Time to read: 5 min
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field of industrial design is expected to grow substantially over the next eight years. And, with an average salary of $77,030 a year reported in 2021 (but closer to $104,000 in San Francisco), the field promises great job security and financial stability. Plus, design thinking, a foundation of industrial design, is taking center stage as a creative way to solve problems in the corporate sector and beyond.
In this article we’ll discuss the field of industrial design and three of the most common paths you can take to build a career in the field.
Industrial Design – An Exciting Career Path
While many schools offer a degree in industrial design, some colleges provide other degrees along with industrial design courses to give their graduates more options after graduating. Industrial designers (aka product designers) are responsible for designing consumer products, industrial machines, automotive components, aerospace products, medical industry parts, and other physical products.
They are often responsible for material sourcing and manufacturing planning (costing and process design). This is why an industrial designer’s job description involves many facets; industrial designers employ art, materials science, engineering, and a focus on consumer needs to do their jobs well. It’s a versatile field with multiple potential career paths, but which one should you choose?
The three most common industrial designer career paths are:
- In-house designer at a company
- Freelance as a designer or design studio
- Create a product and/or form a company and become an entrepreneur
These three paths are significantly different when it comes to personal fulfillment, depending on your goals and aspirations. Let’s take a look at each path and explore the different considerations, challenges, and perks related to each.
Path #1: Join a Company as an In-House Designer
Many industrial designers spend their entire careers working for companies in salaried positions, often at some of the most successful companies in the world — think Microsoft, Tesla, Nike, Sony, or design firms like IDEO or Whipsaw. And according to the National Endowment for the Arts report on the health of industrial design in the U.S., most salaried industrial designers work in manufacturing or in professional, technical, or scientific services.
The benefits of being a salaried employee at a company, whether it’s a Fortune 500 company or a startup, are:
- Reliable salary and benefits, with set hours
- Opportunities to advance in your career and become a manager, director, VP, or C-level executive
- The chance to work for some of the top companies in the U.S. and the world.
- Solve challenging problems via design, in a focused way
- Focus your entire role on design, rather than management, manufacturing, payroll, business development, etc.
The challenges include:
- No (or little) choice in the projects you work on
- Less flexibility in your daily role because you must use your company’s process and approach
- The product belongs to your company (or your client), so you must tow the company line — this limits your design flexibility
Path #2: Freelance Designer
For those who prefer flexibility and working with multiple clients, freelancing is a great way to leverage your design skills and have more control over your time and projects.
Research shows that 36% of the U.S. workforce does freelance work, and with the growth of the gig economy in 2022 and beyond, we expect that number to increase. Whether you work for a design firm as an individual contributor or as a consultant for a larger company, or even run your own design studio, working on your own gives you immense freedom.
The benefits of freelancing include:
- Control your own schedule — where and how many hours you work. Want to go on a workcation, no problem!
- Get treated as an expert designer, and as a consultant, you run the show — no supervisors, only clients.
- You can take on multiple different projects or limit your commitments to one at a time giving you the ultimate versatility.
- Freelancing gives you the opportunity to spread your time across your passions or commitments. Many parents have chosen to leave corporate work for freelancing as it gives them time back to spend with their kids.
The challenges of freelancing include:
- Doing your own invoicing and taxes — which, trust me, is a lot of unpaid work!
- Must purchase your own benefits