I know it has been a while since my last post on this blog but lots of things has happened in the past years; When I was first started this blog, I was working my way toward to the goal: Becoming an Architect. I took the prerequisite classes in the past year at the University of Washington in order to be admitted to the Architecture Program (Which would explain my absences from this blog). It was an extremely competitive program with low chance of being accepted, even if I have the high grades and all of the right stuff. But I refused let it scare me and keep on trucking, stay focus toward to my goal.
However, with the low admission rate into the Architecture Program and not wanting to be left struck with no major, I looked for the second major to fit my desires. Not wanting to give up on my passion of designing/building/art, I has came across the major that fit the criteria- Industrial Design.
What is Industrial Design? An quote from idsa.org website -
"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!
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!
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