Design an overview: Skill set required, courses & top colleges

It is great to see the way today's youth is growing more aware and conscious about shaping up their future. With the advent of new avenues, the choice is vast, the expectations and aspirations are high, and also the competition is very severe. What used to be solely recreational pursuits for people to indulge in, after the day-long hard work has now become contemporary and viable career options for the generation of today.

Design as a course of study and profession has now become the ‘IT’ career, with world class education available in India as well as abroad and is very much in reach of anybody who desires for the same and fits the bill.

Before we get into the nitty gritties of designing a career in design, let us first address what is Design? Who are Designers? What do Designers do?

So, here are the facts for all the curious young minds…beginning with the basic question – What is Design?

Design is an individual interpretation of a style, product or concept. This results from an individual’s experimentations, innovations and explorations of Form (Silhouettes), size, materials, colours, textures, design elements/ features, surface ornamentation and above all FUNCTION!!! A design that doesn’t function is nothing more than a work of art/ installation.

Designer: Skill Set Required

A Designer is a beautiful and balanced blend of an artist, an artisan, a decorator and marketing & human resource management skills.

• A Designer harnesses his/ her creativity to improve the commercial viability of a product using design as a powerful selling proposition.
• A Designer never loses sight of his/her target consumer as he/she contributes to a product which caters to an entire industrial setup. Artisans and technical team are a very important part of the set up who help in converting a design into a product.
• A Designer’s creation travels through a chain of artisans and workers in its realisation process hence it is extremely difficult to make impromptu amendments in a design at any random stage. This also requires a designer to be a good planner, a clear communicator of the specifications and a team manager too.
• A Designer works with the end result in mind, having established the constants of target market, consumer, category and price range, throughout the design process.

Designing: Courses to study

Designers contribute to an industry where they may either design for custom client or a target segment. In case of the latter it’s the entire industry at work. Hence, the study of design is divided into three major segments, each requiring a certain skill set.

• Industrial Design: offers specialisation in Product design, Furniture, Interior and space design,(both also known as Hard material Design), Ceramic and glass design (also classified as Fired material design), transportation and Automobile Design
• Communication Design: comprises of Graphic design, Animation Design, Film & Video communication, Digital Design, User interface design, Game Design, Photography and Advertising, Fashion Journalism, Visual Merchandising.
• Fashion & Apparel Design: gives choices in Textile design, Fashion & Apparel design, Leather design, knitwear design and accessory design (offers choices of Jewelry design, Footwear and leather products, interior products, Lifestyle accessories, handicrafts etc.

The study of Design is offered at Bachelor’s (after 10+2, any stream) and Master’s level both usually 4-3 year duration programmes at former level and a 2 year programme at the latter. Besides the academic qualification, it requires an aspirant to be creative and imaginative, proficient enough in drawing and illustration so as to be able to communicate his/her ideas on paper.

Students also need to be creative within the practical realms as they need to convert their paper designs into functional and viable products, which is what they are scrutinized upon in their entrance examination for the same.

Besides Design, there are other avenues of Fashion Technology/ Production Technology (BFtech/ MFtech) for students who want to join the fashion industry but find their creative faculties limited. Such courses can be considered to be an engineering equivalent in the field of fashion & apparel. Here, to be eligible to pursue such a course, students need to have studied PCM in their 10+2 to get admission into a bachelor’s prgramme and should have studied BTech to get into a master’s programme.

Another promising field is that of Fashion/ Apparel Management, which is an MBA equivalent in the field of fashion & apparels. This course again is offered at both at the undergraduate as well as the postgraduate level. The course has no subject restriction as its eligibility criteria for the qualifying level. Here again, people who enjoy good communication, social and networking skills instead of drawing and imaginative skills have an opportunity to join the business of Fashion in an integral capacity of their own.

Design: Top colleges

The most prestigious colleges to target for the study of Design and Fashion are:

• National Institute of Design (NID) (undertaken by M/O Industries and Commerce GOI)
• National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) (undertaken by M/O Textiles GOI)
• Footwear Design Development Institute (FDDI) (undertaken by M/O Industries and Commerce GOI)
• Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT), Mohali (undertaken by Govt. of Punjab)
• Indian Institute of Craft Design, Jaipur (undertaken by Govt. of Rajasthan)
• Pearl Academy
• MIT Institute of Design (MITID, Pune)
• Symbiosis Institute of Design (SID, Pune)
• Shrishti, Bangalore
• J D Institute of Fashion Technology
• School of Fashion Technology (SOFT)  
• Institute of Apparel Management (IAM)

All the above mentioned colleges offer a certain mix of courses at Bachelors & masters level and their student intake is through a 2-3 stage National level entrance.

We shall be further discussing the timeline, selection process, eligibility criteria and the preparation approach for the same in general and the colleges in particular.

Till then enjoy being creative and imaginative….for your limitations begin where your imagination end.

About the Author:

Shipra Anand is the Founder Director of Academy for Fashion Careers in Lucknow and has 18 years of experience in the field of fashion and design. She offers career counselling and also trains students for NID, NIFT, Pearl, FDDI, CEED, NATA and other design, art and architecture entrance examinations. A post graduate from NIFT, New Delhi, Anand has industry experience with names like Lacoste and Wild Orchids.