID’s old definition:

“Industrial design is a creative activity whose aim is to determine the formal qualities of objects produced in industry. These formal qualities are not only the external features but are principally those structural and functional relationships which convert a system to a coherent unity both from the point of view of the producer and the user. Industrial design extends to embrace all the aspects of human environment which are conditioned by industrial production.”

and emphasize the aesthetic, structural and functional relationships to convert a system to a coherent unity.

It is, to me, a real travesty that ICSID has over the years diluted their previously eloquent and accurate words into a multiple paragraph long read to make sure to include every possible subgenre, inclusionary, diverse and sustainable design jargon. ICSID’s definition now is both unreadable and understandable only to PhD semioticians.

Hey Yo, this may require a new thread, but I think this kind of thing is worth discussing! Observing for some time now and participating off an on, the ‘new’ style of forums can border unfriendly. Not that it’s anyone’s fault in particular, but the effort to be more helpful and constructive and less funny has lead to a general coldness toward clueless or more lighthearted posts.

Sometimes unnecessary is just what I need. And what I mean by that is this: valuable connections are often made in the silliest ways. The classroom or workplace are painfully monotonous without the occasional unexpected, inappropriate, or pointless happening. It is my opinion that cutting content to only contain the constructive/helpful/serious leaves out some of the most important parts, and the parts that could foster a brighter, broader conversation.

I have become more and more involved in the consumer up front and business strategy part of ID. Try explaining that to a nondesigner.

J

Recently, when I’m asked about my profession, I’ve been responding with “Product Designer”.

Usually the person will just respond by slowly nodding and saying the word “ergonomics…” in the form of a statement/question hybrid, as it trails off into an awkward silence.

Occasionally someone comes along who is familiar with the profession, and upon my answer, they’ll ask something like “So sort of like Industrial Design?”. Always cracks me up.

/

That’s easy.

Industrial designer - I make new products.

Industrial design strategy - I decide which new products to make. And why we make them.

It’s the difference between the trained monkey and who pulls the monkey’s strings.

Haha. I like the monkey comment.

I find that most people associate strategy with marketing. I explained that we go deeper.

J

I meet a lot of non-designers since I’m relatively new to the city. I use to tell people the ‘what Architects do for buildings I do for products definition’ too but for the past couple of years I’ve been telling people ‘I make products more attractive to use and look at- sort of like what they did with Apple products’ and right away people catch on. It’s not the most eloquent or comprehensive definition but it gets the conversation going. In addition I would say ‘I help companies benefit from making their products more attractive to boost sales without much added costs (what Hyundai is doing with their cars)’ and they seem to get that too.

Just watched a recent CBS segment, How to design breakthrough inventions, featuring David Kelley and IDEO. There was an amusing anecdote that when he would answer the “what do you do” question at parties with designer… he’d be asked to look at the host’s drapes.

Likely a subject for another/existing thread (but relevant to public awareness of the profession) would be how do people first hear about ID? How did you? I first heard the term well after college and certainly had no inkling in high-school that it might be a possible career option or alternate course of study. It may be wishful thinking but it does seem like there are more accessible avenues for exposure to the field now than even a few years ago.

I make a point of figuring out myself when i explain my role to people. Usually we tell them what we are trying to tell ourselves the goals that we want to commit in our career. Usually the person listening to you doesn’t care in the end. They always forget after the conversation. So instead of convincing them what i do, i am trying to explain it out loud to myself.

Yet for every job i had, i end up explaining it differently. I worked as a design researcher, industrial designer, business strategist, and now a user experience designer. I felt explaining the ID role is much simpler than explaining the UX role, and yet its because i understood my belief as an ID designer and i am only starting to realize the opportunities of what makes a UX designer.

I like to think as an industrial designer, I try to give the consumer an experience with an object. So I am experience creator… I like the comparaison from an urbanist and an architect to an IDer (City to House to Products). My 2 cents…

I recently had my ass handed to me by a woman at a recent networking event that asked me the age old networking question, “what do you do?”. I launched into a typical, relatively long-winded response. Little did I know that she is a branding and PR expert who has worked with politicians and other VERY well known/notorious individuals.

After verbally neudering me me for several minutes in front of a handful of peers, she offered up some awesome advice:

If you can’t describe what you do in 15 words or less, nobody cares.

You have, literally, 8 seconds to be able to catch someone’s interest. If you can’t do it in a shorter period of time than that in a way that resonates with people, you’re SOL.

The logic being that you are trying to start a conversation. You need to figure out very quickly if you catch their interest, or if you need to move along to the next person.

So, in that light iab’s “I make new products” is pretty good.

I have been using “I help people bring their product ideas to reality” with some good success. Delivery is definitely key. I am sure there are several people that I lost, especially shortly after transitioning to this thought process because I stumbled on my words. I was unsure about it.

Now, it pretty much just rolls out. You can tell almost instantly if they’re interested, or if asking you what you do was a rhetorical question.

In high school, there was no doubt. I wanted to design Ferraris at Pininfarina. Except I thought the route was through mechanical engineering. And certainly no one else told me otherwise.

Flash forward three years into an ME degree. I remember this as clear as anything. I was about half way through doing a Power Law equation, non-Newtonian flow through a square tube for my fluids class. This is about a 6-page diffy-Q for those who don’t know. It was at that moment that I had my epiphany - I didn’t care what the answer was. I knew if I followed the prerequisite steps, I would ententually get the right answer. But I didn’t care. I was done.

About a week or two later, I was talking with my sculpture professor. In hindsight, I had the right instinct about what I wanted to do, all of my electives were either life-drawing or sculpture classes in the school of fine art. But I still never heard of ID. I told my professor of my frustration and he gave me a Newsweek or Time article about Art Center. My eyes were opened.

I completed the semester and dropped out of ME, 2 semesters from graduation. I took 1 semester off to work on a portfolio. I entered ID school, busted my hump taking 18-21 credits a semester and summer school and graduated in another 2 years. Not a lot of credits transfered from ME.

My parents certainly were not happy about the move, but I haven’t looked back since. And I couldn’t be happier.

iab, your story of ME to ID was blow for blow what I experienced switching from ME to design back at Michigan. 3 years into my degree I just didn’t care about the engineering way of doing things any more! It’s nice to hear someone else went through that whole process as well.

Hope you made it to Italy!

Back on topic, I’ve always gone with the standard “I design products and how people use them.” Works most of the time anyway.

I dreaded this question in school. I had this exact conversation more times than I can remember:

“What are you majoring in?”
“Industrial design.”
blank stare “What’s that?”
“Product design.”
“Oh! You should design me a [insert some stupid trivial product here]”

I also got this one:
“So you design… industries? Like factories?”

Now that I’m a working stiff I’ve found it’s better to be specific about what kind of products I design. Instead of just saying “I’m an industrial designer”, I tell them “I design airplane interiors” being VERY careful not to say “I do airplane interior design” because all they hear is “interior design” and proceed to ask me for my opinion on paint colors and drapes.

I usually do something like this, especially some product that’s relevant to what the person does… (Sports watches for athletes, calculators for engineers, stuff like that.)

A good way to get the idea across is to describe what it would be like if a designer WASN’T involved.

Great blast from the past with the old thread too! Those were definitely the wild west days on the boards

You guys take so much time to explain it all - I just tell people I run a creative consultancy, much easier.

That fits the 15 words or less criteria :smiley: