Ep. 296 - Automobile design as a career with Akanksha Sethi

This is the last episode of the #designersdigest series where we have Daniel Burka and co-host Shreyas Satish. We talk about blurring lines between product and design, the importance of being a generalist in design, and the role of product managers in the design process. This series is created by Audiogyan in partnership with @godrejdesignlab Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, its daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design. Daniel is the director of product and design at the not-for-profit Resolve to Save Lives, where he spends most of his time on the open-source project, Simple. Simple is used by thousands of hospitals in India, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia to manage over 2 million patients with hypertension and diabetes. He is on the board of Laboratoria, a not-for-profit based in Peru helping Latin American women build successful careers in tech. In 2021, Daniel also started the open-source Health icons project to provide free icons to healthcare projects around the world. He is also a member of Adobe's Design Circle, which grants scholarships to a diverse group of designers each year. Previously at Google Ventures as a Design Partner, Co-founder of Milk.inc and SiverOrange, and more…   Questions At RTSL, You’re a Director of both Product and Design. How do you distinguish between the two verticals daily, especially concerning concerns and metrics? Who is a Product manager and who is a designer according to you? Who according to you is supposed to focus on defining the right problem and then crafting the perfect solution? How blurred are these lines? What are the primary differences if I may ask? Seems like a designer can become a PM. Can it be the other way around? This is in the context of a few hard skills. A PM is torn between a thousand things from business to analytics and many other things. How can designers venture into this role? Also, can you steelman the case for a designer to become a PM? In a lot of companies, tech and design functions are both product reports, while in many these are separate verticals. In your experience what works best and when? One criticism of product managers, by folks like Marty Cagan, is that product managers often function as project managers. What in your view should a product manager focus on bringing to the table?* Designers in their romantic vision want to solve problems for all users. While Product folks go after those getting the dollars. Can you give any example from your experience where you have balanced it elegantly? What did it take? One death is a tragedy while a thousand deaths are statistics. How do you see this in the world of Product managers obsessed with data over real emotions? This is specifically for your work in healthcare. Some companies Like Airbnb have evolved their org structures to have Product Marketing Managers and Apple of course has Program Managers who report to a Product Director. Do you have a framework to think about organizational design with product teams, of course, knowing that different organizations have designed differently based on what they are focused on? What do you consider the key responsibilities of a product designer? Again, from tiny startups to large MNCs* You work on Simple, which is of course, primarily focused on creating impact. Can you talk a little bit about what it’s like designing for social impact compared to increasing market share or profitability? In a digital landscape, how can we ensure our products create real value and positive impact beyond just solving problems? What is the future of Product Managers and Designers in the AI world? What does the career ladder look like? What skills do we acquire for the future of WWW? Reference links https://audiogyan.com/?type=wrtd-series https://audiogyan.com/2021/10/06/shreyas-satish/ https://twitter.com/shreyas_satish https://www.ownpath.com/about https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreyassatish/?originalSubdomain=in https://designup.school/teacher/daniel-burka/ https://library.gv.com/defense-against-the-dark-arts-of-design-a114e5f048bb https://iconscout.com/contributors/healthicons https://medium.com/@dburka https://x.com/dburka?lang=en https://www.instagram.com/dburka/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dburka/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&originalSubdomain=uk https://danielburka.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Burka

Tune into this 9th episode of a 10-part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Chandrashekhar Wyawahare. We talk all about Industrial Design, Make in India, and the skills required to become an Industrial Designer. This series is in partnership with @godrejdesignlab. Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, its daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating design world. When you look at Braun or any industrial product designed by Dieter Rams, whether it’s the Braun T4 Radio designed in 1960 or the T2 Table lighter designed in 1968. Undoubtedly, you’ll fall in love with the form factor and the simplicity. Industrial design has always been fascinating. Chandrashekhar Wyawahare, co-founder of Futuring. Chandrashekhar graduated in architecture with a master’s in industrial design from IDC in IIT Mumbai. Before co-founding Futuring, he worked in Europe with leading design studios. His work in Neumeister Design exposed him to a fine sense of styling and helped him develop a keen eye for perfection. Chandrashekhar has been subsequently responsible for a strikingly wide range of work from appliances to transportation design. He is a keen educator and has been on design juries at many architecture and design schools. Futuring sees Industrial Design as a dynamic, empathetic, and strategic process. Questions Who is an industrial designer? It has a wide canvas, specializing in multiple sub-disciplines. But what is the core of being an industrial designer? Or being a designer for that matter? How has the landscape of industrial design evolved in India? What were the biggest transitions you’ve witnessed, and how did Futuring adapt? Make in India is now a buzzword. Where are you on that? Should it be designed in India or made in India? Are we ready for it? In an era of mass production and globalization, what does it mean to be an "Indian" industrial designer? What Indian ethos do you think we can bring to the products we design or make? By the very definition of industrial products, it’s safe to say that it’s mass produced. Can mass-manufactured products truly be "high quality"? What compromises are typically made, and how can we advocate for better quality standards in Indian design? Consumerism often drives design trends. How do you balance aesthetics, user-centricity, and sustainability, and yet be cost-sensitive for a market like India? You have a keen interest in education and have been on jury panels in top design schools in India. What’s happening in new-age India and how is the talent gearing towards entering the workforce? From skill to gender diversity to leveling up for actual work. How do you spot talent for Futuring? What gives you the confidence to recruit designers? What do you look for in their work/portfolios? You often speak about Industrial design one needs a good tech background, be it engineering or architecture. What does the Industrial designer’s career ladder look like? From a new entrant to say, being a principal designer? What one piece of advice do you get from your mentor that you still practice? What advice to young designers? What according to you is the future of industrial design in India? Perhaps in the world of automation and meta-verse. Reference Reading https://futuring.design/Voices https://onlyonceshop.com/ https://www.punedesignfestival.com/speaker/chandrashekhar-wyawahare/

Tune into this 8th episode of a 10-part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Akanksha Sethi. This series is in partnership with @godrejdesignlab. Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, its daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating design world. Starting with a few numbers collected from SIAM, (Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures) and the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) Over 4.4 million vehicles were produced in India in 2022-23. We’ve around 10 Big players in the Automobile industry, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Honda Cars India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Renault India, MG Motor India, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto. India ranks as the fourth-largest passenger vehicle market worldwide. 1.2% of cars sold in India were EVs. However, as per ETAuto, EV sales are rapidly growing, with a 230% increase. The Indian government aims to achieve 30% EV penetration by 2030 through various initiatives and policies. To discuss all this and Automobile Design as a career in India... Akanksha Sethi joins us. Akanksha has been a Colors, Materials, and Finish Design, Group lead at Maruti Suzuki for the past 13 years. She did her Bachelor of Design from the National Institute of Fashion Technology. Before joining Maruti Suzuki, she had worked at Amrapali Jewels and Titian Industries.   Questions Who is an automobile designer? What are the sub-disciplines within it? You deal with Colors, Material, and Finish. Tell us more about it. What do you do when it deals with CMF? How does one grow in a career in automobile design? Can you describe the career ladder for automobile designers in India? What are the typical milestones, changes of responsibilities, and challenges at each stage? What is the difference when they say, “Manufactured in India” versus “Assembled in India”? How and where do designers from India fit in this setup? What goes when collaboration happens - Suzuki + Maruti or Hero and Honda? What are some of the most iconic or impactful car colors or materials and finishes you've been part of in your career? What makes them special? What defines the success of a good color for a car? How do we define a good, reliable, and safe material? What are checks and tests done to test materials? How have the skills required for automobile design changed after liberalization (1990)? Or maybe when Maruti 800 came on the market in 1983? What new skills are becoming increasingly important, especially in the context of electric vehicles and sustainable technologies when we talk about CMF? What are the major trends and challenges that are shaping and will shape the industry in the coming decades when it comes to CMF? In this 10-part series, I have 4 woman designers and you are one of them. As per the D’Source repository, only 2 women designers out of 19 Automotive designers in India. Can you talk a little bit about gender diversity within the automobile design industry? What unique challenges have you faced being a Women Designer in the Automobile / Man’s world? What advice would you like to give young designers entering the Automobile Design world?   Reference reading https://www.dsource.in/resource/history-automotive-design-india/top-automotive-designers-india/akanksha-sethi https://www.dsource.in/resource/history-automotive-design-india/automotive-design-schools-india https://www.dsource.in/resource/history-automotive-design-india/important-automobile-models/cars-designs https://www.dsource.in/sites/default/files/resource/history-automobile-design-india/downloads/file/history_automobile_design_india.pdf https://www.linkedin.com/in/akanksha-sethi-a7549723/?originalSubdomain=in https://www.siam.in/about-us.aspx?mpgid=1&pgidtrail=2 https://www.fada.in/

Tune into this 7th episode of a 10-part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Ruchita Madhok. Audiogyan creates this series in partnership with @godrejdesignlab Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, its daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating design world. Ruchita has been a guest on episode 159, named “Designing a Visual Guide”. The poetry of everyday life inspires her. Through the mediums of cyanotype printmaking and drawing, she explores the conversations between nature, the cosmos, and the inner self. An award-winning communication designer, Ruchita brings a passion for print, photography, and illustration to her work as she plays with words and images to create works of art, books, and zines. Ruchita is the Founder and Director of Kahani Designworks and built Storycity, Imaginative books, maps, and guides for curious people. We talk about what it means to be a graphic designer, in India, as a woman, and how you grow as a designer, many things to unpack. Questions Who is a graphic designer? What's the job? You engage yourself in Poetry, Literature, and many other things beyond design. How critical it is for any creative endeavor? How do you see growth in this discipline? What does an entry-level designer do in Graphic Design? A person with 30-40 years of experience like Paula Scher or Milton Glaser - Will they be still hands-on like a performing artist? How do you see the graphic design career ladder? I understand that Design has many aspects, including communication, solving problems, and more… Particularly in graphic design, it’s communication, right? What is making you move (or have moved you) from Graphic Design and infographics to ‘art’ and more niche sort of storytelling? Why have you started exploring cyanotype printmaking and more? Kahani Studioworks and StoryCity believe in collaboration? Do you hire? What do you seek in people with whom you hire or collaborate? How does your trio identity as an Indian woman, a designer, and now an artist influence your artistic style and perspective? Do you see a distinct thread running through your work that speaks about your Identity or Indian-ness? How do you harness it to give it a personality or avoid it stereotyping your work? What would you share as a tip/advice for young designers? Do you think your design work / or art needs to impact society? Should it influence fellow and young designers? You have been taking a lot of workshops and are interested in education. Tell me a little bit about it? Ethical practices and sustainable design choices are now becoming mainstream buzzwords. Where are you on that and what are your principles in this dynamic world of Graphic Design? In today's digital age, where people have been looking to increase the number of followers on social media, what advice would you give to Indian Designers (especially women)? What do they chase? What can make their work stand out or be impactful in this noisy world? How long can it take to find one’s voice? The design field is vast and multifaceted. How would you encourage Indian women designers to explore their unique strengths and passions to find their niche within the industry? References https://www.instagram.com/ruchitamadhok/?hl=en-gb https://www.ruchitamadhok.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruchitamadhok/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&originalSubdomain=in https://www.behance.net/ruchita https://www.kahanidesignworks.com/ https://homegrown.co.in/homegrown-creators/ruchita-madhoks-botanical-cyanotypes-are-vibrant-interpretations-of-the-poetry-of-light https://audiogyan.com/2020/01/22/ruchita-madhok/ https://www.storycity.in/

Tune into this 6th episode of a 10-part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Dhruv Jani. This series is created by Audiogyan in partnership with @godrejdesignlab Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, its daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design. Dhruv Jani joins us on Audiogyan as we talk about the role of the creator in the world of Game Design. Dhruv Jani is an artist at, and the founder of the independent game studio: Oleomingus. He studies postcolonial writing and interactive fiction and explores the use of video game spaces as possible sites of protest and reparation.  Questions What does a game designer do? What does it mean to be a game designer? How can one become a game designer? What skills are required? Which other professions are required while designing a game? Can you give a quick snapshot of how games came into existence and how they evolve into today’s video games and mobile games? A short history of sorts? What are the broad categories/genres of games and which ones do you deal with? What’s special about your genre? Your games often start with a narrative. What comes first when you think of a game? An event, a discovery of the past or a speculation of the future? An event? Where and how does any of your game start for Oleomingus? What has politics to do with games? Is it because you have to pick a side? Is the game a Western concept for India? India has been a land of compassion, inclusivity, and forgiveness. You call games to be Interactive fiction. Narrative interface design. What can and can not be told using games? Where does the medium flourish and where does it break? Games have certainly evolved and come a long way. Now, I guess it’s the biggest industry on this planet. The games I recently got to know were Werewolves and Mafia and somehow the theme seems to be based on trust. What’s going on? How do you see it impacting the new generation and society at large? Games are highly addictive, why? Which ingredient makes it addictive? Who is supposed to design it? Can you explain with an example of how the process happens? Given the power of games, what’s the biggest responsibility of game designers? Where are we heading as game players and game makers in this world of meta-verse and AI? Reference Reading https://audiogyan.com/2022/05/25/game-design/ https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-the-right-consume-histories-dhruv-jani-studio-oleomingus-talks-creativity-meaning https://indiaifa.org/grants-projects/dhruv-jani.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game) https://oleomingus.com/about-1 https://www.stirworld.com/think-opinions-gamescapes-indian-video-game-developer-studio-oleomingus-reconfigures-history https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/sep/22/video-games-india-politics-dhruv-jani-sushant-chakraborty-studio-oleomingus#comments https://indiaartfair.in/game-grammar-dhruv-jani https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/3kxpgw/this-first-person-game-is-a-surreal-meta-fictional-experience-in-colonialism https://www.sleek-mag.com/article/studio-oleomingus-surreal-video-games-marginalised-stories-india-history/ https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/the-indiebeat-how-studio-oleomingus-is-crafting-its-indian-post-modern-fairy-tale/ https://killscreen.com/studio-oleomingus/ https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&hl=en&user=AMZG-C4AAAAJ&sortby=pubdate https://www.ted.com/talks/dhruv_jani_the_interactive_fictions_of_generous_history

Tune into this 5th episode of a 10 Part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Saif Faisal, A new breed of bold Contemporary designer and founder of SFDW This series is created by Audiogyan in partnership with @godrejdesignlab Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, it’s daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design. Massimo Vignelli’s once said, “If you can design one thing, you can design everything.” Even in our part of the world, somewhere in 15 hundred.. Mirza Khan Abdul Rahim once said, “Ek sadho, sab sadhe”.. Saif completed his training as an Architect from RV School of Architecture in 2010-11, alongside designing and participating in Formula SAE-Racing with the Mechanical engineering students at the college, where he acquired diverse experience in design, manufacturing, and technical know-how. After college, he went on to learn woodworking. These diverse formative explorations gave him a polymathic learning experience. His work draws heavily from his understanding of Anthropology, Processes, and Technology, which is very integral to his creative explorations. The deep appreciation he cultivated of ‘Essentialism’ from racing is revisited in his Design and Architecture. Saif is involved in guest lectures and talks at design and architecture schools. Apart from being an avid motorcyclist and a lover of cafe racers, he is into boxing and pursues his culinary interests rather seriously. Questions You’ve done architecture, lifestyle products, furniture, jewelry, accessories and more. How do you define your work? You also have diverse interests, from motorcycling to boxing and cooking. How do these pursuits influence your creative process? Who according to you is a designer? You talk about “Essentialism” - What is the essential quality to become a designer? What is the difference between Essentialism and Minimalism according to you? Is Essentialism more inclusive than minimalism? Lets take Loup of example. You draw inspiration from sociology, philosophy, and anthropology. How do these disciplines inform your understanding of the human experience, and how does that translate into products you create? Any example of a product you made? If I can take the liberty to say, Art is expression while design is functional, responding to a problem. Where and how do you see art and design lines blurring, given your work deals with higher levels of aesthetics. Why do you call wood to be a humble material? What did you learn in wood work? What made you consider learning that? How can it help any designer interested in making physical products? Do you see geometric forms as a universal language? Do you see that in Indian history or culture? How have you borrowed this universal language and contextualised for India? May be you can explain with the lamps that you have made? Where are you on Massimo Vignelli’s quote, “If you can design one thing, you can design everything.” How comfortable the journey has been to switch domains? What advice would you give anybody who has such wide range of interests? or does one need to master something before traversing? You often talk about Indian design education need to level up. Our work needs to appeal to a global audience. What do you mean exactly? Where are the gaps? What can be done about it? We have often seen us using Jugaad as one of the primary methods of innovation. What is you take on that? What do you wish from the new “Make in India” generation? How can they push the boundaries of design? Reference Reading https://www.saif-faisal.com/ https://www.instagram.com/saiffaisal.designworkshop/ https://www.platform-mag.com/design/saif-faisal.html https://www.linkedin.com/in/saif-faisal-51247315/?originalSubdomain=in

Tune into this 4th episode of a 10 Part series, "Designer’s Digest” with @chitrav89 (Chitra Vishwanath) - Principal Architect and Managing Director of BIOME Environment Solutions (@biomearchitecture) This series is created by Audiogyan in partnership with @godrejdesignlab Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, it’s daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design.   Chitra Vishwanath is an Indian architect based in Bengaluru who works on themes related to ecology and architecture. She has been running her own architectural firm since 1991, working with other architects on many projects of all sizes. She is currently the Principal Architect and Managing Director of BIOME Environment Solutions. She firmly believes that the true essence of a remarkable firm lies in the gradual fading of its founder's individual prominence. The establishment of a firm is influenced not only by the founder's drive but also by various contextual factors. Chitra cannot be solely identified as Chitra Vishwanath without acknowledging the integral role of Biome. Similarly, Biome's existence in its current capacity is inseparable from the contributions of her colleagues. BIOME has been involved in more than 700 projects encompassing the construction of buildings of all sizes and water harvesting and sanitation structures with specific relevance to the ecology of the sites. With earth as a basic material input in construction, BIOME has designed and built many structures. We’ll be talking about ecological architecture in today’s episode. Questions We often use “architect” as a word who guides, designs, and oversees. Etymologically as well, it’s derived from arkhi-, chief + tekton, builder - chief builder. Who according to you is an architect? What constitutes an ecological architecture? Could you talk about the 4 aspects of architecture from your TEDx talk, resourceful spaces, designing construction systems, water and waste management? Maybe by taking an example of one of the many schools you have built. What is Maximise to minimize? Good design is no design at all, right? How do you strive to create a positive impact while building structures? What are the key principles and values you live by? What should be / can be the index/metric of good ecological architecture? Why? What according to you is the biggest role of architects in India, given the current time? Over the last 31 years, you have grown to 31 member strong team. Seems a conscious choice to stay lean. Why? You have a lot of Junior architects on the team. What are their primary job responsibilities? For Biome, every project is a test bed for developing a collaborative multidisciplinary approach grounded in informed decisions. How does Biome onboard, execute, and deliver any project? Where and how are Junior architects involved? What do you expect from them? What according to you is a good measure of an ecologically sensitive outlook in a student or junior architect entering this field of architecture? What kind of architects do we need for India’s future? What tips/suggestions would you like to give young architects? Reference Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitra_Vishwanath https://www.instagram.com/chitrav89/?hl=en https://www.biome-solutions.com/about-us/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/chitra-vishwanath-8513593/?originalSubdomain=in https://www.archdaily.com/tag/chitra-vishwanath https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMiekG0IJfM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41tlOqU-6PM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlf3TyKdcAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EviAtiqoLTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlwbK-ybQX0 https://dev.earth-auroville.com/chitra-vishwanath-architects/ https://www.e-coexist.com/mailchimp/building-small-chitra-vishwanath.html https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/know-your-architects/a686-chitra-vishwanath-creating-an-ecofriendly-way-of-living/ https://medium.com/@ar.aesha/ar-chitra-vishwanath-and-her-design-philosophy-282b64a99f83 https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/case-studies/a5644-the-paper-workshop-by-chitra-vishwanath-architectural-semantics-with-vernacularism/ https://www.facebook.com/chitra.vishwanath.3/ https://www.instagram.com/biomearchitecture/ https://www.biome-solutions.com/ https://audiogyan.com/2022/01/10/design-of-wells/    

This is the 3rd episode of a 10 Part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Dr. Susmita Mohanty, an Indian spaceship designer and a serial space entrepreneur. This series is created in partnership with Godrej Design Lab - a platform that encourages and advances design excellence and exploration. Godrej Design Lab believes in the power of design to make a meaningful change. I am so happy and proud that Godrej Design Lab is supporting the journey of Audiogyan. Designer's Digest is a series about Design as a profession, it’s daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design. I want to start with a line by Vincent Van Gogh, “For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream”. Questions Can we start by, who is a spaceship architect or a designer? Can you also elaborate on the 3 genres of space architects [Voyage d’Esprit, Man-in-a-Can, Trans-Gravity]? Where and how do designers fit in? What does it take to become a spaceship designer or an architect? If you can share your version of a career? What does one do in their early years and then possibilities as they become a veteran like you? Design is broadly about problem solving and we see a lot of lateral entrants. Is it possible in this discipline? You’ve said, traditionally government agencies tend to design in a very engineering centric approach where they don’t invite architects, designers to build stuff. With designers engaging in such space, collaboration with other professionals like physicists, engineers, biologists, seems inevitable. What are the challenges and rewards of such interdisciplinary teamwork? Importance of multidisciplinary. You’ve straddled across design, art, tech, humanities, choreography. What was it like growing in Ahmedabad in 70-80 What are the unique challenges and opportunities in this sector for a designer? You mentioned about designing spaceship interiors for long distance travel, spacesuits to keep away from sharp dust on other planets, especially on the moon. Climate is another important domain to look into. What all sections of the rocket or a spacecraft (For eg: Soyuz, I loved the video) could be given to designers? Where all design interventions can be done? What made you start Earth2Orbit and later Spaceport Sarabhai and what exactly you folks do there? Can you share any specific project or a milestone that made you very hopeful about this it having a huge potential in India? Considering costs, policies and constraints of this highly guarded sector, what makes your hopeful about brewing design talent in India? Can you slightly talk more about your 2017 article “India is sitting on a space goldmine”? You often say, “space is not just about technology. It’s also about business, social impact, geopolitics and more about perspective. Could you please elaborate on it from a designer’s lens? You often encourage entrepreneurs to look earth from 400km above. After working closely with such great organisations like ISRO, NASA, ESA what has been your biggest learning so far. Reference reading https://www.weforum.org/people/susmita-mohanty/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susmita_Mohanty https://www.imd.org/ibyimd/innovation/beyond-earths-boundaries-a-journey-of-innovation-and-leadership/ https://www.stirworld.com/think-columns-soyuz-the-world-s-most-reliable-human-spacecraft http://earth2orbit.com/index.php http://www.themoonwalker.in/write.php https://thebrilliant.com/opinion/why-billionaires-playing-space-ping-pong-leaves-me-cold/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Adams

This is the second episode of a 10 Part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Hardik Pandya, Sr. VP of Design at Unacademy Group. This series is about Design as a profession, it’s daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design. I have a co-host with me, Shreyas Satish. He is the founder of ownpath.com, ownpath is a platform for designers to upskill, find community, and unlock exciting opportunities, and also helps companies grow their design teams. I had Shreyas as a guest in episode 218 when I did a series “Where are the designers” talking to 12 top influential Design leaders from India. And for today’s episode which is also my domain of designing Digital products, we have a perfect guest and a common friend, Hardik Pandya. He is a Design leader with an innate love for building products with good design. Currently He is a Senior Vice President, Design of The Unacademy Group. Previously a Design Lead at Google Search, G Suite and Google Cloud, Ola and more.   Questions How did you get into Design? You are a lateral entrant? What were early days like? Can you walk us through your journey towards being a lead designer? Were there things that came fairly naturally, like taking ownership and initiative, and were things you had to deliberately learn? In No Career Conversations in Isolation, you write “The way to get to the work you want to be doing in the future is earning the trust of your manager. Are there any stories or examples you can share where earning that trust unlocked the opportunity you were looking for? Now that you are heading teams, how does your typical day look like? Do you happen to work hands-on still? From where and how do you hire? Do you look for talent laterally? How do you spot talent? Junior / nerdy / geeky / high end colleges / pedigree? Is hiring a gamble? What are some traits you look for when you’re hiring a senior designer? How do you actually tell if they possess those traits? What are some common mistakes you see designers make with portfolios? Who have been your best hires and why? Which background did they come from? A lot of hiring conversations tend to be very backward looking i.e the work they’ve done, the situations they’ve been in and so on. But, I believe the real alpha, especially from a company’s point of view is being able to gauge what they can do in the future. What’s your take on this and how do you try to identify potential in designers? What skills do you expect from designers for the future in the world of AI? Reference links https://twitter.com/hvpandya https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardikpandya/?originalSubdomain=in https://medium.com/@hvpandya https://hardik.substack.com/ https://www.ownpath.com/ https://hvpandya.com/ https://www.instagram.com/godrejdesignlab/ https://www.godrejdesignlab.com/ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrrt1Y8BkAyph0bmVRVsRF1UTgsf1Lxo9    

This is the first episode of a 10 Part series, "Designer’s Digest”. This series is about Design as a profession, it’s daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design. We start with Ayaz Basrai. Ayaz has been on Audiogyan’s 104th Episode where we spoke about “Designing interiors for your city.” He is the founder of The Busride Studio based in Goa and Mumbai along with his brother Zameer. Ayaz Graduated in Industrial Design, specialising in Product Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 2003. Ayaz studio ‘The Busride’ as an independent Design Studio specialising in the design and creation of environments, ranging from Hospitality, Entertainment venues, Film and Production to Exhibitions and temporary installations, and more. Questions asked in the episode Who according to you is a designer? You have been questioning this a lot. What according to you is a role of a designer when they mature in their practice. Do the lines blur with art and then things become political or social in nature? You have been engaging with very young talent like Prathmesh Jaju and others. Whats the reason for going so wide in our interest areas? How does it enrich your practice? Eliel Saarinen’s famous line, “Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan." What’s your take on it? Is it a pyramid kind of a thinking? You have been tinkering a lot with rizhomatic thinking? Tell us a little bit about it. Does the other node need to have equally good to understand the larger context context to pass it on? You talk about intergenerational kindness by giving the Oxford examples. What is it and how can that be practised by us who are future ancestors? What is India Futures Project? Why do you engage in speculative fiction from a designer’s lens? Why create these future looking narratives? Are there instances of this done in the past of which we, inadvertently, we are part of? How real these narratives were back then, if any? You have an article about placeless-ness. What provokes you to think of these future spaces while we are still having cows and camels on the road. Would you venture into these 15 minute cities or explore shapes and forms of cities in the meta-verse? On which principles of foundations these exploration happen? We are looking at how AI in the cradle is smiling at us. What kind of skills do Centaur Designers will need to have? How would designers of the future look like? Not just in the software and industrial realm but textile, graphics, interiors and so on… Reference reading https://www.architectandinteriorsindia.com/lists/ayaz-zameer-basrai-co-founders-the-busride-design-studio https://www.instagram.com/thebusride/ https://www.thepracticecept.com/thebusride https://thehardcopy.co/in-conversation-with-ayaz-basrai/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEiJMVjMyrE https://issuu.com/thebusride https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQWAJBpfzp8 https://www.stirworld.com/inspire-people-arthur-mamou-mani-x-ayaz-basrai-cross-border-conversations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMEaLTat3wE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZJ4T50o95E