{"id":17024,"date":"2020-07-09T08:02:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T14:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cadcrowd.com\/blog\/?p=17024"},"modified":"2024-11-11T11:31:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T17:31:45","slug":"how-industrial-designers-and-engineering-services-have-influenced-the-product-design-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cadcrowd.com\/blog\/how-industrial-designers-and-engineering-services-have-influenced-the-product-design-world\/","title":{"rendered":"How Industrial Designers and Engineering Services Have Influenced the Product Design World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Both industrial designers and industrial engineers work or are involved in product manufacturing, and often with the same objective of creating a product that functions well while at the same time minimizing production cost. They are also often part of the same team, assembled to bring product ideas to reality.<\/p>

Below is an outline of the history and current practice of each profession and a look at what makes them distinct and what they have in common.<\/p>

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Industrial Design Services<\/h2>
\"Industrial-design-Exploration-sketches\"<\/figure>

Often used interchangeably with product design<\/em> \u2013 despite a slight difference in the scope involved \u2013 the term \u201cindustrial design services<\/a>\u201d refers to the practice of designing products or objects for mass production and services intended for a large number of users. <\/p>

Professionals of this field focus mainly on the aesthetic, usability, and manufacturability of a product throughout an entire product development cycle<\/a> which includes ideation, research, prototyping, testing, analysis, validation, commercialization, and maintenance. All those processes running in a continuous cycle are expected to eventually lead the designers to an endless product improvement that answers the ever-changing buyers\u2019 preferences and market demand.<\/p>

Nearly all manufactured objects people use on a daily basis in most environments, including private or public settings, are the brainchildren of industrial designers and their teams, created through a meticulous development process and with the intention to provide solutions for ever-present problems. <\/p>

These objects are aimed at making life easier and improving the quality of life in general. The original idea of a product or object may come from non-designers, but further development processes will most likely require industrial design services to transform a concept into a fully functional product.<\/p>

Brief History of the Profession<\/strong><\/p>

\"Scanner-case-industrial-design\"<\/figure>

There are plenty of great product designs from ancient history, such as the printing press, the compass, and the mechanized clock, to name a few. But industrial design really started to emerge as professional practice in the early 18th<\/sup> century, just around the same time as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. <\/p>

In those early days, professionals of the field leaned more toward the artistic side of product design; a larger portion of their work revolved around the styling and aesthetic of products rather than the technical side. <\/p>

RELATED: Engineering and product design advice for mass manufacturing services<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

The main reason was that the rapid introduction of mass production to the industry at large shifted the manufacturing focus to quantity, which gradually eroded the concern for visual appeal. As long as the products worked as intended, cosmetics were not necessary. <\/p>

As the market developed and presented more difficult competition, a lot of industrial designers began to offer their expertise to companies and individuals who couldn\u2019t afford or were unable to build in-house teams. One of the first to establish industrial design as a distinct service \u2013 and therefore profession \u2013 was Teague<\/a> in 1926. The design firm was founded by Walter Dorwin Teague, who began his career as a typographer and illustrator. <\/p>

Within just one year of its birth, the company was commissioned to design cameras for Eastman Kodak. The relationship would continue for 30 years, during which Teague designed some of the most recognizable cameras including the Baby Brownie, Super Six-20, and Kodak Bantam Special, among others.<\/p>

Soon enough, industrial design transformed from its humble beginning as a niche business that only the wealthy could access into a prestigious yet approachable profession with plenty of specializations, such as consumer product design<\/a>, automotive, sports equipment, fashion accessories, packaging, furniture, and appliances. <\/p>

Today, industrial design services revolve not only around how a product looks and functions, but also material innovations, ergonomics, end-user benefits, and even corporate branding. It is safe to say that every detail of a product is heavily influenced by the works of industrial designers, making the profession indispensable in the landscape of modern society.<\/p>

Practices in the Modern\nWorld<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>

\"Industrial-design-backpack\"<\/figure>

In simple words, the hallmark of an product design service<\/a> is the product development cycle. The services typically start from the earliest development phase of ideation all the way to commercialization and everything else in between. <\/p>

As consumers in modern society continue to demand higher levels of product sophistication and at the same time ease of use, industrial designers are often required to work together in a multidisciplinary team made up of engineers, graphic designers, project managers, UI\/UX designers (mostly for digital products), marketers, factory or manufacturers, and in some cases, consumers too. <\/p>

All the professionals in the team collaborate with each\nother toward a common goal of creating a product that consumers will find\nuseful and enjoy using. When consumers are involved, their main role is to give\nfeedback for prototypes or early batches of production before the actual product\nis introduced to the market. The combination of different perspectives helps\nthe team understand a problem to its fullest extent, and then use the knowledge\ngathered from those different points of view as the foundation of the product\nto be created.<\/p>

Based on the information provided by market researchers, product specification data by clients, manufacturing parameters by factory partners, and other details compiled by other team members, industrial designers start working on product design. Great designers are often \u201cempathetic\u201d designers, meaning they are able to see themselves as end-users or target consumers. <\/p>

The product they design is expected to be the best they can achieve, yet it still falls within the predetermined specifications and approved budget limitations. In fact, good designers have to develop empathy for the target consumers so that the solution \u2013 in the form of the product \u2013 will solve an existing problem in a meaningful way. Today\u2019s industrial designers are also required to have empathy for the environment; they often achieve or showcase this capability in their products by choosing eco-friendly<\/a> materials and manufacturing practices.<\/p>

Industrial engineering services<\/h2>
\"Industrial-Engineering-Electric-Vehicle\"<\/figure>

Engineering can be defined as the practice of figuring out how things work using scientific principles. Therefore, the term represents a broad range of studies including but not limited to math, chemistry, and physics. Some of the most prominent branches are chemical engineering, civil engineering<\/a>, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering<\/a>, and, of course, industrial engineering. There is also interdisciplinary engineering, which draws from two or more branches of the practice.<\/p>

Industrial engineering is mainly concerned with the optimization of the manufacturing process, including the equipment and materials involved in it. It aims to increase efficiency, improve the quality of goods and services, protect the environment, ensure worker safety and health, comply with government regulation, and reduce production cost. It is safe to say that industrial engineers work to minimize (or eliminate) all potential waste of resources including time, money, materials, and energy.<\/p>

For example, in a manufacturing facility, industrial engineers have to figure out how to make the factory operation as streamlined and cost-efficient as possible; they can do that by opting for energy-saving machinery, using renewable materials, speeding up the assembly line, making the work environment safer and healthier, and so on. It is a dynamic field that deals with an integrated system of people, equipment, money, and information.<\/p>

Brief history<\/strong><\/p>

\"Robot-Industrial-Design\"<\/figure>

If engineering is the materialization of applied sciences to\nsolve real-world problems, industrial engineering utilizes scientific knowledge\nto improve all aspects of manufacturing capabilities, including output quality\nand safety. <\/p>

Throughout human history, engineers have left their mark on almost everything we see and use today. It would be difficult to imagine what the modern world would look like without them. In fact, the world might still be stuck in its primitive days if not for the works of renowned engineers like Archimedes, James Watt, and Nikola Tesla. <\/p>

Engineers are special people who like to take something apart just to see how it works and then put everything back again to test their own understanding. While most of us would simply disassemble and re-assemble the parts, engineers engage in such activities to learn the underlying scientific principles behind the application. <\/p>

RELATED: How to outsource to CAD services and freelance engineering designers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

Modern industrial engineering started to become a prominent\nfield of study in the late 18th<\/sup> century at the start of the Industrial\nRevolution. Some of the most popular names during that time period include:<\/p>