Most designers post aesthetics.
Experienced designers post decisions.
Clients should care about the difference.

A beautiful render proves one thing:
Someone knows how to make things look good on a screen.

It proves nothing about whether the product will:

* Survive manufacturing
* Stay within cost
* Assemble without drama
* Last beyond the warranty period
* Tolerate real users, not ideal ones

Real product design is invisible.

It’s in decisions like:

* Increasing a fillet radius because the mold will crack otherwise
* Killing a feature because it adds ₹300 to BOM with zero user value
* Choosing a duller material because the glossy one scratches in 3 weeks
* Simplifying a mechanism because technicians—not designers—will service it
* Accepting a less “premium” look to gain reliability and scale

These decisions rarely look impressive on LinkedIn.
They do look impressive in factories, hospitals, and balance sheets.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

* Aesthetics are cheap
* Decisions are expensive
* Experience is what pays for those decisions

If a design cannot survive:

* Tooling constraints
* Assembly tolerances
* Vendor limitations
* Cost pressure
* Real-world abuse

…it is not a product.
It’s a concept pretending to be one.

To clients:
If your design partner only shows you renders, you’re paying for confidence—not outcomes. Ask them why things look the way they do. If they can’t defend decisions, walk away.

To designers:
Stop hiding behind beauty. Start showing judgment.

Good designers make things look good.
Serious designers make things work.
Veterans make things work at scale.

Everything else is decoration.

Dated: 18th January 2026