DOT SCHOOL OF DESIGN!
INDUSTRY CONNECT (INCO) 2022
DOT SCHOOL OF DESIGN Chennai, had organized Industry connect INCO 2022 from 14th March to 19th March. INCO week was filled with 35+ efficient speakers with about 70 hours of active participation. INCO week is a week-long series of events that includes industry visits and presentations by renowned persons from a variety of design professions to debate the influence of design. This initiation by DOT hopes to ease the process of internship/project hunting for its students. The week began with the inauguration, which was followed by the week-long session.
The first session began with Huda Masood who is an organic travel food researcher and the Director of Maskum Adventure Food, had started the week. She spoke on achieving optimal nourishment and producing zero waste. Huda’s adversary has always been packaging. The energy of both the speaker and the audience was worth all the effort. The overall session gave the students the insight of sustainable packaging.
The next speaker was Pooja Sitarthan, she is a multi-talented abstract artist, graphic artist, designer, and multimedia artist. Pooja introduced doodle workshop to the pupils, asking them to develop their own unique patterns.The overall mastery from the fun workshop is that the audience could comprehend that creativity is more of a unique process that has to be cherished every time. This kept to an end on the first day of INCO 2022.
On March 15th, DOT SCHOOL OF DESIGN hosted a number of high-profile speakers who interacted with students digitally and in person. There were simultaneous sessions for many disciplines. Our Fashion Design students had the opportunity to visit MAYBELL. The students were able to understand the process of apparel design and production. Sahibpal Singh, is a system designer at Chargebee. He elaborated on aspects of a service designer. Understanding the importance of this, students at DOT were very eager to explore more regarding the topic.
The next speaker was Shikar Mohan Gupta, he is an architect with roughly 12 years of expertise. He conducted an informal discussion on Value Engineering Interiors’ Design. The general takeaway from the session was about the optimal use of sustainable materials in designing. It fascinated the students how sustainable materials are cost friendly and easily available.
After this interesting session Students were now interacting with Gaurav Patel, an architect presently employed at Dhun, he spoke about urban sketching and digital sketching tools available that will help them use modern gadgets for sketching.
Kanchan Dhankani, a design entrepreneur, came up with a very interesting discussion about several aspects of design and the importance of communicating it to customers. Making the students understand the necessity of communication to the customers.Charanyha Lakshmmi, Founder of AtLab Innovators spoke on how to upcycle used furniture into different objects for interior designing. This discussion helped the students acknowledge the crucial need of upcycling products and reusing them.
16th of March, Neha Srimali, a communication designer with over ten years of experience in branding, packaging, and digital design, opened the next day’s session. She is currently employed as a Manager of Visual Design. She spoke on Design growing as an interdisciplinary space and Design opportunities in corporates and how the students must be aware of the current scenario of the industry.Peeta Suresh enjoys working with businesses to help them internalize and artistically convey their brand story. Her talk was on her two major interests – design-led business thinking and inventive product creation. Her expertise on co-creating brands, visual content planning, product management, and customer roadmaps excited DOT students.
Akansha, founder of REFASH, insisted on how important it is to convert the trash into treasure. Through this session the students at DOT were able to explore the intricate details of design and that anything can be classified into making good design.Nithin Sisodia, CEO and Founder of Sohum Innovation Lab gave a unique exposure to our students on design for medical products. This helped the students how medical product design functions and how important it is to design it the right way.
Noel Jerald, currently associated with CCBA, discussed with students about how to transform an inspiration into a concept by detailing how the temple architecture could be spilled over into institutional architecture and interior design. This made students know the value of traditional designs.
Mukund Venkatraman, Principal Designer, Strategist Brandsmith started off Day 4 of INCO Week. His session was on different essential tips to become a good designer and how efficiency of a designer is necessary in the industry. Mukund’s main interest in aiding start-ups with design thinking which motivated the young minds at DOT. Khaloom’s Director of Operations, Hemalatha Ramamkrishnan, spoke with the Students about recycled yarn production and fabric. Fabric in Fashion marks to be inevitable and this session had given the students the idea of various fabrics and how it further gets processed.
Madhumitha, Founder of WeBe design lab and beTWEEN, presented on lifestyle, space and objects are interlinked. Chockalingam S, OPN advertising’s Creative Director, educated pupils on the technical aspects of branding the CSK cricket team. The Branding of such a big team made the students more curious about how they handled different ideas making the session highly spirited.
Herman Taneja, a former architect who is now an artist, came up with the concept of resin art to help the pupils understand the various aspects of painting. Herman Taneja, a former architect who is now an artist, came up with the concept of resin art to help the pupils understand the various aspects of painting. The students were able to understand a unique painting style where they do not use typical brushes or acrylic or oil paints.
Blueshift brand solutions’ Co-Founder and Creative Director Ramasamy Chidambaram, spoke on how a visual designer faces difficulty in the process of becoming an entrepreneur. Through this presentation the students grasped all the major downfalls that can take place during the transition from a designer to an entrepreneur. Shivkumar, Creator of Shivcreative Solutions, presented on Traits of Successful Designers. This session has helped the students analyze themselves in the future to understand how successful they are.
Harsh Panchal, an Assistant Manager at JCB, shed light on JCB’s Design process and journey. He explained how the design emerges and how it turns out to be customer centric, this helped the students know that design must be according to the needs of its users. Anu Jain, Course Coordinator in PG Fashion Design at the Indian Institute of Crafts and Design, she spoke about the craft sectors in India. She shared her important design ideas with the students, allowing them to grasp more complex topics and understand the craft sector even more detailed.
Parikshit Deshmukh, the Design Lead at Devrev, opened the day with an engaging and participatory presentation of the role of a designer for designing for artificial intelligence. This thrilled the students of DOT as how impactful they can be as designers for artificial intelligence. Mariyah Farooqui, a well-known artist, spoke about Persian illumination art and explained her works to the students. This was a completely new experience for the students at DOT.
Director of Skydome designs Sanjay Papinazath, spoke about retail outlets and healthcare design. Students understood the practical difficulties in designing a space for retail design. Aarthi Sivaramakrishnan, Founder and Chief Artist of The Colour Company, spoke on how to balance between the needs of an artist and entrepreneur. The students understood how important it is to break the stereotypical assumptions for a better understanding of knowledge.
Founder – De Hub for Architects, Spacemush LLP, and FinteriorZ are all founded by Ar SSR (Sivaraman). He explained how important it is to understand “Don’t let them paint your rainbow white,” a thought provoking talk. He inspired the pupils to pursue their life goals in the most positive way possible. Karthikeyan.P, a UI/UX designer, describes the process of UI/UX design in detail.
In addition, the importance of UI/UX in the field of design is being investigated. ‘Empowered by Jaya’ formed by Jaya Jankert, an Empowerment Wardrobe Coach, Mentor, bestselling author, speaker, and professional connector. She spoke about style and energies: the Jaya way, as well as the necessity of empathy and communication in clothing styling, as part of her presentation. The knowledge of how to show your impact was clearly understood by the students. L. Sendhil Kumaran works as a Senior Consultant. He discussed storyboarding and how exciting it can be to build a new board.
Shiv Parameshwaran, Creative Head with about 20 years of experience who also graduated from the New York Film Academy in 2018 with a degree in filmmaking. He gave a broad overview of his advertising career and discussed how he overcame all the challenges of learning and adjusting to new conditions. Comprehending to the scenario, the speaker cleared out all the doubts regarding the industry to the students, making it more interesting to them to explore.
Ramesh Manickam, a Design Expert, described the value of storytelling in design. Storytelling is an effective way to convey a design and this was very evident from the presentation for the students at DOT. CTS’s Creative Director for Interactive Design, Rajakumar Mani, was able to make our students realise the proper method of creating a portfolio, which is a vital part for every designer.
Out of the box’s principal design officer, V.S. Karthic Rathinam, conducted a workshop that raised the enthusiasm of the students as they were asked to create new products out of cardboards. Through this they understood how to check the weight quality and then proceed with their respective design. Carola Winne, Cofounder and Principle of 85AD (architect and design). She spoke about furniture design and interior design. Her interaction with the students was very lively and a good session to end the INCO week.
Having these 36 eminent speakers on board, the students found a positive approach and clarity about their career pathway. The intellectual unique questions by DOT students raised the standard of discussion that made the speakers highly satisfied. Such initiations by DOT SCHOOL OF DESIGN, bridges the gap between industry required skills and Design Education which is the present need of the hour.
