The State of Indian Design

Business Week, the international business magazine has done an interesting article - reflecting its current fascination with India as I am sure subscriptions must be climbing here - analyzing the the state of the Indian Graphic Design industry and the growing demand for talent, ideas and education. According to the article by Eliza Williams:

For a designer or advertising creative, India is a pretty exciting place to be right now. Rapid commercial growth has prompted an unprecedented client demand for design and advertising skills, while those creating the work find themselves in the exhilarating position of being able to shape and redefine India’s new identity, both within the country and internationally. All this change has occurred rapidly, however, at a pace that is perhaps too fast for an industry, in graphic design at least, that is still finding its feet. Design is still often misunderstood as a profession, and with a dearth of decent design schools in the country, graduates are finding that they often receive their real education on the job, a position that stretches already overloaded designers even thinner. The bounteous amount of work has also led the lines between advertising and design to blur, with ad agencies, which are far more established and recognised within the country, tackling aspects of assignments more traditionally found within the design domain. And, of course, overseas networks and companies are also edging in, keen to pick up a slice of the action.

As the article continues it explores the potential in India and also analyzes the dearth of talent available and the inadequate visual vocabulary apparent in most clients and consumers.

“The design industry is growing slowly, the need for design is growing at a gargantuan pace,” agrees Gopika Chowfla, who runs a studio of seven designers in Delhi. “With very few professional schools, the number of designers that graduate is minuscule, yet with an overactive economy, there is a demand for creative input. The gap needs to be bridged very fast, though, as things stand today, that is not happening in a hurry.”

The article concludes that despite many obstacles, the Indian graphic design industry is heading intos its most exciting period ever with many opportunities for both designers and entrepreneurs:

With all these issues circling in such a rapidly expanding market, demands on designers in India are high. It seems however that, rather than being in competition with one another, the interweaving of advertising and design could help achieve some of these aims. “The advertising industry is very well established in India, while design is still trying to carve out a little piece of territory for itself,” says Sujata Keshavan. “I personally don’t see the relationship between advertising and design as contentious. As far as I can make out, creative people in advertising are no less engaged in the act of designing than are ‘designers’ in design agencies. There may be a difference in approach or priorities, or in the mediums used, but essentially both groups of people are designing things in their own way. I believe that in order to carve out a space for themselves, designers have used advertising agencies as ‘the other’, or ‘that which I am not’, which I believe is unnecessary. I think there is work and space for both industries to thrive.”

Time to thrive it seems…..read full article here….