Difference between Product Design and Industrial Design

nice definition, yo.

i agree with your assessment of cav’s definition, too. he’s not wrong, per se, but some items i’ve desgined have been very, very small runs of product or even one-offs as a customized customer solution.

generally, people rspond to “industrial design”, to me, as a building designer, architect, or process engineer. if i tell them “product design”, they associate it with engineering or inventing. “furniture design”, i’m associated with Norm or whatever his name is on that PBS show “the new yankee workshop” :unamused:

Well I found some stuff on the net. From what I got, product design does concept development, testing and manufacturing, implementation of physical objects. Product designers coneptualize and evaluate ideas, making them tangile through products in a more systematic approach. Aesthetics are important too.

As for Industrial design, I found some similar stuff but it basically stated its main focus was aesthetics. Also, Industrial Design is more of an art.

nice try… but not buying it.

dont believe everything you read on the internet :wink:

^^ doesnt make any sense to me.

I’d say ID and PD are pretty much interchangeable at this point, both in and out of the industry. Both refer to the design of products for functional use. Volume of production not being so relevant in my opinion as purpose. That being said, the function/object can vary from anything including play (toys) to “play” (s3x toys), and everything in between.

Im in footwear now, but previously, I used to say the following about ID-

“Architects design buildings. Industrial Designers designer everything else.”

  • pretty much covers it at least as a general response to “what is ID”. Of course engineers might take issue (re: bridge designs, motors, etc. but for the most part is pretty accurate).


    R

this is a very classical question. Seen this a few times in different forums to come to a conclusion that it is not that important after all.
Some courses even named themselves as "industrial product design’
The differences between the 2 are narrowing that its no longer important to make any kind of disctinction here.

“Architects design buildings. Industrial Designers designer everything else.”

Thats funny Richard, I have said the same thing for years. I also agree with Yo, there is no difference today. though, PD is easier to explain.

I also believe that Furniture, electronics, footwear, Trans, Toy, and others are all products.

from what i’ve been taught the phrase ‘Industrial Designer’ was coined by doctor Christopher Dresser. He was the first person to call himself an “Industrial Designer”. He did stuff like patterns for wall coverings and light fixtures… which would actually be closer to what interior designers do today. However the term is now used as an umbrella to describe many types of designers. one of which is a consumer product designer or pd…
so yeah they are the same its like is a square a rectangle…

From what I understand (and practice), an industrial designer is someone that develops consumer products for mass-production. Otherwise, you’re an artist or prototyper. Product designer and industrial designer can pretty much be flip-flopped. Same thing, IMO.

I just get sick of people thinking I’m an engineer, although I think that term carries more respect and prestige. I don’t agree with it, but that’s how I think the general public views it.

in my opinion ,product design like a Mechanical Design .

Am I right in saying that ‘back in the day’ Industrial or Product design was called Industrial Art? And that is kinda where the name comes from, and has been developed from?.. someone told me that, I can’t remember who.

I was asked what I thought the difference was in an interview recently and I think (opinion!) that Product Design is more anthropological than industrial design.

to me product design is from market research through to production and some times even to imput to the marketing of the product. If you have not done that, or can not do that your not a product designer. Id is a step along the way to being a fully fleshed out product designer.

They are the same.

For clarity the two biggest pro-organizations define Industrial design for us…

ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) “Design is a creative activity whose aim is to establish the multi-faceted qualities of objects, processes, services and their systems in whole life-cycles. Therefore, design is the central factor of innovative humanization of technologies and the crucial factor of cultural and economic exchange”

According to the IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America) “Industrial Design (ID) is the professional service of creating and developing concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value and appearance of products and systems for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer.”

Hey guys! Industrial Design and Product Design are pretty much the same thing! Product Design is just a more human and contemporary term.
After all, we design things for humans, not for industries.

I’ve thought that Product Design refers more to the entire process of designing products from research, conceptualization, aesthetics, engineering, marketing, manufacturing. While Industrial Design represents more of just the portion of product design that deals with creating the aesthetics, form and feelings.

Is there a dead horse somewhere around here we could beat?.. oh there it is… thanks.

haha well said. i was just going to post something similar earlier today and couldnt bring myself to it.

bigger question than “what is the difference between ID and product design” is “who cares”. call it “industrial (product) design” and call it a day.

R

new guy here,

I have applied for both a product design position and an industrial design position with Apple Inc. Now I’m not saying that this is gospel and relates to the entire industry, but Apple defines the two positions differently.

industrial design, this is the J. Ives stuff, slick stuff like the imac, ipod etc. Coming up with concepts that are elegant, solve a problem, create a new aesthetic etc…

product design, this is where you take the concepts from the ID group, and make sure you can fit a certain screw or nut combo, hinge type, circuit board inside the concept, in essence, making a concept manufacturable, and practical…

btw, never got either apple postion, but am happily doing ID/PD work with another firm

I’m interested to see where you see that. Because it sounds like you’re talking about a product engineer (which is the halfway point between ID and ME).

Either way it’s a dead horse. You can call it whatever you want but designers “make stuff look cool and work good” the degree to which your involved in the research to aesthetics to engineering depends entirely on your organization and how they fit people into those roles.

http://jobs.apple.com/index.ajs?BID=1&method=mExternal.showJob&RID=4054&CurrentPage=1

Many companies call their ME’s product designers… the confusion continues.