Proudct Design/Industrial Design for Masters Degree after Mechanical Engineering Bachelor's degree
I finished from University Last year, I studied Mechanical Engineering. I've been confused as what field I should specialize in for Masters degree if I'm to go into real mechanical design (especially automotive), in which I will use my CAD, CAM and simulation tools extensively because I want design stuffs and produce them. Is product design or industrial design a good idea or I should just stick with masters in mechanical engineering.
1 Answer
Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. Somebody said that once and it's great advice.
Product design and industrial design are very different animals so you may already have a feel for which one you lean towards.
I can say this, as a product designer, I wish the industrial designers I've worked with (cleaned up after?) had a better feel for the 'reality' of creating the actual product, OR at least seek more design and manufacturing constraint related input up front, before proceeding with the industrial designs.
I love what they do, and you need the kind of input ID provides to push the product design to new levels, but oftentimes it's disappointing because in the real world you can't make it that small, or that curvy, or that configurable, etc... It's usually a much more graphics art based function designed to impress marketing types, again, in my experience.
To me, the best Industrial Design people would be rock solid Product Design people first. Maybe you can do both!
