Industrial design

Industrial design is the art and science involved in the creation ofmachine-made products. It is concerned with aesthetic appearance as well aswith functional efficiency. The success of a design is measured by the profitit yields its manufacturer and the service and pleasure it affords its owner.

  Under prevailing standards of design, a product should have beauty ofline, color, proportion, and texture; high efficiency and safety of operation;convenience or comfort in use; ease of maintenance and repair; durability; andexpression of function in terms of form. The relative importance of any ofthese standards may vary depending on the object. Thus, line and proportion maybe more desirable in a sofa than in a tractor, where durability and easy maintenancemay be paramount. A consideration basic to all good designs is the factor ofrealistic cost. Thus, effective industrial design requires, besides artisticability, combined knowledge of engineering principles and materials, productiontechniques and cost, and marketing conditions.

  Today industrial design has been applied to practically all consumerproducts, notably to home appliances, office equipment, electroniccommunications equipment, bathroom and lighting fixtures, furniture, hardwareand tableware, automobiles, and photographic equipment. Industrial design isapplied also to products involved in distribution, such as trucks and automaticvending machines, and to industrial materials and equipment.

  The industrial designer must be concerned not only with product designbut with the conditions under which products are sold. In planning retailstores and display areas, for example, the industrial designer works with thearchitect to increase the revenue­-producing interior space and to create arrangementsand atmosphere conducive to sales. Industrial designers also work to facilitatethe profitable operation of railroad stations, airports, hotels, shoppingcenters, exhibitions, restaurants, public auditoriums, television stations, andoffices.

   Thefundamental problem of design in packaging is to provide all the essentialinformation, such as the instructions for the use of the product and thelegally required identification of its contents, while fulfilling the broaderpurpose of selling the product. Because of the current trend towardself-service in merchandising, the importance of packaging increasesconstantly.

  Industrial design has made valuable contributions in the field oftransportation. Only the largest industrial-design offices are equipped todesign the interior of ocean liners, aircraft, trains, buses, and other publicvehicles. The exterior and dynamic characteristics of these highly complexmechanisms impose strict interior design limitations. In jet airliners, forexample, interior space must be maximally utilized to increase the payloadwithout sacrificing the comfort of the passengers.

  Every design problem requires special procedures, timing, andtechniques,but there is a general routine applicable to all. After the industrialdesigner is informed of the needs of the client, specialists associated withthe designer conduct a study of competitive products and an extensive fieldsurvey of the manufacturer's plant. A design program is planned, andpreliminary designs of the proposed product are then sketched on the basis ofthe available plant facilities. Rough sketches are chosen for furtherrefinement and study, and the client is then presented with design studies,often in the form of a small model or of a mock-up. Following the selection ofthe approved design, working drawings indicating the choice of materials andthe specifications for finishing and assembly are prepared.A handmade workingmodel is then manufactured and submitted to the client for approval. In thecase of an automobile, for example, one or several are handmade and tested atproving grounds before final machine dies are ordered and production begins.

  The industrial designer is essentially the creator of a pattern to guiedthe operations of skilled persons or machines. The development of industrialdesign led to the creation of new procedures, such as the method of encasing aproduct to be redesigned in soft modeling clay, in order that the modificationsin the design may be molded directly from the old products. Another industrialdesign method is based on the fact that small models do not reflect accuratelythe design characteristics of the full-scale product. Distortion often occursin magnification as result of highlights and shadows that change basic spatialrelationships. To view the design in full scale, the profession employs aphotographic system in which a small drawing is projected to full scale on asection of a wall. Revisions of the design are then made directly on the wallprojection by the industrial designers.