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.
- • Prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment.
- • Direct and coordinate the fabrication of models or samples and the drafting of working drawings and specification sheets from sketches.
- • Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends.
- • Coordinate the look and function of product lines.
- • 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.
- • Evaluate feasibility of design ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics.
- • Read publications, attend showings, and study competing products and design styles and motifs to obtain perspective and generate design concepts.
- • Research production specifications, costs, production materials, and manufacturing methods and provide cost estimates and itemized production requirements.
- • Design graphic material for use as ornamentation, illustration, or advertising on manufactured materials and packaging or containers.
- • Develop manufacturing procedures and monitor the manufacture of their designs in a factory to improve operations and product quality.
- • Supervise assistants' work throughout the design process.
- • Fabricate models or samples in paper, wood, glass, fabric, plastic, metal, or other materials, using hand or power tools.
- • Investigate product characteristics such as the product's safety and handling qualities, its market appeal, how efficiently it can be produced, and ways of distributing, using, and maintaining it.
- • Develop industrial standards and regulatory guidelines.
- • Participate in new product planning or market research, including studying the potential need for new products.
- • Advise corporations on issues involving corporate image projects or problems.
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O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
