Jury
Mr. Sushant Jena is the Vice President of Design and Development at T.I. Cycles of India, a unit of Tube Investments of India Ltd. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Post-Graduation in Industrial Design from the National Institute of Design - Ahmedabad. Before Joining TI Cycles he has worked at Whirlpool Corporation as the design head for India Studio, National Institute of Design as Consulting Designer and AT Design Company Japan as a Designer.
He has a varied professional experience ranging from leading design team for an MNC to education & consulting in the field of appliances, automobile, education and entertainment. He has rich experience in leading design for Product as well as Brand Design strategy through strong embedded processes.His designs have won a lot of international awards like Good Design, Sparks Design, IF Design, Product of the Year, etc.Several of his designs arepatented for design innovations.
Other than Core area of design he has a lot of experience in processes development for business, he is a mentor for innovation and business processes. He is an invited speaker at Universities, conferences & events on the subject of Design. He has also conducted several workshops for Schools and Universities on varied subjects ranging from social relevance to Design practices.
Principal Engineer
Global Design, GE
Healthcare,
John F Welch Technology Center , Bangalore,
India
Mahendra holds Masterss Degree in Product Design from IDC, IIT Bombay and has over 27 years of experience in leading strategic research & development, product / user experience design & product innovation programs in various industries including consumer products, industrial systems and healthcare. Mahendra has filed over 30 patents & defensive IP publication at GE.
Mahendra is also an experienced internal faculty offering corporate training programs and an experienced facilitator of design thinking and customer co-creation workshops at GE Healthcare.
His current responsibilities include creating affordable healthcare solutions for global healthcare needs, supporting worldwide technology plan / NPI roadmap development and drive end-to-end user and patient experience.
I have an educational background in Engineering (BE-Mech), Industrial Design (IDC) and Management (IIMbangalore- EGMP). I am with Tata Elxsi since 1997 and one of the founder members of the design practice there. In tata Elxsi, I am leading a team of 100+ designers & delivering design projects in UX, Branding, Graphics, new Technologies (AR/VR), Service Design & Consumer Research. Most projects are for international clients. My role includes sales as well as delivery responsibility
UX projects include consumer products, B2B products & Automotive products on various platforms like mobile responsive, TV (including remote), Cars (Multi-modal HMI), Appliances, AR, Immersive and PC. Projects have ranged from future UIs (yr 2025), pitches, production, maintenance, multi-device porting, etc. All projects have significant design overlaps with development, including projects done in Agile environments.
Service Design projects focus on spaces and processes. These include experience design for Showrooms, Airports & Metros. Design of signage systems for mass-transit systems, Hotels, Education Campuses & factories. Creation of customer experience centres that combine space design along with technology, UX and Content creation. Other works include design of Heritage walks, Sales processes, Wine tours, etc.
Consumer Research team focusses on end user empathy. Projects range from trend prediction to ethnographic research in various geographies and for various industries. Research component is present for most of the UX and service design projects.
I have spoken in various forums (Car-HMI conference Berlin '16, Brand2Global conference London '15 , multiple CII, FICCI, Nascom events,) and conducted design workshops and been a jury in various educational institutes, like IITs, Srishti, etc.
My current role requires me to travel across the world to solicit business and to present our design. Earlier in my career, I have spent multiple years 'onsite' in Europe, USA and Japan
Abhijit Bansod, a NID postgraduate, has been part of the new age design movement in India. After decade long experience with Titan Design Studio, he founded Studio ABD in 2008 to create a open platform to discover new facets of contemporary Indian Design.
Abhijit believes in celebrating creativity that combines fragments of Indian tradition with cutting-edge technology, and fuses cultural motifs and new age thinking. They conjure up sophisticated products that resonate with India's rich past. Propelled by the humor, craft, rituals, people, situations and heritage of India, they create products that speak a unique language- an Indian design vocabulary.
Awards
Young Creative Entrepreneur 2011 by British Council ,
RED DOT DESIGN AWARD 2010
Best Designer Award in 2008
Publications
Abhijit's design journey was featured in Rashmi Bansal's book Connect the Dots + many national, international magazines.
Jury Member
Cannes Lions Design , 2012
India Design Mark 2013,
2014, 2015, 2016
Fakestival 2014
in.linkedin.com/in/abhijitbansod Twitter @abhijitbansod
An Industrial Designer from the National Institute of Design, Ahmadabad, India, Ashish started his design entrepreneurship journey, 28 years ago, by co-founding India's pioneering design practice, Elephant.
Ashish leads Product Experience Innovation group and has lead projects ranging from consumer appliances related to air, water & energy, medical equipment, wearable electronics, automotive and retail. He & team at Elephant is recipient of several awards including Spark (USA), Greener Gadgets (USA), CII-Design Excellence and 5 products have received the India Design Mark. His consulting experience spans start-ups, Corporates, MNCs from India, South-East Asia, Japan and Europe.
He regularly conducts workshops on Growth by Design & Product Innovation. Recently invited to speak at International Design Congress, Gwangju, he also delivered keynote at International Symposium, Naju Innovation City, Korea, 2016 World Eco-friendly Design Expo.
Ashish is President, Association of Designers of India, an active member of the Design Alliance Asia and has been on the jury of India Design Mark. He has served as appointed member of India Design Council in the past and was invited to attend Good Design Mark Jury, Japan.
He is this years Product Design Jury for Cannes Lions 2017.
Chief Design Officer at LUMIUM
Abhinav has worked with F-500 companies across the globe, and across various domains including consumer electronics, mobile devices, medical devices and home appliances. Currently heading the design teams at Lumium, Abhinav provides design leadership and creative strategies to company's highly talented and multi-disciplinary teams. He has executed several award-winning projects for customers delivering 'Vertical Integration', excellent experiences in Research, Strategy, Industrial Design, Engineering and User Experience Design.
Abhinav oversees product life-cycles from concept to launch, while supervising a talented team of designers, developers, engineers and managers based in India and US. As the head of design, He translate client requirements into precise design guidelines for his team - always making sure that the design pipeline is geared towards the ultimate goal of developing a great product.
His experience working as an expert Product Designer and Creative Executive in Silicon Valley, USA bring a unique blend of narrative and empathy to every global design project. His design philosophy is: working in an intimate cross-functional team environment, where blue-sky thinking is embraced, leads to tangible, innovative business and user-friendly outcomes, AKA good design.
He is a postgraduate from National Institute of Design, and associated with global design organizations such as IDSA (Industrial Designers Society of America) and WDO (World Design Organization).
PAUL SANDIP is an electrical engineer / post-graduate of Product design from the National Institute of Design, (NID) Ahmedabad. He lives and works out of PAUL STUDIO in Noida.
His consulting business caters to Multinational Companies, Micro & Small Scale Entrepreneurs and Start Up's. Paul has designed 300+ everyday objects around 121 product categories across 14+ countries winning 30+ design awards including 2 Red Dot Awards in 12 years of independent design and innovation consulting. The objects designed ranged from Electrical Accessories, Home Appliances, Lighting, Furniture, Kitchenware, Tableware, Children/Baby products, Toys, Stationary, Bath accessories to Footwear. He specializes in Product Innovation through Consumer Insight & Strategy, Creative Engineering, Styling and Colour/Material Trends. Paul had also been actively involved in New Product Developments with LG Electronics, India & Seoul for 9 years where he worked on several experimental as well as Indian insights driven projects, which had both global as well as local appeal and business sense.
Paul has been a TEDx speaker and was featured by Forbes Life India Jan'16 edition for Re-imagining Everyday Objects! His work has been extensively published / exhibited internationally including the Triennale Museum in Milan, Ambiente Fair in Frankfurt, Red Dot Award Show in Singapore, Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong, Lite-On Awards Show in Taiwan, Design Korea Exhibition and Design Olympiad in Seoul. His work was also selected by Art Besel, Hong Kong for their exhibition 'Design with Character'. Paul has been honored by Shri Narendra Modi in 2005 & President of Taiwan Mr. MaYing-jeou in 2010 for his simple yet innovative ideas concerning public welfare. His work is held in the permanent collection of Danish Design Museum, Copenhagen, as an example of Design to improve life!
Sr. Associate Dean - BD & Innovation
Prof Prakash V Unakal has Masters in Design (Industrial Design) from Industrial Design Centre, I I T Mumbai, with B.Tech (Mechanical Engg.) from N I T, Calicut. He has over 20 years of experience - 13 yrs in Industry and 8 yrs as academician. His area of expertise are in product design, development and management. He has credit of designing numerous consumer products as Industrial designer. His research areas of interest are innovation, new product design and development, new opportunity identification, creativity, strategic design, consumer behavior and emotion and design management.
Samrat Nawle specialises in experience design, innovation strategy, trend analysis and design management. He is currently Principal Designer at Samsung R&D Bangalore where he co-leads the UX design practice and has been instrumental in bringing-to-market several innovative products and services such as the revolutionary fin-tech solution 'Samsung Pay' and the ultra-low cost 'Z' series smartphones.
Additionally, as panel member on Samsung's strategic Make for India Task Force he facilitates the creation of disruptive solutions for the Indian market - which include the Bike Mode, Quick Talk, Ultra Data Saving Mode and Special Days. He has also co-architected the Tizen Mobile UX and designed India's first Smart TV App ecosystem. He was selected for the prestigious Samsung Global Mobility Program and worked with the Design Lab in Korea for a year.
Prior to Samsung, he has worked as a Center of Excellence Lead with Human Factors International handling projects across Asia and North America, and before that as an Automobile Designer with the Reva Electric Car Co. (now Mahindra Electric) where he single-handedly re-designed the export version of the Reva, a fuel-cell powered prototype vehicle, and a first-of-its-kind (in 2004) fully graphic in-vehicle display system.
He has received several awards including the ICSID'97 Award of Excellence for project 'Mandala' which was sponsored by Apple Computer Inc., the Zinnov Innovation Award 2015 for 'Design Thinking led Product Innovation' for Tizen Z-series smartphones, and the EVS 21 Monte Carlo Sustainable Mobility Award 2005 for the Reva NXG concept car.
He holds several patents and has authored publications which have been published by CHI. He was a speaker at the Tizen Developer Summit 2015 where he introduced the new UX design philosophy for Tizen smartphones.
Samrat has studied Industrial Design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India.
Graduate of NID, Satish co-founded the Award winning design firm - Design Directions in 1988.
Recipient of several local and international awards and 'I' Mark recognitions. Recently one of his products - MiraCradle - a Neonate Cooler was awarded the President's award for Successful Commercialisation of Indigenous Technology.
Satish has been a jury member on several design award committees - local and overseas. A founder member of the Association of Designers of India (ADI). He has been invited to speak at several National & International Design conferences.
Satish acts as a jury member, part of several committees and has been invited to speak at various conferences globally related to design.
Associate Vice President
Godrej Interio - Design
Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co.Ltd
Mr. Venkateshwarlu Ega is an alumni of Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and currently heads the Design function at Godrej Interio, furniture division of Godrej and Boyce, deals with the business of home furniture and institutional furniture for domestic and international markets.
His experience of 25 years in product design, technology adoption and process design at Godrej Interio has helped the brand in developing furniture as a complete experience design.
Mr. Venkat is Responsible for shaping up the design team at Godrej Interio to develop contemporary furniture as lifestyle products for the relevant target customers. He has been managing, motivating and building a passionate environment for designers to create products that can shape the future of the business. The design capability that has established under his direction, resulted in the development of many new products which are commercially successful and has received a number of excellence awards in the field of design.
The successful product list includes Slimline range of steel wardrobe- the first knockdown steel wardrobe for home use, Kreation modular wardrobe- The only modular steel wardrobe in the country, Godrej Interio modular Kitchen range, the only kitchen range made of steel in India, Office ergonomics seating - Ace, Scintilla, Pulse, Office system furniture - Wish, Define, Educational furniture - Genii School desk cum bench and Enlighten, Chrysalis range of healthcare furniture, Covalent range of laboratory furniture, Godrej Interio bedroom collection with unique structural combination of steel and wood, Godrej Interio fabric sofa range and many more.
He believes that aesthetics and best fit-finish are hygiene factor for any product irrespective of its price and He strongly advocates and practices Customer centricity in every stage of design process.
Vasant Dewaji graduated from the national institute of design in
1992, after completing his engineering. He has worked for over 20
years in area of consumer design in the product and retail space
across categories like travel goods and accessories, elevators,
watches, white goods and bicycles.
He currently manages
design and development at VIP Industries Ltd. He also takes out
time each year to teach at design schools in India.
Raman is a graduate of National Institute of Design Ahmedabad, India (AEP -PD '96) with 20+ years of strong design, technical & business experience with an impressive track record of enriching hands-on experience in the field of Design Research, Interaction Design, User Experience Design, Industrial Design, Design Management, & Creative process management in a wide range of organizations including CA Technologies (formerly Computer Associates) SIEMENS, NOKIA, Human Factors International, Network Programs in International and multicultural environments in US, Europe, China and India.
Out of passion as UX evangelist, he initiated "USID" (Universal, Sustainable, Innovative Design for social change -www.usidfoundation.org) a forum of Design professionals to evangelize the design and its value to business profitability and socio-economic development in 2006. Since then he has been regularly organizing India's first ever 3 days design conference and many other events including as "Design Challenges" and "USID Gurukul- a collaborative and immersive learning experience" workshop.
A strong believer that the deep dive into the user context and environment is the key to creating any successful products that are useful, usable, accessible, engaging, innovative, universal and profitable. His research interest include - Tangible Interfaces, Mobile computing, Persuasive Design, Human Interaction Technologies, Social Computing, Enterprize2.0 & Healthcare.
Raman is currently a co-founder of USER Lab Asia (www.userlabasia.com), a design & innovation consulting and also a visiting faculty at Design programme of IIT Kanpur.
Chetan Sorab is currently the head of design for home electronic products at LG Electronics India Pvt. ltd. He is an industrial designer with 13 years of rich industry experience in automotive and electronic industries. He graduated in mechanical engineering and went on to do his post graduation in Product Design from the prestigious National Institute of Design.
He has been consistently delivering successful products under the LG brand with strategic inputs in new product development and design innovation. He is also a jury member and faculty for some of the leading design schools in India. His interests are in strategic design and design for emerging markets.
He has won many national and international awards, some of the accolades to his credit are Opus-Award, Elle Decor International Award, Red Dot award and Seoul International Award.
Industrial designer- engineer
Current company: VOLTA MOTORS
Previous company: HETTICH INDIA PVT LTD
Awards: INTERNATIONAL DESIGN AWARD 2015, Hettich & Rehau
Education: Integrated product design, DYPDC , Pune, MH
Chandrashekhar Wyawahare is the Director of Futuring Design Pvt. Ltd. He did is Masters in Design from IDC, IIT Bombay after completing his Architecture Bachelor’s from SPSMBH'S College of Architecture, Kolhapur.
Starting his career with VIP Industries Ltd, Nasik he worked for Neumeister Design, Munich, Germany, was a Partner at Idesign and now is the Director of Futuring Design Pvt. Ltd. his specialties include Form, Styling, Creativity management, Form Research Program leading Design Education. He has won the Red Dot design award 2009 Honorable mention, IDSA 2009 Bronze and Businessworld NID Design Award 2006.
Anjan spearheads CII's work on knowledge-economy and has been involved in policy research and advocacy in industrial R&D, technology acquisition and commercialization; industry-academia collaborations; creation-protection-exploitation of IPR; Infusion of design in manufacturing; Innovation promotion and Entrepreneurship development.
Anjan has been the architect of conceptualising and implementing many innovative PPP institutions/vehicles like Technology Development Centres; Global Innovation & Technology Alliance; Prime Minister's Fellowships for Doctoral Research; and many others.
Anjan has been a member of many high-level committees and boards of the Government of India and Institutions.
Anjan has Post Graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
Harsh Manrao, an architect with over fifteen years of experience in design & architecture, has learnt the craft by working with his mentors, Christopher Benninger & Endo Shuhei. He has led multi-disciplinary & multi-cultural design and research teams in India and Japan.
Additionally, voluntary academic engagements brought him in touch with B.V. Doshi, Glenn Murcutt & Richard Lieplaster.
Since 2011, he has founded two ventures, 'figments experience lab' a design & research studio which investigates the connection between design and human experience and 'co-exist ventures' which develops experience-led paradigms in the shared economy. Currently, he heads research on projects and spearheads strategic design intent in the studio.
He has developed & delivered the experience design module for the under-graduate & post-graduate programs at NID. He also conducts design-thinking workshops that link human-centric-experience and user-value-proposition.
Senior Manager, International Relations
Japan Institute of
Design Promotion
Born in 1968 in Yokohama. Got employed by Mitsukoshi Department Store in 1990, after graduating from Keio University, the Faculty of Literature. After the career at the ladies accessory department shop floor, appointed as buyer of imported food and accessories from UK and contributed to establish brand business. Managed whole process of branding, merchandising as a buyer.
In 2010, joined Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (currently Japan Institute of Design Promotion) as an international promotion manager and has executed several Japanese design promotions in various countries such as India, China, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Turkey and Mexico.
In 2015, also graduated from Musashino Art University, the Department of Arts Policy and Management.
Title & Current Activities :
Consultant
Shanghai Design Center, Toyota Motor Engineering
& Manufacturing (China) Co. Ltd.
Board Member
Japan Industrial Designerss Association (JIDA)
Good Design Fellow
Japan Institute of Design Promotion
(JDP)
Guest Researcher
Tianjin University, China
After working on various projects at Toyota - including the post of Executive Vice President of the Calty Design Research Inc. in California, Hideichi Misono headed the company's luxury lines, including Lexus. From 2001, as Senior General Manager of the Design Center, Misono supervised all Toyota design group and was instrumental in establishing Toyota's design philosophy.
In 2004, he was positioned President & CEO of Tecno Art Research Co. Ltd., an affiliate of Toyota's design group. From 2013 to June 2014, Advisor of the company.
He is now supporting overall activities of Toyota Shanghai Design Center as a consultant. In educational field, he is a Guest Researcher of Tianjin University, China, and used to be a Guest Professor, Graduate school of Engineering, Chiba Univ., and Tongji Univ. China. He has been doing many lectures and workshops in USA, Mexico, Ireland, China, Taiwan, and other Asian countries. He also has been a jury member for various Design Awards in China, India, Ireland, and Japan.
As a Board member of JIDA, he is chairing External Affairs Committee and a member of Vision Committee.
Director, National Institute of Design Member Secretary, India Design Council Officiating Director, NID Vijayawada and NID Kurukshetra
Core Expertise: Industrial Design
E mail: director@nid.edu / pradyumna@nid.edu
Pradyumna Vyas acquired a Masters in Industrial Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
In June 2010, Vyas was conferred with an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, United Kingdom in recognition of his contributions to design education and design promotion.
Vyas has more than 33 years of professional and teaching experience in different spheres of design. Since the last 27 years, he has been associated with the National Institute of Design (NID) as a faculty in the Industrial Design discipline. In April 2009, he was appointed as the Director of the National Institute of Design.
Prior to joining NID, Vyas acquired three years overseas experience at the Kilkenny Design Centre, Republic of Ireland.
In July 2011, Vyas was given the award for his outstanding contribution to design education at Asia's Best School Award that was held at Singapore.
Vyas was invited as the jury member for the special awards screening panel at Good Design Award (G-Mark) by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion, Japan consequently in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016.
He has been at the helm of design promotion events in India and has represented NID in various international and national events. He was elected as an ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) Executive Board Member for 2009-11.
In pursuance of the National Design Policy approved by the Cabinet in February 2007, an India Design Council was constituted in March 2009 and Mr Vyas has been nominated as its Member Secretary by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India.
In July 2015, World Education Congress, 2015 conferred the award for Outstanding Contribution to Education to Mr. Vyas.
In March 2016, Mr Vyas was honoured with the 'Lifetime Achievement Award - Design, 2016' at the first 'India UX Design Awards' for the contribution towards the designing community and his pioneering efforts in the field of design education and design promotion.
In May 2017, Mr Vyas received an award for his contribution towards design education during the Edutainment Awards 2017 held in Mumbai, which is a joint effort of Times of India, Businessworld and Event Capital, provides a platform to celebrate broader Indian talent canvas.
Founder : India Design Forum (IDF)
Art connoisseur, business woman, design thinker and philanthropist - Rajshree Pathy is the Founder of the India Design Forum - IDF. Her deep understanding of Indian culture, traditional craft, contemporary art, design and industrial processes gives her a unique perspective of the evolving importance of creativity in India's growing economy. Through the decades Rajshree has been a supporter of the creative community in India using her corporate outreach and goodwill. CoCCA (The Coimbatore Centre for the Contemporary Arts) is Rajshree's vision to establish a centre as an inclusive space that will allow for freedom in creative expression and an incubation space for young designers. Born and raised in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Rajshree designs homes and interiors which have been published in AD Milan and AD india and continues to design furniture for friends and family . She also curates contemporary art exhibitions at the Contemplate art gallery in Coimbatore and is the curator for India Design Forum since its inception.
As a leading industrialist, she has been nominated as a 'Global Leader for Tomorrow' at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland and is the President of the Eisenhower Fellowships in India. The Government of India conferred the prestigious Padma Shri Award for her contribution to Trade and Industry in the year 2013. A powerful voice in the Indian industry and an active Member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Rajshree holds various leadership positions in the industry led organisation.
Founder Dean, DJ Academy of Design
Emeritus Professor of CEPT University
Former Chairman of Education, National institute of Design
Author and Designer with 48 years of experience in Design Education
Part of the pioneer batch of teachers who started design education in India
Received 4 patents for his innovations
Conferred Helen Keller award for working for people with disabilities
Has won the international Ron Mace 'Design for 21st century award' for Universal Design, the only Indian to get this honour.
Former Advisory board member, 'Design Issues', the prestigious international journal, (USA).
Published widely. Books include "Thinking Design"(second edition), "Design Quotes", "Q&A on Education", "Adalaj"; Chapters in books -'Universal Design Handbook', 'Teaching Universal Design', 'The Idea of Design', 'Britannica encyclopedia', 'Cotton' and 'Design and Critical Primary Sources'.
Founder, Craft Development Institute in Kashmir for Government of India to mitigate Socio-political unrest with design development.
Organized worlds' first UNIDO-ICSID meeting on "Design for Development" resulting in the seminal 'Ahmedabad Declaration' which paved way to India Design Council.
First to coin the term 'majority world' to replace the 'developing world'.
Co-author of the historic 'Universal Design India Principles' (UDIP) under Jamsetji Tata Universal Design Chair.
Resource expert at the International workshop on "Design for the elderly"; Philippines.
Keynote speaker at the apex International conferences on Universal Design; Kyoto (2006) Hamamatsu (2010) and Nagoya (2016).
Organizer, India's first International conference on "Universal Design and development" (2015) resulting in 'Convention on Universal Design'.
Winner (for DJAD) the reputed NCPEDP-Mphasis National Gold award for Universal Design (2015).
Winner (for DJAD) the Grand Award of International Association of Universal Design (IAUD) for best 'Universal Design Education in the context of development' (2016).
Designer of award winning Oxygenator, Energy saving stoves, Bicycle National Exhibitions, Water-purifier, and Crutches.
Guided /Judged PhD theses in Design at IIT Mumbai and CEPT University.
CEO | Chief Creative officer | Co-founder
With 16+ years of experience, Tanay currently spearheads Fractal as the CEO and Chief Creative Officer. With a strong focus and vision to take Digital Experience design in India to the global level he grew Fractal from a 7 people company in 2010 to strong team of 85+ in the last 6 years. In the last few years he has helped many companies build their digital roadmaps and architected their digital products. While a mentor to many UX groups and design incubators around in the country, he also helps educational institutions in formulating their design curriculum around industry.
Sonia Manchanda is the cofounder and Principal Designer of Idiom, an integrated design practice, and creative chief and cofounder of DREAM:IN, a global initiative and venture that has been recognized as one of 6 global gamechangers by Metropolis magazine and received CII Design Excellence award for website design, besides being the winner in overall category for Interaction Design.
Sonia has been invited to showcase DREAM:IN at Curitiba, Brazil, at Designing for Billions at Parsons NY, at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven and several other prestigious forums.
Sonia is a design thinker and practitioner, deeply involved with developing businesses, brands and experiences. Besides developing talent and actively spreading design as a way of thinking and doing things. She is a graduate of National Institute of design, Ahmedabad and has trained in visual communication, design, filmmaking and photography.
DREAM:IN proposes a shift in focus of design from needs to dreams and has partners and practitioners amongst Universities, design academicians and students, thought and business leaders and has been replicated in Brazil and China. Most recently, finding a place for itself in Bruce Nussbaum's new book, Creative Intelligence.
Idiom has worked extensively in emerging sectors like education, retail and healthcare, closely with Indian entrepreneurs and also on global assignments. Besides developing many resilient businesses and brands, Sonia and Idiom have championed one of India's first Public Private Partnership movements for change in a global Indian city and the design and look of the 19th Commonwealth Games.
Studied architecture from BKPS College of Architecture, Pune, in 1971 and further completed postgraduate studies in furniture design – from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
Shrikant Nivasarkar is a principle architect of design consultancy organization “Nivasarkar Consultants”, established in Pune in 1978. He has overseen the growth of the practice from small & medium scale residential design to larger scale commercial, institutional and industrial projects.
Shrikant has a nation wide reputation as a designer closely connect to his roots. The result is a design that has a sense of place and highly experiential in nature. In 2009 he was invited to participate in a specially curated exhibition at Helsinki “ called Ecologycal Chair”, amongst 20 top designers around the world.
Apart from an extensive career spanning more than three decades, Shrikant is associated with various educational and professional associations in different capacities. He has been a member of the governing council of national institute of design between 2009-2011.
Currently he is a member of the governing council of College of Architecture- Trivandrum, Rachana Sansad- Mumbai, Member of the Board of Studies of School of Interior Design-CEPT University, member of the academic council of MIT School of Design, Pune and College of Architecture-Navarachana University- Vadodara. He is also a chairman of ad hoc board of studies of design of Pune University.
He has traveled widely around the world and lectured at various design forums and educational institutes. He has also been invited on various national and international competitions and awards as a member of the jury.
In the past he has been first Indian president of International Federation of Interior Architects (IFI) – a global apex body of the profession of interior design- during 2007-2009, of which he was earlier the executive board member during 2001-1007, and also been executive board member of international design alliance (2007-2009), President of Indian Institute of Interior Designers (IIID)- (2004-2006). Currently he is an invited member of India Design Council and the President of Pune Construction Engineering Research Foundation.
Apex Lin was born in Donggang Town of Pingtung County, Taiwan, in 1957. He received his M.F.A. from the Graduate Institute of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and is currently Chair Professor of Department of Visual Communication Design, Asia University. Lin has been acclaimed mentor of design in Taiwan and was the winner of the 2007 National Award for Literature and Arts. In avant-garde and contemporary design, his concentrated visual language in poster designs portraying the image of the island of Taiwan has taken the field of design of Taiwan into international realms
Lin established Taiwan Image Poster Design Association in 1990, actively encouraging Taiwanese designers to participate in international competitions, cross-strait exhibitions, and other activities ever since. In 1993, he was listed top 12 CI designers in Asia by New DECOMAS. Then in 2002, he was honored with the ICOGRADA Achievement Award by the International Council of Graphic Design Associations. He was later listed among 100 Graphic Designers in the world by Phaidon in 2003. In 2004, he received the First Outstanding Award of Commercial by MOEA. In 2005, he was granted the Design for Asia Award by Hong Kong Design Center, as commendation of his great artistic influence in Asia. In 2011, he was honored with the ICOGRADA Education Award by Icograda
MOHAMED SADIQ, Chief Scientist, CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute (CSIR-CLRI) is a distinguished Leather Technologist with specialization in Footwear Science and Engineering. His focus has been on Footwear Styling and Design; R&D in Trend Forecasting, Colours and Texture development
He has also innovated in HRD activities with accent on Shoe Design Education and Training with the flagship achievement of conceptualizing and executing a unique Shoe Styling Course. He has excelled in Planning for the Indian Leather Sector in the area of design, trends and global competitiveness.
His signature contribution has been in enabling the ‘Travel of India in fashion forecasting for LEATHER’ - an R&D initiative for garnering global leadership
Jitendra Singh Rajput holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and has done post-graduation in Strategic Design Management from NID. He has worked in R&D departments of automotive and heavy engineering industries before joining NID in 2010. He has been a faculty in Strategic Design Management since 2013. He has experience of more than 13 years in the areas of design, design-research, strategic planning and project management.
He teaches design management, project management and basic materials and has interest in strategic planning, policy design, design research and systems thinking. He is also working as Project Head of Design Clinic Scheme, a project by Ministry of MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises), Govt of India for promotion of design in MSME sector in the country, where he looks after the planning, promotion and implementation activities of scheme.
An Industrial Designer from the National Institute of Design, Ahmadabad, India, Ashish started his design entrepreneurship journey, 29 years ago, by co-founding India’s pioneering design practice, Elephant. Elephant today is present in India as well as Singapore
Ashish leads Product & Retail Experience Innovation group and has led projects ranging from consumer appliances related to air, water & energy, medical equipment, wearable electronics, automotive and retail. He & his team at Elephant is recipient of several awards including Lexus Design Award India, Spark (USA), Greener Gadgets (USA), CII-Design Excellence and 5 products have received the India Design Mark. His consulting experience spans start-ups, Corporates, MNCs from India, South-East Asia, Japan and Europe.
Ashish conducts workshops on Growth by Design & Product Innovation. Recently invited to speak at International Design Congress, Gwangju, he also delivered keynote at International Symposium, Naju Innovation City, Korea, World Eco-friendly Design Expo.
Ashish is President, Association of Designers of India, an active member of the Design Alliance Asia and has been on the jury of India Design Mark. He has served as appointed member of the 2nd. India Design Council. Last year Ashish has been on the Product Design Jury at Cannes Lions as well as Taiwan International Student Design Competition.
Shribalkrishna Patil, an Innovation Strategist, business designer and product developer with 3 masters in technology, business and human space along with 10+ years of experience in applying design thinking in diverse domains.
He is a multi-functional hybrid thinker with knowledge and experience of transforming insights grounded at the intersection of technology, business, and human psychology into innovative strategies and offerings that lead to revenue growth. Helping entrepreneur’s, startups and organizations to transform their nebulous ideas into breakthrough innovative businesses, products, experiences, and brands are what inspires him.
He has contributed to more than 75 different projects in both local and international markets, companies including but not limited to P&G, Sony Ericsson, Philips, GSK, Godrej, Orient Electricals, Pilldrill, Clear2O, Borosil, Educational initiative etc. While working on these diverse and challenging projects, has acquired a deep experience of handling innovation and incubation processes in diverse domains.
He has earned three Master’s in Technology and Business Studies, after completing engineering degree; first Master’s (M.Sc. (Eng.)) is from The University of Liverpool in Product Design and Management. Second in Integrated Product Design from Delft University of Technology (M.Sc. (Eng.)) And an MBA in Design Strategy (M.B.A) from California College of Arts.
Founder : India Design Forum (IDF)
Art connoisseur, business woman, design thinker and philanthropist - Rajshree Pathy is the Founder of the India Design Forum - IDF. Her deep understanding of Indian culture, traditional craft, contemporary art, design and industrial processes gives her a unique perspective of the evolving importance of creativity in India’s growing economy. Through the decades Rajshree has been a supporter of the creative community in India using her corporate outreach and goodwill. CoCCA (The Coimbatore Centre for the Contemporary Arts) is Rajshree’s vision to establish a centre as an inclusive space that will allow for freedom in creative expression and an incubation space for young designers. Born and raised in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Rajshree designs homes and interiors which have been published in AD Milan and AD india and continues to design furniture for friends and family . She also curates contemporary art exhibitions at the Contemplate art gallery in Coimbatore and is the curator for India Design Forum since its inception.
As a leading industrialist, she has been nominated as a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland and is the President of the Eisenhower Fellowships in India. The Government of India conferred the prestigious Padma Shri Award for her contribution to Trade and Industry in the year 2013. A powerful voice in the Indian industry and an active Member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Rajshree holds various leadership positions in the industry led organisation.
Founder Dean, DJ Academy of Design
Emeritus Professor of CEPT University
Former Chairman of Education, National institute of Design
Author and Designer with 48 years of experience in Design Education
Part of the pioneer batch of teachers who started design education in India
Received 4 patents for his innovations
Conferred Helen Keller award for working for people with disabilities
Has won the international Ron Mace 'Design for 21st century award' for Universal Design, the only Indian to get this honour.
Former Advisory board member, 'Design Issues', the prestigious international journal, (USA).
Published widely. Books include "Thinking Design"(second edition), "Design Quotes", "Q&A on Education", "Adalaj"; Chapters in books -'Universal Design Handbook', 'Teaching Universal Design', 'The Idea of Design', 'Britannica encyclopedia', 'Cotton' and 'Design and Critical Primary Sources'.
Founder, Craft Development Institute in Kashmir for Government of India to mitigate Socio-political unrest with design development.
Organized worlds' first UNIDO-ICSID meeting on "Design for Development" resulting in the seminal 'Ahmedabad Declaration' which paved way to India Design Council.
First to coin the term 'majority world' to replace the 'developing world'.
Co-author of the historic 'Universal Design India Principles' (UDIP) under Jamsetji Tata Universal Design Chair.
Resource expert at the International workshop on "Design for the elderly"; Philippines.
Keynote speaker at the apex International conferences on Universal Design; Kyoto (2006) Hamamatsu (2010) and Nagoya (2016).
Organizer, India's first International conference on "Universal Design and development" (2015) resulting in 'Convention on Universal Design'.
Winner (for DJAD) the reputed NCPEDP-Mphasis National Gold award for Universal Design (2015).
Winner (for DJAD) the Grand Award of International Association of Universal Design (IAUD) for best 'Universal Design Education in the context of development' (2016).
Designer of award winning Oxygenator, Energy saving stoves, Bicycle National Exhibitions, Water-purifier, and Crutches.
Guided /Judged PhD theses in Design at IIT Mumbai and CEPT University.
Head (Director), Samsung Design Delhi
Ho Kim has been the Head (Director) of Samsung Design Delhi, which is one of the 7 Global Design Offices, implementing Design Research over a wide range of areas with the spirit of open innovation since 2016.
From 2004, he has been working with Samsung Electronics Corporation (SEC) headquartered in South Korea.
He is an expert in the creation of Product User Experience Design, Brand Identity and Positioning, Trend Mapping & Analysis. He leads the Design Team (UX, ID Innovation, Graphics & Packaging, Design Planning & Management) at Samsung Design Delhi and has been leading Projects for Services & Features tailored especially for Indian Users and are also globally useful.
He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Visual Design in the year 2001 from Hongkik University (one of the Top universities of Korea).
He started his career with a South Korean 3-D Animation company "Animation Studio Cinepix" in Seoul as a Character Design / Animator and worked with them for 3-years.
As a leader of emerging markets, his mission is to discover the locale insights as an infinite design inspiration provider, design value to create globally successful products and drive the future to build new growth opportunities.
Ho Kim and his team work has received Global Design accolades such as a Design IF Award, IDSA International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) in their new product design category.
Having acquired a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1985, V. Ravishankar enrolled into NID for a PG Diploma in Product Design. Twenty years later, having worked in diverse industry verticals: Consumer Products, Furniture, IT, Advertising, Retail and the Govt. in 2009, he joined the institute as a Faculty member under the Industrial Design program.
Presently at NID, Ravishankar as a Principal Faculty is the Discipline Lead of the MDes Universal Design Program. The program is research intensive leading to tangible and actionable inclusive design solutions. He was responsible in designing the curriculum and the program content. He also offers courses in Design Process, Digital Product Design, Service Design and Experience Design. Ravishankar is a co-author in the formulation of the Universal Design India Principles. He is the Director’s nominee for the Universal Design Task Force (Govt. of India) to formulate framework for setting up the National Institute of Universal & Inclusive Design (NIUID) in India
He also holds an additional charge as the CEO of the NID-National Design Business Incubator at Bangalore. He was awarded the NID-Business World Design Excellence Award in 2006.
Born in Tokyo, Japan 1966. Received a Bachelor of Economics and Management degree from Rikkyo University in Tokyo 1991. Studied Automotive Design at Urban Design College.
Joined GK Design Group in Japan 1991, assigned to overseas subsidiary GK Design International Inc., resided in USA for fifteen years in development of diverse mobility as motorcycle, ATV/ROV, snowmobile, golf cart and power generator designs for Yamaha Motor Corporation. Promoted Vice President of GK Design International Inc., 2011 for management of Los Angeles and Atlanta offices.
Since returned Tokyo, promoted to Executive Director of GK Design Group and GK Design International Inc., 2016. Promoted President of GK Dynamics Inc., Tokyo 2016, and President of GK Design Europe located Amsterdam, Netherlands 2017.
Received a Red Dot Design Award 2013. Nominated a jury of Good Design Award in Japan 2017. Nominated a jury of CII Design Excellence Awards in India 2017.
Mahendra chauhan is currently heading the watch design team for brand Titan.He is a Product Designer from NID Ahmedabad and architect from NIT Raipur. He has been working fror more than 14 years designing consumer durable and life style products. His work has been produced in many countries and he has won many presigious national and international award in product design. More recently he has been awarded red dot design award for designing world's slimmest watch for Titan 'edge'.
His works have been published in leading international books and design websites.His work is displayed at red dot design museum in essen and singapore.He had also won rado design excellence award and design boom award for innovative product concepts.Apart from designing lifestyle products, he has designed interiors, residences and bicycles for BSA and hercules brand.He also talk at the CII Design Summit, and other conferences & Seminars on Design Thinking.
Mahendra is playing a very strategic role in defining Titan'S watch design stratgey by leading and managing complete watch portfolio of brand Titan, nebula, raga, Zoop and xylys.He spearheads the team with a very positive attitude and belives that design diffrention can only happen if we understand the consumers. He Belives, ''design begins with sensitivity , curiosity and passion. To excel in any field one needs to be passionate about it; sensitive to the end users and curious about the new things''.
CEO – Centroid Design Pvt. Ltd. ( www.centro-id.com )
Ramesh Manickam an alumnus of IIT Delhi with specialization in Industrial Design is the founder and CEO of Centroid Design, providing services in new product design and development. He was also instrumental in starting the Design studio at Royal Enfield and designing the Legendary Thunderbird Motorcycle.
He started Centroid in 2005, with a passion to do good design and vision to make a mark in the Design field creating an Indian Identity in Product Design. With over 20 years of experience in designing over 450 products ranging from Tractors to pens in the automotive, heavy and light engineering, consumer durables, electronics and FMCG segments.
He is now concentrating his activities on startups and MSME’s by providing services in Business Design and Design Thinking by consulting as an outsourced CDO (Chief Design Officer), Service Design specialising in wellness spaces for pregnant women and new moms and experimenting with materials - designing products under the brand Cozart (www.cozart.in).
Ramesh was the National finalist and represented India in the International Young Design Entrepreneur of the year 2006 in London, award conducted by British Council to nurture design entrepreneurship.
The product Halo Life Cell, a mobile security device won the Communication product of the year at IFSEC Security Industry Awards 2008, Birmingham,UK. The product “Namma Toilet”, a public community toilet was announced by PM as a reference design to be implemented all over India under Swatch Bharat Scheme. The Wheel loader designed for L&T, won the India Design Mark Award in 2014.
Ramesh is a TED fellow and was part of the TED India event held at Mysore in 2009.
He is a visiting faculty at MIDAS – Architecture College, IIIT Kancheepuram and IIT Chennai A motivating speaker on Entrepreneurship and Design. He was a jury member at India Design Mark Award, 2015.
Design professional with proven leadership mettle in Industrial Design with reputed organizations. 14+ years of rich hands on experience in product and packaging design, visual communication design, branding, Product portfolio management, brand visual architecture, graphic design and strategic design with a portfolio of high profile projects for India's leading brands. Having Experience of establishing full-fledged design studio and building strong team of design & engineering professionals to deliver best-in-class design solutions to key accounts in Mumbai. Proactive, creative, committed professional with an outstanding career of delivering superior results through effective communication, coordination, relationship building, strategizing, planning and execution.
As founder & director of Designlipi Projects Private Ltd, he initiated the 1st Professional Design House based out of Kolkata in entire eastern part of India offering services in Strategic Design, Branding & Communication, Product Design, Packaging Design and Design for Retail Experiences. Presently having a team of 6 and clients like ITC, Exide, Godrej Appliance, Godrej Locks, Godrej Construction, Godrej Natures Basket, Godrej PRIMA, Eveready Industries Ltd., Punjab Sind Dairy, Lightkraft etc. Won IDESIGN Award 2012 for designing innovative mosquito repellant device & applied for 1 patent in 2013 and having several design registrations.
Associate Vice President
Godrej Interio - Design
Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co.Ltd
Mr Venkateshwarlu Ega is an alumni of Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and currently heads the Design function at Godrej Interio, furniture division of Godrej and Boyce, deals with the business of home furniture and institutional furniture for domestic and international markets.
His experience of 25 years in product design, technology adoption and process design at Godrej Interio has helped the brand in developing furniture as a complete experience design.
Mr Venkat is Responsible for shaping up the design team at Godrej Interio to develop contemporary furniture as lifestyle products for the relevant target customers. He has been managing, motivating and building a passionate environment for designers to create products that can shape the future of the business. The design capability that has established under his direction, resulted in the development of many new products which are commercially successful and has received a number of excellence awards in the field of design.
The successful product list includes Slimline range of steel wardrobe- the first knockdown steel wardrobe for home use, Kreation modular wardrobe- The only modular steel wardrobe in the country, Godrej Interio modular Kitchen range, the only kitchen range made of steel in India, Office ergonomics seating – Ace, Scintilla, Pulse, Office system furniture- Wish, Define, Educational furniture – Genii School desk cum bench and Enlighten, Chrysalis range of healthcare furniture, Covalent range of laboratory furniture, Godrej Interio bedroom collection with unique structural combination of steel and wood, Godrej Interio fabric sofa range and many more.
He believes that aesthetics and best fit-finish are hygiene factor for any product irrespective of its price and He strongly advocates and practices Customer centricity in every stage of design process.
Coordinator, Faculty, Transportation & Automobile Design
Activity vice-chairperson, integrated design services
National Institute of Design, PG Campus, Gandhinagar INDIA
Vipul Vinzuda is Course coordinator of Postgraduate ‘Transportation & Automobile Design’ program at NID. A mechanical engineer from the NITK, Surathkal, Vipul enrolled into NID in 2004, for the Faculty Development Program in Industrial Design and kept his passion for ‘design education’ as his career focus and professional interest. In 2008, he earned a Master’s degree in ‘Design and Transport’ from Coventry University, UK.
His core interest areas include 3D Digital modeling-prototyping, Trend studies, Design research and Human factors. He also guides students in design projects such as Non-motorized transport and vehicle design since he joined NID as a full time faculty in 2009.
For a last decade, along with senior faculty members, Vipul has been instrumental in establishing the Transportation and Automobile Design Discipline in NID, collaborating with various automotive industries and institutes.