Alex Velasco has recently been appointed Dean – School of Design, Pearl Academy. Completing 35 years in the design industry, he is one of the leading experts in design thinking and education. Velasco has invested himself in sharing his expertise in this niche field with the Indian students. In a conversation with The Morning Standard, he talks about the importance of design, industry trends and the opportunities for students wanting to make a career in this sector.
Excerpts: Tell us about the curriculum at School of Design at Pearl Academy?
The curriculum at the School of Design is intended to guide students through a progressive learning cycle that nurtures each student’s unique design ability.
All our programmes are designed to stimulate the creator within our students, as they experiment with the latest technologies in pursuit of innovations in their field.
For instance, our four-year Accessory Design undergraduate programme teaches visual culture, material design, 3D tools, envisioning, manufacturing and so forth.
The students’ career prospects are enhanced through international exposure, real-life projects and mentoring by industry experts.
Overseeing this is our advisory board — leading names from the fields of design, art, architecture, urban planning, user experience, and storytelling — who ensure that our curriculum is industry-focused.
What is the scope of Design career in India?
With new technologies permeating our world more than ever before, there is a huge need for design thinking to ensure that human needs are met.
Many multinational companies are now focussing on India as a key market and the design sector is bound to grow. Graduates can expect a wealth of opportunities in advertising agencies, gaming companies and retail fashion houses among others.
Due to the success of our industry-oriented curriculum, our students are placed within some of the most prestigious brands such as Walt Disney, IBM, Capgemini, Accenture, L&T, TCS, Wrap Art & Design, NH 1 and many others.
What are the emerging trends in design industry?
The biggest story of recent years has been the rise of mobile devices and the app economy that has grown alongside. This has been a huge boon for designers, and these are early days yet.
We can expect innovation to continue unabated with new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality to offer new functions and possibilities to consumers.
The demand for the traditional fields like interior design, accessory design, jewellery design, and product design is also strong; yet they might be eclipsed by the intense demand for creatives, especially in communication design, interaction design, and game design. Designers in the past were, essentially, talented draftsmen who made it up as they went along. That gung-ho attitude will no longer do.
To succeed in today’s high-stakes economy, designers have to be business strategists, they must bring rigorous research and development processes involving thorough market and user research, and they must master multiple forms of prototyping and user testing. Today, it is common to find designer-entrepreneurs doing all of these within businesses that they have established.
What is the impact of designs on our psyche? Could you elaborate this with certain examples through history?
We are surrounded by a human planned and conceived world. I call that Design, with a capital D. It is not natural, but artificial and resides within the natural world, (and sadly, often injurious to the natural world). It consists of our roads, ports, canals, cities and technologies.
This is, of course, deeply embedded in our daily experiences. Designers straddle between technology and culture. They help mediate and ameliorate the effects of technology and consumption on users. The work of designers is also understood as ‘visual culture’– just as a Bollywood film is visual culture. The products of design can have a profound effect on our consciousness. An example would be the Apple iPhone that changed our lives and launched a trillion-dollar industry.