Pearl Academy hosted design academicians from around the world to discuss the ‘Future of Design Education’. The two day confluence was aimed at stimulating and inspiring participants to foster innovation and creativity in their learning environments. Global thought leaders and design educators such as John Thackara – Founder of Doors of Perception, Prof. Vijay Kumar from Institute of Design, IIT (Chicago), Dr Aditya Dev Sood – Founder of CKS New Delhi and Satish Gokhale, Industrial Designer(Pune ) among others along with many budding professionals from the design world participated to deliberate on 4 key themes –
- Micro and Macro Trends in the design education and professional landscape
- Pedagogy of the future
- Curriculum of the future
- Learners of the future
The confluence was organized under Pearl Academy’s recently launched initiative ‘What’s Next’. A series of Intellectual workshops and confluences, ‘What’s Next’ stands as a beacon of revolution in the design space bringing together prominent global thought leaders to deliberate on key issues and Ideas towards tomorrow in Design and Design Education. Appreciative of this initiative, Claudio Moderini, Director-Design Department, Domus Academy, Milan, said “What’s Next in Design Education is a great initiative by Pearl Academy. The creative economy needs design thinkers and a discourse around the future of the learner and the pedagogy of tomorrow is truly the need of the hour.”
Sharad Mehra, CEO, Pearl Academy, said, “Design education in India has matured to reach a point where it can imagine, contribute within a wider scope and take complex real world problems. Design faculty needs to be introduced to a variety of backgrounds; they may need exposure to innovate/ new-age tools and methods to provide effective solutions to bigger issues of the society. Through this two day World Café Style Confluence on ‘Future of Design Education’, we are investing our efforts to sensitize and inform the design educators about these sweeping changes and get them to meet colleagues and share useful insights. With 4 Keynote Speakers, 8 Mentors, 96 Participants and 8 Conversation Tables, the confluence concluded with powerful and game-changing ideas potential of transforming the design education going forward.”
Prof Vijay Kumar, Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Institute of Design; Satish Gokhale, Head of Product Design at Design Directions; Deepankar Bhattacharyya, Strategic Design Consultant; Scott Skipworth, Academician, Think Australia; Jogi Panghaal, Design Professional and Prof. Vikas Satwalekar; Design Academician, were some of the renowned design aficionados among many others at the Confluence.
