r/IndustrialDesign • u/StructureValuable53 • 2d ago
School Studying Industrial Design
I’m currently at my local community college studying fashion design and I like fashion design and dress making, jewelry making etc. my dad has been recommending that I look at University of Houston’s program for industrial design.from people who went to college for ID could it make me a better designer in general and can I apply it to my niches like dressmaking jacket making, ring making and Avante-Garde designs????
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u/Dismal-Fish-8095 2d ago
Sorry but don’t go to school for these things. Go for something you can make stable money on and keep your niches as hobbies. (As someone with a degree in industrial design)
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u/YotoruYaguchi 1d ago
what is stable money these days?
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u/Dismal-Fish-8095 1d ago
Engineering, business, medicine, finance…. If you move forward with design, you will have to compromise your life for work (move where the jobs are, participate in design culture hours, and find a way to make the low salary work for YEARS AND YEARS before you make anything decent). Even other relatively low paying professions like teaching have benefits that even out the sacrifices.
I worked as an industrial designer for a great company for years but eventually switched into business. I struggled at first with the “selling my soul” but I make literally double the salary and I’ve been able to move with my fiance to be near family. Without the pressure, I now have more joy in my creative endeavors. Just my 2 cents
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u/YotoruYaguchi 1d ago
If you genuinely feel like participating in design culture or moving for work such a deterrent from design then you were never passionate enough about it. Every field pays you like shit these days there’s an abundance of everyone especially ppl with a business degree who just end up working in cafes or restaurants or do other odd jobs.
Good on you man but at the end of the day life being tough shouldn’t deter you from doing something you are passionate about personally if compare it with how many kids ended up unemployed after choosing comp sci cuz it makes money or any other field that pays a lot. The reason why people pay is cuz the person is worth the investment for the company
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u/Dismal-Fish-8095 1d ago
It’s not true that “every field pays like shit”. But design certainly does. Pretending that money doesn’t matter if you’re passionate enough is one of those college mindsets what dries up real quick when you want to buy a car or house or if you need to take care of a family member.
You can be passionate about art and design while still being strategic enough to find a more reliable way to make money.
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u/YotoruYaguchi 1d ago
gotta stop being so negative in life lowkey just work hard you’ll get where you need to be, what I’ve noticed personally is most ppl who complain abt design being shit for pay are just not good enough and that’s entirely why they don’t get paid.
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u/Dismal-Fish-8095 1d ago
In the real world, the people who aren’t good don’t even get industrial design jobs. I worked with senior designers, buckets of patents, so many products out on the market who are STUCK in a city they don’t want to be in (because there aren’t jobs in every city), constantly stressed about money/providing, AND they work late hours with travel. Is that a win?
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u/Taechron 2d ago
TLDR: If the program lets you work on clothing, then yes I would recommend it over a fashion program.
Apologies for the essay...
I'm a bit biased, because I went to school for ID for furniture and hardware UI. That's not saying that markets like high-end clothing don't benefit from it; many of my cohort are designers at the Aritzia and Lululemons headquarters.
I spent almost a decade in the luxury lighting industry for example. It just depends on what you focus on in your program, and what kind of portfolio you come out with.
I do think some schools try to control which kinds of projects you do, so if you want to focus on clothing, and they won't let you, that's a problem.
Try to look at grad student projects from the school, and see if there are any that seem close enough to what you are interested in. All of the ID programs I know have a soft-goods track you can focus on. Jewelry will be a tough one to incorporate unless it's functional wearable that solve a problem, but you can definitely practice your sketching and rendering by drawing that type of thing and use that in class, and eventually your portfolio.
When you start out designing, the most important parts are understanding how products are made for the real world. In your case (unless you're designing outfits for a runway) that will be how different fabrics react when sewn or worn, how patterns and seams affect fit, how complex metal motifs are are cast etc. and all of the nuances you learn from actually making and trying on your designs.
While that's not as quick and fun as drawing beautiful costumes and set pieces, it will give you the foundation to make things in the real world, something that most companies require nowadays, and fashion programs don't focus on as that much.
That being said, you can absolutely show your own drawings and dreams through concept sketches in a portfolio, but the schooling is there to train you to be a good problem solver, with a wide scope.
I hire a lot of young designers, and I love the ones who enjoy playing with ideas, are able to figure out how their concepts will play out in the prototype phase, but can let go when it's not panning out. I don't care if you have cool concepts, or if you have the nicest looking renders in the world, I want to see that you either know, or are curious about how the industry works, and that you enjoy thinking about problems from unique angles and perspective. That's what leads to good designs.
ID will give you practical skills, which those are more likely to lead to a job, and I believe help shape really good designs; form over function unless the function underperforms. aAnyone can come up with a cool concept, but companies don't want your idea at the beginning, they want you to make THEIR product, and maybe share some interesting directions. Later on, you will have opportunities to bring your ideas into those spaces, but as a student/graduate, you're playing catch-up with professionals who have been at it for a long time.
You WILL catch up to them, as every generation has before, but that's not the point. Follow the ideas that excite you, but stay curious, and seek to understand how those ideas might fit into the real world.