Ray_li

Went to uni and graduated with a Industrial Product Design degree and now I have 6 years industry experience I fancy doing some freelance design.

I want/need to keep my 36 hours design employment to pay the bills and offer me some financial stability whilst I'm starting out.

The only difficulty I'm facing is finding work and how much to charge. If there's any designer/engineers out there that can give me some pointer into finding design work I'll be very grateful.

Thanks

Ray

Dave Bullock

Do you think that you could design a mute button for the wife?

That would have to be worth a few quid.

She's ranting and raving about something tonight.

I try not to listen but I can hear the odd word like 'lazy' and 'git' being mentioned. Can't believe she is moaning at me, the perfect hubby, again!!!

Cheers.

Hen Pecked Dave.

r32

Have you tried one of the many design contract firms? We have many contract engineers working here? They earn more than the employed guys too......

Ray_li

Not tried any contracting firms and I won't be able to work in another office mondays to fridays

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

What is it exactly that you do? Are you actually an electrical or mechanical engineer, or does 'industrial product design' imply something more along the lines of graphic design and CAD?

spireite

Can you do scaffold design , if so id be getting in touch with all the scaffold companies .

Ray_li

Design consumer and industrial products.

not electrical.

whats needed in scaffolding?

Ray T

you have a PM

decepticon

wtf is an 'industrial product design' degree, im in the industrial design business myself for structural steelwork. if you are looking for work i would suggest you let people know what it is exactly you can do.
you later go on to say you 'design consumer and industrial products' so presumably you can design just about anything except eggs
if you dont know what is needed in scaffolding then i would'nt advise you get involved in designing it!
first thing you probably need to ensure you have is some sort of design liability insurance
good luck

Ray_li

industrial product design is just some name an academic made up many years ago before I started the course. Its not something I can change

you could call yourself an industrial design (maybe it the title you manager gave you) some may call you a structural engineer or even a scaffolder
its a just a name.

you dont seem to know the difference between the two unlike the rest of us.
Consumer product - something joy public will use/buy
industrial - products for a specialist area or parts that go with in a consumer product

that would be a good idea

Something I'll have to research.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I think there's still some confusion going on here about what 'industrial product design' actually means, on all sides.

My understanding is that it's a piece of jargon that specifically refers to the external appearance and, to some extent, the mechanical design of a product - regardless of who the end customer for that product might be.

So, for example, a company making phones might have a team of electronic and software engineers designing the circuitry and making it work, mechanical engineers working out how to fit all the parts together and secure them, and an 'industrial design' team who say how the final product should look and how the user interface should work.

I would argue that, in this example, the 'industrial design' people are not engineers at all - far from it. What they do is not predominantly engineering, it's art.

Hence my question about what exactly it is you do. Do you invent the inner workings of (presumably) electro-mechanical products, or just draw them?

Ray_li

I have to agree. Industrial designers and consumer designers are not Engineer (and plumbers )

even my job title is Design Engineer i dont see myself as a Engineer. I'm a Designer

I design mechanical (assemply, FEA, materials etc) and external appearance (styling, colour, shape, feel etc) of products