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Somewhere between Innovation and Art, Gadi Amit fights through the hype for a good definition of Industrial Design. Here's a taste:

And while both the Innovation crowd and the Gallery crowd have legitimate points-of-view, their effects on the overall perception of Industrial Design can be polarizing. We have to combine the two with lots of stuff in the middle. Industrial design may be seen as an idea engine, a utilitarian act of product development, or a prop in a story told by an author/maker. But it is also about the affordability and appropriateness of an object to an average person's life. And for more "advanced" products, it can serve as a cultural interface, bridging and inspiring people to approach technology in far more than utilitarian ways...

[Read full article here.]