As a ID student this documentary gets shoved up my ass regularly. Is it worth the watch.

Currently I've got a career as a project manager but looking to get a degree in ID and hoping for some advice. Since I do have a full time job I'm looking to do a part-time online program in my free time. Cost isn't an issue as I have my full GI bill available to me.

In the end does it matter if I go BA/BS? Even though I'm doing this for fun …if I ever wanted to transition into a position does 1 carry more weight over the other? or is it purely portfolio?

Any program recommendations? ( I know just a few are out there)

Is it worth it? I see a lot of posts saying just go UX but to me they appear as very different fields.

I'm also open to other design related career suggestions that may be growing.

Hi there,

are you allowed to use your work samples from your current/ previous I.D. job if you want to update your portfolio? How would you handle that?

Hi everyone. I am helping out a friend who worked as an industrial designer at a startup but got laid off. I am a new to this field so I don't know where/how to look for companies that hire for this role. For context, his previous company had many clients (startups mainly) who were looking to prototype their ideas. His team and him came up with several iterations till they could come up with a final product to present to the clients.

I tried Google/Glassdoor/Indeed but they dont show relevant roles or they are located way outside his locations of interest. I'm looking for companies in the Bay area. Any leads are highly appreciated!

so i finally have dome free time to do some passion projects and ive been thinking about majeing something music related.. but what? A grapic designer makes posters and shirts or hoodies but what about us, what can industial designer make music related? It could be merc or anithing ealse.

Hi! First time posting in here. I'm a young Industrial Designer, with 2/3 years of experience but working for companies that are not Design agencies. I'm currently pursuing my dream of working in design agencies, and I believe that in order to get it, I need to improve my set of skills.

- Learn Rhino from Scratch (I know SW), Improve at rendering and animating (keyshot) and working on my drawing sketches which they always had been regular are some things on my list to do.

Sometimes I have the feeling that in order to get this I need to take a gap year to dedicate really consistent time to improve those skills, since design agencies are expecting juniors with all these skills on their max level.

Do you think taking a year/half a year is the best way?

I'll leave you all with my portfolio so you can have an idea on which state I am right now. Thanks!

https://www.behance.net/gallery/190724957/Product-Design-Portfolio

I'm about to start advertising to be able to do modeling and carpentry work, but I'm afraid of not getting quality work, have you been through that? And if yes, how have they overcome it?

Hi all,

A topic for those in-industry, that I thought might be interesting to cover, is your general workload in your current role.

Owing to being in the toy-industry I often find myself handling a truly absurd number of projects at a time which, whilst not particularly complicated, have tight turnarounds and tighter target-costs.

Obviously every industry has different levels of complexity/timescales etc., but I’ve no idea what constitutes “normal”, so I’d be curious to know what other people’s experience with this is, stuff like: - How many projects are you working on over, say, a year? - Are you mostly solo, or in a team? - What industry/how complex do these projects tend to be? What’s your general brief-to-ship turnaround? - How involved are you with the projects? Conceptual? Design for manufacture? - Are you an experienced designer? Junior etc?

It’d be interesting to see responses, and if anyone else is surprised by the variety of answers.

Thanks!

I'm deep into my design career and wanted to share a few pieces of guidance that are important for young designers to keep in mind. Things I sometimes see the young designers forget.

1. You're here to get paid. End of story. This isn't a calling. It isn't a hobby. It isn't fine art. For your clients it's big business - the design is literally what their customers see and pay for and it often makes or breaks their margins. For you, it's a career, and you can be a starving artist mindset chump, or you can get paid grownup money for grownup work. Always demand the latter, always be a mercenary, as those hiring you are also mercenary.
2. Every hour you put into a project is an hour that either a) isn't getting put into another project, or b) isn't getting put into your personal life. For the former, think of yourself like a lawyer that draws. If you're moving your pen, if you're thinking about a problem, that's time on the clock, and your client is going to pay for that. For the latter, remember a good designer has a healthy personal life OUTSIDE work.
3. You are being hired to solve those problems precisely because the client doesn't have the skills or the time to do it themselves. Price yourself accordingly.
4. Work is performed according to a contract, and that contract spells out deliverables, project scope, and other expectations. Sometimes it's a $25k project, sometimes $250k, and sometimes $2.5M. Those projects can all have the "same" deliverables, but they inherently will be the product of different levels of effort. Give the client only what they pay for. If they ask for more than what is spelled out in the contract, you issue a change order for more hours / money.
5. You don't have a monopoly on creative thinking. You share that with all the engineers, marketers and business development folks on the project.  New product development is a team sport. 

That is all.

EDIT: I added 5.

Hello! I am a final year Industrial Design student and am currently working on my research based FYP on tangible programming and how it can enhance children’s learning in an educational setting. I chose this topic because I always have been interested in coding but it always seemed so difficult to start or understand so I thought my fyp would be a great way to learn something new. So right now i am working on making coding accessible and easier so the product will incorporate basic coding skills like discrete logic, algorithms, and loops but through teamwork and play. I would love your insights and any help you might have to offer on developing these text based concepts into abstraction. My age group is 5-10 years of age ( subject to change) Thanks!

Hey just graduated and now will start working on my portfolio. Is there a list or something similar on the Internet of portfolios, would be super helpful for inspiration. If you have any other tips for me about the portfolio or job search, I would be happy about it :)

I need to ask a question based on how much I should charge for shop drawings/assembly drawings that will be made once so that a specific desk can be mass produced and the assembly drawings can be sent out to all the customers. I get paid by the hour for most other work around the shop but I am curious if I should price this by the job rather than the hour. Very detailed drawings with descriptions which would allow people with low to no building skills to assemble with ease.

Tools for anything from sketching to rendering to modeling really anything to improve the industrial design workflow. I’ve realized that industrial design jobs might be threatened by improving AI so I figured I should get on top of the AI game and incorporate it into some of my existing workflows. Have any of you used any industrial design AI tools worth Checking out?

Hey everyone,

I’m 25 years old and currently based in the U.S., where I’ve been working for a couple of years in graphic design. I hold a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, and have been with Apple for a little over two years now for 2D/3D work. Lately, I’m feeling the pressure of politics, salary caps, and general dissatisfaction with the current environment here, and I’m considering a career pivot. Specifically, I’m interested in transitioning into furniture design, ideally with firms specializing in bespoke furniture, small-batch manufacturing, or high-quality product development.

I’m not in a hurry to make this transition—I’m realistic about the time it’ll take. My plan is to give myself 4-5 years to truly establish myself, whether that’s through going back to school for a bachelor’s or pursuing vocational training in furniture design. I’m considering cities where I can grow both professionally and personally, and I’m particularly looking at the Nordics, Milan, Munich, or Tokyo.

I speak a little German, but I’m fluent in Japanese, so I’m hoping to leverage those language skills in whichever city I choose.

If you’ve made a similar move or have insights into these places, I’d love to hear your thoughts—whether it’s about the furniture design scene, the job market, or just living there in general. If you had to start over in a new city, which one would you choose and why?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Hello, I am currently a HS senior and am currently applying to universities for undergrad. I’m very interested in industrial design and am applying to go into the major for multiple different schools (i.e gtech, Syracuse, RISD, UIUC, etc.).

Most of the schools I’m applying to are asking for a portfolio, but I’m not entirely sure what it should look like. I haven’t been in an art class since middle school so I have no recent works, but if someone could link or describe the portfolio they applied to universities with that’d be amazing so I could have an example of what it should look like.

Hello, I’ve graduated recently with my undergrad in ID and am currently working as a junior designer. (1 year working experience so far when coupled with internships).

I am currently toying with the idea of a MBA to pair with my undergraduate degree, and fell into Supply Chain Management. While I’m not applying to school right away, I am thinking of starting in another year, taking the time to study for GRE etc.

To other designers who might have an MBA, would you say SCM is a good compliment to industrial design? Is there better MBA programs to look into that might serve a better purpose?

My overall career goals would have me be in management positions (obv. Where the money is). And while I love ID, I don’t love it enough to shoehorn my self specifically as a “designer”. I’m not a fool, if someone pays me 200k to be a supply chain analyst, I’ll take it over 80k to work like a dog as a ID’er. If I get into a design management position, that would be ideal.

I’d appreciate opinions on MBA programs!

P.S I have zero interest in engineering. So a masters in engineering is a no-go.

Thanks!

I'm in the US, currently enrolled in an ID program and will hopefully be accepted to my university's school of engineering in spring 2025 (I haven't chosen an engineering focus yet). The goal is to make myself more marketable as a designer when I graduate, as I know ID is very competitive. I also like the engineering side of design, but want my future job to be more of a 'creative/design' role rather than strictly numbers, engineering, etc.

One of my professors recommended studying industrial engineering or manufacturing engineering which he says will compliment ID well.

I'm personally intrigued by sustainable engineering and robotics engineering. I know that mechanical engineering is quite broad and can be a great option as well. I'm personally a little intimidated by ME because I know it combines most other engineering disciplines which can make it difficult, according to ME's that I know.

I know this all comes down to what I want to do when I graduate, I'm still learning that myself in my program. My current interests are cars, robotics, and large-scale projects that will help the environment (like what environmental engineers do).

I'm curious of which fields those of you who studied ID and engineering went into and if you think my current pathway will help me secure a job in the future. Thanks!

I'm working on a small product which shows real-time light price and I wanted to achieve a clean look, where displays are blending with the surfaces, something like the image attached. Which displays or materials are the ones that can make me achieve it?

Hi, I’m a Ma Design graduate with a couple of years in industry, trying to get back into industry. Honestly the threads for portfolio review seem a little dead, is there a group chat/do people want to make a group chat to do longer term portfolio review/critique & advice?

Hi there, I am currently looking for a industrial design role as full time. The meantime I was laid off from my main Job, I updated my resume, Linkedin that I was working as freelancer overlapping the time when I was at my last job as full-time industrial designer. I am curious if I put in my resume that I was working two jobs at the same time? I just don't know if it will hurt me from getting accepted to a new role.

summary - Working fulltime industrial designer also doing freelance design as a side. Will this hurt me getting a new job if I put this in my resume/LInkedin

Looking for an answer from professional designers and maybe HR perspective

Thank you in advance for your reply.

I'm currently in US fyi

Hi,

I graduated from an ID program earlier in the year and have been looking for a job position since. I've have a had few bites here and there, but nothing has really been able to stick, with many companies ghosting even after design assessments and interviews. I have tried to reach out to professors and other people I've met through school but to not a lot of success. I was wondering if there were any other ways people have found success looking for work in today's job market that wasn't simply applying for roles?

Non-ID connections have mentioned cold emailing companies but I'm a little at a loss on how to do that effectively and if that is something that has worked for people. Thanks!

A few years back out of high school, I had wanted to go into industrial design. Unfortunately between covid and finances I wasn't able to jump right in and school and ended up leaving to work, which is the situation I've been in the past few years.

I've had a lot of time to think about my career and explore different options, and in the time since I left school I've worked in an upholstery shop, worked in furniture sales and am now at an antique car shop. Im toying with the idea of trying to get back into ID but I don't think I could afford to study full time.

Maybe I could get some certificates? Or even something cheap and online? I'm not sure how much I need, tbh, and what my most effective use of time studying would be if I actually want to increase my odds of landing a job

I'm located in the Philly area, for reference

Has anyone done the herman miller summer internship? What was it like? What did it take to get it?

For the longest time I have always manufactured products based on drawings provided by customers or I bought off the shelve (existing products) from suppliers. This puts me in an awkward position as I am always sort of the middle man. I am looking to design my own products now - particularly plastic injection (with sprues) toys lets use Gundam for example and was wondering what is the proper process from concept to design right up to before actual production.

So I'm wondering. With industrial design being so competitive, I've come to terms with the fact that I probably won't be an industrial designer, but do something related to it, as it's a fairly interdisciplinary degree. Do employers value that or should I just get a degree or do some course for that specific job related to ID?

I’m a student here. Is there any Asian industrial designer here? How is the industrial design industry in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia (SEA)? Which country provides good opportunities for us?