Research about characteristics of designs from industrial designers and product designers

Difference between industrial designer and product designer is not precisely defined. There is a lot of discussions and misunderstandings about these two professions. What is the job of industrial designer and what is the job of product designer? This question if often asked from people, which want to hire someone to design a new product for them. Through this research, same real-life design contest is given to group of students from Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Design, at Industrial design course and to group of students from Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Product Design as product design project. Goal of the contest was to design an upholstered chair for indoor use with a modern and refined style. Goal of this research was to find some unique characteristic of designs from industrial designers and product designers. Resulted designs were evaluated analysing the fulfilment of the requirements criteria defined by contest and analysing additional criteria, which is important for new product design. Analysing the resulted designs some important conclusions are made. Most important conclusion is that industrial designer can be product designer but product designer cannot be industrial designer. For product design, engineering knowledge is not necessary, but for industrial design, it is most important.