**6. Future work**

and prototyping were the skills most valued, while the art and video editing skills were not valued. For the design of appliances, skills most valued are mastery of CAD, materials, prototyping and design methodologies. For jewelry design, skills most valued are talent and creativity. For the design of toys, the skills that are most valued concern the area of materials and creativity. Expertise in packaging design, should be grounded on knowledge of types of

Designers and their employers value a variety of factors and skills, with emphasis on creativity and the ability to bring innovation directed to increased market penetration and shares. Designers value the skills that will help them stand out and gain prestige and professional recognition. Designers are required to possess not only technical skills, but also mastery of methodologies for the execution and implementation of design projects and knowledge of the

The work reported in this chapter shed light on the content of job offers in the area of industrial design, analyzed in relation to skills, qualifications and experience required. Through the surveys conducted, empirical data was gathered that supplemented literature review of studies to enhance the attainment of the objectives proposed for the study. Most designer respondents aspire to become professionally independent of their employer, and to create their

This chapter aimed to analyze and understand the employment opportunities for the profes‐ sion of industrial designer and their qualifications that are most conducive to recruitment, adopting a national perspective and an international perspective. To achieve this, a twopronged approach was developed aimed, firstly, to identify pathways to integration in the labour market by industrial designers at the national level, within the Portuguese language space and at the international level, in order to understand the importance of training and other conditioning factors for these paths. On the other hand, work proceeded through surveys to enable the unveiling of the training components seen as critical to employers, and at the same time, this was done to try to envision their future needs in order to provide feedback to the training institutions and enhance effective training and consequently employability. As an example of the pathways of professional affirmation of designers, entrepreneurship, at various stages of the careers of designers, has been studied both from a theoretical standpoint, and considering the socio-economic reality. In this context, and by way of example, the chapter presented a technological project for sustainable design and outlined the contours of a proposal for social entrepreneurship based on that project, aiming to contribute to community devel‐ opment. The work developed and reported in this chapter shed light on a perspective of current job offers in this area, analyzed in relation to the skills, qualifications and experience required. Based on two questionnaire studies made (one questionnaire was addressed to designers

**4.2. Discussion on training and skills top ranked for each type of specialization**

materials, on CAD mastery and on creativity.

manufacturing methods.

220 Advances in Industrial Design Engineering

**5. Conclusion**

own business.

After the presentation of the findings it is important to highlight some issues that provide some recommendations for future research. Based on the results that were achieved, there are clues about what to explore in future research.

As proposals for future work, springing from the results of the present work, one may consider:


Moreover, some suggestions for implementation by institutions to improve and adapt to meet the challenges encountered in academic education of industrial designers may be outlined:


**•** Providing students with intensified and perseverant contacts and experiences with the reality of companies, either through internships or by carrying out real projects that are developed in partnership with businesses, although of an intrinsic curricular nature.

**Chapter 11**

**Visual and Material Culture in the Context of Industrial**

Industrial design is viewed as a synergy between applied art and science aiming at creating and developing aesthetic, ergonomic and functional values in produced artefacts. In the evolution of visual designs in Nigeria, a craft-based design practice has been most prominently featured with the culture acting as a motivating factor. The craft designs in traditional Nigerian settings consist of three dimensional elements such as the object form and the two dimensional features such as patterns, lines and colours. The visual designs on material artefacts have consistently infused culture-oriented aesthetics, thus adding to their local identity and commercial value for increase marketability. For the purpose of this paper, visual and materials culture is viewed as a direct application of industrial design with relevance to the productions of indigenous artefacts which are accomplished with technical expertise and covering wide areas of applied art and design, such as jewellery, interior design, ceramics, household wares, architecture, textile designs, leisure goods and woodwork. The Nigerian concept of industrial design embraces the creation of functional designs with intrinsic aesthetic satisfaction. This article explores the expanding field of material and visual culture insofar as it contribute to events, situations or other features relevant to defining human landscape as well as the social,

In general, material culture can be defined as whole objects that are close to art in characteristics but which do not fully assume art's unadulterated-status. The study of material goods and artefacts, technology and other aspects of material culture have been given systematic attention, especially with prototype invention incorporated into the more generalized fields of work organizations, informal settings, cultural production and domestic settings, etc. All of these cause practical utility and aesthetic value to intersect in influencing material goods and

> © 2013 Kashim; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

© 2013 Kashim; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2013 Kashim; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

cultural and natural environments, objects, images, ideas and practices.

the demand of conspicuous consumption.

**Design: The Contemporary Nigerian Experience**

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

I.B. Kashim

**1. Introduction**

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/54548
