The History of Product Design in India
Prof. S Balram in a nutshell is a storyteller. This interview traces the origin story of a boy in a village in Andhra Pradesh, India, to a man who has been responsible for many design institutes as former chairman of the National Institute of Design, Ahemdabad, founding and governing council member of The Craft Development Institute in Kashmir and now the Dean of DJ Academy of Design in Coimbatore.
This interview takes the viewer through some of the products that Prof Balram has achieved in his long-standing career as a mechanical engineer and product designer, from the bicycle he designed while he studied at the Royal College of Art. The life-saving de-oxygenator device that he and his team designed for Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology won him the prestigious Indian National Meritorious Invention Award. He is the recipient of the Ron Mace Award for Universal Design and UNIDO-ICSID award for Design and Development along with many other accolades.
He concludes this interview by talking about the concept of Universal Design and the "majority world", a word that he coined in opposition to the word -developing world. He hopes for a new generation of designers that help reduce the fragmentation and disassociation with the reality that is caused by modern technology and design.
Interview of Prof S. Balram - Part 1
Interview of Prof S. Balram - Part 2
Prof S. Balram Downloads:
Prof S. Balram's write up - pdf
