What is the history of Industrial Design?

When our forbearers made their first stone blades by chipping shards of a stone, it was the idea of improving the efficiency of the cutting edge, even if it was discovered by chance. Human curiosity and the need to improve ‘product’ led to the existence of specialized crafts people of many different genres. Several hundred years ago the first guilds formed in Europe to unify particular skills for particular purposes. Soon schools were formed to allow people to train away from traditional apprenticeships into more generic forms of training. Movements such as the ‘arts and craft movement’ defined different styles at the end of the 19th century. This was followed by the ‘ Deutscher Werkbund’ (German Work Federation) and the first specialized design schools such as the Bauhaus, one of the cradles of industrial design. The discipline of industrial design is a natural development out of the industrial revolution of the 19th century. It is an important professional discipline in product development now and all industrialized countries offer design degrees at their universities.

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