Success Story : Faizan Zahid (ID at IDC IIT-B)

Hello friends, by God’s grace I got selected for Industrial Design at IDC, IIT Bombay. Here’s my story:

Being from Architecture background, Design is one thing which I really like and have been doing continuously from last five years. Presently, I’m in my final year of architecture at SPA Delhi. Though, my interest inclined towards industrial design and CEED last year only.

For those who are beginners, Teacup Blog is really a treasure of all the information regarding CEED preparation. Read stories and other articles, follow the advices and it’s done.

How I did CEED preparation? …… well it was a bit difficult but I wasn’t really scared about the sketching part as I’ve been doing it from a long time but the first part of objective questions for which I bought Manorama Year Book and started reading newspaper (I’ll recommend ‘The Hindu’ as it has more sensible stuff I suppose). A few things which you can do:

• Keep sketching everyday objects
• Look for various design presentation techniques ( I think it’s very important)
• Discuss your designs with others, it really helps in getting an all new perspective of the problem
• While designing, look for various other options and do not stick to your first idea
• Look for product sketching videos on YouTube

So, I did all this and cleared CEED with a decent rank (AIR-81), sufficient enough to qualify for IITB, and other good colleges. And I think I’m one of the luckiest person in this blog because I just applied for one college and fortunately qualified it. Though I got calls from IITK, IISc, NID and IITD but didn’t go.

After CEED results, I applied to IDC, IIT Bombay for three fields (Industrial Design, Interaction Design and Visual Communication) and had to give  three DATs and three Interviews; which was hectic.

DAT at IDC (Visual Communication)

The questions were easy; design a flag for India and re interpret a poem in your own words. I thought I did great, coz I really liked my flags final drawing and its interpretation, but I think it was not convincing enough to catch jurors’ eyes.

DAT at IDC (Interaction Design)

This one was a little complicated, even understanding the question took 10-15 min. and the question was pretty ambiguous that almost everybody in the room was confused about what is required. Question was to list out problems regarding a scheme of child banking system to be proposed by the government in future and then find solutions to those problems and then finally detail and illustrate one solution and give three ways each in which this solution would fail or work. Confused na!!

DAT at IDC (Industrial Design)

This one was most interesting: we were supposed to design a case for Laddu. I thought that Laddus come in groups so I designed a case for multiple laddus, which I realized was wrong later when my roommate told me. Though, my model was nice and my model making skill at college helped me a lot. The model was supposed to be not stuck with glue or stapler but should be origami based which was a tricky part. So, the night before the interview I designed another case and made a model to show to the jury during interview next day.

I’ll just share my Industrial Design interview with you guys as other two were not that great.

Personal Interview at IDC (Industrial Design)

The interview panel consisted of five members and my interview was second in the morning so the jury were really fresh at the time of the interview. They started asking questions from the Laddu case I designed and then I told them I did a mistake and showed them the newer design which I did last night and they were all really impressed. I gave them the model itself. Then they asked me about the materials and construction method for that case. They asked me questions regarding my portfolio, product design, my application, architecture and my college, structure mechanics, materials, buildings etc. And seriously there were a lot of questions I could not answer at all; and I simply said I don’t know sir! The interview lasted for 20-25 minutes.

They really liked my portfolio and appreciated my sketching and also the model I made for the Laddu case. They asked me why I want to leave architecture and come in industrial design. They asked me what is my branch preference? which I said ID, IxD and then VC, after which they said IxD pays more than ID but I said I still want ID.

My portfolio consisted of works in product design, sketching, graphics, architecture, photography etc. sample of my works is also given with the post, u can have a look!

In the end I would say that it’s a bit difficult but not impossible, all you need to do is to be genuinely yourself to stand out among others. You cannot be better than someone by copying him, so, keep on sketching, designing, reading and find your own ways to do things and we’re all there for help find you those ways! And always, always have trust in yourself irrespective of what people say.

I am really thankful to Prasanna sir for answering my childish questions, to Anil, Ashish, Harikrishnan KM, Labeeba and my family for supporting me and guiding me throughout the journey. But, above all that I’m really tankful to Allah for having given me this opportunity to study in one of the best design schools in India.  

Thanks and Good Luck!

Regards 

Faizan Zahid

You can contact me on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/ar.faizanzahid

And gmail on: ar.faizanzahid@gmail.com