Would you seek the services of a professional designer ?
Yes, I often collaborate with other designers with different skill-sets and specialities. If I wasn't a designer, then yes I would. Though designers seem expensive, they are a crucial part of any products development and add value in all all areas. It's very obvious when an aspect of a product hasn't been designed by a designer, be that industrial, engineering, electronic, interface, or packaging designers. 

Has 3D printing made you more aware of design principles ?
It is a great tool to make functional and/or aesthetic prototypes. Again, the term design principals is very open. In manufacturing/engineering design principals, it does on a basic level teach you about things like ribs and tolerances However, in other design principals such as Industrial design, it can only be used to PROVE design principals and your own understanding of them, such as ergonomics and aesthetics.

There are different 3D printing processes, each having their own pros and cons in terms of designing for their process. (SLA vs FDM). Even then, the part may respond differently when manufactured with a different process (like injection moulding, casting, or machining) and with different materials such as ceramics, metals, or composites. Though 3D printers primarily use ABS or PLA plastic, there are others that use metal, rubbers, and I've seen 1 or 2 that use concrete, ceramic, and even sand.

If your dissertation is really good, would be interesting to have a read. Maybe post it on the forum when your done?

I just graduated with m BS in mechanical engineering so yes or soon to be hopefully

Would you seek the services of a professional designer?

I might for pointers as I like to learn how to do everything myself.

Do you design for pleasure or for profit?

Both I do design things for fun but most of my solidoodle stuff has made me  more than I paid for the printer

Has 3D printing made you more aware of design principles, (cost/materials)?

It gave me insight into 3d printing and learned more about designing for printable objects.  I have machining experience but no 3d printing experience prior.

I am still interested in responses, so please keep posting

Read Steve Jobs biography  ---  was he a designer?
Nikola Tesla   was he a designer?

Do you consider yourself to be a designer ?
Wide field from punk artist -- fashion designer -- to spacecraft design engineer?
I have created things from thought, to paper, to drawing, to prototype, to product. Does that make me a designer or must I have a design degree?    I graduated from IIT  that had the Mies van der Rohe  design institute pumping out "design students" but NOT engineers.

Would you seek the services of a professional designer ?
Only if I had money to waste.  But Design at Apple has produced much success.  I suppose only companies with 9 figure profit, hire designers

Has 3d printing made you more aware of design principles ?
CAD CAM, CNC, 3D printing  tools of the trade

Do you consider yourself to be a designer ?

Yes, I am an Industrial Designer. The word design, the act of designing encompasses so many aspects of our world that your question needs to be a bit more focused. What type of design are you querying about? From the answers I've been seeing here I'm thinking most would consider themselves to be design engineers, looking for the simplest, most ingenious, and economically elegant solutions to specific technically posed questions. .

I work for a design consultancy. We are always talking and advising one another, designers, engineers, design research, and UX.

No, but working with our Solidoodle has definitely taught me to appreciate the rapid prototyping vendors we use for most of our engineering and design evaluation modelmaking. Doing your own 3-D printing is a time suck. Great for a quick look at a small design, but not cost effective ( our time is better and more efficiently billed designing ) for larger or more dimensionally critical client deliverables.

I'm a design student and for my dissertation I would really appreciate replies to the 3 easy questions below:
Do you consider yourself to be a designer ?
Would you seek the services of a professional designer ?
Has 3d printing made you more aware of design principles ?
Thank you very much !
Adrianne

1. I am indeed a Graphic Designer. But I stumbled into this because of a friend who bought a Solidoodle, and was showing it off. Instantly addicted to the idea. 

2. Not unless I had an idea I was going to try and release on the market. Then I would run it by some Engineer friends first. But I wouldn't pay someone else to do the funnest part of this hobby, no.

3. Yup. In a *very* short time, in fact... I am eager to learn more.

2 I would gladly consult another artist or designer to evaluate my own work or to colaborate on a design as the freeflow of ideas is the only way to improve a design. Also i dont' know everything

3 I've always been congnizant of the principles of design and 3d design its just with 2d work you become trapped at times in your own thought processes. The hardest part is to remember to look at the work from all sides

I'm a design student and for my dissertation I would really appreciate replies to the 3 easy questions below:
Do you consider yourself to be a designer ?
Would you seek the services of a professional designer ?
Has 3d printing made you more aware of design principles ?
Thank you very much !
Adrianne

1. Not really, not by trade

2.  Not likely, I can get around CAD on my own, and am willing to learn what I need if I bump up against the limit of my knowledge

3. No, but it has made me want to learn.  I'm sure there are principles and best practices for designing functional objects and I don't want to try and reinvent an entire field.  However I don't know where to go to learn those principles.

I'm a design student and for my dissertation I would really appreciate replies to the 3 easy questions below:
Do you consider yourself to be a designer ?
Yes professional mechanical engineer and designer for 17 years
Would you seek the services of a professional designer ?
Hell no they don't know what they're doing
Has 3d printing made you more aware of design principles ?
I don't know if 3d printing has "made" me more aware but there are techniques for designing for each manufacturing method
Thank you very much !
Adrianne

Do you consider yourself to be a designer ?Adrianne

Nope, occasional doodler. Freight broker by trade.

Probably not seeing as I have a friend who draws up the things I need, and I don't know whether or not she considers herself "a professional"

No much, I learned my design principals in drafting, but It is interesting to see what can and can with much work be printed.

Do you consider yourself to be a designer ?Adrianne

Yes, its my job.

Not likely, see above

Not really

It has made me more aware of the design principles for a part that has to be printed though.