It all started with me wanting to become a product designer quite a while back. When I gave my CEED exam the year I was graduating (2008), I was not aware of the procedure of admission at IDC (Industrial Design Center) and presumed it would begin after the results were declared. To my shock, I find from the day the results are out, I have only a week to prepare my application and send it by post all while I was working at Cisco doing my internship. “What logic is that?” I said to myself and dismissed IDC as a bunch of people who didn’t know logic. I was ignorant, forgive me.

Cut to 2009, I am working at a design studio run by an ex-IDCian. I now know a lot more about it and I consider it to be one of the top design schools in India (or atleast my research told me so). I was more keen on applying abroad – but decided at the last minute to give it a shot. My CEED score from the previous year was valid this year too. So I fill in my application, complete the three “tasks” allotted and send it in. During this application process I discover that the CEED is merely a qualifying exam for IIT Bombay and a host of other colleges. The colleges then conduct their own tests to shortlist candidates for admission. No logic here either, the CEED is a good exam! According to me, it is a pretty good indicator of your aptitude for design. Anyway, I am noone to decide this, so I went along with the process.

One month later, the list comes up on the IDC website with my name on it along with 300 others. I am supposed to receive a call letter confirming my selection for the next round but I get none. A quick phone call to the IDC office and they say it’s ok, come along anyway. So me and my friend (who incidentally also got selected) book flight tickets for Bombay for all the three days of the selection process.

Cut to today – 18th June, 2009. Reached Bombay early in the morning and reached the IIT campus just in the nick of time. Had a tough time finding our way to the Convocation Hall (the venue of the test, considering IDC is part of IIT – they should do something about their wayfinding signage – it’s pretty pathetic!). The test entails designing a vegetable carrier to be mounted on a bicycle. According to me I had a pretty good solution and I had presented it well. I noticed that the table in front of me (bearing roll no IDC-067 – if you’re reading this, congrats you got selected!) was empty – ABSENT!. Results were to be announced at 5 PM.

Off Topic: One warning to people joining IIT Bombay – Hostel 6 is pretty sad. Manipal hostels rock!

Back to the topic: We decided to drop back into the main IDC building to check it out and look at our future department and the kind of work that’s going on. To be frank, I was very very impressed with the Visual Communication dept. Swarna – the design degree show was on all the work done by the grads this year were on show. Again VC was impressive. Most people designing mobile applications seem to be over inspired by the iphone icons though – no originality in that respect. Product design was not too impressive and I shall leave it at that. Outside there were posters of each department (there are 4 – product, visual, animation and interaction) with a one liner tag line for each. Anim said: We not only move lines, we move people. Interaction said: Let the two halves of your brain interact (or something to that effect). VC had a good line too. PD said “Aesthetics with practicality”. Hmmmm, now PD is not only aesthetics is it? and who does copy for things like this! Totally put me off. Back to the main topic, I seem to be straying a lot.

A First List was published with selected candidates and was immediately withdrawn since it contained gross errors – candidate’s name appeared twice etc etc. After another hour long wait, the next list came out and to be frank I was pretty confident that I would clear the test atleast. I didn’t. Neither did my buddy. I went through the list a couple of times, checking each name twice just to make I hadn’t missed out. Surprise! Surprise! Roll 067′s name is on the list! Wow!

Ok now here’s the deal. If the profs who conduct this selection process are reading, then listen up! You don’t call 300 people to Bombay from all over India just to give a test (300 in PD, I’m not sure about the numbers in the other depts). If you’re calling them to your city, atleast give them a chance to talk to you, give them an interview. You don’t send 210 people back on the basis of not clearing a test. This is the design field, you cannot judge somebody’s design capabilities by what they do in a 1.5 hr exam. You need to look through their portfolio, see their work and talk to them about their ideas. If you had to conduct a test to reduce numbers, do it in the major cities, or do it as a part of the application, or do it online!

I am quite relieved that I was not on that list. Because joining such a design school would be quite a waste of 2 years (You may think this is a case of sour grapes, it probably is). If you read my previous post it talked about design education in India and the problems with it. Now the confusion is gone – it is “to go”.