thinking about design

Changed Times... Changing Concerns... - Deepankar Bhattacharyya

2011-04-28T16:06:00.004+05:30

It was convenient and appropriate to set up NID under the Ministry of Industries in 1961. Design was all about products and we were 'modernising' with zeal, industry was the way to a dream of a new and resurgent India. We were going to design and manufacture products using the latest in technology, we were going to build environments that reflected a 'modernism' that we had bypassed because of

Towards articulating visions of design education in India - Deepankar Bhattacharyya

2011-02-10T16:31:00.020+05:30

There is a buzz in the design communities in India, especially among those who have had something to do with NID and are miffed that they have not been consulted on the setting up of four more institutions bearing that name in different parts of this large and diverse land. I am an alumnus of NID from the first batch, an endeavour that was started with a dream and unbounded hope and enthusiasm.

Thoughts on a rapidly evolving interface - Deepankar Bhattacharyya

2011-01-03T11:24:00.008+05:30

2011 is here and while we were doing whatever we do in the normal course of our lives, events of considerable import have been making new and startling connections. It may be interesting to dwell on one of them. Technologies and software vendors are about to harness the power of many-core processors, enabling mind boggling output within the same space as occupied by the relatively few that are

What do I bring to the table? - Deepankar Bhattacharyya

2010-10-13T13:12:00.023+05:30

Professor MP Ranjan of NID has been instrumental in bringing to us 'LOOK Back – LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and Basic Design for India' (see his blog). After Bengaluru, he along with Prof Suchitra Sheth, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, chaired a conference in Kolkata (28 September 2010), the organisers for which were National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad – in collaboration with Goethe-Institut /

Revisiting reductionist aspects of design in the time of holism - Deepankar Bhattacharyya

2010-03-26T12:31:00.033+05:30

Just the other day in Bangalore, I viewed an exhibition titled ulm: method and design/ ulm: school of design 1953-68 and attended a conference titled - LOOK Back LOOK Forward: HfG Ulm and design education in India. This was organised by National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad and Bangalore in collaboration with Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan (GI/MMB) Bangalore and HfG-Archive Ulm &

Design Thinking for 21st century Designers - Deepankar Bhattacharyya

2009-10-21T12:17:00.020+05:30

Design thinkers from Leonardo da Vinci to Buckminister Fuller and everyone else who did not suffer the effects of education systems that lead to development and articulation of linear and fragmented thinking will have reason to smile.'Design Thinking' is fashionable at long last. As the last remnants of specialised thinking, so useful in the industrial age, begin to die a natural death and

Design History; an Alternative Approach – H Kumar Vyas

2009-08-04T13:28:00.004+05:30

Professor Kumar Vyas has been there since the beginnings of modern design in India. He played a major role in the development of design education at NID and was the Dean when the undergraduate programme was started in 1970, the year I joined. Those were heady days, there was little awareness of design in India and a novel education method was being tried. He and the other members of the faculty

The Design Way - Deepankar Bhattacharyya

2009-07-31T10:20:00.026+05:30

I have, of late been interacting with students in an educational institute and am struck by the various perceptions of what 'design' means. It has been interpreted as many things from problem solving to a way of making things look good. It has been said that design is rather hard to define but can be described, often vaguely, as some kind of creative process that also involves critical thinking

The silver lining - Deepankar Bhattacharyya

2009-03-24T10:17:00.011+05:30

Where are the dark clouds? I ask.In India's growth curve, comes the answer. An economic downturn that has caught a generation by surprise. Business is slow, salaries are frozen, spending is low, unemployment is rising. Exporters in key areas are having to shut shop, workers are having to look for alternatives.Many Indians would beg to differ, they would say that this is a wake-up call that could

Munnabhai and Obama - Uday Dandavate

2009-02-10T19:14:00.006+05:30