Profession industrial designer

Industrial designers work out ideas and develop them into designs and concepts for a wide variety of manufactured products. They integrate creativity, aesthetics, production feasibility, and market relevance in the design of new products.

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Personality Type

  • Artistic / Enterprising

Knowledge

  • Aesthetics

    Set of principles based on which something is appealing and beautiful.

  • Engineering principles

    The engineering elements like functionality, replicability, and costs in relation to the design and how they are applied in the completion of engineering projects.

  • Ergonomics

    The science of designing systems, processes and products that complement the strengths of people so that they can use them easily and safely.

  • Engineering processes

    The systematic approach to the development and maintenance of engineering systems.

  • Industrial design

    The practice of designing products to be manufactured through techniques of mass production.

  • Copyright legislation

    Legislation describing the protection of the rights of original authors over their work, and how others can use it.

  • Design principles

    The elements used in design such as unity, scale, proportion, balance, symmetry, space, form, texture, colour, light, shade and congruence and their application into practice.

  • Mathematics

    Mathematics is the study of topics such as quantity, structure, space, and change. It involves the identification of patterns and formulating new conjectures based on them. Mathematicians strive to prove the truth or falsity of these conjectures. There are many fields of mathematics, some of which are widely used for practical applications.

Skills

  • Meet deadlines

    Ensure operative processes are finished at a previously agreed-upon time.

  • Liaise with engineers

    Collaborate with engineers to ensure common understanding and discuss product design, development and improvement.

  • Conduct research on trends in design

    Conduct research on present and future evolutions and trends in design, and associated target market features.

  • Present detailed design proposals

    Prepare and present detailed design suggestions for a specific production to a mixed group of people, including technical, artistic and management staff.

  • Draw design sketches

    Create rough pictures to assist in creating and communicating design concepts.

  • Follow a brief

    Interpret and meet requirements and expectations, as discussed and agreed upon with the customers.

  • Determine suitability of materials

    While designing products, determine if materials are suitable and available for production.

  • Draft design specifications

    List the design specifications such as materials and parts to be used and a cost estimate.

  • Perform market research

    Gather, assess and represent data about target market and customers in order to facilitate strategic development and feasibility studies. Identify market trends.

Optional knowledge and skills

prepare production prototypes use cad software draw blueprints jewellery processes plan event marketing for promotional campaigns build jewellery models coordinate manufacturing production activities develop jewellery designs use technical drawing software collaborate with engineers perform physical stress tests on models identify customer's needs design package prospect new customers manage contracts use cae software consult with design team attend design meetings types of packaging materials adapt to new design materials ceramic ware industrial engineering cad software hydraulics types of glazing cost management 3d modelling create a product's virtual model calculate materials apply 3d imaging techniques build a product's physical model cam software types of toy materials monitor production developments adapt existing designs to changed circumstances think creatively about jewellery perform project management design prototypes apply desktop publishing techniques determine production feasibility write manuals calculate design costs pneumatics use specialised design software analyse production processes for improvement