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At the international car show in Geneva in March 2004, Volvo presented a new concept car – Your Concept Car, YCC. It was designed solely by women – eight of them, including three designers. It was created for “the most demanding customer group of all, professional women”.
The initiative created a huge stir, just as the company and design team had hoped it would. ‘At last’, thought some, although they were perhaps disappointed to realize that the differences between the new ‘female’ and the usual ‘male’ car weren’t actually very dramatic. Others wondered what on earth the point was – ‘isn’t industrial design for all human beings?’
In any event, the YCC highlighted a well-known fact. Most industrial designers are still men, even in Sweden, and even though there are now considerably more women working in design studios than there were ten to fifteen years ago. The Society of Swedish Industrial Designers (SID) has just over 330 members, and just under one hundred of these are women. (It is perhaps no surprise to learn that the gender distribution in the Association’s textile designer division is dramatically reversed, with only one man among some 70 women!)
What is female/male in industrial design?
At a seminar in Stockholm this spring, one of the issues discussed was the work situation of female industrial designers. Speakers described how difficult it is for a woman to present radical ideas to a client with an advanced, technically complex production system. In the opinion of some professional designers she won’t really be taken seriously. And in teams, it is often the men who are addressed. Others noted that there were advantages to being a female designer, however. A growing interest in “soft values” means a growing interest in women as industrial designers.
The automotive industry still relies predominantly on male designers, but there are some successful women, such as Aina Nilsson, who is head of the design division of Volvo Trucks. Textile materials and interior colour schemes are often the province of female designers, while men are responsible for the exterior. Good examples are two prize-winning products, the Volvo BM L150 wheel loader (1992) and the Atlet TLL 20 and TLP 20 pallet trucks (1993). Male industrial designers were responsible for the exterior design, while the interior design and colour schemes were the work of two women, Inese Ljunggren and Maria Thunberg. However, Inese Ljunggren is also responsible for designing the Trilobite robot vacuum cleaner for Electrolux (2001). web page
The initiative created a huge stir, just as the company and design team had hoped it would. ‘At last’, thought some, although they were perhaps disappointed to realize that the differences between the new ‘female’ and the usual ‘male’ car weren’t actually very dramatic. Others wondered what on earth the point was – ‘isn’t industrial design for all human beings?’
In any event, the YCC highlighted a well-known fact. Most industrial designers are still men, even in Sweden, and even though there are now considerably more women working in design studios than there were ten to fifteen years ago. The Society of Swedish Industrial Designers (SID) has just over 330 members, and just under one hundred of these are women. (It is perhaps no surprise to learn that the gender distribution in the Association’s textile designer division is dramatically reversed, with only one man among some 70 women!)
What is female/male in industrial design?
At a seminar in Stockholm this spring, one of the issues discussed was the work situation of female industrial designers. Speakers described how difficult it is for a woman to present radical ideas to a client with an advanced, technically complex production system. In the opinion of some professional designers she won’t really be taken seriously. And in teams, it is often the men who are addressed. Others noted that there were advantages to being a female designer, however. A growing interest in “soft values” means a growing interest in women as industrial designers.
The automotive industry still relies predominantly on male designers, but there are some successful women, such as Aina Nilsson, who is head of the design division of Volvo Trucks. Textile materials and interior colour schemes are often the province of female designers, while men are responsible for the exterior. Good examples are two prize-winning products, the Volvo BM L150 wheel loader (1992) and the Atlet TLL 20 and TLP 20 pallet trucks (1993). Male industrial designers were responsible for the exterior design, while the interior design and colour schemes were the work of two women, Inese Ljunggren and Maria Thunberg. However, Inese Ljunggren is also responsible for designing the Trilobite robot vacuum cleaner for Electrolux (2001). web page
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