An informative look for someone pondering a career in Consumer Product Design, with a focus on responsibility and need of marketed products.
A career in Consumer Product Design, just like any other successful career, requires innovation, ample self-esteem, and creativity. Creativity is a must, but this statement does not mean that you have to be a "brain surgeon." Instead CPD requires you to be able to relate to your product's market group, understanding market needs, and believing in your product. For instance, if you are given the assignment of designing a woman's cosmetic case you should think about the price and type of people who will utilize the merchandise.
A cosmetic case should fit comfortably in a woman's purse, without encompassing the entire bag. It should also be sturdy enough to support a compact, a lipstick, a blusher, a bottle of nail polish, an eye shadow container, and possibly a nail file. These products range from powdery to liquid, and accordingly your container needs to keep powder spills and liquids in it. Thus, a case derived from plastic might hold spills, but the nail file could easily tear the thin plastic case""or a broken mirror or nail polish bottle could. Accordingly, if you design a plastic case the plastic should be thick enough to account for nail files and broken bottles, but it should not be so thick that it adds unnecessary weight to a woman's bag. Other avenues of concern for this product relate to price, color, and material type. For a "high end" audience you would not want to market a plastic cosmetics bag for twenty dollars, and for a "low end" audience you would not market a bag of Chinese silk for thirty-five dollars. Both of these products might be excellently designed and crafted, but your market will not buy them if they do not suit current needs""i.e. items are perceived to be cheap or overpriced.
Market needs derive from what individuals will purchase, how many versions of a product have already infiltrated the market, and how much similar products have sold. Expensive, designer tennis shoes are frequently sold to desiring consumers, but they are also a contemptuous product to market. Selling a pre-teen a pair of tennis shoes that cost seven hundred dollars would seem preposterous to a family in the middle-income bracket, but a family of wealth and independent leisure might find these shoes perfectly acceptable for their child. Additionally, even though the two families may have different reasons for acquiring the shoes, popular media and marketing magazines may demean your company and salesmanship for engineering the product. Justly, if you do market expensive clothing accessories target your product's release during appropriate economic cycles. That is, in a recession luxury shoes and bags are not frequently bought and sold because consumers are concerned about the value of their investment dollars.
Lastly, the CPD industry demands that you take responsibility and pride in your product. If you design the next seven hundred dollar pair of running shoes, and successfully market them to a producer, then you need to be able to explain your critics why these shoes are superior in design and quality, must haves, and not frivolous luxuries compared to other shoes (particularly cheaper ones) on the market. The same notion applies to makeup bags. Here, women should be educated on the new design and functionality of the product because even though some consumers will purchase a new product on color and visual appeal they will not be repeat buyers if the product does not "give them something back."
Products that give consumers a sense of satisfaction and purpose are easy sellers, but they should not be frivolous endeavors. And products should not be confusing and so complicated to use that buyers needs a degree in applied engineering to use them properly, well, or at all. Thus, the CPD career can be fulfilling for the innovative soul, but designers should always take current market needs and concerns into consideration when developing a new product""and they should always believe in their design, be able to easily explain its purpose, function, and absolute need.
