Know me

KNOW ME ?! an approach to spread design awareness in our society

HEMANT SINGH

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KNOW ME ?! an approach to spread design awareness in our society

HEMANT SINGH

Book Design Hemant Kumar Singh Illustrations Hemant Kumar Singh

This book is dedicated to my parents and my friends.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am very much grateful to my project guide Prof. Manoj Majhi, Department of Design IIT Guwahati for all his suppoort and guidance.

I am grateful to my project coordinator Prof. Mriganka Madhukailya for all his support and inspirations that he provided me.

I am very much grateful to Prof. Prasad Bokil, for his continuous guidance and support.

I am grateful to Prof. Ravi Mokashi Punekar, being the source of inspirations.

Last but not the least, I am also grateful to all my friends who supported me in designing and compilation of this book.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT IS DESIGN? DESIGN IN INDIAN CONTEXT DESIGN IN OUR DAILY LIFE DESIGN DISCIPLINES DESIGN EDUCATION FAMOUS DESIGNERS REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION Welcome to the book KNOW ME?!- an approach to spread design awareness in our society.

The aim of the book is to spread Design awareness in Indian societies. The book talks about basic idea about design, design disciplines, role of design in our society, history of design education in india and some famous designers around the world.

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Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.�

-Charles Eames

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WHAT IS DESIGN?

DESIGN can be said as

+ ART

SCIENCE 12

+ ENGINEERING

taught by Prof. Pradeep Yammiyavar, DoD, IIT-G 13

WHAT IS DESIGN Design is everywhere - and that’s why looking for a definition may not help you grasp what it is.

Design is everywhere. It’s what drew you to the last piece of furniture you bought and it’s what made online banking possible. It’s made London taxi cabs easier to get in and out of and it made Stella McCartney’s name. It’s driving whole business cultures and making sure environments from hospitals to airports are easier to navigate. The single word ‘design’ encompasses an awful lot, and that’s why the understandable search for a single definition leads to lengthy debate to say the least. There are broad definitions and specific ones - both have drawbacks. Either they’re too general to be meaningful or they exclude too much. One definition, aired by designer Richard Seymour during the Design Council’s Design in Business Week 2002, is ‘making things better for people’. It emphasises that design activity is focused first and foremost on human behaviour and quality of life, not factors like distributor preferences. But nurses or road sweepers could say they, too, ‘make things better for people’. Meanwhile, a definition focused on products or 3D realisations of ideas excludes the work of graphic designers, service designers and many other disciplines.

There may be no absolute definitions of design that will please everyone, but attempting to find one can at least help to pin down the unique set of skills that designers bring to bear.

Design could be viewed as an activity that translates an idea into a blueprint for something useful, whether it’s a car, a building, a graphic, a service or a process. The important part is the translation of the idea, though design’s ability to spark the idea in the first place shouldn’t be overlooked.

Scientists can invent technologies, manufacturers can make products, engineers can make them function and marketers can sell them, but only designers can combine insight into all these things and turn a concept into something that’s desirable, viable, commercially successful and adds value to people’s lives.

Design is fundamental. People often need reminding that everything around us is designed and that design decisions impact on nearly every part of our lives, be it the environments we work in, the way we book holidays, or the way we go about getting get the lid off the jam jar. When those things work, it’s taken for granted, but, as Bill Moggridge, founder of international consultancy IDEO, says: ‘A lot of trial and error goes into making things look effortless.’

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How is design different from other activities?

Perhaps the most obvious attribute of design is that it makes ideas tangible, it takes abstract thoughts and inspirations and makes something concrete. In fact, it’s often said that designers don’t just think and then translate those thoughts into tangible form, they actually think through making things. This ability to make new ideas real from an early stage in developing products or services means that they have a greater chance of becoming successful more quickly.

Another, sometimes less obvious, attribute of design is that it is humancentred. Designers are sometimes caricatured as self-obsessed, but the truth is that really great designers care hugely about the real people who will use the product, service, building or experience they are developing.

This focus on users inspires great ideas and ensures that solutions meet real needs, whether the users are fully aware of them or not.

This pragmatic process of making ideas tangible and then trying them out with users means that design has a particular ability to make things simple. Anything that is too complicated to understand, communicate or operate is soon exposed. Perhaps this is why really great design can seem as obvious as common sense.

Finally, design is collaborative. The dual qualities of tangibility and humancenteredness mean that the design process is very good at engaging others. Design processes are increasingly being used as a way to enable groups of designers and non-designers to work together to tackle big issues.

Design and the user Good design begins with the needs of the user. No design, no matter how beautiful and ingenious, is any good if it doesn’t fulfil a user need. This may sound obvious but many products and services Finding out what the customer wants is the first stage of what designers do. The designer then builds on the results of that inquiry with a mixture of creativity and commercial insight. Although gut instinct is part of the designer’s arsenal, there are more scientific ways of making sure the design hits the mark.

Different designers use different methods - combining market research, user testing, prototyping and trend analysis. Any product launch is ultimately a gamble, but these methods help decrease the risk of failure, a fact that often comes as a surprise to clients.

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Creativity A design doesn’t have to be new, different or impressive to be successful in the marketplace, as long as it’s fulfilling a need, but design methods do lead to innovative products and serivces.

Designers learn that ideas that may seem strange are worth exploring and that the ‘common-sense’ solution is not always the right one. Designers often hit on counter-intuitive concepts through methods such as drawing, prototyping, brainstorming and user testing. Watching users in real-world situations especially gives insights into their behaviour that lead to ideas that wouldn’t have formed had the designer simply thought about the situation, or relied on generalised market research.

Design and business Designers, unlike artists, can’t simply follow their creative impulses. They work in a commercial environment which means there is a huge number of considerations that coming to bear on the design process. Designers have to ask themselves questions such as: is the product they’re creating really wanted? How is it different from everything else on the market? Does it fulfil a need? Will it cost too much to manufacture? Is it safe? Emphasis on the customer makes design a formidable weapon for any business. Companies have often designed their way out of failure by creating a product that serves the customer’s needs better than its rivals’. Design delivered the operating-system market to Microsoft, rescued Apple Computer and made Sony an electronics giant. A Design Council study has shown that design-led businesses on the FTSE 100 out-performed the index by 25%.

Putting an emphasis on design brings creativity into an organisation and increases the chance of producing market-leading, mould-breaking products. As the sophistication of the consumer and global competition increases, this becomes more and more valuable. Businesses are finding that they can no longer compete just by slashing prices or upping the marketing budget. Innovation in the form of design is the key to success.

Design and public services Design can help public services in a number of ways, from making sure products and services meet the needs of users to increasing innovation within organisations and bringing new perspectives to issues such as procurement.

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The designer and beyond The design industry is a vibrant, varied and dynamic creative sector that plays a powerful and important role in many areas of our lives.

Designers help conceive and shape products and services; they contribute hugely to the visual world around us; they create communications for organisations of all shapes and sizes; they influence how we use buildings and help improve our workspaces; they can contribute to building better public services or create more efficient working processes; they create the interfaces we use daily on digital devices; they help us digest information; they create the clothes you’re wearing and the chair you may be sitting on.

But designers don’t work alone. Design is an agent acting between many other areas of activity and involving collaboration with many people in all kinds of jobs, in all kinds of organisations. Many designers are versatile and work across more than one discipline. For instance Wayne Hemingway has designed clothes, wallpaper and buildings. The design industry is certainly far-reaching – but the input of designers is just one component amongst many. A career in design is therefore a career in communications: design itself is about communicating with end-users and the design process is dependent on good communication between designers and their clients, as well as between various designers themselves.

Supporting the many areas of design activity there is also a host of related job roles in areas such as project management, account handling, public relations, teaching and research, to name but a few. So a career in the design industry need not be restricted to practicing a design discipline itself. http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/about-design/Design-as-a-profession/Careers-indesign/

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“

Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.�

-Herbert Simon

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DESIGN IN INDIAN CONTEXT

DESIGN IN INDIAN CONTEXT India With its over 1.25 billion population, India can be aptly called a land of people. Over 70 percent of these people live in more than 5,50,000 villages spread across 37 states of India. A vast majority (about 80 percent) of the country’s population comprises people from the rural and middle-income group segments. Agriculture and crafts constitute the major sources of income for the rural population. And the Indian industry comprises largely of small and medium scale industries (SMEs).

Almost 95 percent of the products are manufactured in these SMEs. The Indian society consists of more than 6400 castes and sub-castes, and is further subdivided into 6 major ethnic groups. While the Indian Constitution has given official recognition to 22 languages, a vast plethora of languages and dialects are still spoken all over the country. India is also one of the fastest growing economies in the world. By the year 2020 it is expected to be the third largest economy after the United States and China. And a major section of its population, it is estimated, would be in the working-age group by the year 2020. Modern and traditional, rich and poor, new and old, they all coexist in India. Being a 5000 year old civilisation, contemporary India is the sum total of a valuable treasure of knowledge, wisdom, and traditions.

Creativity is recognised as an essential and a common quality and is used and practiced in daily life. People come up with ingenious and amazing solutions for making the best use of resources they may have at their disposal. Design is a way of life in India. Collaboration, sharing, and supporting are integral to the Indian culture.

Cooperation, community life, and peaceful co-existence are the distinguishing characteristics of the Indian society. Socialisation is part of Indian culture and it happens at various levels within the multilayered Indian society. Every layer/segment is large enough to form its own group/community; while, at the same time it is also closely linked to other layers/ strata of society.

All the festivals, rituals and customs of India are obvious proofs of this. All occasions, be they for sharing happiness or grief, are elaborately carried out. Customs are built such that people can share each other’s workload and responsibilities as also the happiness or grief, as the case may be. So,

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a typical Indian marriage is a big occasion spanning over two to three days where all the relatives and friends are invited not only to participate in the ceremonies but also to contribute in sharing the responsibilities, and physical and financial burdens as well. The unique feature of celebration in India is that it is not limited to the family/relatives alone but also extends to the needy of the society. Customs are so made that they encourage people to give gifts in the form of food, clothes, and money to the needy during various festivals. Even death is not a private affair and extends for over ten days where the relatives and friends share the grief and loneliness. Thus, all these help people to share their grief, their difficulties, and their happiness with each other and thereby help them face the challenges of life and grow united.

In every village, its residents as a group would help each other in tending to each other’s fields or to repair or rebuild their houses. Labour being the main skill that they all possess, sharing of this skill is a prevalent practice here. In their home/family, while the young men work in the fields, the women manage their cattle, provide necessary help in the farms and also keep look after the home. The elders look after their children at home and educate them about their culture and tradition. Thus, in joint families, every single member has to contribute in terms of sharing the work. The structure of these villages, which is generally developed in cluster format with courtyards, open spaces, or a road in the middle, is such that it helps people connect better; thus, enabling them to strengthen their family/ community in a larger group. Also, there is a strong community life in the common courtyard, and this further encourages the bonding between the people.

Diversity of culture, traditions, and ethnic and economic dimensions thus offer Indian designers a variety of opportunities and challenges in terms of creative solutions. The solutions that are more likely to achieve success here are of the people centric type. These solutions will look at people, not as consumers but as human beings. Such solutions can generate employment opportunities based on the existing skills and behaviour of the people, and improve the standard of living while preserving the values of traditional society.

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Design: The Indian Context Design in the Indian context focuses on people, their environment, and various sociocultural issues. Participatory and inclusive approach that centres around the primary objective of improving the quality of life of all the stakeholders involved is the most appropriate approach for design interventions in India. These design interventions preserve the values of traditional Indian society and should generate newer employment opportunities. Design and development interventions here, aim to encourage cooperative and participatory approach. The interventions focus on honing the existing skills and cooperative behaviour of the people and are in tandem with the social fabric of community life. This helps create employment opportunities at the doorsteps of the people; thereby, endowing them with financial empowerment. Designer’s role and responsibilities thus assumes greater significance in the Indian context.

One of the successful cooperative organizations, ‘Shri Mahila Gruh Udhyog Lijjat Papad’ (www.lijjat.com) provides opportunities to thousands of women, many of whom come from the economically backward strata of the society and are also illiterate, to earn their living at their doorsteps with their limited skills. Every day, more than 42,000 of these women, roll out 19 million papadsbetween them. These women get the dough from the organisation everyday in the morning and work in the afternoon when they are free from their daily household work and all other family members have gone for their work. The organization also provides them the platform to come together and discuss various issues related to their life. Another such success story is that of the white revolution that was initiated by Amul, (www.amul.com) jointly owned by some 2.8 million milk producers, most of who come from the rural background. Both these organizations, through their innovative cooperative networks, have helped people at the grassroots level, gain economic viability, level of independence, dignity and respect in their life, even while keeping their social and cultural structure intact. Similarly, dabbawalas of Mumbai (www.mydabbawala.com) form another such story altogether. An estimated 5000 dabbawalas, every day move around 200,000 lunch boxes freshly made from the home of each person to his/her work places straight from home with utmost punctuality.

There have been several initiatives that encourage the young generation to make voluntary contributions to society and thereby develop their social skills. SPIC MACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth) was established in 1977, and today it has its chapters in over 300 towns and cities. Similarly the Lead India initiative,

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launched by one of the country’s largest media houses—The Times of India Group, is another unique initiative that encourages the deserving young leaders with vision and ability to enter into public governance. Its Teach India initiative on the other hand connects with the young generation and encourages it to contribute towards teaching underprivileged children.

Both these initiatives, through their effective campaigns, have succeeded in connecting today’s young generation to the basic demands and needs of society. These and various other initiatives inspire the young generation to take up voluntary work, and in the process inculcate in them a spirit of service that ultimately results in the development of their social skills.

Design, by humanising technology, helps connect the products/systems to the masses. The emphasis being on improving the people’s standard of living through generating newer opportunities, a designer in the Indian context has to design products/solutions that encourage sustainability in its varied forms. These designs are developed locally so as to succeed in satisfying the needs of the region in which they are produced. While converting constraints of resources into unique opportunities encompassing aspects such as their reusability, recyclability, reparability and increased life cycle; design in India aims to improve the working conditions of the people and enhance the technological prowess of the industries.

These design solutions are low on capital investment, but technologically intensive. These aspects help to increase the service intensity of the products; thereby, increasing employment opportunities.

Majority of the industrial units in India operate on a small scale and they employ people from different backgrounds. Thousands of families/people would be involved in one product or product segment. Before embarking upon any design intervention, it becomes important to gain a holistic understanding of the context, the need, strengths, and weaknesses in terms of resources and levels of skills, training and experience available, socio-cultural issues involved and market demands. Design intervention for these and industries, goes beyond product/design solutions to that of a catalyst to bring in new changes and new vision. Through value addition at every stage of its development/production design helps improve the quality of life of the people involved. Such interventions also have a strong impact on the sustainable development of the Indian economy.

Design in India means developing solutions together as a team.

The design profession brings in the much needed empathetic understanding and holistic vision to connect and integrate various efforts towards a positive outcome. The designer works as a coordinator and a team member to handhold the team/activity and takes up the

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responsibility of creating contextual and appropriate solutions, systems, services, or products. A sensitive designer, through his/her wide exposure and experience and through his/her ability to take a holistic view can easily connect with the users’ needs. Designers can act as catalysts that help bring in new changes and new vision for society, industry, or the team they work with. Keeping such facts in mind, it can be concluded that design in the Indian context encourages social innovation and sustainability in its various forms.

DESIGN TO CONNECT: ENCOURAGING SOCIAL INNOVATIONS AND SUSTAINABILITY IN THE INDIAN CONTEXT Shashank Mehta National Institute of Design, India

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“

A designer is a planner with an aesthetic sense.�

-Bruno Munari

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3

DESIGN IN OUR DAILY LIFE

Many of the best examples of industrial design are the things that people don’t think, if something we takes for granted that people don’t think of it is being and what

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they don’t realize is that from the moment they wake up, almost everything that fills their world has been designed one way or the another.

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DESIGN IN OUR DAILY LIFE When you see an object you make so many assumptions about that object in seconds, what it does? How is going to do it? how heavy it is? how much you think it should cost? The object testifies to the people that conceived it, thought about it, developed it, manufactured it. Ranging from the issues of form to material, to its architechture, to how it connects to you, how you touch it, how you hold it. Every object intensional or not speaks the who put ot there.

Objectified: a documentary movie

Many of the best examples of industrial design are the things that people don’t think, if something we takes for granted that people don’t think of it is being and what they don’t realize is that from the moment they wake up, almost everything that fills their world has been designed one way or the another.

It sounds bizare, but i think designers understand what what people need, perhaps even better than they do on questions of ergonomics, on how to organize their space. A central goal in design is to create an appropriate environment where people feel good. Thats a very particular thing and when people make these choices, they are asserting themselves.

-Mark Newson, Documentary movie ‘Objectified.’

There are countless definitions of design, as you might expect of a creative endeavour. Some aim to categorise design, to explain how it is different from or related to other activities, while others try to inspire good design.

Here’s a simple definition from our former Chairman, Sir George Cox in the Cox Review: Design is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers. Design may be described as creativity deployed to a specific end.’ The Cox Review Most of the results of design are visible, and that lends itself to another simple definition: ‘Design is all around you, everything man-made has been designed, whether consciously or not’.

The question therefore isn’t so much ‘what is design and why does it matter?’ but ‘how can I use good design to make the world around me better?’

Sir George Cox in the Cox Review

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“

Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.�

-Steve Jobs

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4

DESIGN DISCIPLINES

HUM

AN C O INTE MPUTE R RAC TION

FASHION DESIGN SPATIAL DESIGN

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THE DESIGN

,

E V I T

O M TO IGN U , A DES L IA Y R ST & TO U GRAPHIC & VISUAL IND TAIL E R COMMUNICATION

ANIMATION & NEW MEDIA DESIGN

TREE on Indian soil

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DESIGN DISCIPLINES SPATIAL DESIGN (Interior & Furniture Design) Interior designers must have an understanding of space, volume, furniture, furnishings, fixtures and utilities, in order to convert an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities that are to take place there. It is thus a multifaceted profession that includes conceptual development, liaising with the stakeholders of a project and the management and execution of the design.

Career Options: Interior Designers, Interior Architects, Furniture Designers.

FASHION DESIGN (Apparel, Textile, Jewellery & Leather Design) Fashion Design is the art of application of design and aesthetics to clothing and accessories. Because of the time required to bring a garment into the market, fashion designers must anticipate changing consumer tastes, without compromising on functionality, and must combine with managerial skills for market success.

Career Options: Apparel and accessories design, production, planning and concept management, visual merchandising and retail, Branding and marketing, fashion media and promotion

Textile Design

comprises both surface design and structural design. Designers usually handle embroidery designs, prints, weaves, knits and textures. Successful textile designers marry a creative vision of what a finished textile will look like with a deep understanding of the technical aspects of production and the properties of fiber, yarn and dyes.

Career Options: textile designers work in garment manufacturing companies, fashion design houses with apparel retailers export houses, freelancers.

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Jewellery design

India is the largest gems and jewellery market in the world (the domestic market is rs 63,000 crore), but largely in the unorganized sector with a significant focus on gold. Other jewels include colored gemstones, costume jewellery, platinum and diamonds.

Career Options: Jewellery designing houses, Fashion houses, export houses, freelance consultants.

Leather Design

Leather Designers must possess knowledge and understanding of leather and leather products, manufacturing, marketing, fashion and trend forecasting skills, as well as design skills. They work with both leather apparel and goods.

Career Options:Technical designers, stylist designers.

GRAPHIC & VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN Graphic Design is also known as visual communication design, entails combining words, symbols, and images to create a visual representation of ideas and messages.

Common uses of graphic design include identity (logos and branding), websites, publications (magazines, newspapers, and books), advertisements, product packaging, typography and type design, photography, illustration, graphic interface design, print design and information and communication systems such as signage.

Career Options: Design consultants, Advertising, Publishing Agencies, Freelancers.

ANIMATION & NEW MEDIA DESIGN Animation

Animation is a design discipline which merges text, images, graphics, audio and video to create 2D or 3D images and visual effects.

It has a vast range of uses including fully animated films, cartoons, gaming, and visual effects in commercials and feature films.

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Career options: Animators, Character designers, Storyboard artists, Creative Directors, Producers in broadcast television channels and multimedia agency

New Media

New Media, comprising of Internet & Mobile, is the fastest growing communication medium in the country, although still a small segment of total advertising expenditure.

Career options: Multimedia producers, Web designers, Game designers.

INDUSTRIAL, AUTOMOTIVE, RETAIL & TOY DESIGN Retail & Exhibition Design

Retail design is a creative commercial discipline which combines several different areas of design expertise. It is also incorporates elements of product design, graphic design, ergonomics, and advertising.

Exhibition design is a design discipline employed in the process of developing an exhibit---from concept through to physical, three 窶電imensional form.

Career Options: Retail designer, Visual merchandiser, commercial spaces, Interior Designer

Industrial Design

Industrial Design is a combination of applied art and applied science, by which the aesthetics, ergonomics and usability of products may be improved for marketability and production. The role of an industrial designer is to create and execute design solutions addressing problems of form, usability, physical ergonomics, marketing, brand development and sales.

Career Options: Industrial Designer, Product Designer

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Automotive Design

Automotive Design entails consideration of aesthetics during product development of an automobile. It encompasses almost every aspect of a vehicle’s design which readily visible to the customer-from seats and steering wheel, to door trims and dashboard. Although primarily concerned with the appearance of a vehicle, it is governed by various factors such as safety and engineering.

Career Options: Automotive Designer

Toy Design

Toy Design encompasses elements from industrial design, animation, graphic design, human psychology, interaction, sociology and management domains. Creativity, safety and age-appropriateness are critical requirements of toy design.

Career Options: Toy Designer

HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study, planning and design of the interaction between people (users) and computers. This interaction occurs at the user interface, which could be either computer software or hardware peripherals such as keyboards and mice.

Career Options: usability engineer, designer, analyst or specialist.

CII, Design India Report 2011

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“

Design is to design a design to produce a design.�

-John Heskett

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DESIGN EDUCATION

N G I S

E D Y D U

ST

N G I S

Y D U

DE

ST

ST

E D Y D U

G I S

. . .

N

. . . ...

DESIGN EDUCATION History of design education in India 1840's The first Art Schools in the country came up in the 1800's - Bombay Art School (1857)(now known as Sir J J School of Arts); M S U, School of Arts, Baroda(1887); College of Arts, Kolkatta (1884), etc. The schools in additionto academic programs in fine art, included courses in pottery, tile making,metal crafts, etc.

Later on in the 1950's, these institutes started the program in Graphic Design (named Commercial/Applied Arts) catering to the media and publishing industry in the country.

Tagore drawn by Satyajit Ray

1913 Kala Bhavana, the Art College was conceived as part of Shantiniketan an university set up by the Tagore family. The school also has Silpa Sadana - a centre for Rural Craft, Technology and Design.

1922 Rabindranath Tagore visits Bauhaus school at Weimar, Germany in 1921.

Meets with Paul Klee, Walter Gropious and others. Invites them to send an exhibition to India.

In 1922 the Bauhaus exhibition was brought to Calcutta and exhibited at the Indian Society for Oriental Arts in Kolkata - works by Klee Itten, Kandinsky and their students were exhibited. Rabindranath Tagore knew the significance of Bauhaus.

1958 Charles and Ray Eames invited by the government of India to make recommendations for a training programme to support small industries.

They went around the country talking to experts and observing centres of crafts and studying the local industry. Their recommendations resulted in the ‘India Design Report’(pdf version)(from NID Wesite).

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1960 Based on the report by Charles and Ray Eames the government of India set up ‘The National Institute of Design’ in Ahmedabad.

The school started with programs in basic Design and a few years later with programmes in Industrial Design and Visual Communication.

1962-70 NID invited many well known designers to its campus. Many of them spent significant time at the school teaching and designing - Adrian Fruitiger (Typeface and typography), .

1969

Industrial Design was set up by the Government of India under the auspices of the Indian institute of technology Bombay.

IDC at IIT Bombay initiated the post graduate programme in Industrial Design.

1982-85 Under the United Nations Development Programme, Industrial Design Centre invited Design Educators such as - Gui Bonsippe, Kohie Sugiura (teachers at the Ulm School in Germany), Arthur Pulos and (from USA), Ettore Sotsass (From Itlay) and others. They spent 1 to 6 months interacting, teaching and doing design projects at IDC, IIT Bombay. Under the program, the faculty at IDC traveled internationally interacting with other educators and practitioners.

These interactions and experiences led to a very strong methodology based, user centered and context oriented design philosophy at this school that the industry was able to appreciate.

1985 The model of education at IDC, IIT Bombay was adopted by other IIT’s and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. These institutes started offering post graduate studies in Product Design - IIT Delhi (1985), IISc Bangalore (1990), IIT Kanpur (2004).

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1987 The Ministry of Textiles set up the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Delhi. The school started programs in Fashion, Accessories and Lifestyle products catering to the needs of the fashion industry in India.

In the 90’s NIFT opened centres in other parts of the country Ahmedabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Banglaore, Hyderabad, Kanpur, etc.

1997 The newly formed Indian Institute of Technology at IIT Gawahati with the support of the Industrial Design Centre at IIT Bombay introduced a full fledged Department of Design (DoD) with B Des, M Des and Doctoral Degrees.

1998 The Ministry of Crafts initiated the ‘Craft Institute of India’ at Jaipur with assistance from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. The institute offers a program in Craft and Design.

1999 Late nineties (coinciding with the market reforms and opening up of the Indian economy) saw the start of the private design schools in India: Sristi Design School in Bangalore (1999) Symbiosis Design School, in Pune (2004) IILM School of Design, Gurgoan (2004) Maeer’s MIT Institute of Design, Pune (2005) Raffles School of Design, Mumbai (2005) DJ Academy of Design, Coimbature (2005) Design Institute of India, Indore (2008) DSK International Institute of Design, Pune (2008)

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“

The urge for good design is the same as the urge to go on living.

The assumption is that somewhere, hidden, is a better way of doing things.�

-Harry Bertoia

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FAMOUS DESIGNERS

DESIGN CAN

MAKE YOU A CELEBRITY

FAMOUS DESIGNERS

Ron Arad was born in Tel Aviv. He attended the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem between 1971–73 and the Architectural Association in London from 1974–79.

In 1989, with Caroline Thorman, he founded Arad Associates, an architecture and design firm, in London.

His brother is the violist and educator Atar Arad.

Arad was described in 1999 as a “big, gruff, bovver-booted sort of bloke; cropped hair roughly the same length as the mannered facial stubble”.

Arad’s career as a designer began with the Rover chair. He was Head of Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art from 1997 to 2009. Arad designed in 1994 the bookshelf Bookworm, which was still produced in 2011 by the Italian company Kartell.

Arad’s work has been described as “scary”, considering its “ma-

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cho concrete and cut metal; tense sheets of tempered steel and guillotine edges”.

In 2005, Arad designed chandeliers for the Swarovski crystal company which if one has the number, can display text messages that are sent to it by incorporating light-emitting diodes (LEDs) operated by SMS text messages.He also has had tables that climb walls instead of being centered in the room. Arad’s works are often worked into distinctive biomorphic shapes and are created from his medium of choice, steel.

He made plans to expand his studio in 2008.

In 2008 he designed the Bauhaus Museum in Tel Aviv.

In 2008–09, Arad paired with KENZO to create his first perfume bottle. The bottle was on display in his exhibit No Discipline.

He has also planned the Design Museum Holon together with Bruno Asa, which was opened in Israel in 2010.

In 2010, Arad started his collaboration with New Eye London to design an eyewear collection. The global launch is planned in spring 2012.

Arad’s installation “720 Degrees” opened at the sculpture garden of the Israel Museum in August 2012.

It consists of 5,600 silicon rods

that form a circle 26 feet above the garden. Visitors view projected images standing inside or outside the structure.

Philippe Patrick Starck

(born January 18, 1949, Paris) is a French product designer.

His designs range from interior designs to mass-produced consumer goods such as toothbrushes, chairs, and even houses.

He was educated in Paris at the École Camondo and in 1968, he founded his first design firm, which specialized in inflatable objects. In 1969, he became art director of his firm along with Pierre Cardin.

Starck’s career started to climb in earnest in 1982 when he designed the interior for the private apartments of the French President François Mitterrand.

His most recent notable designs include an optical mouse for Microsoft, several yachts including the $300 million A, and even new packaging for a beer company. He was commissioned to design the Virgin Galactic “spaceport” in New Mexico (Foster and Partners are its architects).

He made the exhibit Democratic Ecology with Pramac.

In autumn 2009 Starck appeared in a BBC Two programme Design for Life in which 12 aspiring design students competed to gain a six month placement with Starck’s Paris based company.

In 1986 he joined Domus Academy Department of Design as an associate lecturer.

Starck has worked both independently as an interior designer and as a product designer since 1975.

In 2002, he created a number of what are considered relatively inexpensive product designs for the large American retailer Target Stores.

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Sir Jonathan Paul

“Jony” Ive, KBE RDI (born 27 February 1967) is an English designer and the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Inc. He also provides leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) software teams across the company. He is the lead designer of many of Apple’s products, including the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad and iPad Mini.

Jonathan Ive was born in Chingford, London. His father was a silversmith who taught at the local college, “He’s a fantastic craftsman, his Christmas gift to me would be one day of his time in his college workshop, during the Christmas break when no one else was there, helping me make whatever I dreamed up.

Ive attended the Chingford Foundation School then Walton High School in Stafford. Once enrolled in Walton, it became clear that he attained many technical and drawing skills through his father. After leaving Walton he studied industrial design at Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University).

Ive has been interested in “drawing and making stuff” since he was about 14. Design was always in his mind, but he was unsure about exactly what, since his interests were very broad – from

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furniture and jewelry to boats and cars. However, after meeting with various design experts he was drawn to product design.

Discovering the Apple Mac after “having a real problem with computers” during his later student years, he said, was a turning point.

Fearing he was “technically inept”, he felt the Apple user experience was a departure from the computer design at that time.

After finishing Newcastle Polytechnic, Ive co-founded London design agency Tangerine. He was commissioned in 1992 by Apple’s then Chief of Industrial Design Robert Brunner as a consultant, then as a full-time Apple employee.

He designed the second generation of the Newton, the MessagePad110, taking him to Taipei for the first time. He became the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design in 1997 after the return of Steve Jobs and subsequently headed the

industrial design team responsible for most of the company’s significant hardware products. Ive’s first design assignment was the iMac; it helped pave the way for many other designs such as the iPod and eventually the iPhone.[8] Jobs made design a chief focus of the firm’s product strategy, and Ive proceeded to establish the firm’s leading position with a series of functionally clean, aesthetically pleasing, and remarkably popular products.

The work and principles of Dieter Rams, the chief designer at Braun from 1961 until 1995, influenced Ive’s work. In Gary Hustwit’s documentary film Objectified (2009), Rams says that Apple is one of only a handful of companies existing today that design products according to Rams’ ten principles of “good design.”

Ive has his own laboratory with his appointed design team. They work to music provided by DJ John Digweed, a close friend of Ive’s. The majority of Apple employees are not allowed in the laboratory. According to the Steve Jobs biography, Ive’s design studio has foam cutting and printing machines, and the windows are tinted. Jobs told Isaacson: “He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me.” On 29 October 2012, Apple announced that “Jony Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design.

Steve Jobs said of Ives, “If I have a spiritual partner at Apple, it’s Jony.

Paul Rand

(August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs,

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including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Westinghouse, ABC, and Steve Jobs’s NeXT. He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design.

Rand was educated at the Pratt Institute (1929–1932), Parsons The New School for Design (1932–33), and the Art Students League (1933–1934).

From 1956 to 1969, and beginning again in 1974, Rand taught design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Rand was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972.

Paul Rand (August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Westinghouse, ABC, and Steve Jobs’s NeXT. He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design.

Rand was educated at the Pratt Institute (1929–1932), Parsons The New School for Design (1932–33), and the Art Students League (1933–1934).

From 1956 to 1969, and beginning again in 1974, Rand taught design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Rand was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972.

Rand’s most widely known contributions to design are his corporate identities, many of which are still in use. IBM, ABC, Cummins Engine, UPS, and the now-infamous Enron, among many others, owe Rand their graphical heritage. One of his strengths, as Moholy-Nagy pointed out,was his ability as a salesman to explain the needs his identities would address for the corporation. According to graphic designer Louis Danziger: Unimplemented logo designed by Rand for Ford Motor Company. “ He almost singlehandedly convinced business that design was an effective tool. [. . .] Anyone designing in the 1950s and 1960s owed much to Rand, who largely made it possible for us to work. He more than anyone else made the profession reputable. We went from being commercial artists to being graphic designers largely on his merits.

Rand’s defining corporate identity was his IBM logo in 1956, which as Mark Favermann notes “was not just an identity but a basic design philosophy that permeated corporate consciousness and public awareness.”The logo was modified by Rand in 1960. The striped logo was created in 1972.

The stripes were introduced as a half-toning technique to make the IBM mark slightly less heavy and more dynamic. Two variations of the “striped” logo were designed; one with eight stripes, one with thirteen stripes. The bolder mark with eight stripes was intended as the company’s default logo, while the more delicate thirteen stripe version was used for situa-

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tions where a more refined look was required, such as IBM executive stationery and business cards.

Rand also designed packaging, marketing materials and assorted communications for IBM from the late 1950s until the late 1990s, including the well known Eye-Bee-M poster. Ford appointed Rand in the 1960s to redesign their corporate logo, but afterwards chose not to use his modernized design.

April Greiman

(born 10 September 1948) is a designer. “Recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool, Greiman is also credited, along with early collaborator Jayme Odgers, with establishing the ‘New Wave’ design style in the US during the late 70s and early 80s.”

Greiman heads Los Angeles-based design consultancy Made in Space.

Greiman first studied graphic design in her undergraduate education at the Kansas City Art Institute, from 1966–1970. She then went on to study at the Allgemeine

Künstgewerberschule Basel, now known as the Basel School of Design (Schule für Gestaltung Basel) in Basel, Switzerland (1970–1971).

As a student of Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart, she was influenced by the International Style and

by Weingart’s introduction to the style later known as New Wave, an aesthetic less reliant on Modernist heritage.

Greiman moved to Los Angeles in 1976, where she established the multi-disciplinary approach that extends into her current practice, Made in Space. During the 1970s, she rejected the belief among many contemporary designers that computers and digitalization would compromise the International Style; instead, she exploited pixelation and other digitization “errors” as integral parts of digital art, a position she has held throughout her career.

In 1982, Greiman became head of the design department at the California Institute of the Arts. In 1984, she lobbied successfully to change the department name to Visual Communications, as she felt the term “graphic design” would prove too limiting to future designers. In that year, she also became a student herself and investigated in greater depth the effects of technology on her own work. She then returned to full-time practice and acquired her first Macintosh computer. She would later take the Grand Prize in Mac World’s First Macintosh Masters in Art Competition. An early adopter of

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this computer, Greiman produced an issue of Design Quarterly in 1986, notable in its development of graphic design. Entitled Does it make sense?, the edition was edited by Mildred Friedman and published by the Walker Art Center.

“She re-imagined the magazine as a poster that folded out to almost three-by-six feet. It contained a lifesize, MacVision-generated image of her outstretched naked body adorned with symbolic images and text— a provocative gesture, which emphatically countered the objective, rational and masculine tendencies of modernist design.” Miracle Manor, a desert spa retreat owned with her husband, architect Michael Rotondi, is a showcase for her more recent three-dimensional design of space in natural landscapes.

In 1995, the U.S. Postal Service launched a stamp designed by Greiman to commemorate the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Women’s Voting Rights). In 2006, the Pasadena Museum of California Art mounted a one-woman show of her digital photography entitled: Drive-by Shooting. She was also recently in the group show at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, in a major exhibition Elle @ Cetre Pompidou. In 2007, Greiman completed her largest ever work: a public mural, “Hand Holding a Bowl of Rice,” spanning “seven stories of two building facades marking the entrance to the Wilshire Vermont Metro Station in Los Angeles.”

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Greiman currently teaches at Woodbury University, School of Architecture and the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). She is a recipient of the American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal for lifetime achievement. She has received 4 honorary doctorates: Kansas City Art Institute (2001); Lesley University, The Art Institute of Boston (2002); Academy of Art University (2003,) Art Center College of Design (2012.)

Karim Rashid is an industrial designer and interior architect. His mission is to make design a public subject. He speaks about how design shapes the future and believe that design is extremely consequential to our daily lives and can positively change behaviors of humans. His award winning designs include luxury goods for Christofle, Veuve Clicquot, and Alessi, democratic products for Umbra, Bobble, and 3M, furniture for Bonaldo and

Vondom, lighting for Artemide and Fabbian, high tech products for Asus and Samsung, surface design for Marburg and Abet Laminati, brand identity for Citibank and Sony Ericsson and packaging for Method, Paris Baguette, Kenzo and Hugo Boss. Karim’s touch expands beyond product to interiors such as the Morimoto restaurant, Philadelphia; Semiramis hotel, Athens; nhow hotel, Berlin; Universita Metro Station, Naples as well as exhibition design for Deutsche Bank and Audi. Karim’s work is featured in 20 permanent collections and he exhibits art in galleries world wide.

Karim is a winner of the Red Dot award, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design award, I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review, IDSA Industrial Design Excellence award. Karim is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences globally disseminating the importance of design in everyday life. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the OCAD, Toronto and Corcoran College of Art & Design, Washington. Karim has been featured in magazines and books including Time, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, Wallpaper, and countless more.

Karim’s latest monograph, Sketch (Frame Publishing, 2012), features 300 hand and digital drawings selected from the last 25 years. Other books include KarimSpace, featuring 36 of Karim’s interior architecture designs (Rizzoli, 2009); Design Your Self, Karim’s guide to living (Harper Collins, 2006); Digipop, a digital exploration of computer graphics (Taschen, 2005); Compact Design Portfolio (Chronicle Books 2004); as well as two monographs, titled Evolution (Universe, 2004) and I Want to Change the World (Rizzoli, 2001). In his spare time Karim’s pluralism flirts with art (he exhibits frequently in art galleries and museums globally), fashion, and music and is determined to creatively touch every aspect of our physical and virtual landscape.

Born in Cairo, Egypt and English parents, and raised in Canada, Karim now resides in New York managing his private design studio. To date he has had some 3000 objects put into production and has successfully entered the realm of architecture and interiors, designing the Morimoto restaurant in Philadelphia and Semiramis Hotel in Athens. His work is in the permanent collections of fourteen museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and he exhibits art in various galleries. Rashid was an associate Professor of Industrial Design for 10 years at University of the Arts, Philadelphia, (1996 to 2005) Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (1993 to 1999), and RISD (1991-1992). He also taught part-time at OCAD (19971999) and is now a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences globally.

Rashid’s award winning designs include democratic objects such as the Garbo waste can and Oh Chair for Umbra, bobble water bottle, interiors such as the Morimoto restaurant, Philadelphia and Semiramis hotel, Ath-

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ens and exhibitions for Deutsche Bank and Audi. Rashid has collaborated with clients to create democratic design for Method and Dirt Devil, bikes for Biomega, furniture for Artemide and Magis, brand identity for Citibank and Hyundai, high tech products for LaCie and Samsung, and luxury goods for Veuve Clicquot, Swarovski and Kenzo,to name a few. Designed wrist watch for Italian company Alessi.

In 2012, Danish designer and manufacturer BoConcept collaborated with Rashid, to create the Ottawa Collection, which won the Red Dot Design Award.

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REFERENCES Designing the 21st Century (Specials) [Paperback], Charlotte Fiell & Peter Fiell.

Graphic Design for the 21st Century, Charlotte & Peter Fell.

Recommendations for introducing ‘Design and Innovation’ in schools, National meet on introducing ‘Design and Innovation’ in school curriculum, 2009.

Design as a Strategy for a Developing Economy, IDC, IIT Bombay, 1989(updated 2009).

Proposal for ‘Empowering Communication/Graphic Design Education’ in India, IDC, IIT Bombay, 2008.

The India Design Report, CII, 2011. www.designindia.net www.indiadesigncouncil.in www.ddei.in www.design-for-india.blogspot.com www.observatory.designobserver.com www.shashankmehta.com www.d’source.com www.ciidesign.in www.visual.ly www.vimeo.com www.wikipedia.com www.thinkingwithtype.com www.experimemtaltypography.com www.gdh.2rsolutions.cz www.informationisbeautiful.net http://startupsthisishowdesignworks.com/ http://www.designlearning.us/raising-design-awareness http://www.lipsum.com/

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