Thinking Design
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THINKING DESIGN Prof. S. Balaram About the Author Singanapalli Balaram is an industrial designer; senior faculty and former Chairman of Education at the National Institute of Design in India. He is recipient of the honorary fellowship of the Society of Industrial Designers of India and an invited member of the advisory board of ‘Design Issues”, U.SA Four inventions of Balaram have been patented by NID.The Institute also won the first ICSID - Philips award (International Council of Socieiteis of Industrial Design) for its outstanding achievement in Industrial Design. One of the seven projects which won this award was Balaram’s. Life-saving medical equipment which he and a colleague jointly designed for Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology was awarded India’s prestigious National Meritorious Invention Award. Born into a farmer’s family in Gunnathota Valasa, a tiny Agraharam (a village gifted to a scholar by the king) in Andhra Pradesh, South India, Balaram did his post-graduation in product design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and a research course at the Royal College of Art, London. He holds a diploma in Mechanical Engineering. He started his professional career as a sign board painter and later became a mechanical engineer finally settling down to Design practice and .teaching, His varied pursuits include short story writing; package design and film criticism. He has held senior positions as Chairman of Extension programmes, Co-ordinator, Foundation Programme, Associate Chairman, Industrial Design etc. at the National Institute of Design. He is presently Governing Council Member of The Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology; Vice President of The Society of Industrial Designers of India and Co-ordinator, Design Foundation Studies, NID. His published writings form part of books such as The idea of Design : Arthaya; Design and envelopment in South and South-East As/a; and Quality through Industrial Design. His article on bullock cart design was prescribed as core course for secondary schools throughout India by the National Council of Educational Research and Training. Balaram is married to Textile Designer, Padmini Tolat and has two children. Acknowledgements The idea of Design Thinking in book form is not mine. It is my colleague and friend Vikas Satwalekar’s, It is Vikas’s institutional support as Director of NID and personal insistence that I must publish my earlier writings and conference papers as a book, that gave me the much needed impetus and finally resulted in the present outcome, Kumar Vyas, my former teacher and veteran designer reviewed the selected articles and gave a very encouraging feedback which assured us of the relevance of these articles to the present times and the unquestionable worthiness of their publication. Vishwajit Pandya kindly went through the manuscript and made some useful suggestions. Manisha Singh and R K Banerjee were good enough to go through the script and give a feedback. Suchitha Shrinagesh edited the text. She had to do this patiently many times over because of the computer corruption which occurred repeatedly It is not one book she edited but perhaps four: Pravin Sevak and his team with their competent designing of the book and S N Shinde with his quality printing, have together tried to make the book befitting the high standards of a Design Institute, Pridip Suhrud took keen interest and did his best to expedite the publication. Srikumari, Padmavati Bet, Rita Desai Smita Kutty and Rekha Naidu assisted me by typing the manuscript on computer putting up with my “difficult-to-read-scrawls on the drafts My kids Saurabh and Pranav and wife Padmini not only put up with my manuscript on computer putting up with my difficult to read scrawls. My kids Saurabh and Pranav and wife Padmini not only put up with my late but took interest in reading the drafts as well. Without the contribution of all these individuals, this book would not have taken this shape. I value each of their support and most sincerely acknowledge the same Although not in its entirety and in the same form, Modern Indian Design originally appeared in Marg (1985) “The wonder that is..,.” originally appeared in Quality through Industrial Design (1992), “The power of representation” first appeared in Design Issues (1989),”Politics is not a four- letter word” originally appeared in Design and Development in South and South-East Asia (1990),” By the people, for the people” first appeared in Design Folio (1981) and “Leave well enough alone “ first appeared in The Eye ( 1993). “Design and Rule” was first presented at a seminar on Gandhi at the National Institute of Design, “Tools for Change” was an invited paper prepared for the Citizens Report I I (1987),””The Barefoot Designer” was presented in Asian Design forum, Nagoya (1986):” Fitting the Man to the Task” was presented in Design Education Seminar NID( 1988); QWER was written as an invited paper for a collection for “Design Writings” (1991); “The Invisible Design” was partly discussed at a dialogue session at the Japan Foundation, Tokyo (1995). I am indeed very grateful to these sources and to the opportunities provided to me, I remember always those friends who each time initiated me into writing. S Balaram Contents About the author Acknowledgements Foreword: Gaston Roberge Introduction Section One: Design; Nature and Power The Wonder that is.......The Context for Designing Artists and designers are well aware of the figure and ground phenomena in perception. A figure cannot be perceived without perceiving its background and the quality of figure-perception depends on the appropriate perception of the ground on which it stands. Likewise the design activity of any country cannot be well understood without knowledge of the context in which it operates. Take India as a case. Modern Indian Design: The Roots In the West, design emerged as a reaction to mass production but in India the story is quite different. The Indian tradition always held art and craft as one unified whole. In the classical Indian language Sanskrit, there is only one word “Kala” covering both. India’s first and real industrial revolution occurred only after the country’s independence, in the late forties and early fifties, The manufacturing units that started with foreign collaboration borrowed technology as well as design, modifying certain goods to suit Indian needs. As the Indian industries started their own research and design units, original and inventive work by Indian designers and architects began to surface and take precedence over collaborative products, The Power of Representation: Semiotics for Mass Movement This article grew out of realising the amazing presence of Indian mythology in nearly all contemporary popular-cultural expressions. It is part of a larger effort at exploring the mythology-based symbolism for use in industrial design. The concern here is, with demonstrating what might now be called product semantics used by Gandhi in effecting major socio-political changes in India, and its connection with Indian mythology Fitting the Man to the Task: The Design Training Paradox I have been a design trainee. I have also been a design trainer for a long Lime imparting training to two categories of learners. The first category is the student designers some of whom impart design training to others in design schools or technical schools. The second category is, the other professionals like craftsmen, managers, engineers, voluntary workers, small entrepreneurs and bureaucrats who impart non-design training or supervision, in their own field of work This article is an exploration of the qualitative aspects of such training, rather than its quantitative aspects. Section Two: Design: Human Perspectives and Concerns Design and Rule: Design Colonisation The aim of this article is to emphasise the crucial aspect of human rights -the domination of one power or one group over the other with respect to design. Politics is not a Four-Letter Word: The Impact of State Policies and Politics on Design In planned economies, policy level decisions by the government hold the key to successful and gainful operation of design. Policies may not be everything, but they are the main facilitators. Enough has been said about design policies. But not enough has been said about the policies which do not have direct design content but nevertheless have a greater impact on design. This paper is an attempt to emphasise such policy implications. Tools for Change: Learning from the Artisans Most artisans are poor as well as illiterate. Nevertheless, they are highly skilled and well “educated” in terms of their long and rich experience. There are often many unrecognised strengths amongst such people. This would constitute a wealth of learning available for others in the society especially for the designers. This learning would comprise firstly what the artisans do and secondly, the way they do it. For the People, By the People: Design without Designers Answers to real needs spring up from the people themselves. An innovative man from all walks of life-the poorest street vendor; the social worker; the engineer, the craftsmen, and the teacher are designers without being called so. One sees many such unknown designers whose ingenious creations are available on pavements and in weekly open-air markets where poor people buy household goods. The Barefoot Designer: Design as Service to Rural People The type of technological development as well as the socio-ethical arid economic changes caused by it, are not the same everywhere in the world. In a country like India where eighty per cent of the population lives in villages, how can design play any role in people’s lives when it does not cater to the village population? Therefore, my call is for a design movement, a “majority world” design movement.