‘Design’ as a means for development, for the future of India.
To know the future of design, it’s important to know its past. Design is a tool to communicate emotions with each other. It also helps in communicating things which are difficult to communicate such as politics, religion, sexuality, race etc.
Design became a major tool to communicate when the cavemen introduced Sign language to communicate their emotions with each other. It was followed in Egypt and Mesopotamia. After the Sign Language era, came the Word era, where people communicated and expressed their emotions verbally. This craft was called Calligraphy. Then, in 1448, Word era was developed into Print era. In 1968, came worlds first television and with its launch came the Visual era. Herein the design is communicated through pictures, movies, cartoon images etc. This era is still in vogue but now people are shifting towards the Digital era. People are exploring it everyday but they also need to be well skilled for using it efficiently as it can either fix things or can brake them. Technology has become a drug. People who are using it to communicate their emotions are somehow going back to the days of Sign language. Now everyone is using emojis to communicate their emotions. It’s created a mixed emotion amongst its users as people who are familiar with it are facing no problem but a major chunk of middle aged people are facing a lot of problem to use it frequently. Digital era has its advantages too. It can help make people aware about the conditions of under privileged people. It has a huge reach so people who are suffering in small towns can be helped through various digital platforms. After knowing all this are we really helping the under privileged ? I don’t think so. We are heading towards an era of undermining craftsmanship and replacing it with technology. Even in the field of handloom sector the independent weavers and the wholesalers are focusing on making power loom products as it’s 5–10 times faster and cheaper. These factors are effecting employment as we all know that textile industry is the second highest employment generating sector in the country. It has impacted the lives of weavers. The way Digital era is shaping, we could expect an app where people would superficially share their feeling, emotions without understand the core of it, it would be like pressing a button to share their feelings.
Is design a thinking process ?
Yes, design is a process of thinking and creating. To understand a design people need to first understand its philosophy, and not just focus on its visual appeal. By just focusing on its visual appeal, the core values of the design becomes shadowed . For eg. if a designer is able to capture and communicate the conditions of handloom weavers but the design is not appealing that doesn’t make it a failed design. We can make design better if we think deeply and try speculating the past.
Design has to be personal.
Design has to be personal. From people driving on the road to taking a call on what to wear — it all comes under designing. I’ve lately been working on my line of inquiry where I have been talking about employment generation. Questions like — how weavers should be included sustainably and how government should promote their work always cross my mind. And also the fact that how I can use design to improve myself always occupies my mind. Design has helped me to find my short comings. It has helped me introspect within myself. Since I’m an introvert, designing has helped me put forth my viewpoints and emotions. For an introvert it’s easier to talk through art than through the verbal medium, so design has pushed me to comfortably express myself. Design has helped me work on my emotion quotient as it taught me how to understand the conditions of the handloom weavers and also helped me finding ideas about improving their conditions. It has also made me realise how I can spread awareness amongst people who find it difficult to read or write. So, I drew a sketch on Arundhati roy’s words where she said “ We have been following social distancing with minorities since ages. What we need is physical distancing “ and then uploaded my sketch on my social media handle to make people about the circumstances.