Almost three years ago I participated in a workshop sponsored by the AIDI (Association of Industrial Designers of India). The event was intended to inform the implementation of India’s National Design Policy. Many design professionals and educators came together from across India and the world to develop strategies and actionable recommendations.
There were a handful of breakout groups, each dealing with a different focus area. These were: Education, Design Parks (these are intended to be urban design “hubs” so incidentally the solution was already posed), Branding and Communication of Indian Design, Culture, Environment, Social Development & Effective Public Spending (the ‘everything else’ category), and Competitive Advantage by Design (the group participated in).
I ran across the data our group produced recently from an old blog post I did about the event, and it got me wondering, “So How Is India Doing?” Have you seen any of these themes being implemented? Please comment on this post describing where they have been implemented and most effective and how they have unfolded in your community.
Strategies for Building India’s Design Competitiveness
| Theme |
Trend |
Implementation |
| Knowledge Sharing |
Establish forums to share best practices and form points of view for the outside world and interested stakeholders.
Create design discourse |
- Whitepapers
- case studies
- Interactive workshops
- client-firm shared experiences
- Local design chapters
|
| Design Awareness for Public Engagement |
Active marketing of the value, processes and outputs of design |
- Leverage formal and informal media networks
- Design shows, contests, team-based marketing, etc
- Cross-marketing across other organizations;
- “everybody’s is a design expert” / democratized design
|
| Designer as Entrepreneur |
Encourage and nurture a favorable environment for entrepreneurship among designers |
- Funding
- Facilities
- Business training
- Academic-business partnerships (large, small & micro)
|
| Design as Competency |
|
- Selling design as competency
- Establishing design as a core competency w/in organizations
- Create common languages and bridges among disciplines and practices
- Establish core functionality of design in organizations and ways that design can enrich other functions (sales, marketing, sustainability, ethics, r&d, etc)
- As enablers and facilitators
|
| GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES |
- DEFINITE INVOLVEMENT OF GOVT + DESIGN INDUSTRY
- CREATING A COMMON PLATFORM OF DESIGN
- CREATING AWARENESS FOR DECISION MAKERS
|
- MINISTRY AND DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN
INCENTIVES FOR COMPANIES AND DESIGNERS TO PROMOTE DESIGN- FUNDING,
- TAX BENEFITS,ETC
- CREATE INCENTIVES OR ISSUE DIRECTIVE TO INCLUDE DESIGNERS IN STRATEGIC AND DECISION MAKING LEVEL
- NEW GENERATION OF COMPANIES TO PUSH INDIA AS LEADER IN DESIGN
|
| DESIGN AS A CULTURE |
- CULTURALLY & SOCIALLY RELEVANT DESIGN
- DESIGN TO BE SEEN AS A CATALYST.
- DESIGN AS A CULTURE
- DESIGN IN PUBLIC DOMAIN.
- KEY VALUE INDIA PROPOSITIONS- CRAFT, BATCH PRODUCTION.
|
- THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL – ‘GLOCAL’.
- CREATE LOCAL DESIGN THAT CAN WORK GLOBALLY.
- VISIBILITY IN URBAN SPACES
- PROMOTE DESIGN ALONG WITH DIFFERENT ART FORMS
- EMPART THRU MASS MEDIA
- RECOGNISE INDEGINEOUS/VERNACULAR DESIGN FORMS AND PROCESSES
|
| HUMAN POWER |
- HUMAN INTELLECT VS LABOUR/OUTSOURCING
- ‘DESIGN THINKING ‘ IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE
- MAPPING BEHAVORIAL PATTERNS
|
- SEARCH AND LEVERAGE DESIGN
- TAPPING TALENT
- also (my add) social capital
|
| GLOBAL VS LOCAL |
- DESIGNED N INDIA
- LOCAL SOLUTIONS FOR LOCAL PROBLEMS?
- INDIAN VS GLOBAL MARKETS
- APPROPRIATE DESIGN
- ASPIRATIONAL VALUE OF PRODUCT
|
- CREATE LOCAL DESIGN THAT CAN WORK GLOBALLY.
- DOCUMENTATION OF SOCIO-CULTURAL LIFESTYLES AND TRADITIONAL METHODS
- ENCOURAGING RURAL INNOVATIONS AND DESIGNS
- PROMOTE TRADITIONAL CRAFTS / METHODS AS ASPIRATIONAL PRODUCTS IN THE INDIAN MARKET
|
| DESIGNERS AND OPPORTUNITIES |
- HOW DO WE IDENTIFY NEW OPPORTUNITIES?
- HOW DO WE FIND SOLUTIONS TO ‘OPPORTUNITIES’ BEYOND A FIRM’S EXPERTISE.
- ‘POSITIVE DESIGN ECOLOGIES’
|
A COMMON BODY FOR DESIGN AND INDUSTRY / SMES |
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