Before and after entering the field of industrial design
I am now an industrial design student in Taiwan.
I don’t know if you also think that there is a big difference before and after entering the field of industrial design. When I say before, it means before I go to university to first officially enter this exciting field.
When I was in high school, I tried to do some research to understand what industrial design is. I first googled in Chinese, and I found a little information. However, I was still confused at that time. Maybe it was because I don’t know what keywords I should use to find useful information, I changed to google in English. Hmm… still didn’t understand quite well.
Thus, I want so share some interesting imagination and reality before and after entering the field of industrial design.
BEFORE vs. AFTER
№1 … Beautiful shapes vs. Problem solving
Before I went to university, I thought industrial design was only about product design, and product design was mostly about good shapes. Why did I have this wrong stereotype? Human always like to see physical objects rather than description texts in exhibitions. I was stunned by all the works in industrial design exhibitions, and forgot to see what they really wanted to communicate. I am sorry about that.
After I entered the university I am studying in, I have been feeling that in my school, when it comes to design, problem solving pops up. And everyone keeps asking questions such as ‘’ How to make people use the product more easily?’’, ‘’What can I do to solve this problem?’’, ‘’In my life, is there any problem bothering me?’’
We start to do design thinking, interview, persona and so many other ways to see if we can make people’s life better.
№2 … Personal styles?
Before, I thought I only had to be as creative as possible and tried my best to have strong personal style. I saw many designers who have strong personal styles like Marc Newson, Philippe Starck, and so on.
However…
After I am in this field for this period of time, I learned to find ‘’Why’’ behind works. All the famous designers follow what they believe in. They design for reasons. Reasons might be emotion design, functionalism, space age, and so on. They don’t design because they want to be cool. They design because they have faith.
№3 … Demands?
Before, I never thought about demands… ( When I typed the words, I felt a little bit shamed. )
I thought attractiveness was the most important part in products at that time.
After I started to understand industrial design, I finally saw ‘’Demands’’. Demands tell us what the market wants and what people desire, and what problem need to be solved. Demands lead designers to make life better.
№4 … Work alone vs. Teamwork
As I said in №2, I focused on personal styles too much when I was in high school. And when I saw amazing products, I could only see famous designers’ names. I totally forgot that products are very hard to be produced by only one person, and they usually need a team to complete. Thus, when I thought of design, pictures in mind showed up that a person sitting in front of a table with paper, pencils, markers… and started to think about good shapes…
Now, when I am doing design, I ask for suggestions. When I need professional knowledge, I look for it.
I am still experiencing, and exploring in industrial design.
How about you?
Do you have the gap before and after entering the field of industrial design?
Thanks for reading to the end.
This is my first time writing in English on the internet.
I am Wen-Chien Wu :D
