The (actual) definition of industrial design: a manifesto
by Johannes Stumpf
·
Preamble — The term industrial design is widely used, yet rarely understood with precision. Despite decades of academic definition, the discipline remains surprisingly unclear – even among students, architects, and professors. Arguments arise not only over what industrial design is, but what it is for. Some define it strictly through the lens of mass production and utility. Others place it closer to art, culture, or speculative design.
This lack of clarity has created a disciplinary gap – one where the practice has evolved, but the language to describe it has not. The result is a fragmented field that often struggles to define itself beyond outdated frameworks or vague stylistic cues.
This manifesto offers a necessary redefinition. One that respects the origins of industrial design, yet reflects what it has become today: a cultural and conceptual practice that bridges function and narrative, production and presence.
Definition — Industrial design, by its classical definition, is the discipline of creating objects through industrial processes – primarily with a focus on function, efficiency, and mass production. Rooted in the legacy of movements like the Bauhaus and thinkers like Dieter Rams, it traditionally served the needs of industry and the everyday user. Yet over time, industrial design has expanded beyond solving practical problems – it now operates as a bridge between utility and narrative, function and form. In today’s cultural and artistic landscape, industrial design no longer exists solely within the realm of production; it also expresses ideas, critiques systems, and gives physical shape to contemporary thought. It is the intentional shaping of objects through industrial languages – materials, processes, or aesthetics – to create presence, meaning, and cultural resonance.
Manifesto — Industrial design is no longer confined to the production line. It has evolved into a critical and cultural practice – one that shapes not only objects, but perceptions, ideologies, and lived experiences.
It originates in the logic of systems, yet speaks in the language of form.
It emerged from utility, yet it now carries narrative.
It was once concerned solely with the user; today, it engages the observer, the thinker, the world.
Industrial design bridges the mechanical and the poetic. It reconciles the efficiency of production with the emotion of presence. Its methods are rooted in industrial processes, but its outcomes belong equally to industry, to art, and to culture.
It is a field that synthesizes the precision of engineering with the sensitivity of curation. Every surface, every angle, every choice becomes a carrier of intention. Whether mass-produced or singular, whether silent or expressive, the object becomes a site of meaning.
In this expanded vision, industrial design is defined not by its scale of production, but by its relationship to process, material, and context. The hand and the machine are no longer in opposition – they are collaborators in form-making.
This manifesto recognizes industrial design as a discipline that evolves with society.
It adapts, it responds, and it proposes.
It does not simply serve needs – it questions them.
It does not merely reflect culture – it participates in shaping it.
The future of industrial design lies in this duality:
To be both tool and symbol.
To be both system and story.
To exist in the world not only as solution, but as presence.
Industrial design is the modern language of matter.
It carries the weight of function and the lightness of meaning.
And in that tension, it finds its power.
__
Words: Johannes Stumpf
Image: Apartment Renovation in Honancho / Takehiko Suzuki. © Masao Nishikawa
