DESIGN ASPIRANTS SHOULD KNOW- I

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Pahal Design in Careers

Time and again students & Parents reach out to us seeking tips and guidance for entrance exam as well as admission, but little they know about design industry, its future & what design is all about.

Design education in India was envisioned long time back when the Britishers set up first arts college in India with Arts school in Madras 1850 followed by JJ School of arts in Bombay in 1857 and Jeypore School of Industrial Design in 1886. Under the recommendations of Charles and Ray Eames “ India Design Report” the Govt of India in 1960 set up National Institute of Design ( NID) with Industrial Design and Visual Communication , followed by Industrial Design Centre ( IDC ) under IIT ,Bombay in 1969.These two carried the mantle of Design in India in the modern era. Then NIFT was started as fashion institute in India. It was set up in 1986 under the aegis of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India and is an institution of design, management and technology for the international fashion business.

NIFT was granted statutory status in 2006, empowering it to award degrees and other academic distinctions. The Indian Design education offers diverse programs like Certificates, Diploma, Undergraduate & Post-graduate degrees in various design Disciplines. From a handful in 2010, the number of Design institutions has grown over 100s by 2016. This supports the fact that openness to pursue alternate careers, employment opportunities and increased affordability the number of Aspiring designer is increasing every year, & is estimated that by 2020 around 70000 new designers will be required with currently approx. 12000 Designers available in the country today. It is estimated that by 2020 the potential market for design in India is expected to be around 2 Billion and only one fifth of the design market is currently tapped

Design as a career appears glamorous & glitzy for the aspiring students and their parents and seems unware as where to place these designers in the industry, but facts like Ford new CEO is from Design, as well as some multinational like PepsiCo, SAP, IBM Future group etc. have already institutionalized & recognized Design as a corporate Philosophy. In India, the design industry can be classified as: a) In house Design team b) Design Business c) Freelancers. In India, the first type is less as only big business absorbs them and have structured design departments, whereas Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s) have started understanding the value of design as a source of Competitive advantage and is seen as an agent for change, so here is the future. The freelancer’s designers work with design Business, as well as in house design teams & especially cater to the client on retainer basis and collaborate with larger teams in order to cater to bigger clients.

There is a concentration of design companies in the metros -Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore & Pune because they all are industrially active and are home to the large no of Well Known Indian Companies but However the evolve of Design Education Institutes in other urban and sub urban areas shows that design has started touching the life of common people and here lies the future.