Anonymous (IITH)

 

Exam preparation

Coming from the engineering background ,design was a very difficult cup of tea. I thought beautiful sketches and perfect lines made a good design ,but then I was totally wrong. Its not the quality of lines that matters, its all about the creativity and usefulness of the solution that really matters. I did couple of mistakes while preparing for my CEED and NID exams. 

Firstly,I went to coaching class, which I believe helped me to improve my line quality but nothing more than that. On other hand ,It took away part of my creativity and imposed structural thinking ,where I was asked to concentrate more on forms and beauty. (So my advise is ,don’t go to any design coaching) It doesn’t work like that in reality. The turning point was when I send my solution to Prasanna sir, Sir saw my solution and he asked me to think in 10 different ways, I still remember it was a question about kiosk design in parking lots .Only a designer can teach you what design is, and for a beginner like me sir played a very pivotal role in helping me improve my thinking levels, as he is a designer and has high expertise in his field. 

Practising lines, circles, ovals helped me improve my line quality, I also used to brainstorm and try to find different solutions to the problems around me. I used to send few solutions to sir, his questions and suggestions helped me to improve my thinking .
 

I applied to CEED and NID, I wanted IXD or graphic design. Coming from general category, I didn’t
clear NID, but then I cleared CEED with a decent score. I applied to IITs and finally got admission into
IIT Hyderabad.

During the interview
1. I was asked to submit my five slide presentation ,including the task

2. I submitted them and I had a interview of 25 minutes, where I also showed them my behance
portfolio which was more elaborate.

3. Following questions were asked during the interview.
  1. Why did you put so many typographic works?
  2. Why did you do project on electronic passport, isn’t the current passport system better?
  3. I did my task on toothpaste tube, I created a environmental friendly tube which has seed on the
bottom and is made of plastic made from cow dung. They asked me a lot of questions related to that
task. I believe they liked my task.

4. They asked me a pressing issue other than covid.

5. The asked me to explain about one of the Logos that I had designed.

Any type of question could be expected ,so a person might even have to be updated about the
current affairs.

I thank Prasanna sir, for providing me with this opportunity to share about my journey with you.

 

(Name withheld as requested by the candidate)