The School of Design Studies(SoDS), University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, hosted a unique event titled “Design Dialogue“ at the India Habitat Center, New Delhi on 29 November, 2014. The highlight of the event was design practitioners from various disciplines sharing their experiences with the audience.The event was organized with an objective of making the audience aware of design as a profession and the role of a designer in real life situation.
Participation was encouraging with Students and teachers from some of the leading schools, colleges and coaching institutes from Delhi & NCR attended the event and benefitted from their interaction with the eminent speakers.
Welcoming everyone, Sh. Piyush Goghari, Programme Head, B.Design at the SoDS, UPES, emphasized on the fact that design as a profession is more relevant today, than any moment in the past, and its relevance is going to increase in future. Hence, there is a need for quality design education which can fulfill the aspirations of young design career aspirants in India. Dr. K. Munshi, senior professor at Industrial Design Center, IIT Bombay, and Consultant and chief mentor for SoDS, demonstrated examples of design in various disciplines, and how it makes a difference.
Dr. ParagDiwan, Vice Chancellor, UPES, shared how the idea of a design school was evolved and implemented. He also spoke briefly about the achievements of the design school in a short span of two years.
The event was graced with three noted speakers.
· Sh. NileshkumarKirtane, Head (Department of Styling), Honda India R&D Pvt. Ltd. Gurgaon
· Ms. Mizuho Tomito, Co – Director,BeeStudio, renowned automotive consultancy firm, Pune
· Sh.SanandanSudhir, Product Design Consultant, Invent India, Ahmedabad
Sh. Nilesh from Honda started with a brief on the history of Honda, showing each milestone the company achieved since its inception. His case study on how and why the very popular “ ACTIVA” scooter was evolved in India was indeed an eye opener to the audience. His inputs on certain value systems that need to be followed by designers like “ be original” was also well appreciated by all.
Ms. Tomito, a Japanese automotive designer, representing the renowned automotive consultancy from, Bee Studio, show cased case studies of two car models designed by their firm. Her emphasis was more on the demands of European market. She revealed the design process followed to answer the typical demands of European consumers. Her presentation also exposed the process followed from sketch to working model.
Sh. SanandanSudhir, Invent India, a pioneering and prominent Product Design firm at Ahmedabad, demonstrated how a Product Designer can work at various levels – from a simple product to complex systems. He also harped upon the necessity of design institutes to prepare students in such a way that they can implement their ideas. His innovations on a simple cello tape dispenser and baby incubator were very well received by the audience.
The students of SoDS, at the UPES gave a brief presentation of their academic work and experiences. The highlight of this presentation was that life at SoDS is hard work but lots of fun also. In fact, the learning comes through having fun!!!!!!!
Sh. Jagpreet Singh, Assistant Professor, SoDS, thanked everyone for sparing their time and the patience and attention with which they participated in the event.
