"Design Education vs. Innovation: Unveiling the Dichotomy"

Hello, hello, welcome, welcome. This is Jagdish. Welcome to the Design for Change podcast. I'm really excited that you stay tuned for the second episode of this Design for Change. So today we'll be actually tuning in a topic which is design education versus informal education, right? Which is no education at all. So design has been a very new flavor for all of us. Maybe in the past century, but people were innovative from the beginning, right? Let's say thousands and thousands of years before. Architectures, products, furnitures, everything is being built. Only this fancy UI UX is not there. But the thing is product design and innovation is the same thing. It's always there. Okay, so we need to think how these people have really thought about. One is Leonardo da Vinci. He has not studied anything formal education, right? But he has invented more than any designer could ever design in lifetime. And the major popularity actually started in the first World War. You know, that is also one forcing moment where with the fewer resources, how do you really design? That's one of the major criteria where designers have really started to design smaller houses, better products, optimized products and services. Because you know, when a world war hits, what happens to the economy, right? So this is also one way which it started. Second is because of this world war ending. There is something called Bauhaus design moment which evolved. You know what, Walter Grupius was actually started it. It's in Weimar Germany. I've been to this Bauhaus museum also. So this has been formalized and put it like a principles of design, like how somebody can really start formalizing this knowledge. And after the World War ended, again, due to some politics, it's doesn't go well. But still it was having its own value in its style. People love it, people use it. That's so called the minimalism principle. But still after that it has gone in 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s even, there is no popularity in design. But still innovations are happening, but it's not happening in that manner. And you know what? After the World War I and World War II, there was huge innovation happened. And again, it's because of war. See, there is no formal education, but still people are innovating. There is something called need and necessity, right? Need is something which we needed it, but necessities, without that we cannot live. So I was actually heard a story from my professor. Okay. I don't know how extent it is true or not, but there was a period in World War II where Hitler has locked scientists in the room. Okay, A lot of scientists, so. So there were a Lot of engines which is getting shut off, which is transporting the war equipments and what do you call this food? Like, you know, like during war, the equipment needs to be transported from a place to place. Food needs to be transported. So the engines were actually getting hot and it's getting shut. There is nothing called radiator and all at that point of time. Okay, radiator is cool now. So right now we are having some of the 8th or 9th generation radiator technology which we can even run for 500 kilometers without a break. So at that point of time, there is nothing there. So there are a lot of things which are stalled because of this engine shut off problem. You know, right? In war, if something stops, what happens? It's a disaster. So Hitler locked everybody in, room full of scientists, and then he said, if nobody is innovating anything for this, I'm going to be killing each and everybody. You know what, Putting a gun to the head. I don't know the authenticity of the story, but listen out the morale of it, okay? Eventually scientists have come up with a radiator design. That is how this entire thing started to change, you know, because of war. Lot of innovations have happened because of force, because of that particular need at that point of time. You know, not necessarily war, always. There is, there is a very important need for certain products which needs to be designed. I've seen certain farmers who did a very low cost tractor because they can't afford it. Right. It's like gun in their head for them. And there are some other people who wanted to really take out this coconut husk, but they cannot do it in a very manual way for thousands and thousands of coconuts. So they invented something called a lathe machine. Using that lathe, they peeled off all the coconut husk which I've seen in southern part of Tamil Nadu. So these are all some of the innovations which happened even without a formal design education. But yeah, popularity started after 1970s and 80s and lot of design schools, national and internationally started emerging. IDC Bombay is one of the very good schools schools and NID is one of the premier institutes. There are private institutes like mit, Srishti. So there are a lot of formal design education which is coming. But the main intent of this podcast is where do you really stand? Are you a guy who really has their own way to innovate something or you need a formal education? See nothing again, you don't have to take stance. You can mix and match both of this. You can think on that present moment, what is really needed, how can we really put in this design knowledge what we have or how can we just think common sense and solve it? So you need to be that level of flexibility when you solve a problem because there is always a fight, right? There are group of engineers, there are group of what you call developers and designers. Don't really stick with many of the people in industry until unless you develop a very good communication, you can't be able to sort stick out with them properly. So you need to remember this in mind. Not design education always makes us something like very big designers or people who don't have design education is not that what do you call illiterate and all. It's about how you use your common sense and presence of mind and staying focused to solve that problem and how dedicated you are. Remember the mindset of that scientist, remember the mindset of that farmer, remember the mindset of Leonardo da Vinci, right? So if you can able to change your mindset accordingly, you will be able to innovate anything. If you ask me personally, there is nothing needed. It's all about designer mindset which drives everything. If you resonate with me, yes, you are in a. You are in a very different zone than the rest of the people. I would say just make sure it's utilized in a very proper way. You can start taking any kind of a formal education or you can start doing your own weight design. There are multiple ways you can start doing. You can solve your own home problems, your street problems, your locality. So choose out that because you don't have to be a designer and we are a hat to solve problems. You can just walk around the street and see how many problems you're facing in. You can solve it. Okay, so this is the big dichotomy which always have between designers and non designers and design education, which is non design education. So think about where you are and use it effectively. That is the whole intention of this podcast. Okay. So stay tuned for more episodes like this and if you need my help in actually grooming your design knowledge. Also, I take only few students for my community to teach and nurture them. You can just find the link below to check whether if you're qualified or not or if you want to be a free designers. Yeah, you're always welcome to do even you can also just post your ideas how what you thought about this and which category you are in that would actually trigger a good relationship with us. Okay? So thank you, thank you for stay tuning in. I wish you all the best and take care. All the best.