While the 44,500 people employed in Massachusetts design is significant and comparable to the number employed by the medical devices industry, quantifying the employment and wages associated with the actual design industry vastly underestimates the economic importance of design. Global design studies increasingly recognize that the larger economic impact of design is felt in the value that design brings to other industries.
Certain design professions – architects, art directors, landscape architects and interior designers – work primarily within design firms. But much of the economic value of design derives from in-house and free-lance designers who work in other industries. Design professions such as commercial and industrial designers, fashion designers, multi media designers and graphic designers, work largely outside of the design industries.
Whether employed within or beyond the design industry, designers and the design industry function as an enabling industry that contributes to the economic competitiveness of other industries. Although small in number, Massachusetts industrial designers contribute enormous value to industries such as healthcare technology or consumer product companies like Bose and iRobot. Fidelity Investments is a major employer of graphic, interactive and communications designers whose skills drive the look, feel and usability of the company's financial products. Globally, design is recognized as a source of innovation and competitiveness in industries ranging from education to manufacturing to renewable energy.