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Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Industrial Design in the UK
Industrial design has been cleared for take-off. On board
is a team of highly motivated multi-disciplinary designers,
carrying in their hand luggage powerful conceptual tools
to tackle problem solving and offer innovative solutions.
The course is set, and they are well prepared for turbulence.
All health and safety procedures are well rehearsed. Destination
- a UK Masters in Industrial Design. But what do you need
to be a successful industrial designer?
 You
need a very strong design presence. Someone who, from a position
of considerable experience, can direct a design programme
- all functions must get the brief right first time, and really
understand what they are trying to do. Then during the concept
process, everybody must be totally disciplined, "otherwise
you either get lousy quality on time, or better quality too
late!" Royden Axe, former head of design at Rover and
Chrysler.
Considering that the train was invented long
before the automobile, it has taken longer to modernise, to
move away from skilled coach-builders to lower-skilled assembly-line
fitters. Perhaps the great days of pioneering creativity are
about to make a comeback, as the growing recognition of the
value of designers and the outsourcing of manufacturing capabilities
opens up new opportunities. Aircraft transport may be the
most advanced in strength-to-weight ratio, yet interior aesthetics
are relatively simplistic, and show less attention to detail
than trains and cars. What they have in common is the need
for flexibility and response to change which means modularity.
Trains, cars and planes are all developing the science of
repetitive interconnections of similar parts to control material
costs and assist rapid assembly.
 So
what are the implications for post-graduate industrial design
education in the UK? First, the emphasis is on multi-disciplinary
teamwork. Learning to work in such teams is one half of the
equation, but the more demanding half may be learning to form
and manage effective teams. Many of the traditional paradigms
of management go out of the window when it comes to the successful
operation of teams of creatives, engineers and other functional
professionals. If trains are to learn from planes, and planes
from cars, we are also faced with the need to develop sophisticated
design research skills. In a recent industrial design study
of the office environment, a post-graduate student wrote:
"It was clear that in order to grasp the complex themes
involved, research would play a major part in determining
the success or failure of the project. I found that I was
facing hard and soft issues, where the harder traditional
linear values faced soft, volatile, humanistic problems."
These softer aspects include organisational structure and
cultural issues.
 Boundaries
between designers almost disappear when multimedia tools come
to the fore. The scope to experiment with evolutionary prototypes
on screen, producing stunning design presentations, is growing
exponentially, as is the relationship between 3D model-making
processes and computer-generated images. Still, the real pressure
lies in getting the brief right - requiring the development
of special skills in communicating and negotiating with clients,
and nurturing a relationship based on mutual trust and respect.
Higher studies have offered diagnostic tools to help in understanding
the relative positions of designer and client in their approach
to styling, for example; also the building of expert systems
and environmental scanning information systems, which assist
with innovation and development.
Post-graduate design is much more than theory-driven
or studio-based design, or even styling. Success is now about
design in a hybrid scholarly practitioner fashion: learning
about one's own creative process, setting it in a wider context,
using design management techniques and new technology to support
it, and most importantly, learning to manage change. In the
past, institutions have concentrated on the theoretical design
processes, but progressive universities have devised new curricula
to meet rapidly changing needs. They produce a new type of
thinking designer, confident in their creative skills, and
not afraid to engage with pragmatic research, devise new methodologies,
manage the process and deliver the goods. Learning from trains,
cars and planes, but anxious not to miss the boat.
Author
Ray Holland
Programme Leader, MA/MSc Programme
De Montfort University, Leicester
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