Interior, fashion design, animation: How India saw a spurt of ‘creative universities’ in the last 10 years

NEW DELHI: A report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in 2020 valued the design industry at Rs 18,832 crore, with an estimated annual growth rate of 23% to 25%. It is believed that now every industry is looking towards a design-oriented approach and has expanded its understanding of the value of design in creating competitive products and services. With the demand for skilled designers on the rise, the last decade has also witnessed the growth of exclusive full-fledged “design universities”.

Positioning themselves as “different” from the existing government-funded National Institutes of Design (NID), private institutes and design schools within universities, these exclusive design universities aim to “produce skilled designers who can address problems by integrating traditional practices with evolving technologies”.

In 2016, the Laxman Gyanpith Trust established Anant National University in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, as the first Design X university. Design X is a new, evidence-based approach for addressing many of the complex and serious problems facing the world today, as stated by an essay on jnd.org.

After two years, in 2018, the World University of Design (WUD) came up at Sonipat, Haryana. It brands itself as India’s first and only university dedicated to education in the creative domain.

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History of design education

The British had set up the first art college in India. Alexander Hunter founded an art school in Madras in 1850 as a private enterprise. In 1854, the School of Industrial Art was started in Kolkata, followed by Sir JJ School of Art in Bombay in 1857 and Jeypore School of Industrial Art in 1866.

“It was with the advent of these institutions that commercial graphics got introduced in the Indian system. Sir JJ School of Art started as an Arts and Crafts institution and initiated architecture in 1900. The department of Commercial Art, which was established in 1935, is said to have laid down the foundations for Graphic Design in India. In 1958, the Government of India invited Charles and Ray Eames to make recommendations for a training programme to support small industries. Their recommendations resulted in the ‘India Design Report’. Based on their report in 1960, the government set up the National Institute of Design (NID) at Ahmedabad.”

“The institute started with programmes in Industrial Design and Visual Communication. This was followed by setting up of the Industrial Design Center under the aegis of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay in 1969. Both these institutions carried the mantle of design in India in the modern era, followed by many others,” states the 2016 report, Future of Design Education in India, by the British Council.

The report had also highlighted that the design education in India lacks coherent structure because of the lack of well-articulated accreditation or affiliation procedures.

“There is no national accreditation body to accredit design programmes. Most of the state universities do not have design programmes for which they can affiliate colleges. As such, it is not possible for an entity to go and seek affiliation and hence grant a degree in design. Only a university is permitted to offer a degree,” stated the report.

Design Colleges: Present scenario

Experts say design education in India is experiencing significant growth and transformation and the sector is poised to play a critical role in employment.

“The focus on digital skills, practical skills, industry engagement, and interdisciplinary learning is helping elevate the standards of design education in India. However, there is still a need for more institutions that can provide such comprehensive and dedicated design education to meet the increasing demand for skilled designers,” said Sanjay Gupta, vice-chancellor, WUD.

Anunaya Chaubey, provost at Anant University, pointed that challenges such as accessibility, affordability and quality standardisation must be addressed to ensure that the benefits of this growth are widely distributed.

“Additionally, design knowledge domains are fluid, continually branching into new subdomains. This raises important questions like how generic or specialised a university’s design curriculum should be and should the industry’s needs dictate what future designers learn. Above all, the bigger question is whether design education should begin at the school level. Integrating design thinking into school curricula can foster critical and creative thinking in students, enabling them to solve real-world problems,” explained Chaubey.

Singapore, for example, has expanded project-based courses, once available only to older students, to primary and secondary school.

That said, experts also believe there is a gap in terms of curriculum design and technology adoption when compared to some of the leading design schools abroad.

“International institutions often have longer histories and more established industry connections which can translate into more advanced facilities and resources. However, Indian universities like WUD are rapidly catching up by integrating global best practices, fostering international collaborations, and investing in modern technologies,” added Gupta.

The World Economic Forum and McKinsey and Company, in their joint white paper, ‘Impact of Emerging Technologies on Creative Economy’, stated, “Augmented reality and virtual reality (AR and VR) can dramatically alter the content consumption experience and the way design education used to be imparted. These immersive technologies can encourage meaningful and innovative feelings, skills and understanding.”

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Employability of designers

As the field is growing, educators say the sector promises abundant career opportunities. The job roles are spread across domains, including industrial design, product design, communication design, interaction design (UI/UX), immersive media design, animation and game design, environmental design and intelligent and sustainable textile and fashion design.

“Today, every industry seeks a design-oriented approach to offer better solutions. A prime example of design’s pervasive influence on the economy is the Kerala cabinet’s approval of the Kerala State Design Policy, a strategic initiative aimed at propelling the state towards a design-based economy. In India, in the context of the built environment, one can definitely see a massive spurt in the need for designers who deal with interior/built spaces, and this is likely to continue in the coming decade. There will be a massive demand for space and interior designers,” said Chaubey.

Chaubey added, “Design, as a field, is experiencing significant growth in India, with an annual requirement of 62,000 designers – yet only 7,000 are qualified.”

In terms of the salary range, as per WUD placement’s record, for the class of 2023, the highest CTC was recorded to be Rs 12.5 lakh per annum and the average was around Rs 5 LPA. More than 91% of eligible candidates were selected and are employed.

In both the universities, students have also gone abroad for higher education or become entrepreneurs.

Growth of design universities

Chaubey explained, “Design is not just about aesthetics but about communicating, innovating and problem-solving. It’s a discipline that impacts our lives in many ways.

Preparing designers who understand real-world issues and can think critically and creatively to find solutions that require dedicated resources, a stimulating and engaging learning environment and industry-academia exposure. Only a university exclusively focused on design and schools with diverse disciplines and experimental projects could train our creative youth into problem-solvers.”

Spread over 78 acres, Anant offers multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes in design, architecture, climate action and visual arts. A total of 1,828 students are enrolled in various programmes.

Rafsana Yaemin, a fellow in Sustainability and Built Environment programme at Anant came from Dhaka after earning a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Military Institute of Science and Technology, Dhaka.

“I decided to take up this course to understand the connected aspects of the built environment. The course is an explorative medium of architectural design, delving into the historical and interactive aspects,” said Yaemin.

Chandraneel Sen, another student who just graduated from the university with a major in product design and minor in visual arts, now plans to work with consumer durables. Son of an auto driver, Sen is originally from Jamshedpur.

“I was a PCM student in school but fine arts was my passion. So in my quest to do something interesting, while researching, I came across the course here and I was also eligible for a scholarship. During my foundation course itself, I fell in love with product design and went for specialisation too,” said Sen.

Recently, the university has been seeing an increasing number of applicants to the space design programme.

“Unlike a design school within a larger university, WUD offers a synergistic, comprehensive and dedicated approach to design education across multiple disciplines, such as design, fashion, communication, architecture, visual and performing arts. This holistic approach ensures that the creative domains are given the focus and resources necessary to foster innovation and excellence. Furthermore, the trans-disciplinarity of programmes at WUD serves the evolving needs of the design industry,” said Gupta.

Gupta illustrates with an example, “Fashion design students, for example, can collaborate with students from other disciplines to produce a virtual animated fashion collection using AR, print their accessories using a 3D printer, or design their unique ramp or typography for their show, all within the same university.”

WUD is spread across 11.65 acres and has close to 500 students. It offers courses in transportation design, UX and digital product design, animation and game design, to name some at the bachelors level. The university also offers an executive MBA in design strategy and management.

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Different from NIDs

Explaining how they differ from the renowned NIDs, Gupta said, “While NIDs are renowned for their design education, WUD offers a wider array of disciplines, including business, architecture – all within the context of design. This interdisciplinary approach is supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a curriculum that emphasises practical, hands-on learning experiences.”

NID has seven campuses in the country, the oldest one is in Ahmedabad, established in 1961. It offers professional programmes at bachelor’s and master’s level with five faculty streams and 20 diverse design domains. Recently, a five-year PhD programme has been introduced at the NID Ahmedabad campus. The diverse domains include product design; ceramic and glass design, interior design, exhibition design, graphic design, textile design and others at the bachelor’s level. However, in each of the courses, there are less than 20 seats.

Now even IITs have design courses and schools. In 2011, the National Design Policy recommended establishing design departments in all the IITs.

Design universities: Future plans

Both design universities talk about the need for more integration of technology in design education through various academic and industry partnerships.

“We are augmenting the animation and game design programme by incorporating emerging technologies such as VR and AR,” said Gupta.

“These advancements are expected to expand the scope of the programme and provide students with cutting-edge skills that will be in high demand in future”. WUD is also working on starting a research journal and expanding the doctoral programme.

Meanwhile Anant is adding two new academic blocks. “These academic blocks will be like future tech centres, with robots, laser cutters, 3D printers and other emerging technologies. Additionally, a 25,000 sqm Learning and Designing Hub by Sasaki will soon be open for students,” added Chaubey.