Talk:Product design/Archives/2016

Industrial Design as a historically specific practice

Industrial Design arose during the Industrial Revolution as a way of framing a specific design practice located in manufacturing and its processes. As such it is very much tied to modernist design ideas, and directed towards mass production. Product Design, however, is a much broader term, as it is centred on the production of designed objects. This can incorporate Industrial Design within it, but it needs to be noted that Product Design can be practised in other ways outside the mass production processes e.g. when a product designer works to make a one-off item, or a limited run of items, or when the cultural aspects drive the production of the designed object such as with Critical Design.

Additionally, as noted above under other headlines from design practitioners in these fields, there has traditionally (in the UK at least) been a distinction between an arts-based degree in product design and science-based degrees in product design. Arts-based degrees are normally based in art schools and therefore studied alongside the disciplines of fashion design, graphic design, etc.; they have an emphasis on aesthetic and cultural aspects of the designed object. Science-based degrees are typically based in engineering departments, and have an emphasis on the technological aspects of the designed objects.

Although this division is changing, any accounting for the categories Industrial Design and Product Design needs to take into account the different histories, knowledges and practices of design in these two fields. designjunkie (talk) 22:31, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

I find it very surpising that there's no history of product design mentioned in this article, either directly or even in the most oblique way. Can this be rectified? Daniel Lewis, Ph.D. 05:11, 18 March 2016 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hilokid (talk • contribs)