Designer

A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design

 object".^[1] In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, 

games and graphics, is referred to as a designer.

With the increasing complexity of today’s society, and due to the needs of mass production where more time is usually associated with more cost, the production

 methods became more complex and with them the way designs and their production is created. The classical areas are now subdivided in smaller and more specialized 

domains of design (landscape design, urban design, exterior design, interior design, industrial design, furniture design, cloth design, and many more) according to
 the product designed or perhaps its means of production.Classically, the main areas of design were only painting, sculpture and architecture,
 which were understood as the major arts. The design of clothing, furniture and other common artifacts were left mostly to
 tradition or artisans specializing in hand making them.

The education, experience and genetic blocks that form the base of a competent designer is normally similar no matter the 

area of specialization, only in a later stages of training and work will designer diverge to a specialized field. The methods of 

teaching or the program and theories followed vary according to schools and field of study. Today, a design team, no matter 

the scale of the equipment, is usually composed by a master designer (the head of the team) that will have the responsibility 

to take decisions about the way the creative process should evolve, and a number of technical designers (the hands of the team ) 

specialized in diverse areas according to the product proposed. For more complex products, the team will also be composed of professionals from other areas like 

engineers, advertising specialists, and others as required. The relationships established between team members will vary according proposed product, the processes

 of production, the equipment available, or the theories followed during the idea development, but normally they are not too restrictive, giving an opportunity to 

everyone in the team to take a part in the creation process or at least to express an idea.

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Visual design

Visual design is the design working in any media or support of visual communication. This is considered by some to be madara daf terminology to cover all types of design applied in communication that uses visual channel for transmission of messages, precisely because this term relates to the concept of visual language of some media and not limited to support a particular form of content, as do the terms graphic design (graphics) or Interface design (electronic media)

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Communication design

Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development which is concerned with

 how media intermission such as printed, crafted, electronic media or presentations communicate with people. 

A communication design approach is not only concerned with developing the message aside from the aesthetics 

in media, but also with creating new media channels to ensure the message reaches the target audience. Some 

designers use graphic design and communication design interchangeably.

Communication design can also refer to a systems-based approach, in which the totality of media and messages

 within a culture or organization are designed as a single integrated process rather than a series of discrete efforts.

Communication design seeks to attract, inspire, create desires and motivate the people to respond to messages, 

with a view to making a favorable impact to the bottom line of the commissioning body, which can be either to build

 a brand, move sales, or for humanitarian purposes. Its process involves strategic business thinking, using market 

research, creativity, and problem-solving.

The term communication design is often used interchangeably with visual communication, but has an alternative

 broader meaning that includes auditory, vocal, touch and smell. Examples of communication design include 

information architecture, editing, typography, illustration, web design,animation, advertising, ambient media, 

visual identity design, performing arts, copywriting and professional writing skills applied in the creative industries.

Example of the environmental design

Examples

Examples of the environmental design process include use of roadway noise computer models in design of noise barriers and use of roadway air dispersion models in analyzing and designing urban highways. Designers consciously working within this more recent framework of philosophy and practice seek a blending of nature and technology, regarding ecology as the basis for design. Some believe that strategies of conservation, stewardship, and regeneration can be applied at all levels of scale from the individual building to the community, with benefit to the human individual and local and planetary ecosystems.

Specific examples of large scale environmental design projects include:

• Boston Transportation Planning Review
• BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit System Daly City Turnback project and airport extension.
• Metropolitan Portland, Oregon light rail system

History

The photo shows a training meeting with factory workers in a stainless steel ecodesign company from Rio de Janeiro,Brazil.

The first traceable concepts of environmental designs focused primarily on solar heating, which began in Ancient Greece around 500 BCE. At the time, most of Greece had exhausted its supply of wood for fuel, leading architects to design houses that would capture the solar energy of the sun. The Greeks understood that the position of the sun varies throughout the year. For a latitude of 40 degrees in summer the sun is high in the south, at an angle of 70 degrees at the zenith, while in winter, the sun travels a lower trajectory, with a zenith of 26 degrees. Greek houses were built with south-facing façades which received little to no sun in the summer but would receive full sun in the winter, warming the house. Additionally, the southern orientation also protected the house from the colder northern winds. This clever arrangement of buildings influenced the use of the grid pattern of ancient cities. With the North-South orientation of the houses, the streets of Greek cities mainly ran East-West.

The practice of solar architecture continued with the Romans, who similarly had deforested much of their native Italian Peninsula by the first century BCE. The Roman heliocaminus, literally 'solar furnace', functioned with the same aspects of the earlier Greek houses. The numerous public baths were oriented to the south. Roman architects added glass to windows to allow for the passage of light and to conserve interior heat as it could not escape. The Romans also used greenhouses to grow crops all year long and to cultivate the exotic plants coming from the far corners of the Empire. Pliny the Elder wrote of greenhouses that supplied the kitchen of the Emperor Tiberius during the year.^[2]

Along with the solar orientation of buildings and the use of glass as a solar heat collector, the ancients knew other ways of harnessing solar energy. The Greeks, Romans and Chinese developed curved mirrors that could concentrate the sun's rays on an object with enough intensity to make it burn in seconds. The solar reflectors were often made of polished silver, copper or brass.

Early roots of modern environmental design began in the late 19th Century with writer/designer William Morris, who rejected the use of industrialized materials and processes in wallpaper, fabrics and books his studio produced. He and others, such as John Ruskin felt that the industrial revolution would lead to harm done to nature and workers.

The narrative of Brian Danitz and Chris Zelov's documentary film Ecological Design: Inventing the Future asserts that in the decades after World War II, "The world was forced to confront the dark shadow of science and industry." From the middle of the twentieth century, thinkers like Buckminster Fuller have acted as catalysts for a broadening and deepening of the concerns of environmental designers. Nowadays, energy efficiency, appropriate technology, organic horticulture and agriculture, land restoration, New Urbanism, and ecologically sustainable energy and waste systems are recognized considerations or options and may each find application.

By integrating renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, and even geothermal energy into structures, it is possible to create zero emission buildings, where energy consumption is self-generating and non-polluting. It is also possible to construct "energy-plus buildings" which generate more energy than they consume, and the excess could then be sold to the grid. In the United States, the LEED Green Building Rating System rates structures on their environmental sustainability.

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Environmental design

Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans,

 programs, policies, buildings, or products. Classical prudent design may have always considered environmental 

factors; however, the environmental movement beginning in the 1940s has made the concept more explicit.

Environmental design can also refer to the applied arts and sciences dealing with creating the human-designed 

environment. These fields include architecture, geography, urban planning, landscape architecture, and interior design. 

Environmental design can also encompass interdisciplinary areas such as historical preservation and lighting design.

 In terms of a larger scope, environmental design has implications for the industrial design of products: innovative

 automobiles, wind-electricity generators, solar-electric equipment, and other kinds of equipment could serve as 

examples. Currently, the term has expanded to apply to ecological and sustainability issues.

Emotional Design

Emotional Design is both the title of a book by Donald Norman and of the concept it represents. The main topic covered is

how emotions have a crucial role in the human ability to understand the world, and how they learn new things.

 For example: aesthetically pleasing objects appear to the user to be more effective, by virtue of their sensual appeal. 

This is due to the affinity the user feels for an object that appeals to them, due to the formation of an emotional connection

 with the object.

Norman's approach is based on classical ABC model of attitudes. However, he changed the concept to be suitable for 

application in design. The three dimensions have new names (visceral, behavioral and reflective level) and partially
new content. In the book, Norman shows that design of most objects are perceived on all three levels (dimensions).
Therefore a good design should address all three levels.

The front cover of Emotional Design showcases Philippe Starck's Juicy Salif, an icon of industrial design that
 Norman heralds as an "item of seduction" and the manifestation of his thesis.^[1]

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Trends in product design

Product designers need to consider all of the details: the ways people use and abuse objects, faulty products, errors made in the design process, and the desirable ways in which people wish they could use objects.^[10] Many new designs will fail and many won't even make it to market.^[10]Some designs eventually become obsolete. The design process itself can be quite frustrating usually taking 5 or 6 tries to get the product design right.^[10] A product that fails in the marketplace the first time may be re-introduced to the market 2 more times.^[10] If it continues to fail, the product is then considered to be dead because the market believes it to be a failure.^[10] Most new products fail, even if it's a great idea.^[10] All types of product design are clearly linked to the economic health of manufacturing sectors. Innovation provides much of the competitive impetus for the development of new products, with new technology often requiring a new design interpretation. It only takes one manufacturer to create a new product paradigm to force the rest of the industry to catch up - fueling further innovation.^[11] Products designed to benefit people of all ages and abilities—without penalty to any group—accommodate our swelling aging population by extending independence and supporting the changing physical and sensory needs we all encounter as we grow older.

Product design considerations

Product design is not an easy task.^[9] The stakeholders involved all demand something different from the product designer and from the design process.^[9]

• The manufacturer is concerned with production cost; in the end, the manufacturer wants an economically produced product.^[9]
• The purchaser looks at price, appearance, and prestige value.^[9]
• The end user is concerned with usability and functionality of the final product.^[9]
• The maintenance and repair department focuses on how well the final product can be maintained: is the product easily reassembled, disassembled, diagnosed, and serviced?^[9]

Stakeholders' needs vary from one another and it is the product designer's job to incorporate those needs into their design.

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Product design expression

Design expression comes from the combined effect of all elements in a product. Colour tone, shape and size should direct a person's thoughts towards buying the product.^[6] Therefore it is in the product designer's best interest to consider the audiences who are most likely to be the product's end consumers. Keeping in mind how consumers will perceive the product during the design process will direct towards the product’s success in the market.^[7] However, even within a specific audience, it is challenging to cater to each possible personality within that group.

The solution to that is to create a product that, in its designed appearance and function, expresses a personality or tells a story.^[6] Products that carry such attributes are more likely to give off a stronger expression that will attract more consumers. On that note it is important to keep in mind that design expression does not only concern the appearance of a product, but also its function.^[6] For example, as humans our appearance as well as our actions are subject to people's judgment when they are making a first impression of us. People usually do not appreciate a rude person even if they are good looking. Similarly, a product can have an attractive appearance but if its function does not follow through it will most likely drop in regards to consumer interest. In this sense, designers are like communicators, they use the language of different elements in the product to express something.^[8]

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Demand-pull innovation and invention-push innovation

Most product designs fall under one of two categories: demand-pull innovation or invention-push innovation.^[5]

Demand-pull happens when there is an opportunity in the market to be explored by the design of a product.^[5] This product design attempts to solve a design problem. The design solution may be the development of a new product or developing a product that's already on the market, such as developing an existing invention for another purpose.^[5]

Invention-push innovation happens when there is an advancement in intelligence. This can occur through research or it can occur when the product designer comes up with a new product design idea.

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Product design process

There are various product design processes and they are all focused on different aspects. The process shown below is "The Seven Universal Stages of Creative Problem-Solving," outlined by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnell. It helps designers formulate their product from ideas. This process is usually completed by a group of people, designers or field experts in the product they are creating, or specialists for a specific component of the product, such as engineers. The process focuses on figuring out what is required, brainstorming possible ideas, creating mock prototypes, and then generating the product. However, that is not the end of the process. At this point, product designers would still need to execute the idea, making it into an actual product and then evaluate its success by seeing if any improvements are necessary.

The design process follows a guideline involving three main sections:^[4]

• Analysis
• Concept
• Synthesis

The latter two sections are often revisited, depending on how often the design needs touch-ups, to improve or to better fit the criteria. This is a continuous loop, where feedback is the main component.^[4] To break it down even more, the seven stages specify how the process works. Analysis consists of two stages, concept is only one stage, and synthesis encompasses the other four.
Analysis

• Accept Situation: Here, the designers decide on committing to the project and finding a solution to the problem. They pool their resources into figuring out how to solve the task most efficiently.^[4]
• Analyze:" In this stage, everyone in the team begins research. They gather general and specific materials which will help to figure out how their problem might be solved. This can range from statistics, questionnaires, and articles, among many other sources.^[4]
• Concept

• Define: This is where the key issue of the matter is defined. The conditions of the problem become objectives, and restraints on the situation become the parameters within which the new design must be constructed.^[4]
• Synthesis

• Ideate: The designers here brainstorm different ideas, solutions for their design problem. The ideal brainstorming session does not involve any bias or judgment, but instead builds on original ideas.^[4]
• Select: By now, the designers have narrowed down their ideas to a select few, which can be guaranteed successes and from there they can outline their plan to make the product.^[4]
• Implement: This is where the prototypes are built, the plan outlined in the previous step is realized and the product starts to become an actual object.^[4]
• Evaluate: In the last stage, the product is tested, and from there, improvements are made. Although this is the last stage, it does not mean that the process is over. The finished prototype may not work as well as hoped so new ideas need to be brainstormed.

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Product design

Product design is the process of creating a new product to be sold by a business to its customers.

 It is the efficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products.

In a systematic approach, product designers conceptualize and evaluate ideas, turning them into tangible products.

 The product designer's role is to combine art, science, and technology to create new products that other people can use. 

Their evolving role has been facilitated by digital tools that now allow designers to communicate, visualize, and analyze ideas in a way that would have taken greater manpower in the past.

Product design is sometimes confused with industrial design, and has recently become a broad term inclusive of service, software, and physical product design. 

Industrial design is concerned with bringing artistic form and usability, usually associated with craft design, together to mass produce goods.^[3]

Industrial Designers Society of America

History

The organization of professional designers can be traced to the beginning of the industrial design profession itself, which first came to the attention of the general US public in 1927. That year, Macy's in New York City held a well-attended Exposition of Art in Trade.^[1] This featured "modern products," many of them from the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris,^[2] which was belatedly recognized by the US government as an important "modern movement".

Immediate public and manufacturer demand for these new "Art Deco" styles was so obvious, and the need so great, that a number of design professionals (often architects, package designers or stage designers) focused their creative efforts for the first time on mass-produced products. They claimed the new title of "industrial designer" which had originated in the US Patent Office in 1913 as a synonym for the then-current term "art in industry".

Immediately, some of these professionals founded the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen (AUDAC)^[3] to protect their industrial, decorative and applied arts concepts from piracy, and to exhibit their new work. AUDAC attracted a broad range of artists, designers, architects, commercial organizations, industrial firms and manufacturers. Within a few years, it had more than a hundred members, and held major exhibitions in 1930 and 1931.

In 1933, The National Furniture Designers' Council (NFDC) was founded, bringing together a number of furniture representatives and designers to draw up a code for the National Recovery Administration (NRA) to prevent design piracy. But in 1934, NRA was declared unconstitutional and NFDC disbanded.

In 1936, the American Furniture Mart^[4] in Chicago invited leading designers to form a new organization called the Designers' Institute of the American Furniture Mart. Some members felt restricted by the sole patronage and sponsorship of the furniture industry, and in 1938 they founded a broader-based organization called the American Designers Institute (ADI), which allowed specialization in one of many design areas, including crafts, decorative arts, graphics, products, packaging, exhibit or automotive styling, to name a few. ADI's first president was John Vassos (1898–1985).

In February 1944, fifteen prominent East Coast design practitioners established the Society of Industrial Designers (SID). Each of the founding members invited one additional designer to join the following year. Membership requirements were stringent, requiring the design of at least three mass-produced products in different industries. SID was formed in part to reinforce the legality of industrial design as a profession, and to restrict membership to experienced professionals. SID's first president was Walter Dorwin Teague.^[5][6]

In 1951, ADI relocated its administrative center to New York City, absorbing the Chicago Society of Industrial Designers (CSID) in the process and changing its name to the Industrial Designers Institute (IDI). That year, IDI initiated annual national design awards, which continued through 1965. By 1962, IDI had about 350 members in 10 city chapters across the country.

In 1955, The Society of Industrial Designers (SID) changed its name to the American Society of Industrial Design (ASID). By 1962, ASID had about 100 members in four chapters nationally.

In 1957, The Industrial Design Education Association (IDEA) was founded because neither professional society (IDI or ASID) accepted educators as full members. Its first president was Joseph Carriero (1920–1978).

In 1965, after over ten years of careful negotiations, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) was formed by the collaborative merger of IDI, ASID and IDEA. In doing so, the strengths, purposes and varied philosophies of its predecessors combined to become the single voice of industrial design in the US.

When IDSA was formed, it consisted of about 600 members in 10 chapters across the country. The first Chairman of its Board was John Vassos (1898–1985), the founder of ADI, and its first President was Henry Dreyfuss (1904–1972). By 1980, IDSA had re-initiated annual national design awards and revised its bylaws significantly.

At the start of the 21st century, IDSA has over 3,300 members and 28 chapters.
article written by Carroll Gantz, FIDSA^[7]

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conic industrial design Engineer

Chair by Charles Eames

A number of industrial designers have made such a significant impact on culture and daily life that their work is documented by historians of social science.^{[citation needed]} Alvar Aalto, renowned as an architect, also designed a significant number of household items, such as chairs, stools, lamps, a tea-cart, and vases. Raymond Loewy was a prolific American designer who is responsible for the Royal Dutch Shell corporate logo, the original BP logo (in use until 2000), the PRR S1 steam locomotive, the Studebaker Starlight (including the later iconic bulletnose), as well as Schick electric razors, Electrolux refrigerators, short-wave radios, Le Creuset French ovens, and a complete line of modern furniture, among many other items.

Richard A. Teague, who spent most of his career with the American Motor Company, originated the concept of using interchangeable body panels so as to create a wide array of different vehicles using the same stampings. He was responsible for such unique automotive designs as the Pacer, Gremlin, Matador coupe, Jeep Cherokee, and the complete interior of the Eagle Premier.

Viktor Schreckengost designed bicycles manufactured by Murray bicycles for Murray and Sears, Roebuck and Company. With engineer Ray Spiller, he designed the first truck with a cab-over-engine configuration, a design in use to this day. Schreckengost also founded The Cleveland Institute of Art's school of industrial design.

Oskar Barnack was a German optical engineer, precision mechanic, industrial designer and the father of 35mm photography. He developed the Leica, which became the hallmark for photography for 50 years and which still is a high water mark for mechanical and optical design.

Charles and Ray Eames were most famous for their pioneering furniture designs, such as the Eames Lounge Chair Wood and Eames Lounge Chair. Other influential designers included Henry Dreyfuss, Eliot Noyes, and Russel Wright.

Jonathan Ive is also an iconic industrial designer designing many of Apple's products.