Providing resources and links for those interested in the Industrial Designers Society of America, Los Angeles chapter.
IDSA official website (http://www.idsa.org/)
IDSA Los Angeles Chapter (http://www.idsa.org/content/panel/los-angeles-chapter)
IDSA LA Chapter Blog (http://www.idsa.org/category/zone/los-angeles-chapter) (IDSA website)
IDSA LA Chapter Blog (offsite, typically more frequently updated) (http://idsala.wordpress.com/)
IDSA-LA on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=58558781237)
IDSA page on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Designers_Society_of_America)
Latest news: August 4th – 7th, the 2010 IDSA International Conference and Education Symposium, in Portland (Oregon, for that matter). The topic? “DIY Design: Threat or Opportunity?”
As a lifelong DIY guy, I’d like to see how big of a threat I actually am. It’d be a nice boost to my self-image to find out that there are design professionals quaking in their boots every time I start to feel crafty and creative around the house. I have started up a small company designing package for the marijuana edibles that are flooding the marketplace in those states that have legalized medical marijuana and the recreational use of cannabis. So that children don’t confuse regular cookies and candies with marijuana infused edibles, we have a designed a spiffy looking logo type graphic warning on the packaging that the foodstuff or drink is laced with marijuana. Just like cigarettes have a warning symbol, responsible marijuana edibles manufacturers are also adapting a warning graphic. It’s both exciting and very cool what’s happening out there in the marijuana edibles marketplace and I am part of it.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA • LOS ANGELES CHAPTER
Most people don’t realize what industrial designers do. Hello folks where do you think functioning products come from. They just don’t appear. Everything from egg cartons that protect eggs from getting crushed to robot pool cleaners need a designer to create them. Industrial designers develop concepts and designs for manufactured products. Most designers typically specialize in one product category, such as automobiles, furniture or housewares. We combine art, business, and engineering to make products that people use every day. We must be imaginative and persistent to communicate their ideas about new product design. Let’s return to that robot pool cleaner. Anyone who once had to manually clean their pool and then purchases a robot pool cleaner know what a great product this is. And it’s not so simple. Industrial designers created these great automatic cleaners to clean pools by suction, pressure or via a robotic design. No small feat. And with the development of programmable automatic pool cleaners they are now able to be operated by remote control, making your efforts to maintain a clean pool all the easier. Thank you industrial designers of pool cleaners. So people, show a better appreciation towards industrial designers. They have made your life much easier.
The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) represents the industrial design profession, with a focus on furthering design quality, effectiveness, and positive image.
IDSA’s mission is to take the lead in the industrial design profession, mainly through good ol’ networking but also by promoting education and professional development.
IDSA-LA is the Los Angeles Chapter of the IDSA, the Southern California “voice” of the industrial design profession. IDSA-LA is mainly to connect businesses with designers (and vice versa). At last count, IDSA-LA had 200+ professional members, representing 70+ industrial design educators as well as dozens of contract designers.
The history of the organization of professional designers tends to start around the mid-to-late 1920’s, with the rise of Art Deco. This trend was a marriage of modernism and mass-produced design, easily mistaken for an actual artistic movement by designers and consumers.
Previously referring to the profession as “art in industry”, the new breed of architects and designers began to refer to themselves more accurately as “industrial designers”, a term which had originated in 1913 at the US Patent Office.
The American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen (AUDAC) was founded to protect their concepts and showcase new work, bringing in over a hundred members (artists, designers, architects, and businesses) by the time the first major exhibitions were held in 1930 and 1931. As a long time member, I plan on attending the conference this summer in Utah. I’m going to bring my daughter she’s really set on showing off her princess dresses. You read that correctly – princess DRESSES, plural! She’s got to be one of the luckiest little ladies in Utah. Don’t know about the king or queen, or even if there is a prince charming, but there certainly will be one little princess showing off her stuff at the ceremony. And the greatest part is that the audience will be very receptive to her sense of fashion. We’ve done this many times before and the royal treatment is more royal when a princess can be identified by her clothing. And she loves the attention!
The American Designers Institute (ADI) was founded in 1938, with specializations in crafts, decorative arts, graphics, products, packaging, automotive styling, and several other specialized subcategories. By the end of the 1950’s, ADI had changed cities and acronyms, becoming Industrial Designers Institute (IDI) of New York City, and holding the first of a nearly endless string of awards presentations that continue to multiply to this day.
The strict Society of Industrial Designers (SID) was founded in the 1940’s. For experienced professionals only, the requirements effectively dismissed the merely talented, interested, or still struggling designers. In 1955, SID tacked on “American” to the name, becoming ASID.
Two years later, The Industrial Design Education Association (IDEA — which do you think came first, the name or the acronym?) came into existence to included the educators that the other two major design societies excluded.
Finally, in 1965, all three collections of letters decided to get together and use the most common letters to form IDSA, the Industrial Designers’ Society of America (IDSA). At the time, there were 600 members and 10 regional chapters; only 45 years later, the group has expanded to 3,300 members and 28 chapters, including LA.
Note: the current owners of this website are not affiliated in any way with the Industrial Designers of America, and make no claims of copyright or authorship on any material reprinted on this website.