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Commercial and Industrial Designers

Design and develop manufactured products, such as cars, home appliances, and children's toys. Combine artistic talent with research on product use, marketing, and materials to create the most functional and appealing product design.

What you’d do

  • Prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment.
  • Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends.
  • Evaluate feasibility of design ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics.
  • Confer with engineering, marketing, production, or sales departments, or with customers, to establish and evaluate design concepts for manufactured products.
  • Present designs and reports to customers or design committees for approval and discuss need for modification.
  • Research production specifications, costs, production materials, and manufacturing methods and provide cost estimates and itemized production requirements.
  • Direct and coordinate the fabrication of models or samples and the drafting of working drawings and specification sheets from sketches.
  • Investigate product characteristics such as the product's safety and handling qualities, its market appeal, how efficiently it can be produced, and ways of distributing, using, and maintaining it.

Skills that matter

  • Active Listening
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Critical Thinking
  • Speaking
  • Judgment and Decision Making

How to get there

Considerable preparation: most need a four-year bachelor's degree

Also called

  • Design Engineer
  • Designer
  • Industrial Designer
  • Product Designer
  • Mechanical Designer
  • Mold Designer

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