One of the youngest collection departments of the National Technical Museum was established in 1994 as the first institution in the country to map the history and present state of design in technical fields. Initially, it focused on the work of industrial designers in areas already covered by existing professional departments of the National Technical Museum (such as transportation, engineering, household technology, acoustics, etc.). Over time, additional fields important to the history and present of industrial design in the Czech lands were included (such as medical technology, sports equipment, and plastic utility objects).
The industrial design collection is unique in the Czech Republic and represents one of the few collections of its kind in Central Europe. The collection's objects are displayed in most of the museum’s exhibitions (particularly Household Technology and Architecture, Construction, and Design), as well as in relevant sections of the Retromuseum in Cheb and the Prostor Zlín exhibition at the Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín.
From its inception, the Industrial Design Department has also been collecting two-dimensional supplementary documentation: original design sketches and, most notably, extensive photographic records of original, now-lost, authorial models, prototypes, and products. These materials often document the entire process of product development—from the initial concepts and sketches to the final design. This is crucial for understanding the full scope of a designer’s work and for recognizing industrial design as an independent, complex discipline with strong ties to technical fields.
This exceptional collection also includes the legacies of prominent Czech industrial designers, most notably the complete estate of designer and educator Prof. Zdeněk Kovář, which is of unique significance.
Today, the Industrial Design Department primarily tracks the work of living designers from all generations, as well as university design studios, preserving representative examples of their work. Carefully selected student projects also become part of the collection, in line with its focus.
Since its foundation, the department has been involved in various activities beyond curating exhibitions and displays. These include publishing work, participation in design competition juries (such as the National Award for Student Design), and collaboration with industry institutions and media to promote Czech industrial design.
In the past ten years, the department’s publishing and presentation efforts have expanded significantly on a national scale. It has played a role in virtually every major project in related fields, including the publication Design in the Czech Lands 1900–2000, contributions to the preparation of the Retromuseum exhibition in Cheb, and the publication ETA in the Life of Our Households. Most recently, it led an extensive project titled Designers in the Czech Lands and the Czechoslovak Engineering Industry, which resulted in numerous exhibitions and publications.
Today, the industrial design collection comprises nearly 2,200 cataloged items, divided into 26 subgroups. These subgroups often represent significant contributions of industrial design to the development of products in various technical fields, with the most important ones presented below.