Why Design is the Career of the Future | This century belongs to creativity and innovation. In everything we do. The way we live is a lot different from what it used to be earlier. Our engagement to shape our future has become intense and pervasive. Every aspect of life demands a new approach, a new solution, a new way of looking at it. We design our tomorrow with a greater thrust on making the experience constantly better. We lead more connected lives. The world of business and industry requires people with fresh perspectives. Specialised training combined with creative strengths will be the best sought-after combination in the job market. If you think you have a creative edge, consider pursuing a career in the field of design without worrying about job opportunities.
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Industry Scope
For the amazingly talented designers, be it in fashion, textile, graphics, glass, leather, interior, jewellery, ceramic, furniture, automobile, animation, or exhibition, there is no dearth of lucrative opportunities today. With companies becoming more competitive, they wish to draw more consumers with attractive designs. How good it looks matters a lot along with how good it is.
The design has a bright future in India so you have the freedom to design a career of your choice in this field. All you need to do is assess if you have the instinct and passion for an offbeat career, and then pick your preferred domain and seek mentoring to realise your dream. With a coaching institute like OPUS offering excellent training for admission in leading design colleges across India, enrol for a suitable course and groom yourself to crack the competitive entrance test.
Designers are contributing to the entire visual world around us. There is immense scope for designers in almost every industry. More and more industrial companies are utilising the services of product designers as their inputs often lead to added values in terms of improved usability, lowered production costs and more appealing products. The design is, therefore, emerging as a much sought after career option. If you have a flair for design, the industry offers you wonderful opportunities to prove your mettle.
OPUS tells all design aspirants to get a solid foundation in design fundamentals and strategy before you start looking for avenues to showcase your creative output. These days, companies look for creative upstarts who have a formal training background in design as there are many aspects of design that can be taught as a skill. Creative expression is a fiercely individual thing but it is advisable to seek knowledge and training before one begins to explore the medium.
Automobile companies invest heavily in R&D and product designers. A stylish car stands a better chance of selling more along with fine engineering back-up. Consumer goods companies and private design firms employ product designers. There are hundreds of design firms or studios being set up by young and creative designers who work on a range of new products. As long as there is a consumer market, with a rising demand for new, well-designed products, ace product designers will make a fortune for themselves. OPUS urges design aspirants to realise that the design world is undergoing a revolutionary change and that is a major reason for the big boost in the industry.
Changing Mindset
Till now, we did not have enough qualified people with design sensibilities and the companies did not pay much attention to the importance of design. It is the competition that is compelling us to realise the power of design and integrate it seamlessly into whatever we make. In such a scenario where the mindset has changed for the better, there is no reason to fear a slump in the industry or think that the fascination with design will be a temporary, short-lived phenomenon. It is henceforth going to be a stable and strong career option for both men and women.
Since creativity knows no bounds, the challenge lies in being relevant and productive all the time, almost on a daily basis. That is one aspect, of being steady in amazing output, that probably worries candidates and their families who think the stage will come soon when more and more new designers will replace the existing ones and usurp the competitive space. Such fears are baseless if designers keep an open mind and constantly engage themselves in bringing something new to the table.
The penetration of design in our lives is endemic today. The chair you sit on, the car you drive, the Smartphone you use, the glass or mug you drink coffee from, your laptop, practically everything we use today carries a design. Imagine how exciting it is to know that what you are involved in creating ends up being used by millions of people around the world.
OPUS beckons you to explore this dimension without thinking anything about hazards of the industry. Focus on your work and design well. The industry will give you space and respect and lots of money, much better compensation than any other traditional career your family has been urging you to follow.
Creativity in demand
One of the top skills that will be in demand by 2022 is creativity. A lot of monotonous jobs can be automated, but creative jobs still require a human. One occupation survey respondents said will be increasingly needed with this skill set will be designers. These are the people that design and develop products like cars, appliances, gadgets, and other goods.
The field of education has witnessed radical and astounding changes in the last decade. A career in designing is gaining equal popularity and scope in comparison to conventional courses like engineering and medicine. The field of designing is providing good placements and generating income just like other fields. OPUS tells aspirants to seriously think about design as a career choice that helps you excel in something you love to do. It is not a burdensome or boring job that you have to stick to in order to earn your livelihood.
Take another case of web designing as a career option. Websites are an integral part of our lifestyle and the IT industry. No business or professional survives in the modern marketplace without an online presence. As a result, web developers are in high demand. If they have a creative bent of mind, their success ratio becomes better. In such a scenario, would you say it is a bad career choice? Certainly not. The industry is growing and it requires trained designers to stay competitive. OPUS finds it extremely rewarding and satisfying to play a constructive role in the training of young minds for a career in design.
Industry in India
India stands third in the global startup ecosystem. They need their own website to grow their business. They need quality web developers to develop and maintain their web pages. Web Designing in India as a career option has gained immense prominence. An increasing number of young enthusiasts are heading towards design institutes to be accredited with the mark of being an expert in web design.
Clients interested in getting their own website are approaching the software giants. These companies recruit experienced and skilled professionals who can deliver the project in a timely manner. Trainee induction is allowed and they are placed under experienced heads to learn on the job. Most organisations also recruit designers for their internal projects which have a distinct flavour of their own as it provides the opportunity for designers to interact with major company stakeholders who run these internal initiatives. Web designers are required in the media industry like news or advertising agencies or even in the education industry developing educational web sites and learning material for students. So there are multiple sectors generating employment scope in India.
Looks matter
Even before you sample a product, you touch and feel its packaging. In fact, it is the package design that makes one product look different from the other. A designer makes a product visually appealing. A good design can always help brands grab a consumer’s attention.
As markets get saturated with goods and products, the competition to grab a consumer’s eyes has intensified. A designer can help create product packaging with a distinctive appeal. The demand for graphic designers is high in India and it is only set to rise in the future. At least 40 percent of communications that a company does with its customers is visual. Every product first needs to sell visually first before a buyer picks it up. Almost every business including media houses, publishing firms, FMCG, retail, software sector needs good designers. OPUS endorses this reality even if one likes it or not. The direction of change is clear and it is giving a clear signal regarding how designing will gain priority in our scheme of things tomorrow. Yesterday’s graphic designers are today’s UX designers.
Changes in design
Will tomorrow’s UX designers be avatar programmers or fusionists? Maybe, yes.
Designing has matured from being a stylistic endeavour to a field tasked with solving technological and social problems, an evolution that will accelerate as companies’ rope in designers for increasingly complex opportunities, from self-driving cars to human biology.
In the next five years, design as a profession will continue to evolve into a hybrid industry that is considered as much technical as it is creative. A new wave of designers educated in human-centered design — taught to weave together research, interaction, and visual and code to solve 21st-century problems — will move into leadership positions. They will push the industry to new heights of sophistication.
As technologies for augmented reality evolve, they will allow for new information to be layered over the physical world in seamless ways. This will open up an increasing demand for designers who can deliver intuitive and immersive experiences that are tailored to a wide spectrum of industries, from entertainment to education and healthcare. They will provide conceptual leadership on creative projects from starting point through execution, and will actively participate in the growth and development of machine-learning infrastructure to keep current with innovations.
In five years machine learning will enable computers to make the kinds of aesthetic choices that humans make today—the more on the production end of the spectrum, the more quickly it will happen. This will enable more personalised experiences.
Early technology was, in its most basic form, not very accessible, necessitating specialists to handle. As technology melts, it will transform from solid to liquid to gas, permeating almost every aspect of our lives and creating cross-disciplinary opportunities. Such diffusion will become the foundation for future design jobs. The designer’s role will be to act as the ‘fusion’ between art, engineering, research, and science. Her ability to think critically while working seamlessly across disciplines, blending together their best aspect, is what will make her a ‘Fusionist’.
While still expertly versed in classical design skills, the fusionist will mix those skills with a ‘generalist’ approach to technology, working across disciplines and interest groups. The technologies he bridges will require him to expand his own capacities. He will need to be an expert collaborator and communicator, extending the vocabulary so that he can reverse engineer his vision into discrete items that specialists can act upon. The Fusionist will remain driven by the passion for the future and his ability to use design as the unifying vehicle to drive the best experience.
The global challenges that lie ahead can only be solved by a collaboration of minds, vocations, and a diversity of views. The challenge and reward will be in the ability to communicate, comprehend, and connect all parties through design. Fusionists will act as the bridges between emerging fields, and their ability to bring all parties together through communication and design will help bring about the greatest experiences.
When all this is already beginning to happen, it is a foregone conclusion that the future of design is promising enough for you to take a call and contribute to its enrichment by pursuing it as a full-fledged profession. Join the OPUS bandwagon to gain the necessary mentoring before you appear for the design entrance tests and take your career off to a flying start.
Design Aspirants, don’t miss out on an opportunity to get an insight to your career. Call to register today.
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