Hi, is there anyone who has joined CSD or other professional organizations?
What value do these bodies give to a designer or company? What problems if any, have people experienced. There are so many and the annual subscriptions can mount up. I’m looking for objective views to help me decide.
Cheers
If this is true, that would be an unfair action? Which would make me think twice about joining.
rarely anything Deez says is true in a literal sense… or in any other really.
I’m not familiar with CSD, but IDSA has a pretty long list of complaints that have been discussed a lot on here. I guess it was more an agreement than a discussion. Maybe it’s time to re-look at it?
Like I said, RARELY…
I haven’t heard anything about CSD, http://www.csd.org.uk/
but it seams these guys do some good stuff?
http://www.design-council.org.uk
Dee and Yo thanks for the reply, but what are you guys on? 
I’m hoping their maybe people on the forum with direct experience with these organisations and if they have helped or not in any way.
For the benefit of the Americans, what is the significance of CSD (http://www.csd.org.uk/) and what benefits does it confer on a member?
Is there an American equivalent we can talk about too, to make comparisons?
I belong to the design-association. It is a group with great vision and quick turn potential. It is taking hold in Europe. I hope it develops momentum in the US.
The offer accreditation for all types of designers, interior, graphic, media, industrial, etc… so you have a larger group of design professionals to draw inspiration and new techniques from. The also legitimize all of the professions.
I am a member of DA for professional growth reasons and IDSA for networking reasons. Don’t attempt to make an organization what it isn’t!
yes - i joined in 1976 - as a stuent - am now the Chief Exec - there is only one major benefit - that is professional recognition - no gimmiks - no gift vouchers - it is a professional body - you don’t need to be a member to practice - but the history of the Society guring the past 76 years is the history of design itself - if all professional designers joined the professional body then perhaps we may at last stand a chance of being a profession that is as respected as those we all emulate
perhaps we may at last stand a chance of being a profession that is as respected as those we all emulate
And what profession, pray tell me, are we all emulating in an attempt to gain respect?
The(y) also legitimize all of the professions.
Legitimize … in what sense?
Waiting… . … . .
By no means do I speak for “frankpeters”, but I believe the other professions he is referring to are the doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc., who require proper accreditation in order to call themselves as such. Without a prevailing governing body, anyone can go out and call themselves an “Industrial Designer”. Without the requirement of proper accreditation, the legitimacy of the profession can potentially be called into question.
Yes, I am a member of the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario… 
While I agree with the intent, I disagree with the means… mainly because I don’t like prevailing governing bodies. IF somehow mandated as a requirement, a lot of hacks can pass a test and get into a professional organization. Jumping through a hoop does not validate anything. I think to the contrary it makes it all look like a sham.
A few letters after a name does not a designer make. I have no experience with the CSD, but from my experience with the IDSA, it seems to draw a lot of people at the lower design skill levels (with exceptions of corse), this seems to run contrary to the belief that the organization aims to better and legitimize the profession. I don’t think it does, it seeks to standardize and thusly control it… I just finished re-reading 1984, so excuse the paranoia… but they are not helping us, they are helping themselves and charging us for it.
In my opinion, for us, legitimization comes in only one form… a portfolio.
I agree with your sentiment, I just don’t think a governing body is the way to see it through.
Think of all the professions where an accredited college degree is proof enough of capability to perform.
Now look at the governed professions - why do they need governing? because thier individual members are financially liable for damages!
ID does not need governing because we can’t be held personally accountable for harms caused by products we design. Its simple.
ID does not need governing because we can’t be held personally accountable for harms caused by products we design. Its simple.
no-spec, with all due respect, I must disagree. IDs can be held accountable for “harms” caused by the products they design; especially if serving a client in an advisory capacity; viz. as a consultant. The term generally in use is, “Errors and Omission”, and one need not be a ‘licensed’, or ‘certified’, professional to be held reponsibile for ones work.
A colleague was recently sued, by one of his clients, for ‘negligence’ as the result of a plastic component failing in low temperatures. It was an axle support, on a baby stroller, that would break when the user ‘dropped’ it onto the pavement after unfolding the stroller. Thankfully, none of the components ever failed causing personal injury. Nevertheless, “harm” was done.
In this case, the “harm” was done to the manufacturer of the product. The designer was held financially reponsible for the cost of replacing the failed components, recalling and installing new components on the strollers, and ‘round trip’ shipping to the owner(s), of over three thousand affected units.
Without the requirement of proper accreditation, the legitimacy of the profession can potentially be called into question.
A-line, I would argue that accreditation, in and of itself, does not exempt lawyers, accountants, or any other ‘professional’, from making grievous errors in judgement or execution. i.e. My wife would be the first to question the credentials of the GYN who performed her recent hysterectomy.
What accreditation, by any governing body, can not do, is guarantee the subsequent, remedial, actions of it’s individual members when something goes wrong. Hence, I would further argue that the credibility of the very governing body itself “can potentially be called into question.”
And, I am a Member of IDSA (demitted).
I confess I had to look the word demitted up (dictionary.com)… one of the definitions is resigned (to resign from or relinquish an office), so are you no longer in the IDSA? I used to be in the IDSA and was the CT Vice Chair and latter Chair… I’m no longer a member.
^md
If your colleague was the engineer of the part, he assumed that liability.
apples and oranges.
The designer was held financially reponsible …
I did not say the engineer was held financially responsible.
IDs can be held accountable for “harms” caused by the products they design; especially if serving a client in an advisory capacity; viz. as a consultant.
In the good ol’ USofA, you can sue anyone you want, ‘credentialed’ or not. Unfortunately, having had no E&O insurance, my friend, the consulting industrial designer, will be paying this off for some time to come.
What accreditation, by any governing body, can not do, is guarantee the subsequent, remedial, actions of it’s individual members when something goes wrong.
My colleague still consults for the company. To my way of thinking, personal responsibility, ethics, and action, are credentials.
No longer IDSA is correct yo. But, having resigned membership, I reserve the right to renew at anytime. Or that’s the way it used to work; I demitted in 1989. I don’t know what ‘credentials’ are needed for membership now, but when I joined sponsorship by three, practicing, industrial designers was required.
your freind, did he create the failed part?
hey n-s,
My buddy designed the entire stroller for what was, at the time, a startup company.
In the final analysis, the failure of the parts was identified as improper (elevated) barrel temperature during the molding process. The parts were black, matte-surfaced, and did not readily show any discoloration. But they were seriously degraded.
His downfall was that he acted as a vendor as well; he located the third party molder, monitored production of, and proofed the tooling, spec’ed the materials, purchased the parts, and resold them to the stroller manufacturer. Seemed like a clever thing to do at the time; $$$.
In this instance, acting as the ‘supplier’, he was hooked with the liability to make good. When proper molding temps were observed, the parts were fine…