For a designer or advertising creative, India is a pretty exciting place to be right now. Rapid commercial growth has prompted an unprecedented client demand for design and advertising skills, while those creating the work find themselves in the exhilarating position of being able to shape and redefine India's new identity, both within the country and internationally. All this change has occurred rapidly, however, at a pace that is perhaps too fast for an industry, in graphic design at least, that is still finding its feet. Design is still often misunderstood as a profession, and with a dearth of decent design schools in the country, graduates are finding that they often receive their real education on the job, a position that stretches already overloaded designers even thinner. The bounteous amount of work has also led the lines between advertising and design to blur, with ad agencies, which are far more established and recognised within the country, tackling aspects of assignments more traditionally found within the design domain. And, of course, overseas networks and companies are also edging in, keen to pick up a slice of the action.
Despite this, there are signs that a design community is slowly evolving in India, as evidenced at the recent Kyoorius Designyatra, an annual conference that offers designers the chance to meet and exchange ideas. The Designyatra is still in its infancy, yet this year saw the numbers of delegates double since its debut last year, with over 1,600 attendees present. The team behind the Designyatra also runs the Kyoorius Design Magazine, the only magazine in the country focusing solely on design, providing a vital voice and place for discussion for designers across the country who otherwise might feel they are working in relative isolation.
"There are many young designers in the larger cities working independently as freelancers," says Sujata Keshavan, whose design studio Ray+Keshavan was the first professional firm to set up in India, in 1989, and last year joined the wpp and The Brand Union network. "They mostly work in ones and twos, there are very few design firms that are larger. By and large most of the design work in the country is still being handled by advertising agencies who offer their clients a one-stop solution for all their communication needs. Design still has a long way to go before it can be considered an industry. Professional practices and standards are not yet well established. Many freelancers have the reputation of being unreliable. There are not many design journals or magazines… Whenever one reads about design in the Indian press, it is obvious that the writer is quite unfamiliar with design in any real sense."
"The design industry is growing slowly, the need for design is growing at a gargantuan pace," agrees Gopika Chowfla, who runs a studio of seven designers in Delhi. "With very few professional schools, the number of designers that graduate is miniscule, yet with an overactive economy, there is a demand for creative input. The gap needs to be bridged very fast, though, as things stand today, that is not happening in a hurry."
These problems often manifest themselves visually in the design work created in India, which can appear rather conservative. Or, with a lack of confidence in its own voice, it looks to the West for inspiration. For such a visually rich country, this is surprising, although much of the imagery that we might associate with India, such as its vivid hand-painted signage and posters, is seen as the work of artisans and not as design. "[We need to] educate our audience to be more discerning of good design," says Tania Khosla of Tsk Design in Bangalore. "I feel that sometimes we are limited in how much we as designers can really push the boundaries of design. Our audience is often not visually sophisticated. This can sometimes be a challenge and sometimes a hurdle… A lot of what is produced here is highly influenced by the West. We need to be more sensitive to our context and produce design that is fresh and relevant."
This is a dilemma that the Indian advertising industry, by contrast, seems largely to have overcome.