Behind everything you see and use there is a designer at work. There are interior designers at work when it comes to living and work spaces and graphics designers when it comes to media and entertainment products like newspapers, movies, etc. Design, therefore, is a very vast field.
Choosing a field
Categories of design. Here is a list of options:
Product Design: Designing user-friendly products.
Furniture Design: Creating not only new designs, but also experimenting with new materials to increase user comfort.
Ceramic Design: Ceramic Products are widely used in lifestyle products (artistic products), tableware (dinner sets, etc.), and sanitary ware (washbasins, etc.).
Textile Design: This is different from fashion design. In textile design, experts create new kinds of woven and non-woven textiles with unique characteristics like “crease-resistant” varieties.
Apparel and Accessory Design: Popularly known as fashion design, here designers create clothes and accessories for fashion-conscious consumers.
Communication Design: Using Design in entertainment, media and advertising industries (special effects, layout and design, animation, film and photography, etc.)
Exhibition Design: Design connected with events (cultural events), showcasing works (museums and art galleries), trade fairs, marketing events, etc.
Courses
Depending on the areas of interest, one can from the following:
Duration
Bachelor of fine Arts (BFA): 4-5 years.
Diploma Course: 2-3 years.
Masters course (after completing BFA): 2 Years.
Eligibility
Bachelor of fine Arts (BFA) Course: 10+2.
Masters Course: BFA.
Diploma Courses: 10th standard/equivalent.
Besides this academic qualification, the individual should have a creative bent of mind and an eye for detail.
Admission
To enroll for courses in Fine Arts, an entrance examination is to test the candidates’ aesthetic skills. The test generally consists of (1) Study from life-face of a human model to be drawn in pencil and (2) a water color painting on a specified theme.
Other Courses
National Institute of Design offers both UG & PG Programmes – Graduate Diploma Programme in Design (GDPD) of four years’ duration for students after 10+2, or equivalent like AISSCE/ICSE, and the Post-Graduate Diploma Programme in Design (PGDPD) of 2 to 2 and half years duration for graduates; particularly from Architecture, technology, engineering, fine and applied arts, information technology, computer science, etc. The specializations under GDPD are: Industrial Design, Communication Design & Textile and Apparel Design.
National Institute of Fashion Technology offers, among others, a course in Fashion Design. Other courses include, leather Design, Accessory Design, Textile Design, and Knitwear Design. NIFT also offers a course in Fashion Communication. The eligibility is 10+2 from a recognized Board of Education and admission is through an entrance examination that tests an aspirant’s general ability (GAT) and creative ability (CAT) and material handling (Situation Test).
Institute of Apparel Management (IAM) offers bachelor’s programme in Fashion and Lifestyle Design (four years) and another one in fashion and Textile Merchandising (3 years).
Footwear Design & Development Institute offers degree and diploma courses in footwear design and development.
Apparel Training and Design Centre offers one/two-year diploma courses in fashion design and apparel manufacturing and six-month Core Certificate courses in apparel pattern making, industrial sewing machine operations, etc.
List of Institutes
National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT): The Premier Fashion Institute. NIFT is the premier of Design, Management and Technology. The Institute provides a common platform for fashion education, research and training.
The Institute has a network of 12 professionally managed domestic centre at New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Raebareli, Bhopal ,Kannur, Patna and Shillong. NIFT has further spread its wings globally with the opening of an international centre at Mauritius.
National Institute of Design (NID): The Premier Design Institute. National Institute of Design offers professional education programmes at Undergraduate and Post Graduate level in 17 diverse design domains.
The overall structure of NID’s programme is a combination of theory, skills, design projects, and field experiences supported by cutting edge design studios, skill & innovation labs and the Knowledge Management Centre. National Institute of Design, Paldi, Ahmedabad is one of the premier institute which not only focus to develop skills as well as encourage students to do work with innovation .
Institute of Apparel Management (IAM): IAM has been very instrumental to train Designers, Design Professionals, Design Managers, Designer Merchandisers, Quality Professionals etc. with a broad base knowledge of applied Management skills, competencies & understanding the dynamics of Apparel business in Global context.
Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI): FDDI was established by the Government of India on persistent demand of the Footwear Industry to have an ‘Apex Organization’ as a ‘One Stop Solution Provider’ for the various problems of the sector.
Spurred by the surge in demand for trained human resources to homogenize the country’s interests with the rest of the world, the Noida campus of FDDI in Uttar Pradesh was set up in the year 1986. The other campuses are located at Furstaganj, Chennai, Kolkata, Rohtak, Chhindwara Jodhpur & Guna. Two more campuses of the FDDI are also being established at Patna and Hyderabad.
At these campuses, FDDI conducts wide range of professional programmes in the area of Footwear Design, Technology, Management, Retail Management, Fashion Merchandising, Visual Merchandizing, Marketing, Creative Designing & CAD/CAM and Leather Goods & Accessories Design etc. thus, providing trained high-class professional, managers, fashion designers, technologists to keep pace with the growing demand of the Industry. FDDI is among the first Institute in the world to get prestigious ISO 9001 & ISO 14001 certification.
The professional programmes are conducted by FDDI’s School of Footwear Design, Production & Management (SFDPM), School of Retail Management (SRM), School of Leather Goods and Accessories Design (SLGAD), School of Fashion Design (SFD) and School of Business Management (SBM).
Job Prospects
Campus placements offer jobs to students studying in premier institutions. Otherwise, a large number of top companies in garments, fashion accessories, leather goods, media outlets, advertising, and other sectors recruit students with appropriate qualifications.
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