From clothes to cars, each product goes through several design stages before finally being launched on the market. And with the increasing role of digital, design is no longer a work of art, but rather a combination of data, communication, psychological and physiological aspects of a consumer and brands. Based on this observation, the institutes have started to roll out advanced courses in the field of design. “Usually, design is related to fashion design, graphic design and several other fields. While all areas are important, we need someone to convert design thinking to problem solving. And this can be done by finding design courses that are modern and geared towards contemporary demands,” A Balasubranium, Director of Institute of Design – JK Lakshmipat University (JKLU), Jaipur, told FinancialExpress Online.

The design institute which started in 2018, claims to have increased the number of students in its third year to 49 from 23. In the next academic session which will start from the end of July 2022, the institute expects to that 120 students are joining the foundation program and has already received 200 applications for early admissions.

According to a joint report by KPMG, Pearl Academy, FICCI and FDCI on the future of creative jobs, technologies such as virtual reality, 3D printing, IoT and personalization are prompting designers to rethink the exploitation of data user-centric for better product development. For example, design as a category exists in all sectors. According to market research firm Statista, the semiconductor design market in India is expected to reach $33.1 billion by 2020. Yet another area of ​​design, according to Statista, research revenue and engineering design, including services, is expected to reach $42 billion. in FY22 compared to $22 billion in FY18.

Currently, it offers courses in three distinct disciplines, namely Product Design, Interaction Design, and Interdisciplinary Design. “Under product design, the focus has shifted from making pretty things that people buy and leave at home to a combination of people, culture and society. As nowadays, social issues are solved by using design, for example, rolling tanks to provide drinking water,” added Balasubramanium.

The university says the interdisciplinary course trains students to become generalists rather than specialists. According to the institute, the course focuses on how effectively students can work on a variety of projects and with different people ranging from managers, technicians to comfortable craftsmen and offers new ideas for creating sustainable designs. in terms of packaging, campaigning, etc. Likewise, he claims that interaction design encourages design students far from being mere pixel pushers. It teaches students how to develop the design of device and human interaction with devices like the Internet of Things (IoT).

According to Balasubramanium, the new discipline of communication design has gone beyond creating banners or posters, as these are available as templates through apps like Canva. “We want to create jobs for designers because every year thousands of design graduates, and very few get the job. Therefore, we want to have a sustainable type of programs,” he explained.

Also Read: Reinventing the Learning Model for a Digitally Transformed India