Futures Challenge 2025: NID Bengaluru & IIT Students Redefine Value in ‘The Design Currency’ Theme

4 months ago

Event Overview

The annual design-innovation event DesignUp25 returns to Bengaluru from November 3–5, 2025 and will feature the prestigious Futures Challenge 2025.
This year’s theme: “The Design Currency” — exploring how value, exchange and “currency” might evolve by 2050, including new definitions of value such as trust, attention, care, energy and memory.
A panel of international design-leaders, creative directors and innovation experts — including Thomas Küber and Andreas Wegner from Futur2 Studio, Berlin — evaluated the finalists.

Below are the five shortlisted projects that have made it to the final stage:

“Petcoin: The Future of Currency is Alive” by Kuldeep Singh (National Institute of Design (Bengaluru)) – A provocative concept positioning care as a new driver of wealth and community well-being.
“Attention as Currency for 2050” by Mrinmoy Deka (NID Bengaluru) – An idea transforming human focus and presence into measurable value.
“NOVACOIN – A Multi-Centered Currency” by Nandini Arora (Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi) – Exploration of how trust, behaviour and analytics might merge into future token economies.
“The Dream Era” by Ritwik Kar (Indian Institute of Technology (Jodhpur)) – A poetic concept where dreams themselves become a new form of exchange and connection.
“Wealth Measured in Life, Not Digits” by Preksha Baid (Rishihood University) – A reflective take turning memories into currency, redefining wealth via human experience.

The three winners of Futures Challenge 2025 will be revealed during DesignUp25 in Bengaluru.
DesignUp25 is expected to gather over 1,000 attendees, including leaders from global organisations such as Adobe, Canva, JPMorgan Chase and Netflix.

Encourages design students (especially in the 2026 entrance-batch) to think beyond traditional definitions of currency and value, aligning with future-oriented problem statements.
Highlights the significance of institutions like NID Bengaluru, IIT BHU, IIT Jodhpur in innovation-driven competitions, boosting their visibility in the design ecosystem.
Offers aspirants insight into the kind of storytelling, conceptual depth and future-thinking that leading design contests value — useful for competition preparation and portfolio building.

Competing themes like “Design Currency” show that design thinking is shifting towards systemic value, societal impact and future paradigms — not just aesthetics.
Finalists span diverse institutes and ideas, showing that your institution doesn’t limit your opportunity — strong concept, clarity and execution matter.
For upcoming aspirants (2026 batch): consider incorporating emerging value systems (trust, attention, care, data, memory) into your project briefs.
Showcase your ability to envision the future (2050+), argue its relevance, and articulate both the concept and its design application.
Build a strong narrative, justify why your idea matters, and show how it relates to human experience or societal transformation.