Dear Christopher Kueh

I presented a paper last May at a workshop on Design Support that was
organised by the Design Council Wales at Cardiff (May 2004). The paper
examines the nature of the design industry in India and offers a status
check. You can download the file from my web archive at
<http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp/FileSharing1.htm>

The filename for the paper in MS Word format is "Design
Infrastructure_India.doc" and the related presentation, a PDF file also
online, is "Design Support_2004_pics.pdf" which is located inside the
"MPR Papers on Design" folder.

With warm regards

M P Ranjan
from my office at NID
20 December 2004 at 6.35 pm IST

___________________________________________________________________

Prof M P Ranjan
Faculty of Design
Head, NID Centre for Bamboo Initiatives
Faculty Member on NID Governing Council (2003 -2004)
National Institute of Design
Paldi
Ahmedabad 380 007 INDIA

Tel: 91+79+26610054 (Res)
Tel: 91+79+26639692 ext 1090 (Off)
Tel: 91+79+26639692 ext 4095 (Off)
Fax: 91+79+26605242

email: <[log in to unmask]
web archive: <http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp/>
___________________________________________________________________



Christopher Kueh wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> This is Chris Kueh, a Malaysian pursuing PhD in Design at Curtin
> University, Western Australia. Am now back in Kuching (East Malaysia)
> for Christmas and New Year break. Just happened that I was helping up
> in a pre-departure briefing session yesterday, for new students who
> are going over to Australia for further studies. My role was to share
> some of my experiences I gained overseas.
>
> Out of the many conversations, there was a student asking about the
> future and working opportunities in Visual Communication Design
> (Graphic and Multimedia Design). As I was explaining to him, I found
> myself started to categorise (Malaysian local) Design Industry into
> different levels according to designers' educational qualification. I
> was able to afterwards reflect on these and found some issues, based
> to my own observation and previous experiences in the local design
> industry:
>
> 1) Designers with Diploma in Design: This category of designers
> (majority) tends to work as a 'technician' in the industry. They work
> as main Desk Top Publishers (DTP) in which involves minimum conceptual
> thinking. These designers compete with self-taught designers who work
> mostly as free-lancers and charging way below levels, in which
> lowering prices is their main selling point to grab clients' attentions.
>
> 2) Designers with BA Degree/Honours/Masters: These designers treasure
> and (try to) practice conceptual visual communication through
> different medias. Small numbers of them have successfully strived to
> work as Art/Creative Directors in local and international
> design/advertising firms. Some of these designers, especially those
> who have earlier exposure to overseas design industry and market, have
> also succeeded in owning their own design firms, dealing mostly with
> overseas clients. Unfortunately, there are also quite a handful of
> them who can't set foot in the working environment that they desire
> and ended up working overseas. Some were found even struggling for
> businesses in competition with designers from the 1st category.
>
> 3) Designers with PhD: It is very rare, in Malaysian Design Industry,
> to have designers with PhD to work as design consultants. Among the
> small numbers, most of them are academics in local universities (in
> which design research and its application is not yet evident). Many
> are working overseas.
>
> Malaysian society, from what I see, is a growing society in which a
> well-shaped Design Industry (as in Design of all kind) will definitely
> be of the country's benefit. I therefore put forth the above
> reflections, and search of your opinions in the questions below:
>
> 1) Do these categories of designers also exist in design industry else
> where?
> 2) Is design education the only way to overcome the issues I mentioned
> above?
> 3) Who should we educate? Designers or the society?
>
> Happy Christmas everyone!
>
> regards,
> Chris
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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