Product Design and its role in the economy

Between July 15 and 17, the event “Product Design in the creative industry, visions and productions” took place, organized by the School of Product Design of the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Art, with the aim of showing society how this discipline contributes to the economy. 

The meeting sought to establish a dialogue about some of the visions and perceptions that one has about product design.

Danilo Saravia, Coordinator of the School, spoke with the Campus about the origin of this initiative, the motivations behind its organization and the exhibitors chosen for this purpose.

For some time, I have wondered about how to unite the field of business with the university, especially with design, since year after year there are young people who graduate and leave thesis projects at the university that could well be implemented by different types of companies.

In turn, this could facilitate entrepreneurship or it could also facilitate finding a job.

On the other hand, in the field of product design, I believe that there is an extensive variety of job possibilities, this due to the type of knowledge acquired in the career.

In this sense, there are designers of all kinds who have generated companies based on creativity from different types of industry, and this in turn has generated sources of employment, as well as capital movements.

Despite all this, there are people who do not know the work of this career and how you can live from this profession.

Also, the idea of ​​this event is around knowing the visions or views of product design from some agencies, such as academic, industrial, theoretical, among others, and for this the presence of characters has been sought linked to these areas.

It should also be noted that this is a first phase, since the next phase seeks to work with graduation projects that are believed to be in demand.

Why is it so important to show the contribution of product design to the economy?

Firstly, it becomes important to publicize how design practices can make significant contributions to the economic sphere, and from there to start thinking about different strategies that support design as an instrument for the economic development of the country taking into account what others have been able to do.

Second, there is the fact that many people do not know the professional contribution of different careers, including Product Design.

Likewise, there is a lack of knowledge of what the job opportunities may be at the level of enterprises or jobs in companies.

And in this sense, young people choose careers that by tradition have some success. From here the need to show and demonstrate what this career can offer is marked.

One of the antecedents that motivates the realization of this event are some of the results achieved by Gabriela Jaramillo in her Product Design thesis, where design was investigated as an influential factor in economic development.

In this thesis, it was evident how other countries have used design as a tool that can contribute significantly to the economic field.

Within this framework, it was proposed to hold a meeting where what is done in this career and how it is lived by its actors will be exhibited.

Who were the invited exhibitors and why were they chosen?

Three types of exhibitors were considered for this event.

In the first place, there are the exhibitors who speak from the productions, that is, they are designers of objects, products and industrialists who show how the profession of the designer is from the very practice of design and how Product Design works from different techniques and technologies. in our environment.

Second, there are the exhibitors who spoke from the strategic allies, which are some of the companies that provide designers with machinery and materials to produce their designs. What we want to show from here are the technologies and materials that we have in our context to develop different types of products.

The third place is the category of exhibitors who speak from the visions.

In other words, in this category are design representatives who are linked to different areas such as academia, industry and public policy.

What is sought with them is to reflect on what Product Design is, its roles, its new approaches and its possible future. This in order to give rise to a broader view of this profession.

For this, characters such as Ariel Rojo (Mexico), Flavio Bevilacqua (Argentina), Rodney Verdezoto (Ecuador) and Wiliam Urueña (Ecuador) were invited.