Design is a problem-solving process that uses creativity to develop innovative solutions and services that improve our lives.
Though design has existed in various forms in India since ancient times, formal design education began in 1961 with the establishment of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad.
Indian design education was profoundly influenced by the pedagogy at the Bauhaus and later Ulm in Germany before and after World War II. It combined western pedagogical structures with Indian social ethos. Universities teach design at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels, in addition to hundreds of small design institutes that offer vocational diplomas/certificates.
Design is, as we like to say, a creative problem-solving process used to create new products and services that improve our lives. In contrast to the expressionist approach of art, design is strongly focused on identifying user and market needs, and is thus a process-centric exercise to develop new and innovative solutions.
Design drives revenue, and today, exceptional designers are in great demand in all major organizations throughout the world.
McKinsey & Company tracked the design practices of 300 publicly traded companies in multiple countries and industries over a five-year period, interviewed senior business and design leaders, collected more than two million pieces of financial data, and demonstrated that design-led companies grew twice as fast as non-design companies.
This clearly demonstrated that design was more than just about aesthetics; it was also a commercial instrument for development and profitability.
Prior to the liberalization of the economy and industry around the turn of the millennium, design in India was mostly focused on the social sectors. Despite design's acceptance of the sector, designers clung to the fundamental principle of wanting to improve the world.
India has had a sharp growth in manufacturing and services over the last 20 years, with design acting as a facilitator for the development of new goods and services.
Today, a wide range of options—each different by design—are available in the areas of cars, housing, furniture, fashion and clothes, consumer electronics, movies, and the media to meet the varying expectations of the public. Design education must be nimble, relevant, and technologically savvy in light of the rising need for designers. According to this notion, design education is agile, useful, hands-on, and the perfect blend of theory and practice.
Industrial or Product Design (consumer durables, electronics, medical devices, furniture, lighting, ceramics), Communication Design (packaging, print media, graphic design, illustration, branding), Fashion & Textiles (apparel, accessories), Space Design (interiors, community spaces, heritage experiences, retail), Interaction Design (UI-UX, Human Machine Interaction, Apps, interfaces), Moving Images (Film, Animation, Podcasts), etc. are some of the specializations taught in design.
Learning by doing is prioritized in design education as it is a practical approach to putting information into reality.
This pragmatism is frequently reflected in the information taught in schools, with courses covering topics like CAD, ergonomics, design theory, design history, materials, manufacturing, coding, market research, building methods, augmented reality, virtual reality, clothing creation, etc.
In universities, instruction combines theory and practice, and each semester ends with a creative project that allows students to demonstrate what they have learned.
In contrast to conventional courses, which are assessed by examinations, most design schools evaluate through juries, where expert designers from the industry rigorously discuss and judge students' work. Students are required to provide evidence for their designs from a variety of perspectives, including market demand, user need, materials and production, usability, comfort, and safety, to mention a few. Deliberate creativity is frequently sparked by the expectation placed on students to show originality in their works.
Due to their inherent entrepreneurial mentality, many designers choose to launch their own consulting businesses or clothing lines. The three standard exit routes from design education are work in studios and major corporations, self-employment or solo consultancy, and further study.
Market factors have a big impact on design education. Two Meta factors that impacted the trajectory of human development were recently seen by us.
Our way of life, consumption patterns, and behavioral patterns have been irreparably changed by the introduction of the internet in the 1990s and the smartphone revolution in the 2000s. Technology has enabled us to advance quickly, creating new products, information, and services at a breakneck rate.