Commercial and Industrial Designers

Overview

Commercial and Industrial Designers has a national median salary of $83,910 per year, with +2.4% projected job growth from 2025–2035. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical education needed to enter this occupation.

Description

Design and develop manufactured products, such as cars, home appliances, and children's toys. Combine artistic talent with research on product use, marketing, and materials to create the most functional and appealing product design.

Work Values

• Achievement
• Relationships
• Independence

Work Styles

Responsibilities

Tasks

• Prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment.
• Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends.
• Evaluate feasibility of design ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics.
• Confer with engineering, marketing, production, or sales departments, or with customers, to establish and evaluate design concepts for manufactured products.
• Present designs and reports to customers or design committees for approval and discuss need for modification.

Work Activities

• Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Working with Computers
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
• Getting Information
• Thinking Creatively
• Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
• Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships
• Documenting/Recording Information

Detailed Work Activities

• Providing documentation, detailed instructions, drawings, or specifications to tell others about how devices, parts, equipment, or structures are to be fabricated, constructed, assembled, modified, maintained, or used.
• Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.
• Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
• Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
• Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
• Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
• Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.

T-A-S-K

Technology, Abilities, Skills & Knowledge

Education

Education Levels of Current Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical education needed to enter this occupation. The chart below shows the highest level of education held by people already working in this field, ages 25 and older. It includes workers who earned more education than the job requires and workers who entered the field under earlier requirements, so the largest bar is not the entry requirement. For example, if someone finished a master's degree and then started working in this field, they are counted under “Master's degree” here, but the job itself typically asks for a bachelor's degree.

Certificates

Certifications applicable to Commercial and Industrial Designers:

Video Resources