Industrial design has been cleared for take-off. On board is a team of highly motivated multi-disciplinary designers, carrying in their hand luggage powerful conceptual tools to tackle problem solving and offer innovative solutions. The course is set, and they are well prepared for turbulence. All health and safety procedures are well rehearsed. Destination - a UK Masters in Industrial Design. But what do you need to be a successful industrial designer?

You need a very strong design presence. Someone who, from a position of considerable experience, can direct a design programme - all functions must get the brief right first time, and really understand what they are trying to do. Then during the concept process, everybody must be totally disciplined, "otherwise you either get lousy quality on time, or better quality too late!" Royden Axe, former head of design at Rover and Chrysler.

Considering that the train was invented long before the automobile, it has taken longer to modernise, to move away from skilled coach-builders to lower-skilled assembly-line fitters. Perhaps the great days of pioneering creativity are about to make a comeback, as the growing recognition of the value of designers and the outsourcing of manufacturing capabilities opens up new opportunities. Aircraft transport may be the most advanced in strength-to-weight ratio, yet interior aesthetics are relatively simplistic, and show less attention to detail than trains and cars. What they have in common is the need for flexibility and response to change which means modularity. Trains, cars and planes are all developing the science of repetitive interconnections of similar parts to control material costs and assist rapid assembly.

So what are the implications for post-graduate industrial design education in the UK? First, the emphasis is on multi-disciplinary teamwork. Learning to work in such teams is one half of the equation, but the more demanding half may be learning to form and manage effective teams. Many of the traditional paradigms of management go out of the window when it comes to the successful operation of teams of creatives, engineers and other functional professionals. If trains are to learn from planes, and planes from cars, we are also faced with the need to develop sophisticated design research skills. In a recent industrial design study of the office environment, a post-graduate student wrote: "It was clear that in order to grasp the complex themes involved, research would play a major part in determining the success or failure of the project. I found that I was facing hard and soft issues, where the harder traditional linear values faced soft, volatile, humanistic problems." These softer aspects include organisational structure and cultural issues.

Boundaries between designers almost disappear when multimedia tools come to the fore. The scope to experiment with evolutionary prototypes on screen, producing stunning design presentations, is growing exponentially, as is the relationship between 3D model-making processes and computer-generated images. Still, the real pressure lies in getting the brief right - requiring the development of special skills in communicating and negotiating with clients, and nurturing a relationship based on mutual trust and respect. Higher studies have offered diagnostic tools to help in understanding the relative positions of designer and client in their approach to styling, for example; also the building of expert systems and environmental scanning information systems, which assist with innovation and development.

Post-graduate design is much more than theory-driven or studio-based design, or even styling. Success is now about design in a hybrid scholarly practitioner fashion: learning about one's own creative process, setting it in a wider context, using design management techniques and new technology to support it, and most importantly, learning to manage change. In the past, institutions have concentrated on the theoretical design processes, but progressive universities have devised new curricula to meet rapidly changing needs. They produce a new type of thinking designer, confident in their creative skills, and not afraid to engage with pragmatic research, devise new methodologies, manage the process and deliver the goods. Learning from trains, cars and planes, but anxious not to miss the boat.

Author
Ray Holland
Programme Leader, MA/MSc Programme
De Montfort University, Leicester