An industrial designer designed every product you use in your home, office or in school. It’s an amazing field and one that if you go to college and major in it, will allow you to learn the skills to actually make the inventions you think about. Some schools will call it “Product Design”, or be even more specific with titles such as “Furniture” or “Toy design”. Look for programs who participate in design competitions, and have internship or "Co-Op" programs available.
More About Industrial / Product Design
"INDD Studio spaces are equipped with custom built workstations very similar to the INDD Lab and are also running the latest versions of Fusion360, SolidWorks, Rhino 3D Modeling, Keyshot rendering, Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office 365, and other discipline specific software."
(Provided By: Auburn University)
"To become professionals, students learn aesthetic values of visual abstraction, from line and color to development of complex three-dimensional form. Students study to practice design as an iterative process that includes ideation, sketching, prototype making, and testing of their projects."
(Provided By: Pratt Institute)
"As an Industrial Design student, you will develop skills in visual communication, form development, and presentation as well as strengthen your knowledge of manufacturing, ergonomics, and marketing. You also will study drawing, modeling, and computer-aided design, which are critical to developing and communicating ideas."
(Provided By: The Cleveland Institute of Art)
"Industrial design students are taught problem-solving methodologies, marketing principles, usability research, drawing skills, three-dimensional model-making techniques, materials, form theory, color application, manufacturing processes, ergonomics, and design principles."
(Provided By: Western Washington University)
"The Industrial Design program prepares students for a professional career in product design, specializing in the development of manufactured objects used by people on a daily basis. By developing products that are innovative, useful, safe, aesthetically appropriate, ecologically sound and socially beneficial, the industrial design profession serves the needs of society, consumers, manufacturers and the environment."
(Provided By: Arizona State University)
"Students learn design and making skills in 2D and 3D skills to create, consumer products and meaningful objects through hands-on studio projects and professional internship experiences. The program is a unique blend of art, design, craft, design thinking, business and entrepreneurship."
(Provided By: Otis College of Art and Design)
"Industrial designers give form to virtually all mass-manufactured products in our culture. They seek opportunity and advantage through identifying and solving problems. Their creative contributions impact the utility, appearance, and value of our tools, toys, and environment. Their most innovative solutions lie at an intersection of what is knowable and what is possible."
(Provided By: The University of Notre Dame)
"The project-centered curriculum at its core focuses on sustainability, ergonomy, user experience, product psychology, business case assessment, entrepreneurship, leadership, packaging, and cultural geography.
(Provided By: Lawrence Technological University)
"Industrial designers think through making – using their hands, as well as computers – to create drawings and prototypes of novel ideas. Industrial designers ask a lot of questions. They solve problems by doing research – interviewing and observing the behavior of end-users. They create solutions that satisfy needs and solve problems based on those interactions."
(Provided By: James Madison University)
Industrial designers optimize the technological, aesthetic, and ergonomic requirements of product design as an integral part of the physical, social and cultural environment. The industrial designer’s unique contribution places emphasis on those aspects of the product or system that relate most directly to human characteristics, needs and interests."
(Provided By: Virginia Tech)
Solar House Model Design at Lawrence Tech
RISD | NASA Studio, Industrial Design
James Madison University: Industrial Design
Furniture Program at CCA
Massachusetts College of Art: Industrial Design Snapshot
Cleveland Institute of Art: Industrial Design
Otis College of Art and Design -Toy Design Major
