Industrial design is, to me, a very fancy term before reading this article.
Perhaps it is because of the term “Industrial”, I think of this term as something that requires a high-end degree, suffient amout of professonal information, utlized by a talented brain, something that is solely for the big, giant corporates/companies, and are off the hands of the average people like me. However, the reading flips this opinion around.
Individuals who have specialized in their production are crafters, seeking for higher end product is the craftsmanship, yet with the evolution of technology and manufacturing capabilities, which both are heavily improved during/after the industrial revolution, sole production of a high end, unique goods slowly moves out of the field of attention. The field of design focus more on commercial products which could have much more audiences, and the production design are aimed more towards mass-manufacturing capability rather than spending ten years sharpening a single blade.
Aimming for people’s needs becoming more of the concerns that the designers will have, along with the growth of technology, people’s needs are being fulfilled and at the same time they are amazed by the designers who combine ideas with newest technologies. It is really surprising to see that their are those many intersting chair designs already back in two hundred years ago.