National Institute of Design’s annual Design Summit exhibited winner products. Take for instance, ECCODiva, which is not just an ordinary flash light, but a multipurpose light designed to cater to those who have limited or irregular access to other forms of electricity.
Designed by Lemon, it can get charged by solar energy or a minimal power supply of 90V to give battery back up of up to 250 hours and charge mobile phones. “It was introduced two years ago to people in Ladakh and other rural areas across the country. The product is customised for women working at home, children and men out in fields at night,” says Dipendra Baoni, managing director of Lemon.
“We believe design must solve real life problems. For promoting the product in villages we used attractive posters and interacted on one-to-one basis to know the real problems related to light,” adds Mr. Baoni whose product has been granted India Design Mark and is overall winner of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Design Excellence Award 2012, electronics sub-category.
Duroware Tongue care is another designer product that made the mark. An unusual tongue scraper, it doesn’t chips off the tips of your taste buds but gently scrubs the surface to give complete freshness. Designed by Wizardry Designs, the product was granted India Design Mark certification for good design. But before that, the product which appears to be quite simple had to undergo various stages like checking clinical safety, utility, design, packaging, amongst others.
India Design Mark 2012 for good design products and CII Design Excellence award 2012 winning products were on display at the 12th two-day NID Design Summit. Eminent speakers from India and overseas discussed a variety of issues pertaining to design, creativity and Indian industry.
Products of the Design Clinic Scheme, an initiative of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise in collaboration with NID, were also on display. Design clinic organises seminars for design sensitisation of small scale industry, assesses the design need and helps in improving the quality of product to make it more efficient and attractive. “Design clinics aim at strengthening small scale manufacturers so that they can compete with multinational companies,” says Jitendra Singh Rajput, coordinator of Design Clinic Scheme.
Pradyumna Vyas, Director NID emphasised on the importance of integrating technology, social sciences, marketing and design. “Countries like Korea, Japan and Taiwan have had a head start in terms of infrastructure for design training and production… The fact is articulated by the number of design schools – there are 150 in Japan, 52 in Taiwan and 30 in India. It is imperative to understand the design needs for sustainable development of the country.”
