Design: The next destination for creative minds

Geetu Vaid 

World University of Design  (WUD) at Sonepat has been awarded co-funding under the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union for their project titled Design and Innovation Capacity Building in India. The UGC-recognised institution is India's first and only university dedicated to education in the creative domain. It is also the youngest university in India to bag an Erasmus+ project. 

WUD will be leading a consortium of six universities, including Politecnico the Milano of Italy, Brunel University of UK, and the Aegean University of Greece as European partners and IIIT Delhi & RIMT University, Punjab, as partners from India. The project will be supported by Crethidev from Europe.

Building innovation capacities in the design sector in India is the primary aim of the proposal submitted by WUD. The proposal will seek to address the lack of suitably trained graduates for a rapidly expanding labour market segment expected to require high numbers of new designers by 2020. Besides Erasmus, the university has international collaborations with foreign universities like University of Huddersfield, Oxford Brookes University, UK; Emily Carr University of Art & Design & Vancouver Film School, Canada; École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles (ENSAIT), France; and College of Creative Studies, USA. WUD offers the country's largest range of creative courses. 

In an interaction, Dr Sanjay Gupta, Vice-Chancellor of the university, shares how design education is gaining traction in the country. Excerpts: 

Why is there a sudden surge in demand for designers and those with creative skills?

Indian design industry has evolved rapidly in the recent times. Consumer demand and increasing spending power has been instrumental in driving this shift. For an evolving hybrid economy, it is important to focus on design. As the Indian economy grows, we will witness a greater demand for design professionals to create that competitive edge. The Indian industry has begun to appreciate the value-addition capabilities of design and innovation. Although, the demand for creative people has galloped, supply has not kept the same pace. With this realisation, creative courses have begun to find their place as a mainstream career option and have led to the sudden surge in demand.

What are the new avenues and careers in this field?

Design is a rewarding career option as four years of toil equips students with a perfect amalgamation of theoretical and practical design skills that can help them bag an attractive job offer. The four main disciplines of the design domain are: product design, fashion design, interior design, and communication design, besides many sub-specialisations. There are ample job openings available in the private and public sector for qualified design graduates and postgraduates. 

Graduates can seek employment with a plethora of big, medium and small organisations in the private sector. Lately, multinational giants such as Microsoft, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Sap Labs, Cognizant, and Infosys have also been hiring talented design graduates in big numbers. Opportunities have also opened up in the government organisations and institutions through competitive exams such as UPSC, SSC, PSC, etc.

What are the unique design courses being offered by WUD?

WUD offers country’s largest creative course catalogue, which includes 30 specialised UG, PG and doctoral programmes in various areas such as design, fashion, communication, visual arts, design and retail management and architecture. The university follows a unique curriculum that encourages research, academic excellence, industry preparedness and social innovation and is rendered by experienced faculties from the best institutions of India & the world such as FIT New York, LCF London, NID, NIFT, SPA & TVB to name a few. Some of the specialised courses include BBA/ MBA in Design Strategy and Management, MVA in Fashion Art and Art Education, BDes in Fashion Communication and Transportation Design, and BA(H) in Built Habitat Studies.

What is the demand in the field of UI/UX?

UI/UX is a sub-specialisation under communication design, and is among the fastest growing and one of the most paying jobs in the design industry at the moment. A recent study revealed that 87 per cent of managers say hiring more UX designers is the top priority for their organisation. The industry demands more skilled and focused UI/UX designers, as all the major companies have almost doubled their design hiring goals in the last half decade. Any brand wanting to compete in today's competitive market needs an edge and design specialists fit the bill. By utilising the best talent in communication design, companies aim to grow faster by providing user experiences tailored to people's needs. 

How can students increase their employability in this field?

Industry sectors like transportation, business and financial services, IT, entertainment, retail, consumer goods, luxury segment, telecommunication, manufacturing and publishing are employing design students and in general, careers in the creative field are on an upswing. There are plenty of job openings in both private and public sectors for competent design graduates. 

In order to increase their employability, the students must possess problem-solving and critical thinking skills, communication skills, print knowledge, digital design knowledge, social media and networking and time management.

When it comes to courses and training in this field, how has the design education evolved over the past decade?

It has been more than 50 years since the inception of design education in India. But till recently, design education was being imparted by only a handful of institutions, most of which were government owned. The approach to design education in the post-Independence India has been crafts and skill oriented in an apprenticeship mode. However, design today has broken boundaries and discovered new merging areas in terms of various domains and the interfaces. Design is today being offered as a mainstream course at universities. The dynamics of globalisation and its socio-economic consequences have prompted educators and thinkers to critically appraise the role of imparting required skills in design to deliver the quality of life in a more accessible, equitable and inclusive manner through technology.