Frame your future through Design

Jitin Chadha

In today’s world designing is one of the most rewarding, alluring, and exciting career options for those  having a flair for creativity, style, and originality. However, designing has become highly competitive today. 

As technology continuously moves forward at breakneck speed, the world becomes more tech-savvy and the demand for designers is on the rise. Design is more important than before as it is in synergy with Artificial Intelligence, Architecture, Engineering, Business and Pure Sciences and thus opens doors to more opportunities for job seekers.

Design has various connotations in different fields. In some cases, the direct construction or manufacture of an object (like in architecture, engineering, apparel or 3D printing) is considered design, while in others it is representational or digital (like graphic design, UX/UI etc.)

Fields in Design Game design 

Gaming is one of the largest segments of the entertainment industry and is considered a lucrative profession and a demanding career today. Designers work on the concept and storyline of games, designing various levels, reward systems, and logic. The lead designer is like a movie director who works on the characters, scenes, environment, animation, and user interface with his team. Game designers combine design and software with sports and social psychology to create games that are engaging, if not downright addictive. 

User Interface Design (UI) 

Interface designers combine design principles with software skills to create websites, applications, and games that are user-friendly. UI designers focus on the look and ease of navigation and create virtual interfaces that are appealing and intuitive to use. These could be exhibition displays, product demonstrations, restaurant reservation apps or virtual tours of colleges to just name a few.

Product design

Product designers use varied materials to sculpt and design in three dimensions creating furniture, cutlery, toys, jewelry, bottles, and other objects of everyday use. They use techniques such as molding, welding, grinding, machining and 3D printing to create useful stuff out of different materials such as metal, cloth, ball-bearings, or any other material one can imagine. With every business releasing new models and improved designs every six months, product designers are in high demand.

Transport design

Transport design is an upcoming field with the hope of space travel looming on the horizon. The next decade is looking at significant revolutions combining automobile and aeronautical engineering with design principles to produce intelligent transport using levitation technology, in-city planes, and tourist spacecraft.

Internet of Things-based design 

IoT systems combine physical and digital components that collect data from physical devices and deliver actionable, operational insights. Gadgets and smart appliances present a revolution in engineering, user experience, and user interface. Industrial designers specialising in this can expect to work on home appliances that self-adjust to the presence or tastes of family members; music system that learns and builds customized playlists for typical occasions or self-locking homes with voice activation, among others.

Robotic design 

Robot design is another area of specialisation for electronic engineers with designers customising look, structure and features of robots to suit clients, countries and cultures. Robotics is the dynamic field that involves designing, maintenance, functional, programming (Software and Hardware) etc.  Technical graduates from the field of mechanical, electrical, medical get trained in Design and are involved in making robots.

Fashion design 

A Fashion Designer is always in demand. Clothing is an essential part of human life and it is a lifelong necessity as well. Changing lifestyles and trends lead to a fast pace of change in designs and styles. Emerging areas include affordable fashion, personal styling, designing with eco-friendly materials like artificial leather and lightweight high-performance fabric.

Industrial design

Industrial Designers are engineers or architects with design training, who work on products that required heavy machinery for their production, such as automobiles, smart gadgets, space ships, biomedical equipment, and robots. Their design encompasses not just aesthetics and usability, but operations, material processes, precision engineering etc.

— The writer is Director of Indian Institute Of Art and Design