Occupation
Industrial designer
Industrial designers develop the form, ergonomics, materials, and usability of manufactured products, from tools and appliances to furniture and packaging. They work between marketing, engineering, and manufacturing, so a design has to be desirable, usable, and genuinely producible.
Also known as: Product designer · Consumer product designer · Industrial design consultant
Occupation content
Part of Arts, design, media and communications
What the work involves
- Research users, comparable products, and manufacturing constraints for a brief
- Sketch and model concepts by hand and in CAD software
- Build or commission physical prototypes and observe how people handle them
- Specify materials, finishes, and tolerances with engineers and suppliers
- Prepare drawings and documentation for tooling and production
How people commonly enter
- Bachelor's degree in industrial design or product design
- College diploma in industrial design technology plus portfolio work
- Transfer from engineering, model-making, or CAD drafting with a design portfolio
Typical training: Bachelor's degree
Licensing: Not typically licensed
Typical work context
Team based · Lab or workshop · Desk based · Varied work
Related interests
Artistic (creative) · Realistic (hands-on) · Investigative (analytical)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Arts, design, media and communications.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics - Occupational Outlook Handbook: Industrial Designers · United States
Link checked
- O*NET OnLine - Commercial and Industrial Designers (27-1021.00) · International
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- UK National Careers Service - Explore careers job-profile index · United Kingdom
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Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Arts, design, media and communications in Canada, not a figure for Industrial designer. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Arts, design, media and communications family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Arts, design, media and communications: education pathways
Some roles in Arts, design, media and communications may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Arts, design, media and communications: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Industrial designer”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)