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Is Industrial Design a Desk Job?
Interesting article. One thing to keep in mind: the earlier it is out of school, the less latitude you're going to get, and thus it may be more structured and less creative- for a time. But not forever! And there is a lot to learn early on, most importantly being able to be organized and have follow through.
That said, I'll second George Sewell's comment in that, though you may spend a LOT of time working on one particular "genre" of products, being an in-house designer certainly has it's benefits! I worked within a manufacturer's design department (they made picture frames and home decor types of items) and we were blessed by being small enough to NOT have so much specialization that you no long got to make models or prototypes. In fact, as long as you could argue that what you wanted to do would help generate new/better products, we were pretty much free to do whatever we wanted to. Also, we got to design the packaging for the product line and eventually did all the graphic design and collateral material. When I started we just had myself and another designer, but after a few years we had maybe 6 or so designers. Again, each had his or her work style, plus a general area of the product like they liked more than others, and it worked out pretty well. They also would send us around the country to various trade shows to get a feel for what was happening out there in the real world. The only real downside for me was that after about five years I personally really could see going any within the company or industry. I was sort of tapped out and needed a new set of challenges. But that could be true wherever you are. Once you can do the job with only about 75% of your talent and effort, it's probably time to move up or out. For me that meant "out" and into animation and product visualization, which is different pretty much all the time. I miss getting to build thing in the shop of course, but that's why I have a woodworking and prototype shop of my own in the basement!
It's good to hear from the in-house crowd here. I am also in a small in-house design team, and we design/manufacture Fire & Safety products.
Is industrial design a desk job?...Can people who have to work from home due to medical conditions make it in this field? I really want to join this career, but would have to go to master's school because I have nothing on my resume to help me get in this field. Master's school is expensive. I want to make sure this career is feasible for me before I make the investment. Is it a good work from home job? Do you travel lots? How often do you get to telecommute?