Perspectives on Design Education in India and Asia

Peer M. Sathikh is an artist–designer–engineer who has had the privilege to study all three at institutes of repute. Sathikh joined NTU in 2008 after 22 years of experience as a designer and entrepreneur. He has been involved in both design industry initiatives and in design education at all levels in Singapore since 1992. A serial entrepreneur, Sathikh co-founded an injection moulding company in Chennai, India that is fast becoming a sought-after supplier for producing specialised parts for the automotive industry. Prof. Ravi Poovaiah is a senior faculty at the IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay. His pedagogic as well as research and design interests are in fields related to Interaction Design, Communication Design, Product Design, and specifically in Visual Language, Information Visualisation, Visual Narratives, Collaborative Open Learning Environments, and Designing for Children. Venkatesh Rajamanickam is a professor at the IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay. He is an HCI designer, educator and researcher. His Information Design Lab at IIT Bombay utilises graphic design, interactive computer graphics, data-processing algorithms, and emerging technologies to address challenging problems in data, design, and art. Karin G. Oen is a curator and art historian based in Singapore where she is a senior lecturer and the Head of Department, Art History, at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Humanities. She works on historical, modern, and contemporary creative practices related to the transcultural and the transmediatic. Starting in July 2024, she took on the role of Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.

1. Introduction: Design Education, Four Phenomena Part 1: Approaches to Modern Design Education Within and Beyond the Classroom 2. Frameworks for Design and Media Education at the School of Art, Design, and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – A personal experience 3. Paracurricular and Paracuratorial Constellations: Enabling a culture of enrichment and independent inquiry Part 2: Design and Media Education in India: Undergraduate Curricula 4. Our Journey in Design Education: A case study of IIT Guwahati 5. Pathways of Design Education for a Changing World 6. The Design Learning Ecosystem in India: Anchored in both traditional and contemporary skills 7. Pedagogical Constructs: Visual Communication Design programme at Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology Part 3: Design and Media Education Landscapes in India: Admissions, Faculty Development, and Matching Industry Needs 8. Design Aptitude Test: An Indian Experience 9. Design Education in India: How might we develop resilient faculty mentors? Learnings as an errand boy, as a professional, and academic 10. Views from the Front Line 11. The Designer Puzzle: Why aren’t designers in leadership? Part 4: Design and Media Education Across Asia 12. Design Education in Context: Singapore 13. Towards a Resilient Design Education 14. Reorganising the Curriculum: A response to the expanding design industry 15. Transdisciplinary Innovation Design Education at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in China 16. The Cold War Revisited: The history and pedagogy of the industrial design programme at METU 17. Design Education in the Philippines 18. Design Education in Mongolia Part 5: Reflections - Design Education and Leadership 19. From the Bauhaus and Black Mountain to Singapore: Creating a meta-art, design, and media school 20. Designing the Future: Insights and inspirations from 30 years in Asia’s creative landscape