Welcome to Innovation, IDSA's quarterly design journal. Selected articles from past issues are available in .pdf format below.

For the latest editions of Innovation, the journal of the industrial design profession, please subscribe to the quarterly, or become a member of IDSA. All IDSA members get a free copy of Innovation four times a year as a benefit of membership.

File attachments: 

Dziersk_winter04.pdf

spherefactor.pdf

Sterling.pdf

"One Industrial Designer’s Packaging Safari"

"in search of stories masquerading as objects”

In the last century Industrial Designers gave form to products. In this century they will give form to experiences.

In our recent survey of IDSA members, Innovation came out as the runaway number one membership benefit. And so it should, as the critical, thought provoking mouthpiece of IDSA. In other parts of the survey, IDSA fell way short of members’ expectations; as we head into the next decade, we are going to raise the bar on everything we do, starting with the above thought about the future of our profession in a world run by a global economy and, for the most part, global design thinking.

Is there a reason for this trend? Of course! A large, technology-driven social revolution is underway that we need to frame our design thinking around in order to become a more important contributor to positive change in the world.

1895-1983

In 1929 Fuller displayed his work at the Marshall Field department store in Chicago, where public relations expert Waldo Warren created the term "Dymaxion" for Fuller's house and car. "Dymaxion" was coined from the words dynamic, maximum and tension.

In 1913, Henry Ford perfected the mass- production process with his re-designed Model T. Inspired by efficient Chicago meatpacking processes, Ford developed a sophisticated assembly-line method reducing production time from 12 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, and the car price from $900 to $440. In 1913 alone, 168,000 were produced. His unprecedented system became known throughout the world as Fordism, and by 1915 had reduced skilled labor in auto factories from 60% to 13%.