Commercial and Industrial Designers

What Does a Commercial and Industrial Designers Do?

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.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• 1Prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment.
• 2Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends.
• 3Evaluate feasibility of design ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics.
• 4Confer with engineering, marketing, production, or sales departments, or with customers, to establish and evaluate design concepts for manufactured products.
• 5Present designs and reports to customers or design committees for approval and discuss need for modification.
• 6Research production specifications, costs, production materials, and manufacturing methods and provide cost estimates and itemized production requirements.
• 7Direct and coordinate the fabrication of models or samples and the drafting of working drawings and specification sheets from sketches.
• 8Investigate 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.

Required Skills

• Active Listening
• Reading Comprehension
• Critical Thinking
• Speaking
• 1CadCam Unigraphics
• Adobe Acrobat
• Adobe After Effects
• Adobe Creative Cloud software
• Adobe FreeHand MX
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe Photoshop
• Apache Maven
• Apple iOS

Commercial and Industrial Designers Salary