Professionals, who are into designing, create the shape of things ranging from everyday use to the most sophisticated things like aircrafts or automobiles. Hence, the profession can be categorised into several broad areas such as Fashion, Products, Interiors (and exteriors), and Graphics (Print and Audio-Visual communications) design. Increased commercialisation in all areas of human activity has created a need for presenting a product, an idea or even the living areas in most dramatic and imaginative way to have those appreciated, accepted or to create a niche presence of one’s own.

So, fashion designers design clothes and all the coordinated accessories like costume jewelleries, footwears, hand bags etc.; product designers design tooth brushes to gadgets like televisions; graphic designers with their artistic touches make our communication tools like books, journals, newspaper pages and visual presentation of an idea through advertisements, films or television more attractive, and spatial designers render an aesthetical and feel-good ambience to the public and private living spaces.

Fashion Designing

The garments that men, women and children wear, the varieties of footwear they slip into, the designer jewellery all are so fond of, the watches, the attractive trinkets on our costumes; all are designed by fashion designers. They choose the fabrics, decide on the textile patterns, design and select the matching embellishments on costumes, and other accessories keeping an eye on the market trend. Of late, fashion designing has become a rage among the younger lot as a career option.

Aptitudes that help

It is a creatively challenging professional field. Besides being imaginative, one should be oriented towards fashion, keep update on national and international fashion trends and above all, he/she should have genuine inclination for a career in this segment.

Career avenues

A trained person in fashion technologies may work in various capacities in the industry as a garment merchandiser, fashion coordinator, textile designer, fabric sampler, fashion event manager, garment marketing manager, a fashion journalist or can set up his/her own manufacturing unit. They can take up jobs in garment manufacturing and export houses, garment retail businesses, government textile/handloom development departments, newspapers or fashion journals and design clothes for film and television programme producers. India, being one of the leading garment and fabric exporters in the world and its entertainment industry booming manifold, holds a lot of promise for the fashion designers today.

How to get through

A candidate can opt for a degree/diploma in fashion designing or any of its branches of studies of various durations, after completing +2/equivalent with 45-50% of marks.

Mostly, post graduate diploma training is provided for fashion related courses like, garment manufacture technology, textile technology and designing, footwear designing, accessory designing, leather apparel design and technology, garment merchandising and fashion communications. The basic educational qualification for such courses is B Sc/Graduation in any field depending on the eligibility requirements of different institutions.

All most all leading institutions like NIFT(GDP in Design), FDDI (Footwear Designing and Development Institute) and NID (SLPEP & PGDPD) offering designing courses, admit students through their own entrance examinations.

Interior Designing :

Interior designing involves aesthetical arrangement of the inside of a structure and its immediate exteriors. The designers usually have to work in close coordination with a range of professionals/experts such as artists, artisans, architectures, carpenters, plumbers and electrical technicians etc. to execute a design plan. Interior designing as a career option till recently was a restricted field. But, things have changed for the better.

Aptitudes that help

The interior designers are required to be good at budgeting a design, planning material procurement and managing men, besides, having an eye for beauty and lifestyle trends.

How to get through

Students who have completed 10+2 with science can opt for a 5-year integrated professional programme or 3-year diploma courses in leading private as well as govt. institutions. Institutions like NID and Exterior-Interiors admit student with a back ground in B. Arch/BE/B Tech/BFA for their programmes in interior designing.

Career avenues

Interior designers have the options to work independently as consultants to hotels, corporate offices, malls, commercial complexes, architecture firms and construction houses. They can take up regular jobs in these sectors as well as in relevant government departments. Other avenues are in theatre and television production units where they are required to do set designing.

 

Graphic Designing

Graphic designing is most in demand of all the designing professions, because of the fact that the expertise is required by a range of sectors such as advertising, publishing, film and other audio-visual productions, packaging industry, design houses of textile industries, fashion and accessory designing, and product designing units. Graphic designers provide design solutions to all these sectors for creatively and effectively presenting an idea or an object.

How to get through

Graphic designing is taught as a specialisation under BFA (Bachelor in Fine Arts) course and, also, as an independent course, such as Computer graphics. Students are trained in the basics of fine arts and designs, including illustration, typography, digital artwork, 2D and 3D design solutions, animation, web designing and multimedia applications. Students having a background in Fine Arts (BFA/ MFA)/ Multimedia/ Computer Graphics work as graphic designers. (Also, refer the chapter on Applied Art pg-182)

Institutions offering courses in BFA/MFA admit students through entrance examinations.

 

Product Designing

As the name would imply, product designers study all the technical aspects and about the market trends regarding a product, and design it in an appealing as well as a user-friendly manner. They work in co-ordination with engineers/technical experts. Smartly designed home appliances to trendy automobiles, or children’s bicycles to industrial tools, it is all the product designers’ efforts which provides us a range of choices while buying a product. Apart from the aesthetics, a product designer keeps in view the functionality and the commercial viability of a product before designing it. The profession has emerged as the most glamorous of all the designing segments, at present. At the same time it requires key personal aptitudes and training to work as a product designer.

Aptitudes that help

Like any other designing branches, product designing is a creatively stimulating occupation. A candidate opting for this career must possess imaginativeness, a clear analytical trait, a sense for styling and adequate professional training to boot these.

How to get through

A student may go for 4-year diploma programmes at NID, IITs, and several other leading private institutions after +2 sciences. NID inducts students for its School Leavers Professional Education Programme (SLPEP) and IITs to their B Tech industrial design programmes through national level design aptitude test and IIT-JEE respectively.

Common Entrance Examination for Design (CEED) is conducted for admission to the two-year Master of Design (M Des) courses at IIT Mumbai, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) Bangalore. To be eligible for this examination, a candidate should be a bachelor in Engineering/ Architecture/Applied Psychology/BFA, or should have Professional Diploma of CEPT (5 year)/ Five-year professional graduation course in art/professional diploma of NID, for this entrance test. GATE score is also accepted.

NID has 13 different disciplines for specialisations under its PGDP courses and is soon to open two new programmes in Automobile and Transport Design and Design Management and Entrepreneurship.

Career avenues

Product designing is a constantly growing industry stimulated by a global consumer market which could extend from simple gadgets to sophisticated equipments required for space crafts. This vibrating market trend has encouraged the National Institute of Design (NID) to introduce two highly specialised and upcoming design courses namely Information Design and Interface Design, besides increasing the number of seats at the PG level from 95 to 145 and 210 at undergraduate level this year. The courses will aid future engineers and product developers. Product designers can work at consumer appliances, electrical, textile, furniture industries in industrial product manufacturing houses and can work as product design consultants.