Globalization and Industrial Design

Globalization has greatly affected me in the aspect of my chosen career. I am studying Industrial Design, so my future jobs will affect many people in different parts of the world when people use products I help design. In a large part, the necessity of an Industrial Designer increases as globalization increases because of the greater competition. With the ability to order things online, and products from different countries available everywhere, a company cannot maintain a market simply because they are the only company that is geographically near a customer. They must be ever improving their products to keep up with all the different sources of competition.

I remember in one of my design classes several years ago my professors talked about how when products he had worked on were ready to be manufactured, it would cause him to think about how there were going to be another million pieces of plastic in the world.

I have thought about that often since then. There is a lot of stuff made in the world. Some of it is very well designed and engineered, lasts a long time, and is enjoyable to use. Other things are virtually trash the moment they come out of the mold. Often the quality of a product is determined by how much it can be sold for. But cost is not the only determining factor of value. You can have two products that cost the same to produce, but one has greater value to those who use it because it has been researched and developed to a point where it addresses their needs.

One of my favorite climbing equipment companies is Petzl. They are located in Europe, but have a huge market share in the US. My other favorite climbing equipment brand is Black Diamond, who is located in the US, but manufactures some of their products overseas. Though these two companies are on entirely different continents, there products are available to many of the same people. Their similar products are usually very close in price, but I often find one to be of greater value to me than the other.

This aspect of being able to positively affect many people’s lives with a well-designed product shows why good Industrial Design is so valuable to a company. Companies invest years of research and many man hours to design and validate a single product. Even though so much money is put into this process, it is worthwhile because its greater value leads to more people purchasing it, and being satisfied with it.