This document discusses the design ecosystem in India. It notes that design manifests in all human creations, even if not labeled as design. Design is a human endeavor to make environments more congenial. India's industrial revolution came later than the West, leaving a mix of modern and traditional societies. There is no direct word for "design" in Indian languages. The document explores how design is perceived in India and its relationship to society, as well as how design and social/political changes can shape each other. It proposes a 3-phase methodology to understand, map, and explore interventions in the Indian design ecosystem.

1. ‘The Design Ecosystem’
A systemic view towards design and society,
in the Indian context
Maulshree
Assistant Professor
Department of Fashion Communication
National Institute of Fashion Technology
Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India

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Does not ‘design’ manifest in all art and craft created by human mind,
even if the ubiquitousness of ‘design’ otherwise is ignored?

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"We are all designers.
We manipulate the environment, the better to serve our needs.
We select what items to own, which to have around us.
We build, buy, arrange, and restructure: all this is a form of design.
When consciously, deliberately rearranging objects on our desks, the furniture in
our living rooms, and the things we keep in our cars, we are designing.”
Norman 2004

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Design, at the simplistic level, is a human endeavour
to make our environments more congenial;
the denominators of which are arbitrary
and change from context to context.

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India's industrial revolution came almost a century later than in the West
it did not get fully absorbed in the societal fabric,
leaving the co-existence of agrarian and modern societies
Margolin,2005
This has in fact put India in a unique position.

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Its is crucial to understand what is meant by the term "design"
at a time of great change for India — a time of global repositioning, a time defined by
liberalisation, globalisation, economic empowerment and economic disparity.

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There is no word for "design" in the various Indian languages
The word ‘kala’ proposed by Vyas (2000) is applicable to art, crafts, sciences and technique.
It is worth exploring the possibility to incorporate modern design into this unified concept,
thus doing away with the post-colonial definition and distinction of art and crafts and
the learnt design process. This requires a wider definition of design that would enable the
incorporation of practices that have developed out of this non/semi - industrialisation.
However, this also implies that an alternative definition of modernity is required,
one that allows for the complexities of co-existing developments.
www.mplusmatters.hk/asiandesign/paper_topic9.php

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Ancient Indian design thought process was holistic and pragmatic
and the design thinking tools so derived can be used by the new age designers to
strengthen their ideation process in order to take innovation to the higher level and
address the various problems that the present world is facing
In design, mostly the outer aspects of wellbeing like ergonomic,
social and economic considerations related to humans are included.
However, it needs to also address the wellbeing from within;
to reach the more subtle mind, heart and soul from where everything originates
www.mplusmatters.hk/asiandesign/paper_topic9.php
Khodke 2013
That perhaps is what the essence of design has been
in the Indian context of the past.

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Crafts and its interaction with design
Jugaad/Indovations
Re-cycling
Global/Local
Multidisciplinary companies working on designing systems
www.mplusmatters.hk/asiandesign/paper_topic9.php

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The practitioners’ being in the world and their relation to other social actors
including artefacts and other social practices and institutions.
…it remains important to explore how socio-cultural, and
economic developments have shaped design practice over time
(Kimbell, 2011: 298).

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The Bhagwat Geeta states that every component of the universe is made
up of two principles – a manifested, that is perceptible by sense organs
and an unmanifest, that which is not perceptible to the sense organs.
The material elements remain unmanifest before creation and from
this subtle state come manifestation. The unmanifest is the seed of the
manifest yet there is a co-existence of the two.
Drawing analogy from philosophy, design manifests itself in the form of
a product or a process or a service or a strategy
whereas the unmanifest that is the design thought process,
presides over the existence of design
Khodke 2013

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- How is design perceived by the Indian design community and its periphery?
- What is the purpose and objective of design?
- What is the relationship between design and society? How should it be addressed?
- How can design, and social, economic and political change, shape each other? (DRS 2018)
The objective is to view Indian design community as a self-sustaining and a self-regulatory ecosystem
to address issues at every level, say, at individual, at community and at societal. Further to develop
conceptual frameworks to be strategically inserted into the system to effect change.

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PHASE 1
PHASE 2
PHASE 3
Understanding of the evolution of design and design thinking
specifically in the Indian context, through workshops and
one-on-one interactions - conversations
Mapping of The Design Ecosystem, and the exosystem
Synthesis maps use design and system thinking
to provide a holistic lens, to understand systemic and
social system relations, the big picture - ecosystem thinking
Explore the possibilities for intervention and change-making
Identification of the ‘wicked’ problems (Rittel and Webber) that
have surfaced during the mapping, and development of
conceptual frameworks as potential solutions
Methodology
(Bowes & Jones 2016)

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Bowes, J. & Jones, P. (2016). Synthesis Maps: Systemic Design pedagogy, narrative, and
intervention. Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium (RSD5). FORMakademisk.
Available online: http://systemic-design.net/rsd-symposia/rsd5-2016/rsd5-theory-method/
(Accessed 10 March 2017)
Cross, N. (2010). Designerly ways of knowing. S.l.: Springer London Ltd.
Johansson-Sköldberg, U., Woodilla, J., & Çetinkaya, M. (2013). Design Thinking: Past, Present
and Possible Futures. Creativity and Innovation Management, 22(2), 121-146.
Jones, P. (2014). Systemic design principles for complex social systems. In G. Metcalf (ed.),
Social Systems and Design, Volume 1 of the Translational Systems Science Series, pp 91-128.
Springer Japan.
Khodke, K. (2013). For The New Age Designer : Design Thinking From Ancient India. Designing
Design Education for India conference proceedings. Available online:
http://indiadesigncouncil.org/index.php/ddei (Accessed 3 March 2017)
Kimbell, L. (2011). Rethinking Design Thinking: Part I. Design and Culture, 3 (3), 285-306.
Margolin, V. (2005). A World History of Design and the History of the World. Journal of Design
History, 18(3), 235-243.

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Meadows, D. H., & Wright, D. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer.
Mingers, J. (2015). Systems thinking, critical realism, and philosophy: a confluence of ideas.
London: Routledge.
Norman, D. (2004). The design of everyday things: Revised and expanded edition. Basic books,
2013.
Norman, D. (2010, June 25). Design Thinking: A Useful Myth. Available online:
http://www.core77.com/posts/16790/design-thinking-a-useful-myth-16790 (Accessed 28 January
2017)
Norman, D. (2013, March 19). Rethinking Design Thinking. Available online:
http://www.core77.com/posts/24579/Rethinking-Design-Thinking (Accessed 1 March 2017)
Ryan, A. (2014). A Framework for Systemic Design. FORMakademisk, 7 (4).
Russo, S. I think ∴ I design (Blog). Available online: https://ithinkidesign.wordpress.com/
(Accessed 28 January 2017)
Vyas, H. K. (2000). Design, the Indian context: learning the historical rationale of the Indian design
idiom. Ahmedabad: National Institute of Design.

17. Thank You