Do you think the creative courses are now in demand because there’s saturation in general degree courses?
Saturation in certain areas is certainly one of the reasons. However, the primary reason is that the Indian industry has begun to appreciate the value addition capabilities of design and innovation. It has become clear to them that the only way for the economy and businesses to grow is through design intervention. The awareness that there is an immense scope for the design sector to flourish in our country is, growing by leaps and bounds. Demand for creative people therefore, galloped while supply has not kept pace. Creative courses have made their place as a mainstream career option and hence, the growth is in demand.
To which programmes most of the students are applying?
Fashion is still an all-time favorite and so is architecture. What’s new is this huge swing towards more technical programmes like product design, interior design, animation, game design and transportation design. In visual arts, there is a significant move away from the traditional courses. Creative painting, contemporary art and fashion art are attracting students. The design thinking based Bachelors program in Design Strategy & Management is another popular program.
What career awaits students who are opting for the creative sector in India?
Careers in creative field are on an upswing. Presently, there is an estimated requirement of more than 60000 qualified designers across different design domains in India against a supply of slightly over 7000 trained designers. About 6000 odd students are currently pursuing design education. There is thus a huge gap in demand & supply.
In next two years, by the year 2020, India’s design industry is expected to reach Rs 188.32 billion. A recent study by the British Council and IDC has revealed that financial services, retail, transportation, manufacturing, telecommunication, consumer goods, real estate, and luxury segments are employing design graduates in a big way. Large and medium-sized businesses alone are employing 57% of the design graduates. Multinational players such as Microsoft, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Sap Labs, Cognizant, and Infosys are hiring qualified design graduates by the dozen so as to say. There is no dearth of job openings in both private and public sector for competent designers and employment opportunities for both graduates and postgraduates in creative streams are only likely to multiply in coming years.
In what ways fashion programmes vary in India and other countries?
The universe of fashion is a complicated one. While there is a huge industry catering to fashion for the domestic market and thereby driven by the Indian sensibilities, demography & culture; there is another set of industry that exports fashion to global markets and thereby follows international trends and silhouettes. The uniqueness in both cases is the Indian fabric and the fabric embellishment skills like embroideries, Indian patterns and use of natural dyes. A fashion design course abroad has none of these variations. They focus primarily on western fabrics and silhouettes. Indian fashion programmes are therefore richer in content and more comprehensive.
Any new programmes that will be taught uniquely by the university?
As times & technologies change, existing programmes would lose their relevance and newer ones would come in. At WUD we have mapped the latest industry demands and created many new and unique programmes. Each of these program will try to equip the students with know-how of all related areas and make sure that it take care of the ‘why’ (feasibility), for whom (empathy), and ‘how’ it will work/help (functionality).
Some of the new programmes introduced by WUD are – BDes in Animation & Game design, and Transportation Design; BBA/MBA in Design strategy & Management; MVA in Curatorial Practices in Art, Art & Design History, Fashion Art, Contemporary Art etc.
