Vaibhav (ID at IDC-IITB)

 Hello I’m Vaibhav, and this is my CEED preparation story.

CEED 2020

Started my preparation with teacupblog, stuffyoulook, and Addylabs youtube channel. Solved

previous year papers and practiced sketching products, landscape in perspective and human figures.

Referred Manorama Year book for some topics,and solved questions on logical reasoning and visual

sensitivity. And also googled some topics based on questions from the previous paper.

The result was AIR 426 (OBC 81). Applied to IDC, IISc, IITG, IITH. Got interview call for

Communication Design at IDC (the only call that I got).

Interview - It was around 8-10 mins. It was mostly from the portfolio, and the questions were - why

you want to change from Engineering to CD. Some why type questions from the projects, and which

subject you would like to take here and why. I didn’t find it much satisfactory. Didn't get through.

Mistakes made :

- Was too much focused on qualifying Part A

- in sketching the attention was more on rendering and quality, and less on ideas and

presentation

- poor time management in Exam

- And also not much significant projects

CEED 2021

I wasn't much feeling to go for the next attempt, although I did some freelancing work, I was looking

for a stable option. I started looking for what I exactly wanted to do, somehow my interest was in

Product/Industrial design. I started reading articles on net about sustainabilty, hearing tedtalks,

reading about recent technology, and upcoming different products in the market, different designers

in the field. Plan was to make a portfolio and look for some design jobs. At the same time I was

regulary sketching and generating ideas. Applied to CEED since only few months were there for the

exam, and CoVid was also in the picture. Started preparation 3-4 weeks before the exam,

considering the previous mistakes. Solved previous year papers, this time was more focused on Part

B, generating ideas and presentation, within time limit. For Part A just read previous notes, googled

certain topics and solved previous papers.

Exam - Part A felt little tough. Part B - I went prepared with this strategy which I learned from Anjali

Sohal’s youtube channel, which was to sketch out rough ideas to all the questions in first 10-15 mins,

and then fair them giving 20 mins to each question, which really helped. Still I missed to complete

the creativity question.

Result -Got AIR 31 (OBC 6), I was little happy, but then again learnt that it doesn't matter much, you

need to do good in the Task/Written test and the portfolio as well.

I had worked on some ideas for the portfolio but I didn’t have any prototype or model made till

then. Started working on it immediately after the exam. They take time, many times it’ll fail, and

again you have to look for better option, so better start early.

IISc written test – It had question from different engg disciplines and recent technological trends.

Question papers are available on the net.

Interview - The panel was very friendly. It went for around 40 mins (I think since I was the last

candidate). I was asked to first sketch a 2d line diagram and then considering it as top view to draw it

in isometric view, and some questions on manufacturing, density of steel, volume of pyramid, 10

different uses of toothbrush, defects in casting, sonar and its applications. They mostly look for your

approach and encourage you to try a few more time, basically looking in how many different

directions can you think for the same problem.

One Senior Professor was saying this for almost every question he asked "try one more time, can we

do it this way.. or that way…what if its the other way" they just encourage and try to bring out the

best in you. And they didn’t ask for the portfolio.

IIT B tasks – There were three tasks to be done in 1 week.

1. Critical Analysis on any animal product.

2. Packaging design from 2 A4 sheets for Cotton Candy and, suggest one creative concept to carry

the CC for special scenario.

3. Three sample Products, prototypes or models from the portfolio.

Interview – The questions were mostly from the tasks and portfolio. They asked me why I choose

particular angle at the bottom for the packaging. And then most of the questions were related to the

project from the portfolio, like how is it better, how I made the model, how can we manufacture it

on mass scale. It went for around 15 mins. It felt good this time, although not very confident, but

little hopeful.

IIT D Interview – The panel was of about 5-6 members. They asked me about myself, what I do, and

then why design. And asked about the pros and cons of my designs from the portfolio, its usage in

different scenario and are there any alternate solutions available for the same problem. It was good

overall.

Results came and I was selected for all the three colleges. I choose to take IDC considering the

course work it was offering.

Some things which I found helpful

- Part A is just to be qualified, Part B is to score

- Focus more on generating ideas and presentation in time, than to render and trying to make

more fancy sketches.

- Going with a right strategy will greatly help in managing time in exam.

- Start working on Portfolio immediately after exam. And take reviews from friends, family,

and some designers you may know.

I would like thank Prasanna Sir for the guidance, mock interview, and his reviews on the portfolio

and of course for this blog. And also would like to thank Chinmay and Nikhil for the help along the

preparation.

I wish you all the very best for your preparation, and the life ahead : )