Now I've been here for about five days and I
Will give you my first report from the National Institute of Design, www.nid.edu. To begin with it's preferable for us to go here in the I semester which starts in June I think. This means you'll have to apply with your portfolio after new year (I will talk to the responsible person for exact date). The reason I would recommend this is that when you do it as I did it, start in November and stay until end of February, you'll be missing out two month. Also there's seem to be better courses during the I semester. I am in II now. If you start
directly after the semester ends at
Konstfack you'll be able to move your summer holiday to
Christmas. Because semester ends on 1 st November here. And of course you want to do some travelling during your time here! :-)
You should also be aware of that you're able to choose whatever courses you like from other disciplines. In case the course you want to make is not given at the time you want it, it's possible to get personal guidance on the subject. The teachers here are really keen on learning out their subjects. For an example I went to a teacher of design theory and
bamboo construction, to ask whether a course in a bamboo craftsmen village will be during my stay here, which was not the case he thought. He will give me personal guidance in constructing products out of bamboo (you may ask why the hell I want to make something in bamboo, the reason is that its suppose to be an
environmentally friendly material as well as
composits). I am also planning to take a course in leather bag design (making a laptop bag) at the
Accessory Department. It's possible for me to get to know the limits of the material, though I will not have to make the actual model myself. This is really great! If you work on a textile product it's also possible to let one at the staff make the model. This is for free and widely used among the students.
The regular courses for product design follow some kind of Bauhaus plan. A course in research without making an actual product. Investigate an Indian brand and an international brand, making a
PowerPoint with the results from
interviews among customers interwieved in a shop. This is a course of Apparel Design Department, which is about textile products as shoe design and working clothes.
It's also for free to print models in 3D. They have recently bought machines and a staff that will help you available until 6 PM every day. Laser cutting in leather and plastic is also possible. Lots of employed at the school is here to help you! This is also for the workshop.
The best thing about studying design at this school is, I think so far, the
possibilities of making real models. This
possibility exists because of much staff hired at the school who there to help you but also the closeness of craftsmen and the contact net from the students in finding the right
craftsmen.
If you go here you'll have to be
prepared to kind of be _really_ social. People are glad to help you out with your problems, which is luckely. Since there's a lack of information about things compared to Sweden. Nothing like the system of the underground maps in Sweden, would exist here, if you see my point. At the airport in Delhi - no signs about where the domestic flight terminals was. This I needed to ask. Same thing about the school, you'll have to hunt down the professor of the different department - or take contact with a student of the department, to get some proper information about if this course is interesting for me or not. I am not too negative about this - I am getting to learn the
possibilities of the school fast and I also make many contacts.
I am staying in an apartment (with a kitchen, but without
owen) together with four other exchange students.
Almost all students are living at the campus and this makes
NID a really social school. I am hanging out with some Indian students and all of the exchange students. Nine exchange students with me. They are really great!! three Germans, one Italian, three French and one Danish.
I am really happy that I
choose to go here. India is an amazing country. The low prices for living and food makes you able to live a very good life as a student. Making research trips to rest of India is also positive from the teachers side.
Please ask if you have more questions.
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Annamaja
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