Industrial design is a fairly new and dynamic profession. As the importance of design in innovation has been increasingly acknowledged, the firms which aim to develop novel products and services are giving priority to employ designers.
Industrial designers predominantly work in the private sectors which produce consumer products. The sectors employing designers include, but not limited to; furniture, packaging, electronics, household electrical appliances, medical products, automotive, lighting, toys and games, and sports equipment. Designers also take part in development of public products with shared use. To fully discover the sectoral variety, you may browse the online gallery of Design Turkey Industrial Design Awards, an event that has been held regularly since 2008 to reward quality product designs developed in Turkey.
Employment opportunities for industrial designers are equally diversified. A number of firms operating in different industries embody R&D, product development or product testing units, where industrial design graduates can work as in house designers. They can also work at design consultancy offices, start their own firms or work as freelance designers to offer design services to a diverse range of firms. In recent years, an increasing number of graduates are also stepping into the entrepreneurial world by creating their own brands and line of products via startup companies.
Together with the growing digitalization of daily lives, industrial design graduates started to work in interaction design, service design, and user experience design fields as well. Additionally, graduates can gravitate towards academic fields via graduate and postgraduate degrees, working at universities and research institutions.