Industrial designers today work in an environment that is interdisciplinary, complex and fast-moving. Markets are becoming increasingly interconnected, creating multilayered global user groups (and niches) with requirements that previously simply did not exist. New technologies are generating unexplored opportunities and challenges, constantly broadening the scope of product engineering and production. Solution strategies are now increasingly defined by the scarcity of resources, introducing the environment as an element in the economic equation. As the creators of industrial products and services of the future, industrial designers therefore have great social responsibility, ranging well beyond issues of style or personal preferences. Teaching and research in the subject area of industrial design is therefore based on the three core principles of social relevance, technology and the environment.