Is the industrial design process changing as well?
Yes. For one thing, in the old days, the battle cry was “design for manufacturing” you’ve got to design and engineer that camera body to within an inch of its life so that it can be manufactured in the quadrillions at triple-sigma quality. Today it’s “manufacturing for design.” We’re doing some prototype desktop manufacturing at Art Center taking original ideas created on computers, which drive rapid-prototyping equipment, which produce parts which are assembled and can be handled and used and worked with a couple of hours later. It’s not very far from that to rapid or even “desktop” manufacturing. Will consumers someday participate in designing the products they buy? It’s happening now. The other night my ten-year-old, Barbie-addicted daughter went on the Mattel Barbie web site and designed her own Barbie. She picked its name, its personality, its friends, its style, its hair, its eyes, its accessories. Seven days later it arrived in a box that read: “Melanie, designed by Meredith.” N
