Unfortunately; I have little knowledge about interview pattern (because I never faced design interviews anytime before), but the following topics/tips might help you face the interview; especially meant for M.Des. These are some tips that I gave as reply to comments by Nainika and Vaibhavi in Preferred Institutions for M.Des post as well as a request from my friend Gunjan Sobhani. Thanks to them - for initiating and making me write this post. Hope this will help you all; at least to an extent.
Interview Tips
Passion for Design
First of all you should be in a position to clearly communicate/explain your passion towards design. Yes, it's true that interview panel firstly check your interest for that stream or overall design. So, its advisable to make a detailed/clear list of the following :
Your interest rate
Why you are opting design as career ?
Is that suited for you ? (by explaining your previous design works)
As a designer, What you can contribute ?
Any of your future plans
Why did you choose that specific design stream/institute
Make a detailed list of the above topics and write in a paper. Revise the same many times, preferably in front of a mirror; in order to boost your confidence as well as for firm speech.
Portfolio
Major part of the interview questions were expected from your own portfolio. So, it's better if you prepare well on "HOW TO EXPRESS YOUR PORTFOLIO" prepare a list of things to be covered in your explanation and revise the same many times. Anyway; your portfolio itself should explain everything about you and your talent ! Make the following check list -
Design/Concept to be explained - what is your concept ?, how it works ? and what is the need for that ?
Features of your concept - what all can your proposed design do ?
Uniqueness of your concept - Any separate identity ?
How it acts as an alternative to the present design (if any) - by comparing and bringing any difference with similar product
Preferred Materials and process employed (if possible to make it better)
Prepare your portfolio
Self explainable
visible and clear
Design - eye catching layout and ease of accessibility
Design Ability
Next; they may check your design ability, so like you prepared for CEED, please do the same preparation (an overview) of the topics. I also expect some General awareness questions. I even heard that they will ask some simple aptitude questions
They may give a design question (or) creative exercise (or) any story writing , so be prepared for it.
You are also advised to get prepared for some hands-on exercises.
Communication
Nothing much to discuss about it. Everyone knows how important communication is during an interview. Let me tell you one thing - frankly, while I was in final year B.Tech, I got rejected twice during campus placements (in-spite of being one among the toppers of our university !), the reason is obvious, I was good at technical knowledge but poor at explaining the same in front of someone. Seems like, many people face the same issue. Well, communication doesn't mean speaking fluently but it mean how we express our thoughts/ideas.
Your views/ideas should be easily understandable by the other speaker (interviewer in this case). The above exercise 'stand in front of a mirror and practice answering/explaining to self'' is an important tool for improving communication skills very quickly (for people like me) as well as to boost your confidence level. Make the habit of 'being friendly while at interview', feel like they are your friends or colleagues to erase your inner fear.
General behavior
Other than the above, please prepare just like you prepare for any other interviews (software and core company interviews) like explanation about yourself, your passions/interests, aims, strengths and so on.
Finally I would like you to make an overview of
Color patterns, know about famous designs and designers
Sketching (esp. making of strips, stick figures)
Short and quick story making as well as writing
A list of things to be explained
Practicing in front of a mirror (i'm repeating this again and again to make you aware of its importance)
These are just my views. Hope this helps at least a bit, that's why I shared here.
CEED exam generally tests candidate's design and communication ability. Here, we will discuss some general tips that are required for a designer as well as CEED aspirants. The following preliminary guidelines might help you make a preparation plan for CEED and helps you think like a "real designer". At the end of this page; list of preparations for PART-A and PART-B were separately given. This article is especially useful for the design thinking and design aptitude part of the CEED exam.
Note : You may watch the video tutorial at the end of this section if you don't want to read this entire article
Observation & Problem Identification
Before diving into the actual topic, let me clear you the importance of observation by the following exercise.
Below shows a picture of mine along with one of my colleague taken during my vacation. Please observe the picture carefully because i'm gonna ask you some questions from it.
Are you ready ?
Ok, without looking at the picture (cover the picture with your hands), answer the following questions
What is the color of the hat that i'm wearing ?
Did you see a water bottle ? What is the color of it ?
Where am I standing ?
How many girls/women, did you see in the picture ?
If you answer such type of questions, then I may consider you as a good observer, else you need to develop the same with proper practice, within time. Such is the importance of observation and every designer must be keen in observing everything - that they come across.
As said
earlier, CEED tests your knowledge in creativity and innovation. Now what does
it mean by creativity/innovation? It’s
your ability to develop an all new idea or modifying the existing idea based on
the requirements/demands of the user or of your own identification. Unless you
know about the existing idea, you cannot develop an alternative solution for
that. This is where your observation skills help you. You are required to be
keen about the surrounding things, products, mechanisms as well as people’s
interest. Start analyzing and you will find some interesting facts as well.
Trust me - this exercise will prove to be fun and help you improve your creative
thinking skills.
I will
clear this with an example. In your student life, you might have used hundreds
of pens, but did you ever thought (at least once) about the material of the
pen, its shape, diameter and so on. Did you ever compare any two pens ? Small things
appear silly, but actually they may help you. Keep an eye on your environment and
develop a hobby of more exposure.
Did you
notice; I combined observation and problem Identification under a single
heading. There are reasons for clubbing. When you start observing things, you
will come to know some problems as well as alternatives. In fact you
need to identify the problems. Problem identification is one most
important tool for a designer besides sketching. As discussed in my other posts,
every product will undergo frequent changes in design, usability and functionality.
Now do you think this happens because the companies get negative feedback from
the customers ?
It’s not like that. The companies look for problems
and developments by analyzing the users mind, trend and innovation. Even the CEED
examiners expect the same from you. So, be a problem generatoras well as solver. For example you take day-to-day things; say a
water bottle, identify or generate problems associated with it (keep in mind
the age category also), make a list and develop a new concept for this. You can
do this for simple objects.
"Be a problem generator"
Being Creative
Think
like a child. Children’s seems to be more creative than adults. Do you know why?
Because most of the time they raise the question why? That we don’t
do. Even during your child age, you might have done some interesting creations
(say art, drawings, prototypes and more). So, for every small thing - raise the
questions:
Why like this?
Why can’t be
like that?
In that way you can bring
back your creative skills.
Creativity may not be educated; one cannot force
you to create. It can be improved by your inner thoughts, personal passions and
exposure to creative ideas of others. Design - definitely should be a passion for
you, just for doing some degree or to choose some career path you cannot choose
design, that won’t seem to be successful because a good number of awesome
designers are out there competing with you.
You may improve your creativity and lateral thinking by growing the following links.
By now you
should be in a position to understand why I put the sketching topic as a third discussion instead of first. The very first focus of a designer is to develop the concept or Idea, next comes the way to
express/communicate that. Without a proper concept, you cannot start sketching.
For this reason only, the idea part of this session was discussed first (all
the above topics). Note that not all artists are designers, but almost all the
designers are good artists.
It’s not
like you can neglect sketching. Your design process is complete only when you
show case the same through proper channel (and its hand or digital sketching
for designers). Sketching is the process of showing your overall expression,
concept or idea. It even shows your talent. Drawing is a form of visual
communication (VC) and you may be aware that VC is the most powerful form of
delivering ideas.
So, a
CEED examiner usually expects you to be a good communicator and this is
confirmed by your sketching assignments in the exam. Drawing does carry more
marks. A simple narrow sketch with only pencil shades is recommended. You need
not use expert drawing techniques like oil painting and other coloring
techniques. This of course takes hell lot of time and you will be struck with a
single question without attempting others.
Time is a major factor during CEED
exam and you are required to draw all your sketching works in that constrained
time. The examiner simply expects your
ideas to be rightly communicated, and mostly not impressed by your coloring. Even
some persons who are excellent in pencil sketching are poor in coloring. Take
my case; I used to draw pencil drawings of Gods at the age of 14, the drawings looks
awesome, but whenever I apply colors to them, the drawings look dull.
There are
different views of drawing; of the all, perspective drawing is the most natural
one. You should be good at perspective drawing (with pencils and pens) and even
you should give importance to shading techniques. You must learn pencil shading
of objects on different surfaces (materials). Now please note that in your
question paper, lots of space will be given for rough work. Utilize this space
and show case your sketching process in a rough way. Remember that the examiner
is interested in your stages of design process and he might be going through it.
At this
point, I will give you a strategy of what I follow usually. Take a look
at the below picture; you will see roads and houses in a typical Indian street.
But to my
eyes, I visualize the scene as shown in the next picture. I started looking in a
perspective style. Wherever I go; whenever I travel by bike or car; whenever I
sit idle in a room or office; I look things, scenes and even individual objects
similarly as mentioned. This is definitely improving my visualization skills
and I hope this will even reduce time to learn and practice sketching. Give a
try and you will understand the difference within two or three days. You can
also make a habit of drawing whatever you see.
Customer oriented
Ultimately it’s the end-users who are going to enjoy your designed product. Be like a psychologist; understand user’s necessity, expectations, demands and trends. Necessity for different age groups will be different. So whenever you are doing some exercises as practice, be user-oriented. Think yourself as a user and list what you expect from that product and what you don’t want to be included in the product.
Video Gaming
Trust me, keeping your mind engaged with some mind and video games will help you develop alternative thought approach. Video gaming frees your boredom, and keeps your mind active. Gaming also helps you improve your problem solving skills. Alternative thinking is one most important quality of a good designer. Some preferred games are minesweeper, dots, sudoku and pewpew (in ios device).
"A person in bore mood cannot create ideas"
General Ability tests
There are some good tests that I recommend you to go through (as there is more time for preparation). Most of the times, this type of questions may not appear in CEED exams. But it does improve your creative thinking power and also helps you with patterns. These tests are fun and you can spend a little time for this part.
Social media became a hub for knowledge sharing. There are many designers, who regularly shares their creative works in creative social platforms. Social networking acts as a platform for this type of groups. Following and knowing them will help you expose to various design aspects, alternatives, concepts and also lets you identify your position and role as a design graduate.
The best social networking sites that I recommend to get in touch with creative people are listed below
You may also follow some designer blogs if you find more time.
Comic strips
It seems funny, but if you go through comic strips (like manga), you will come to know about how the author communicated the plot pictorially. Comic strips are really an amazing way of expressing your ideas in a funnier way. Japanese are famous for making manga. During leisure, you may go through some of the comic strips. You may even practice some stories in comic strip format.
Note :I suggest you to keep all your exercises (even though it is silly) with you. It may be helpful for your portfolio preparation.
Patterns
There is a separate subject for drawing in engineering first year called “Engineering Graphics”. I recommend CEED aspirants to go through them. The subject minds you to draw geometric objects in front, top, side as well as isometric views. By doing this drawing exercise, it’s likely that you will improve your thinking and visual perception skills. Also if you go through the previous CEED question papers, you will see pictorial questions similar to this and sometimes you are asked to draw three quarter views. For doing this quickly these exercises helps you.
I will now summarize the basic preparations for PART-A and PART-B sessions of CEED exam. Although there is no prescribed pattern for CEED examination, some of the below list may help you
PART-A
preparation check-list
Isometric drawings
General
Knowledge
Tessellations
Companies
and Brand logos
List of
famous Artists/designers and their works
List of
famous personalities in India
Knowledge
on color patterns
Focus on regular
“Fonts”
Abstract
Tests
PART-B
preparation check-list
Regular
observation
Problem generation
Creativity and Lateral thinking
Perspective
and Isometric drawings
Day-to-day
simple mechanisms
Sketching
and shading techniques
Developing habit of raising the question "why?"
CEED Preparation
Time
It
depends on personal capabilities. If you are a born-designer, then I may say
one month preparation is enough, for others a minimum of two months is required to
go through every process.
Here is a quick video tutorial on "Tips and steps for CEED exam Design-part preparation" :
You may also want to watch "How to start and what to practice for CEED exam ?"
Sharing is caring. Leave your suggestions, additions or views about this article in the comment section below. People will be happy to hear your views and might learn many things !
There might be a number of
design streams available, but you are probably gifted with some hidden talents
that prove to be suitable to one or more of the design fields. Unless you know
about all of the fields, you cannot get a clear picture of your likes. I therefore
wish to bring to your knowledge about the basic pattern, area and functionality
of each design stream (especially for M.Des).
You can also go through the examples
as well as companies; which may help you chose your field of interest.
Product
Design (PD)
In a developing country like India where there are large demand for customized products, almost all the products are undergoing regular changes in product design, appearance, size, functionality as well as usability.
Let me clear this by bringing Apple strategy, Apple released its first version of iPad mini last year. Definitely it proved a hit, but in spite of its popularity, Apple further aim to develop new product (2nd generation iPad mini) and of course the users are waiting for this. Almost all the sectors were engaged regularly to deliver newer, user-oriented and Eco-friendly products, thus demanding more product designers.
Let us see the definition of Product Design. PD is the process of creating a new customized product to be sold by a business to its customers. It starts with ideating a product idea and goes all through the process of concept generation, prototyping, modelling, sketching and mechanisms.
In a broad approach, product designers conceptualize and evaluate ideas, later turn them into tangible (which you can touch and feel) inventions and products. They need to have design perspective and innovative skills. The product designers role is to combine art, science and technology. There are good institutions supporting PD stream with good faculty and facilities in India.
Examples :
1. Design of a TV, Air cooler
2. Design of i mac by Apple
3. Sony concept bracelet computer by Hiromi Kiriki
Note : companies list were given so that you would go through them and check what actually they design
Industrial
Design (ID)
Industrial Design is mostly related to product design and the discussion for PD also applies here, except that only some institutions provide the course. Often this field is confused with product design.
ID is the use of both art and science focused to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, functionality and usability of a product. It may even be used to improve the product's marketability and production. As an industrial designer you need to create and execute design solutions for problems of form, usability, ergonomics, brand development as well as marketing sales.
Recently ID became a broad term inclusive of service, software and PD. Designers usually get associated with craft design and ergonomics.
Examples :
Products like Apple's iPad iPod and iPhone were examples designed by celebrated Industrial designer - Sir Jonathan Ive
Well, most of you might have seen Hollywood movies like How to train your dragon, Wall-E, The Lion King and many more to mention. These movies were created where it is difficult to show the plot with human or in other words where humans are incapable. The base idea is showing of extra-ordinary visuals and dimensions with the use of graphical computer technologies. This is where designer creativity reveals.
Animation designers are more than a creative group, working either individually or in teams to create visual media. Animation is the art of creating a sequence of image (sketched or computerized) in order to create a motion, which can be observed as illusion. Animation does have a relation with Visual Communication, but recently got separated. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video program.
India seems to play a major role in the international framework of animation production in the coming years. Many of the animators working in top animation studios like Pixar and Dream Works hail from India. There should be no wonder here as India got good institutes and courses related to animation. The important thing to be noted here is India as a hub for best creative, innovative and conceptual designers like you (lol...). Definitely this field helps you shape your career path if you are like a conceptual being with a zeal and passion towards creativity.
The AD program in India expects the students to assume direct responsibility for nearly all aspects of the film making process by exposing to IT capabilities and other engineering disciplines right concept to drawing, shooting, camera etc.
Examples :
1. Films, cartoons, advertising etc.
2. Making of Kung Fu Panda 2 (posted by cinemapopshot)
3. Making of simple walking animation (posted by TheMrGoman)
Although India doesn't have best institutions for
this study, the courses provided by the Indian institutions were good enough
for those aiming for automotive design. However, institutes in India focus mainly
on studies related to understanding and identification of the transportation
needs and issues facing the country as well as developments in other countries
and identifying creative solutions. But the thing worth noting here is analyzers
look automotive sector as a fast growing field in India. The fact that many
international auto players were setting up design studios in India strengthen
this.
In some Institutes
Mobility and Vehicle Design was also termed as Transportation Design. Both of
them mainly deal with the development of the appearance as well as the ergonomics of the vehicle. Trust me this design field will
definitely prove to be interesting and you will enjoy more if you have
Mechanical or Architectural background with immense design passion.
Let me clear
more by bringing you an example; say you are designing a car, it means
developing the concept from scratch, coordinating with other departments (say
engineering, R&D) for possibilities, modifying for new concept,
re-analysis, developing a model and prototype and finalizing the concept. Automotive Design in this context is primarily concerned with developing the visual appearance or aesthetics of the vehicle as said earlier, though it is also involved in the creation of the product concept. You will be going through a number of hands-on experiment experiments and assignments as a transportation design student.
VC is communication through the help of visual aid and is described as the deliverance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon.
As usual I will clear the topic by bringing you with some examples. Say you
are driving a car and you come across the traffic red signal on the junction,
the moment you see the red signal, your leg shift from accelerator to brake.
Nobody told you to stop, not even did you see any written board, but the signal made you automatically
stop your vehicle.
When you see a car with the
above symbol, immediately your mind starts wondering that the person sitting in
the car might be someone belonging to royal family with class facilities. You
went to purchase an electronic good and you will identify the products with the
below symbol as those belonging to Apple products.
Now what does the above
examples mean? Instead of dealing with verbal or other forms of communication,
we are communicating with visual forms, that when looked upon by us would give the clear idea of what they intend to tell us, that too in an instance. You may feel that, this is not that much
important as a career path, I only gave some simple examples just to make you
understand. But think yourself; every organization has got a unique brand representation
that will clearly tell you about the nature of the brand. Even this form of
communication sometimes represents the status.
This form proves to be the
most powerful communication in marketing as well as sales division. VC is everywhere
today. In a country like India, where we expect more developments and changes
to be taken place in the very near future, VC plays an important role.
As the name suggest, VC deals with eye contact or visual contact of the product, and is primarily presented or expresses with two dimensional images. As a VC student you will be given a chance in various design methods, aesthetic aspects and generating methods and processes for solving communication problem. Students may specialize in one of the many areas including signs,, typography, information visualization, exhibition design, photgraphy, animation etc.
Examples :
1. Signs, typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, color, electronic resources, skype, webinars 2. Power of VC - funny video (posted by Pratik Ghosh)
All of the Design streams focus on users. Ultimately it's the end-users who are going to enjoy your designed product. But likely other design streams give importance to innovation also. IXD in this context is specifically concentrated on the user. ID is a mix of product and visual design, and deals with digital things for people's use; Wikipedia defined IXD as "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems and services". let me clear this with an example. Say if you want to design a mobile phone for elder people, you need to consider the term "elder people" as mobile phones designed for teens and children's may not suit for elders. IXD is heavily focused on satisfying the needs and desires of the majority of people who will use the product. What clearly marks IXD as a design field as opposed to a science or engineering field is that it is synthesis and imagining things as they might be, more so than focusing on how things are. IXD is more or less related to User Interface Design. Learn more about - User Interface Design principles and general rules for CEED exam Examples : 1. Video : Link 2. Nokia 888 concept - Link
A very good website detailing more about IXD - Link
I hope this article helped you. Now you should be in a
position to answer your question “which
stream is to be chosen by me?”
Leave comments regarding any additions to be made in this
article.
