Product Design vs Industrial Design. Whats the Difference?

What is the difference between industrial design and product design?

How to Sketch Like an Industrial Designer

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[Powerxxxdown]

Just watch this vid in 1.5x speed and everything will be fine...

[SamDoesDesign]

I completely agree! Also, I feel like I can call myself an “industrial designer” to other designers... but for friends, family, the public etc. I need to use “product designer”, otherwise they think I design factories

[DSProductions]

I attended The Art Institute of Pittsburgh where I majored in Industrial Design Technology. In those classes we did a ton of marker rendering every quarter, we had classes in Product Design, Toy Design, Architectural Design, Special Effects Makeup Appliance Design, Automotive Design, and Prosthetic Design; all of these things are under the umbrella term, "Industrial Design, " and some can be sub categories of one of the above such as Toy Design, Automotive Design, and Prosthetic Design could be under Product Design, though in our classes Toy Design was specifically about designing toys, while Product Design was about designing electronic devices such as camcorders, CD Players; and household appliances, tools, utensils, and furniture.

We had to take at least 1 quarter in all of those design classes, then we could specialize in a specific design area, my specialty was Motion Picture Special Effects, so I took more of the makeup design classes and more Computer 3D Modeling and Animation classes than the Industrial Design students that were specializing in Automotive Design, Architectural Design, or Product Design, but we were all still Industrial Designers despite our specialties, we'd just pick on one another with names, the Automotive Designers would call us Special Effects Artists, "Rubber Heads, " and we'd call them, "Bondo Brains."

Industrial Design covers all of the above, but Industrial Design involves more than illustration, we had prototyping classes where we'd actually build a mock-up of our designs, these wouldn't be working models because an Industrial Designer generally isn't an Electrical or Electronic Engineer, but in the industry the work of the designer would then be handed off to an engineer to make it work. But we'd make model cars and put then in a wind tunnel to test their aerodynamics, we'd build miniature architectural models for the buildings we designed, and we'd make a life cast of other students to sculpt our special effects makeup designs on, then make a mold of that sculpture and cast it in either foam latex or silicon skin and apply it to the student we'd designed it for. So there's a lot of both 2D work and 3D work in Industrial Design, including 3D Computer Modeling and Animation for the purposes of showing how the finished design is supposed to work in the real world and also to be used in production for CNC equipment to mill or lathe out the pieces to make a working final product.

[jesslynliu]

I'm studying industrial design now... and so many people get the misconception that it is... mechanical engineering... or automotive engineering or designing exclusively for manufacturing. To some degree we do dip our feet into the water a little bit of each but.... we are DESIGNERS NOT ENGINEERS i was having a hard identity crisis with this and for a long time I thought i had chosen the wrong career. I like the more creative side of this field, design language, usability and brand identity. Who else has this problem identifying what we are good at and like within this broad field?

[amusingfollower]

Connotations aside, there is a proper distinction between industrial and product design. In my own understanding, the clearest difference lies in this: systems thinking. Traditionally, product design has always been much about sheer styling and usability. This makes sense - since the industrial revolution, design has been at a constant dialogue with the industry, whether it is a conflict in ideology such as in the case of the arts and crafts movement, or a rationalized harmony with manufacturing like the German Werkbund. Design for style, usability, and manufacturing became a trend for the evolving industrialization of our world.

However, in today's day and age, we no longer design products in silos. The design world has come to acknowledge the value of the user experience; bringing emotion, values, lifestyles, ideologies into the product. The process of which people do things now become the focal point - the abstract of our design now becomes the centerpiece. This is because design recognizes that while products and solutions may be obsoleted, needs remain timeless. And over time, the solution to these timeless needs manifest itself in different forms (which is touched on in the video in that products can be software too). Even in the design of products, we no longer look at the object itself; we look into its intangible experience, the service element to it, how it fits into our lifestyles, its integration with everything else, manufacturing life cycles, and what they represent in terms of values.

A good common example is Apple. They don't simply design gadgets, they sell you a lifestyle. In that endeavor, they aim to make everything that we do interconnected and seamless. In order to do this, industrial designers must look at the system. All product designers should move into the field of industrial design, in the sense that they engage in a systems-level understanding of design (ensuring that the products follow suit). My personal take is that industrial designers, ironic to its title, are meant to bring back the context of humanity to an already heavily industrialized society.

[savvysymbiont]

Experience Design, Service Design, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Interaction Design, Product Design, Industrial Design....All are interdisciplinary specialties that over lap depending on the technology and the user...

[busimo]

Industrial Design = Product Design + Engineering

[aidanofriel]

I am currently studying "Product Design" at The Glasgow school of Art. I use the word product design loosely, as we don't see ourselves as what people would typically class as a product designer. We are taught about experiences and how these can be enhanced, more service designers if you want to label it. I am currently about to embark on a 4 month exchange on an "Industrial Design" course at RISD where the course heavily focuses on metal and woodwork etc which is what I tend to relate industrial to be. Basically in short, I see product design as a flexible interdisciplinary study where you focus on the experience instead of a physical object where as Industrial design is much more focused on aesthetics and the precision of designing high fidelity creations, but again, this is only my opinion from how I've been taught.

[EnxhS]

Bro it took you a lifetime to explain it

[aaronstephen]

I dont agree, product design and industrial design are different. Industrial design also includes product design bit its just a tiny area within the study. Industrial Design is the right combination of being an engineer and designer, you care about physics, production, costs but also about functionalism, appealingness, human centered design. Whereas prpduct design orimarily focuses on the aesthetics of a product. Industrial Design is really a combination of business, engineering, psychology and art. As an industrial designer you know something about every aspect that is involved in solving a problem through a service or product, and that is what makes you a great team member to find the rifht solution to a problem in which al the important aspects of stakeholders are taken into account, because one subject is not better then the other. Everything is needed. So Industrial Design and Product Design are not just synonyms they are different fields.

[aliahizzah]

In my uni we have 2 different courses Product Design Engineering (PDE) and Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) the differences between these two;

IDE lean more toward the aesthetic of the product, how they look not so much on the function of the product.
For PDE it's more toward the functionality of the product rather than the aesthetic value, PDE do alot more engineering design related rather than the design for aesthetic. I see the difference during final year project, for PDE we need to do research on how the product function and make an actual product, and for IDE just create new design and a simple mockup or prototype of the product.

[Pavar]

We design products, which have got industrial applications, with functional advantages attaining through structures or structural modifications.
So can we introduce ourselves as Industrial product designers?

[barbarajeronimo]

Thank you!
It's so hard to explain what I do...Industrial Design is...I don't know...underrated...the word Industrial really confuses people. Like...when I was looking for a job and company's saw the words Industrial Design, they always assumed I was some kind of engineer. So I always felt the need to say "I'm a product designer" so I could somehow feel accepted. Even if I know I can say both.

[bayoolatunji]

Maybe product design should be split into hardware and software so when companies ask for product designers they put software as a subheading 🤔

[kevinrznd]

In the netherlands we call it ‘industrieel product ontwerpen’ wich means industrial product design’

[jxx]

I study industrial design in uni & basically the definition our faculty of ID is: "industrial designer designs products that have a technical component in it" and those products are also mass manufactured. Basically that kinda differentiates it from soft goods design. I think industrial design basically applies that human or user centered thinking or design thinking to industrial applications - its basically a soft side of engineering (and no, industrial designer doesn't need to be versed in maths or physics in order to be industrial designer - though you need to understand technology).

In my uni our faculty also seems to stress a lot about the commercial & nontangible side of design (industrial design - service design (sometimes referred as industrial service design) & ui design/creative tech - we have a mixture of marketing, entrepreneurship & design management/strategic design courses (somewhat depending on individual choices).

But this is just my opinion

[boblucky]

In my opinion, "Product" is a widely word, not every product are physical, such as APPS; insurance contract; website etc. Industrial designer witch mean the people who design the industrial product.

[lawrencelam]

I've seen the term Product Design used interchangeably with Mechanical Engineering and might be tied to Stanford's Product Design program that dates back to the 1950's and goes beyond ME by bringing in aspects of craftsmanship, personal expression, aesthetics and business concerns. However, I find hard core stress/strain type of ME's also coining the term Product Design as well as UI product managers now also using the term. As a long time Industrial Designer, I've seen management, clients, and HR people in some of the largest companies get all confused over this term. It's great seeing you bring this up.

[simpernchong]

In my opinion, Product design can mean mechanical engineer, UX, software developing, etc. It is a broad term. Industrial Design is much more specific.. although our field is changing and expanding.

[arunkumar-pzid]

Industrial designer works on thought to give solution to the problem to make life easy as a result a thing is created while a product designer designs specified product only.