Industrial Design as a Profession
1543-6322
Abstract
It is interesting to compare industrial design with a much older profession that is somewhat similar in basic requirements: architecture. The industrial designer, just before the war, was designing more merchandise in dollar volume than the architect was designing buildings, despite the fact that there are many thousands of architects in the United States today, and only several hundred industrial designers. Most consumer products today are being styled, for industry has recognized the need of the designer as an aid to merchandising. It is interesting to compare this ratio with the low cost home where nine out of ten average American dwellings have been built in this country without guidance of an architect. This points out the essential difference between the industrial designer and the architect: the former is concerned with designing for mass production while the latter has been mainly concerned with designing custom-made units, usually one at a time.