"The people who design things like cars, bikes, furniture, tools and
equipment, computers, medical devices, housewares, toys – all the stuff
you see in stores, all the stuff people use at home and work every day,
the things that most people think just occur somehow. The people who
design these things are generally called industrial designers (sometimes
referred to as I.D.) or product designers." http://www.idsa.org/what-industrial-design-primer-beginners
Since I'm a Transfer Student, the only thing that I needed to do was to take the workshop entrance exam, an test for them to evaluate my skills and creativity. The Industrial Design at UW is a three years program with the first year being dabble in all three different field; Visual Communicate Design - VCD (Think Graphic Design but more depth to it), Interaction Design - IxD, and Industrial Design - ID to further diversify your skills before you go study on more specialized path in one of those three fields.
Fast forward to a year later, my hard works had paid off. I'm proud to say that I was accepted into both programs-- Industrial Design and Architecture.
With the gap between acceptance dates (within Architecture and
Industrial Design), I had a lot of time to research and plan for the
future based on which program I may or may not have gotten into.
Not knowing whether or not I would be admitted into Architecture after receiving my Industrial Design invitation, I had to officially accept the invitation just in case. However, the program was not merely a backup, it was chosen with much thought, research and input from professionals. I was informed that my long-term goals in Architecture would require me to earn a Master's Degree, and I would therefore be better off diversifying by earning an Industrial Design Degree as an Undergraduate student.
Why did I choose Industrial Design?
The Industrial Design program is still extremely relevant to my ultimate goal of becoming an Architect (if the passion for the field is still in my heart), and should grant me immediate increased career opportunities upon graduation (prior to earning my Master's in Architecture or an Master in Business). With all of this information and advice in mind, I elected to stay an Industrial Design major so that I can bring more to the table in the future.
Not only that, Industrial Design would allow my imaginative mind run
free and design almost everything. For me, Industrial Design is
fundamentally ‘thinking about things’. At face value Industrial Design
is about making things - making things at an industrial level, so it is
about mass manufacturing -big noisy machines with lots of white-gloved
hands on sticks placing things in boxes onto conveyor belts to the tune
of Raymond Scott’s “Powerhouse”. This means it is also about materials,
technologies, process, marketing, branding, distribution and anything
else concerned with transforming product X from an idea into something
that can be seen hanging in the shops by the dozen alongside fifty
almost identical items.
Don’t get me wrong, Industrial Design
isn’t just ‘mass-manufacturing’; Industrial Design overlaps into art
and science, and so it should. The language of Industrial Design is
predominately graphic and sculptural-the sketch and the model, it has a
natural connection to art and craft. When most people define design they
mean styling, and Industrial Design is about beautiful objects as well,
bespoke ‘designer’ pieces, limited edition fancy-pants concepts that
will be shown in galleries and fill countless blogs that specialise in
‘looks cool but could not work in real life’ ideas. Industrial Design is
important because it is fundamentally ‘thinking about things’. To be a
good industrial designer you need to think a lot, which means you need
to know a lot. Read, listen to the radio, draw, be interested in the
world, read some more, ask questions, sketch, talk to those who’ve done
it before, contribute, copy, share. Never stop trying to fill your head
and you will be a good designer. If you have thought about what you have
designed, you can defend your design. If you conscionably can’t defend
your design then don’t do it. There are plenty of problems in the world,
trivial and serious, that industrial design can address. Have a think
about them then have a crack at solving them.
On the final notes - Man, I just realized that I've applied to two of most competitive majors at UW;
Chance of Gaining Entry
Industrial Design - 28% (34 out of 120+ applications)
Architecture - 38% (40 out of 110+)
Of
course, I am happy and extremely relieved but it doesn't mean that I
can stop keep working hard. Far from it. It just means that in order to
be a successful designer - I need to be more aggressive and work hard to
make it happens. I'm looking forward to the future ahead of me and I
hope to keep posting to keep track of my journey on new exciting path!
