Art

CRAFT DESIGN, Lecture at NIFT, Navi Mumbai

I think of my teachers more when I am teaching. I consider myself a tad too lucky to have studied under the guidance of design thinkers like MP Ranjan and Aditi Ranjan at NID, particularly when it comes to crafts.

Craft being my favourite area of work, this was my first lecture on CRAFT DESIGN at NIFT, Navi Mumbai. (16^th September 2016)

The aim of arranging expert lectures in design institutes is to give students a point of view of how things actually work on field. To show how design as a tool is applied to bring out necessary results, to show a larger picture of how design can create change and sustainability. The process of working with constraints, connecting several dots and extending your own boundaries with every project you work on.

A live design intervention project was given to students as part of their curriculum. The aim was to design commercially viable and market oriented products for crafts namely – Banjara Embroidery of Latur and Wall hangings of Solapur.

Designing for crafts, in my opinion is more about understanding and appreciating what exists. It is easy to pick faults but appreciating the existing is what it takes to keep things together. It is about being profound in one’s approach.  

I supported my lecture with two of my current craft projects.

One – Product design and development for the screwpine mat making craft of Kerala

Two – Embroidery designs for an NGO based in Madhya Pradesh

37 slides to present, 60 students with questions and 180 minutes to discuss – a small step to sensitize students towards designing for crafts.   

Sharing few of the slides from the presentation here…

I like to keep my presentation crisp with keywords, and lot of visuals (not shown here)

Books referred and recommended:

1. Viswakarma's Children by Jaya Jaitley

2. Thinking Design by S. Balaram

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For design students and for students of life, here is an intriguing excerpt from one of Kabir’s poems -

Student, do the simple purification.

You know that the seed is inside the horse-chestnut tree;

and inside the seed there are the blossoms of the tree,

and the chestnuts and the shade.

So inside the human body there is the seed, and

inside the seed there is the human body again.

Fire, air, earth, water and space – if you don’t want the secret one,

you can’t have these either.