A term used increasingly nowadays to refer to the design of anything made by machine, from Coke bottles to Volkswagens. Early industrial design included Wedgwood pottery and Sheffield plate.
Design aspects specified by the industrial designer may include the overall shape of the object, the location of details with respect to one another, colors, texture, sounds, and aspects concerning the use of the product ergonomics. The use of industrial designers in a product development process may lead to added values by improved usability, lowered production costs and more appealing products. It is important that in order to be an industrial design the product has to be produced in an industrial way, for example an artisan can't be considered an industrial designer although he may challenge the same aspects of a product.Industrial design has a focus on concepts, products and processes.
Product design and industrial design can overlap into the fields of user interface design, information design and interaction design. Various schools of industrial design and/or product design may specialize in one of these aspects, ranging from pure art colleges (product styling) to mixed programs of engineering and design, to related disciplines like exhibit design and interior design.
Definition of industrial design
According to the 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.
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."
Industrial design in USA
In the US, the field of industrial design first hit a high-water mark in the late '30s and early '40s, with several industrial designers becoming minor celebrities. Good industrial design allows a new product to command a premium price on a crowded shelf of other commodity items. Good industrial design allows products to communicate brand atttributes directly through the product.
Thus the general consumer population in as a whole is gaining an appreciation and understanding of design, and the result has been a market boom for well designed products. Most large corporations have a design department, but "Industrial Design" is usually bundled into an R&D program.
The vast majority of products are still designed on a contract basis by consulting firms who's founders &
Industrial design in Canada
A history of industrial design in Canada can be read in the related article Industrial Design History in Canada
Association of Canadian Industrial Designers
Founded in 1948, the Association of Canadian Industrial Designers (ACID) promotes and represents the interests of its corporate and professional members to government and other international associations such as the International Council of Society of Industrial Designers (ICSID).
The Association is dedicated to increasing the knowledge, skill and proficiency of Canadian industrial designers through maintaining close contact with its corporate members as it represents them on both a national and international level.
Industrial design in the UK
During the Great Depression and the Second World War, Britain had cheaply made "utility" furniture.
In the UK, the term "industrial design" increasingly implies design with considerable engineering and technology awareness alongside human factors—a "Total Design" approach, promoted by the late Stuart Pugh (University of Strathclyde) and others.
Industrial design rights
Industrial design rights are intellectual property rights that make exclusive the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Under the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs, a WIPO-administered treaty, a procedure for an international registration exists.
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