Acclaimed internationally as one of the foremost multidisciplinary institutions in the field of design education, applied research, training, design consultancy services and outreach programmes NID (The National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad) recently held its convocation ceremony on January 20th, and when an institute like NID has its convocation ceremony, the occasion is nothing short of a big event.
It is a momentous day when the best of design students who have been honing their skills and exploring their creativity for years at the Mecca of design, finally graduate.
128 students from four different faculties of design (Industrial, Communication, Textile and Apparel Design and IT integrated design) graduated out of the institute this year. Of these, 13 students were from the Animation film design discipline.
The Institute also felicitated 15 other students and presented them trophies, who have made NID proud by winning 1st and 2nd prizes in various national and international design competitions.
Padmashri awardee and eminent Malyalam filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan was the Convocation Speaker this year. Adoor, who came to national limelight with his very first film Swayamvaram made in the year 1972, is arguably one of the most sensitive Indian filmmakers of recent times. NID also organized a retrospective of his films at its auditorium from January 21-25, 2006.
NID Executive Director Dr Darlie O Koshy’s welcome speech
Members of NID’s newly constituted Governing Council and its Chairman, Dr. Ajay Dua, IAS, who is also the Secretary, Govt. of India, in the department of IPP, Ministry of Commerce and Industry (under which NID functions) were also present on the occasion. Dr Dua conferred the diploma on the graduating students.
In his welcome address and review, the Executive Director, NID, Dr Darlie O Koshy said that the past five years had been a period of rapid turnaround. “Many new courses and 36 new faculty members were added in the last 5 years. While the young faculty members are taking up responsibilities and challenges with great gusto, the senior faculty members have moved on to new roles in Institution building. The student profile has also undergone considerable changes with its population swelling to 650 as against 350 in the year 2000”.
The Executive Director also briefed about NID’s international and global alliances and said that Institute has developed strong educational alliances with many prominent design institutions in the world.
Senior Faculty and head of the NID, PG Campus, Gandhinagar Nina Sabnani remarked, “Animation is the language of imagination. At NID we have tried to create a programme over the years of experiment and exploration through our rich cultural heritage mix with imagination which aims to build original work of Indian Animation which needs to have her own pace and style”
The Graduate Show ‘Young Designers,’ a display of the design innovations by the graduating students completed as part of their diploma project, was opened to public by the Chairman, NID Governing Council, Dr Ajay Dua. The theme of this year’s exhibition was “Sense & Sensibility.” The design display which was open to public for three days was a treat for design lovers and had strikingly innovative concepts and design themes on display.
A “Pogo” creation of Dinosaur for the M A D show by the second year animation students is an added attraction on campus.
The next two days after the convocation was the annual students’ Placement Day. Over 50 national and international companies were presenct for the Industry Interface.
Speaking to Animation ‘xpress, Sekhar Mukherjee, Coordinator and Faculty, Animation Film Design, NID said that,”India needs both Skill Base and Knowledge base professionals, and in plenty. Good Professionals come out from a good educational environment. NID provides a unique platform to all the aspiring students of animation film making through it’s long established legacy of design culture and multi-disciplinary activities to find out one own language through one’s work…I feel India needs more of NID like design education and educators to establish her very own place in the global design map.”
Animation Graduating students with CoordinatorFaculty Sekhar Mukherjee
Much of the learning process at NID is through the process of internships. It was this philosophy and Ford Foundation funding that brought experts like Leo Leoni and Giulio Gianni to NID in 1967. Hence, it was the Italian connection that started the animation activities at NID. Under their guidance the first animated film “Swimmy” was made at the institute. Training of Teachers activity continued sporadically with involvements of experts like Clair Weeks (USA) and Roger Noake (West Surrey College of Art and Design , Great Britain ) and produced dedicated animation teachers/film makers like R L Mistry,Nina Sabnani, Ishu Patel(who moved to The National Film Board of Canada after studying and teaching at NID for many years).
The Animation Design Programme is offered at two entry levels — GDPD (Graduate Diploma for school leavers) and PGDPD (Post-Graduate Diploma for Graduates).
The GDPD is a comprehensive course in animation with students joining after 10 + 2 stream. The PGDPD is offered every year to graduates with a graduate degree.
In their initial semesters in the discipline, both GDPD and PGDPD students are given basic skills and introduced to knowledge areas pertaining to communication. At this stage a student is introduced to the role of communication design and that of the designer/communicator.
Simultaneously, students are exposed to the strengths and potential of their medium and taught the language with which to communicate. This includes an exposure to the art, craft and the business of the medium. Students acquire professional attitudes and abilities by working independently under faculty guidance on design projects. Built-in industry interactions help provide exposure to market realities and inculcate professionalism. The main difference in approach of GDPD and PGDPD animation is that the GDPD programme is 70% classroom learning and 30% project based learning to build more core animation professionals; whereas the PGDPD programme is aimed at building new animation academics as well as develop specialized professionals like writers for animation, character designers, storyboard experts, style and treatment experts etc. The PGDPD programme is usually 40% classroom and 60% project based.