What does an industrial designer do?
Industrial Designers work with clients to conceptualize product ideas. They collaborate with clients in creating product blueprints, samples, and mock-ups. Industrial Designers create drafts based on the clients' ideas, keeping in mind the different requirements as well as aesthetic qualities that the clients envision. They usually specialize in a specific product category such as toys, furniture, and cars, among others. Industrial Designers also collaborate with other professionals such as manufacturers, materials experts, safety experts, and other product makers to ensure the feasibility and the product safety of the concepts they come up with.
Industrial designer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real industrial designer resumes:
- Produce, clean, and manage 3Dprints (SLA) for multiple brands' form studies.
- Lead front-end QA of all major releases, filing, prioritizing and fixing bugs myself.
- Streamline product development process by introducing state-of-the-art prototyping and model making techniques.
- Create 3-D files and renderings for packaging and display by SolidWorks and KeyShot.
- Strengthen concept visualization, presentation and layout design through effective 3D rendering with Keyshot and Rhino3D.
- Produce detailed drawing sets for bid packages using Vectorworks.
- Design of physical structures and spaces for projection mapping and visualization experiences.
- Create illustrations, renderings, and graphic presentations for exhibitions, and signage.
- Produce material for publications, product photography, events, and marketing platforms.
- Design and maintain the company's interactive website utilizing html, SEO, and other tools.
- Train and supervise student and part-time workers to fabricate exhibition mounts, labels, and signage.
- Generate various new concepts presentations for clients, utilizing sketch sessions, digital storyboards, and 3D renderings.
- Assemble the CNC cut parts to create a series of fully functional jigs that produce perfectly round drums.
- Illustrate new product concepts, by generating hand sketches, illustrations, and SolidWorks renderings communicating ideas and systems.
- Work closely with engineers and CNC operators to ensure the quality of control from each single part that is produced.
Industrial designer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 10% of Industrial Designers are proficient in Industrial Design, Solidworks, and CAD. They’re also known for soft skills such as Mechanical skills, Problem-solving skills, and Analytical skills.
We break down the percentage of Industrial Designers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Industrial Design, 10%
Manage 1 industrial design employee and several subcontractors including: mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, graphic designers and industrial designers.
- Solidworks, 10%
Produced SolidWorks engineering CAD files for several commercial pool and spa battery-powered vacuum products.
- CAD, 8%
Sourced components and manufacturing and oversaw CAD development.
- Sketch, 6%
Created concept sketch generations for a future house wares product -Produced 3d drawings and photo-realistic renderings for CPD s client across seas
- KeyShot, 5%
Collaborated with internal publisher team to design gaming products, using Photoshop, Illustrator, and KeyShot.
- Prototype, 5%
Refined the initial concept into a functional high fidelity prototype capable of meeting design objectives verifiable through user testing.
"industrial design," "solidworks," and "cad" are among the most common skills that industrial designers use at work. You can find even more industrial designer responsibilities below, including:
Mechanical skills. The most essential soft skill for an industrial designer to carry out their responsibilities is mechanical skills. This skill is important for the role because "industrial designers must understand how products are engineered, at least for the types of products that they design." Additionally, an industrial designer resume shows how their duties depend on mechanical skills: "participated in brainstorming for visual direction and mechanical solutions for active and upcoming projects. "
Problem-solving skills. Many industrial designer duties rely on problem-solving skills. "industrial designers determine the need, size, and cost of a product; anticipate production issues; develop alternatives; evaluate options; and implement solutions.," so an industrial designer will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways industrial designer responsibilities rely on problem-solving skills: "design and develop complete product lines and storage solutions for the motion systems division. "
Analytical skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of industrial designers is analytical skills. This skill is critical to many everyday industrial designer duties, as "industrial designers use logic or reasoning skills to study consumers and recognize the need for new products." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "analyzed current product lines and conducted research on current market trends. "
Artistic ability. A big part of what industrial designers do relies on "artistic ability." You can see how essential it is to industrial designer responsibilities because "industrial designers sketch their initial design ideas, which are used later to create prototypes." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical industrial designer tasks: "freelance business with a broad spectrum of artistic services including: industrial design. "
Computer skills. Another crucial skill for an industrial designer to carry out their responsibilities is "computer skills." A big part of what industrial designers relies on this skill, since "industrial designers use computer-aided design software to develop their designs and create prototypes." How this skill relates to industrial designer duties can be seen in an example from an industrial designer resume snippet: "provided computer aided designs for merchandising and development teams. "
Creativity. While "creativity" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to industrial designer responsibilities. Much of what an industrial designer does relies on this skill, seeing as "industrial designers must be innovative in their designs and the ways in which they integrate existing technologies into their new product." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of industrial designers: "toy invention for hasbro, mattel and spin master, make working prototypes to present the ideas. "
The three companies that hire the most industrial designers are:
- ICONMA7 industrial designers jobs
- HP6 industrial designers jobs
- Techtronic Industries TTI6 industrial designers jobs
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Compare different industrial designers
Industrial designer vs. Color adviser
Product design interns are students who are doing their on-the-job training under the product design department of an organization. They are usually assigned administrative tasks. However, they must also be exposed to the activities done by product designers. As such, product design interns may join team meetings, ideation activities, and product presentations. They learn about the necessary skills in product designing. They learn about different materials needed for the product or different programs related to the software. They learn about user behavior and how important understanding the customers is when designing a product. They may also help the team by giving user experience feedback.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of an industrial designer are more likely to require skills like "industrial design," "solidworks," "cad," and "sketch." On the other hand, a job as a color adviser requires skills like "photoshop," "color coordination," "color design," and "color selection." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
On average, color advisers reach similar levels of education than industrial designers. Color advisers are 1.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Industrial designer vs. Color expert
Each career also uses different skills, according to real industrial designer resumes. While industrial designer responsibilities can utilize skills like "industrial design," "solidworks," "cad," and "sketch," color experts use skills like "color theory," "skin care," "product knowledge," and "store events."
Color experts earn similar levels of education than industrial designers in general. They're 2.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for industrial designers in the next 3-5 years?
Abby Guido
Assistant Professor, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
Industrial designer vs. Inventor
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, industrial designers are more likely to have skills like "industrial design," "sketch," "keyshot," and "visualization." But a inventor is more likely to have skills like "reverse engineering," "revit," "product concepts," and "patent applications."
Inventors typically earn higher educational levels compared to industrial designers. Specifically, they're 7.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 5.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Industrial designer vs. Product design internship
Types of industrial designer
Updated January 8, 2025
