Darshan Chavan (MVD at IDC-IITB)

 

Experience:

At the Time, Joined Engineering only because of peer pressure from parents and relatives.

Background-
- BE (Mech.) in 2017. (2012-2017 (Repeated)) (Aggr. 57%, Totally Avg Student.)
- From Government College Of Engineering and Research, Awasari, Pune.
- College Had No placements at all (As College is Fairly New (First B.E. Batch Passed out in 2013) (only 1 Student Got placed in Local Company from Total of 67 )
- Took Part in ABU Robocon-2015, Team got AIR 16. (It got me interested in Design)
- Got to know about CEED from my senior in about March 2016. 

CEED – 2017 (First Attempt)
Joined Private classes (BRDS, PUNE) in Aug. 2016 as I didn’t know anything at the time about CEED.

Schedule-
- Monday to Friday: 1- 2 hrs of line, Circle, ellipse practice
- 3 hrs of character + product + random sketching
- Saturday & Sunday: 4-5 hrs of Travelling to Pune (From Ahmednagar) and 3 hrs of a class
The above Schedule remained the same up until the exam.

Observations about class-
Pros to join Class: As I didn’t know anything at the time about the exam, Class did help me with the basics (Perspective, feedback, etc.)

Cons to Join Class:
1. It kind of Revolved only around the Study Material that Class Provided,
2. Never actually Explored Outside the Box,
3. Invested Too much Fees (45k),
4. Waste of time in Traveling.

(eg: There was a Question of Drawing 5 Emotions, I practiced it before the exam by myself just as fun so managed to do it properly, many students unable to Show or sketch it as it is not covered by Class or they did not practice it or other issues. )  

NID-17 EXAM (Product Design):
- Lacked Time Management,
- Didn’t know many DAT Answers,
- Didn’t Finish Sketching Part. (Total Disaster.)

RESULT: Rank 478 (Didn’t Shortlist for 2nd round)

CEED-17 Exam – Again, Lack of Time Management, Unable to Show creativity, Majority of Sketches are plain and boxy (too Obvious.)

RESULT:
- missed Part A cutoff by 0.6 marks.
(Even if Got through Part A, I Definitely would have got Rank past 1500 or so.)

Demotivated and Close All Doors, Lost All Hopes to give or Clear Exams AT the time. 

 

Job Experience:
- Joined CADD Centre, Pune (in Aug. 2017), and done Masters Diploma in Product Design and Analysis to get any design Job because of Financial Problems.
- Got Job in E-Vehicle Startup (I was the only one Got selected in Company from around 200 students from Reputed Colleges in Pune. (Especially Because of My Portfolio at the Time which gave me Edge over others.))

- Joined in Oct. 2017. Team Developed Electric Bicycle from Ground UP (I was Involved in Designing Company Logo, Brand, Conceptualization, E-bike Shape, Graphics, Packaging, Ergonomics, Prototyping, Structural Design, Customer interaction, Marketing.
- Learnt a lot about problem-Solving, Detailing, and Customer Requirement.

From Jan-2019: Started Doing and Participating in Freelancing Contests. (Helped me to Buildup Portfolio Without Spending Dedicated Time, and Helped to get to know Product Requirements, Approach towards it, Indirectly Competing on National Level, Got Perspective and Views of other participants around the world which helped to Understand the requirements. )

Aug. 2019: Got more Confident. Decided and Started Preparing for 2020 Exam and Solved Previous Years CEED, UCEED, NID Papers. While Doing the job, Gave approx.. 1 hr Daily for Sketching + Exploration

Oct. 2019: Got Govt. Job offer, Declined it.

Nov. 2019: Took 2 Months Leave form job to focus on NID and CEED Exam.

NID-20 (Automotive + Product): Paper was quite Easy. still, barely finished in time. Even there, Done a few silly mistakes.

Result: Product Design- AIR 54 – OBC (not selected for 2nd Round) Automotive Design – Air 48 – OBC (not selected for 2nd Round)

CEED-20 – Again, Time management was Difficult in Part A. Showing Creativity and Different Perspective required in Part B.

Result: AIR 63 (OBC)
Applied to IITs, IISC, and IIITDMJ

Didn’t Shortlisted for 2nd round of any IIT till July End.

IIITDMJ (Direct Selection based on CEED Rank): got an offer letter, But I declined/didn’t take the seat. (I was Interested in MVD and PD Specialized Branches.)

IDC Bombay:
- Got Shortlisted for Interview round – 1. MVD 2. ID
- Due To COVID-19, IDC Task Submission Deadline extended from 15 days to 3 months (Portfolio Presentation was not up to the mark. That Lock-Down gave Plenty of Time to Rearrange.)

1. MVD Interview (Zoom Call) – hardly took 10 mins,
Questions Asked-
1. About Myself
2. What are the problems solved in my portfolio?
3. Listing Problems of Red MSRTC Bus Design (related to my IDC Task Submission)
4. Asked to Live Sketch Cube, Cone, Cylinder, Car
5. What is my Dream Project?

2. ID Interview (Zoom Call) - hardly took 10 mins
Questions Asked-
1. About Myself.
2. Problems I Faced while making Bicycle.
3. If the Product is Ergonomic (3D model from Portfolio)
3. How To Convert A Solid Cube to Solid Sphere (Manufacturing Process)
4. Manufacturing Process of ‘Rubber Gloves’.

IDC 1st list out, didn’t make it in it.
Lost Hope, and Started Preparing for the Next Year Exam from the very same day.

IDC 2nd List out, Got into MVD – IDC.
It’s like Total U-turn considering all situations. I Was very happy. 

Pointers for Exams:
1. Make Tentative Time Management for Exam beforehand. (Based on Previous Papers and Paper Pattern.)

2. Give Priority to “What’s actually Asked, Idea, Presentation, Line Quality” in PART-B and Show How you are different and Unique than the other 99% of students.

3. Sketch, practice doodle regularly & daily at least for 10 mins.

4. Explore a much as possible on Online Platforms and ask “Why that Specific Shape, Color, size, etc,” to yourself. And what if you were in Designers place, what have you done (Changes, Approach, etc.)

5. Involve in freelancing Contest. Even if you are not going to participate, Don’t Submit the Work, don’t know how to do it, Use only Specific Sketching/Digital medium. Try to Participate and Finish the Project. (It will Be like Real Life Working on Projects, and simultaneously, you will be building Portfolio.)

6. Try to also Explore other branches that you are not interested in.

 

Pointers for Portfolio:

1. Try to keep Portfolio Pages around 10-15.

2. Give 70% pages to Your Preference Branch Related Work. 30% to for remaining (Photography, Miscellaneous and other branches, etc) 

Selected works:

Things that helped me out: Don’t take these as Granted. Explore as much as possible.

Websites:
- CEED/NID/NIFT/UCEED GUIDES (Fb, Whatsapp, Telegram) ((Recommended)) TeacupBlog
- (Design prep - Youtube) ((Recommended))
- Stuff you look blog ((Recommended))
- D’Source
- wdcshare.com
- KickStarter
- Industrial Design 7 Question Challenge (YouTube, Total 15 Videos, Recommended for all Streams.) character design references

Apps: Behance, Pinterest, D’Source, Dribbble, Pixiv, Tumblr, DeviantArt,

Portfolio: Boostfolio (Instagram) Berk.kaplan.designer (Youtube, Insta.) Behance

Automotive Design:
Facebook andInstagram pages
Design101Trends, Car Design Concept, Jony Diaz, Cardesign.ru, Sangwonseok, berk Kaplan designer, FormTrends, PolestarDesignCommunity, LondonYacht, CarDesighnDaily, yeujiin101, designModelpro

Product Design:
Facebook andInstagram pages
Yanko Design, weekly Design challenge, DailyDoseOfDesign, p.roduct

Animation/Character Design:
Facebook andInstagram pages
Anime is my life plus, The Geek Tower, Smirnov School, Anime is Art, Anime Manga References, Urban Sketchers (Group), Level Up!, Tips_for_artists, howto_artist, CharacterDesignChallenge, Anatomytips,

 

Last Words:

Thanks to my Family, friends, colleagues, CEED/NID/NIFT/UCEED GUIDES and TeacupBlog for supporting and helping me out.

Everything will come to you as long as you don’t give up. Daily Practicing, Exploring, and improving one step at a time is the Key.

 

All the Best.!