According to FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), the publishing industry in India is counted among the top seven publishing nations in the world. With an estimated market of INR 10,000 crores, India ranks third after the US and UK in English language publishing. The advancement in technology and India’s skilled manpower, makes the country a major outsourcing hub for print and pre-publishing services in the world, be it print or digital design, or editorial. The sector has tremendous potential, both in the domestic as well as the export markets.

Graphic Arts and Design Practices course focuses on developing skills and understanding of graphic design and imaging by combining learning from Visual Communication, Visual Arts, Animation, Illustration and Branding. The course structure caters to the print as well as web and screen-based design industries, animation and motion graphics. It facilitates this ability by encouraging:

• focus area learning and skill development through core units in various areas of illustration, visual storytelling, graphic design, information design, and identity and marketing communication design among others.
• practical immersions through industry exposure, apprenticeships and work experience.
• exploration of a variety of mediums and contexts that traverse the branding, publishing and imaging industries.

If you are intrigued and attracted to visual forms of communication, have a passion for aesthetics and creativity and wish to hone your creativity and imagination to give form to your ideas, then this course is an avenue to build a creative and challenging career.

If you think visually, articulate ideas and have a talent for drawing or working with images, colour, letterforms and love to exercise your creativity and imagination in designing an effective and result-oriented communication, then one of these two pathways is a potential career path for you.

Please refer to the course prospectus to know about the learning units that will be taught in this course.

The course in Graphic Arts and Design Practices aims to prepare its graduates to be creative contributors to the publishing industry, either in print-based or digital, as illustrators or graphic designers.

The course is designed such that at the end of each of the 3 years, students acquire specific capabilities that enable them to choose to work as a professional within the capacity of their abilities. For example, at the end of first year, if a Graphic Design student wishes to take a break from the studies and work in an industry s/he will be capable of working at a design studio as a junior artist or visualizer. Similarly, after two years of study s/he will be employable as a junior designer, and after completing the course the graduate will be able to find employment as a designer/visualizer/illustrator in any of the following sectors: publishing industry, news and media companies, print and production houses, corporate design studios, NGOs, advertising agencies, digital marketing agencies or independent design studios.

The graduates of this course can be employed in organizations that seek, effective and result- oriented communication design skills. These skills are sought after for all types of business, entertainment industry, service sectors, agencies for social work, cultural institutes, publication, information and communication agencies, web and digital media platforms.

Please visit the two pathway webpages ‘Illustration’ and ‘Graphic Design to learn about the different employment opportunities after each year.

Both the pathways will prepare the learners to traverse print as well as digital media.

The ‘Illustration’ pathway emphasizes learning and skill development through core units in various areas of image making, visualization of ideas, illustration techniques, visual storytelling, visual narratives, book making, book arts and editorial illustration. If you choose this pathway you can pursue a career path in various creative industries to become an illustrator.

On the other hand, the ‘Graphic Design’ pathway emphasizes learning and skill development through core units in typography, layout design, information design, publication design, digital publishing, branding and marketing communication design among others. Focused exploration of a variety of mediums and contexts that traverse the advertising, publishing and imaging industries will be encouraged as you learn industry standard skillsets in Branding, Publication Design and Marketing Communication Design.

Graphic Design as a practice has changed over the years and continues to evolve with technological advancements. There is a shift from Graphic Design being used largely in fields of publishing to being applied more frequently in computer systems design and related services. The future of Graphic Design as a career will evolve into adapting new tools and techniques. Emerging areas of professional practice such as Digital Design, Digital Marketing, User Experience Design come across as career paths for the Graphic Designer of today, as the institutions and industry are using digital platforms to increase their presence on the screen. The role of the graphic designer is now moving toward combining multiple skill sets to create effective designs for websites, social media platforms and online publications. Graphic Design curriculum at Srishti is designed in cognisance of these new developments and includes learning to communicate ideas visually using print as well as digital mediums.

Fundamentals of elements of Visual Design are rooted in principles of Gestalt, which respond to principles of perception and cognition. These principles and elements remain relevant and valid even as the medium of expression evolves and progresses into augmented reality, and virtual reality. Designers will have more expressive ways of sharing their vision across new, technologically advanced mediums since Graphic design will continue further its dependence on technology to create interesting and compelling narratives and concepts.

“The future of illustration lies in finding new ways to visually evolve an idea to break new territory.” – Kate Sallai

In a competitive industrial scenario where even the smallest of margins could dictate future trends, the age of stock images and cliparts is meandering to an end and enterprises of varying scales are waking up to it. Brand Representation and Corporate Communication emerge as key ideas within the industrial landscape and illustration lies at the crux of it.

Building on its traditional industrial usage in fields such as medical illustration, botanical illustration and editorial illustration etc, the future of illustration is ever expanding its multi-hued horizon. Building on its traditional strength as a model of narration, Illustration is emerging not just as a marketing device to communicate brand image or visual narration, but also as an in-house communication tool that creatively innovates on notation, ideation and evolution of services provided by the industry.

The explosion of digital social media has produced rapidly evolving forms of Visual communication. The influx of technology in our daily lives and the introduction of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality opens up new vistas for the illustrator. The explosion of the App industry and easy access to digital media tools further accelerate the growing role of the illustrator.

The Illustration module in the Graphic Arts and Design Program focusses on both core and emerging profiles in the industry. In order to keep Pace with changing trends in the market, there is a part of the curriculum that is constantly evolving. While currently we focus on industrial output skills like visual merchandising, packaging illustration, illustration for events - in the time to come we add to this roster to synchronise our curriculum with more pertinent market demands.

Both these pathways require specialized training and competence building and therefore these are offered as two separate areas of learning. From the first year itself, you are required to choose your area of interest in either one of these two pathways. While there are some learning units that are common to both the pathways, you are not encouraged to change your pathway once chosen. All learning units for each of the pathways are defined and mandated.