Bachelor of Design: Best Colleges and Admission Requirements

“Make it simple, make it significant,” said Don Draper

Design is all-encompassing, it is the ever-present force behind products and services of daily use– from Youtube thumbnails, the menu of a restaurant, clothes and even a coffee cup. It appeals to the consumer, it impacts choices, it brings appreciation, it brings business. As Thomas Watson, the former President of IBM observed, “Good design is good business.” 

Today the space is thriving with the proliferation of virtual space and social media. It has bolstered the role of designers, who engage creativity with psychology, market trends and culture to produce designs that appeal to the consciousness of the consumer. Edging out the competition relies on product or service quality just as much as it does on appearance and functionality and the manner in which it is marketed– simple but significant as they say. 

All these come within the ambit of the discipline of Design Education. Within the discipline, there is a range of specialisations a student can choose from– Fashion design, interior design, Graphic design, automobile design, web design, textile design, jewellery design, product design, animation, multimedia design etc. And students can pursue greater specialisation within these as well. 

India has a fertile ecosystem of design institutes and departments that people tap into so as to gain education and skills that are based on creative engagement and critical thinking. 

Some of the best institutions that aspirants for a course in design can consider are:

• National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar

• IDC School of Design in IIT, Bombay (and the other design schools run by other IITs)

• National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Delhi, Bombay

• Indian Institute of Art and Design 

• World University of Design 

• Symbiosis Institute of Design 

• CREO Valley 

• Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology etc.

The admission process for Bachelors in Design is mostly entrance based with universities offering programmes in the discipline conducting entrance examinations for the same. Such entrance examinations include:

• Undergraduate Common Entrance Exam for Design (UCEED)

• NIFT Entrance Exam

• All India Entrance Exam for Design (AIEED)

• UPES Design Aptitude Test (UPES DAT)

• NID DAT Exam

• Lovely Professional University National Eligibility and Scholarship Test (LPUNEST)

• MIT-WPU Design Aptitude Test (DAT) etc.   

Perhaps the best part about Bachelors in design courses is that they are more or less, open to everyone regardless of their core discipline in 10+2/ in high school, so long as they are able to achieve a quality score in the competitive exams for design institutes they choose to give. A student must invest some time in the creation of a portfolio with their best possible work for the interview as and when they qualify the competitive exams. With ample preparation and practice in art, one can hope to crack the competitive admission exam (or exams). 

However, it is important to keep in mind that there are some exam results that are accepted across design departments/ schools in universities across the country. A prime example of this would be the Undergraduate Common Entrance Exam for Design (UCEED) conducted by IIT- Bombay.  Those with a valid UCEED score will be eligible to apply not only to design schools managed by the various IITs in India but also to participating institutes such as Lovely Professional University, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art and Design, Delhi technological University, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, CEPT University, World University of Design among others. 

Written by: Devashri Awasthi