JOIN USIn demand Product designing is the next big thing in the world. A fine merger of arts and science, this field entices many passionate and ambitious minds, says Sanjay Saxena
We live in a world dominated with numerous products. Practically, they run our lives and we can’t imagine living without them. Who wouldn’t want t create an innovative design that makes our lives simpler. If you love both arts and science, welcome to the world of product design.
Product design is an awe-inspiring merger of art, science and technology. Almost every product that you see around you or use during your lifetime is created by a product designer.
The safety pin, the chair, the keyboard of your system, the Iphone, the blackberry, the toothbrush, the door handle, the surgeon’s scalpel and so on have all been created by product designers. Steve Jobs, Abdul Kalam, Michelangelo, just to name a few renowned people – all belong the fraternity of product designers.
In India, with the opening up of the market economy and liberalisation, design has become a very crucial domain. India is one of the largest markets in the world with the Indian middle class being the largest consumers worldwide.
This has made other
countries to look at India as a large market ready to be exploited. Today, global multinationals are selling their products here in large numbers.
The products of Indian companies face tough competition with global MNCs that employ the best technologies, qualities and better aesthetics. This has forced the Indian companies to shift their focus from technology to design.
To survive in the global competition, both the industry and economy generates need for designers who have an international outlook and sensitivity to local requirements. For this reason,
designers are anticipated to bring about innovative changes and fresh vision for the industry. Here is a lowdown on the product designing career:
Who is a product designer? A product designer is a specialised professional who creates aesthetically appealing, innovative, user-friendly and functional products.
Product designers need to have an extensive understanding of diverse subjects such as lifestyle trends, branding, marketing, types of materials, manufacturing processes etc. An extremely important characteristic of this discipline is ergonomics relating to comfort of human interface with the product.
Moreover, product designers should continually be aware of the requirements of the society with great sensitivity to its cadence, influence and its regional and spiritual ethos. Product designers are centric to areas such as automobiles, consumer electronics, interior products, medical equipments etc.
However, as their skills are transferable, they can also work for many other related disciplines such as lifestyle products, industrial products, automotive products, ergonomics, product design management, product design manufacturing, furniture design and storage units. What are the requirements?
The necessity for professionally qualified product designers has become indispensable with the globalisation of the market. A number of multidisciplinary design institutions have come forward to fill in this void.
The aim of the schools should be to train professional product designers who are not only deep rooted in product knowledge but have also a universal perspective. To achieve this, institutes develop
multidisciplinary curriculum and environments. To be a professional product designer, students need to go through such programmes.All good multidisciplinary design schools offer diploma and advanced diplomas.
The duration of the diploma product design programme is of two years. This programme is essential to develop the aesthetic sensitivity, attitudes and sensorial skills which are necessary for specialisation. In the study of product design, technology, ergonomics and subjects like history of design, information theory and computer aided designs are also
imparted. Minimum qualifications: Organisations prefer to employ product designers after a diploma of two-year duration along with minimum three months hands on
exposure at corporate level.Compensation:
Product designers receive good initial salaries after graduation. In fact, the bandwidth of compensation earned by product designers can be substantial and highly profitable. So, choose the product design career and make the world a better place with your innovative ideas.