Perspectives on Design Education in India and Asia

This book spotlights design and media education in Asia, with contributors providing their reflections on curriculum development, pedagogy, and practice from Australia, China, Japan, India, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Turkey.

The chapters provide in-depth and specific examples of how curricula and educational resources have been organised with respect to a wide variety of subjects, including aesthetics, engineering, and practice-based coursework. These course plans have also been adapted to respond to questions about integrating emerging technologies in the classroom and addressing changing industry needs as well as the need to encourage resilience and leadership skills across student and faculty cohorts. Although not an analysis of educational and industrial policies, some key documents such as The India Design Report of 1958 by Charles and Ray Eames and India’s National Education Policy of 2020 are referenced to provide important background information for understanding the past, present, and future of the design education ecosystem across the region.

Presenting both historical context and practical contemporary applications of curricula in specific universities and design schools, this volume is compiled to share resources among faculty and researchers interested in global Asian design pedagogy who have previously relied upon publications centred on the UK and US contexts. It will appeal to design educators and anyone responsible for design education curricula across the Asian region and beyond.

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.