The Grandmaster: Kumar Vyas and his perspectives on Design

Prof. Kumar Vyas shares his views on the importance of drawing, till date stands relevant from the perspectives of the significance of the relation between ‘the word’ and ‘the image’. In the same interview, he further shares his thoughts in an interview given to Late Prof. MP Ranjan (dated June 19^th, 2009) [7], as follows:

“Drawing is basically image-making, and when connected with the design process, there is no design process complete with the narrative and the drawing done with hands. The computer can help, but when new ideas and concepts are rushing into your brain, you need hands to hold the net to capture it. What’s in your mind, scribble it.  It May be of use, may not. The marriage of word and image is most important to explain a concept.”

“The ability to use fingers to manipulate materials and come up with 3D forms is an extension of manual drawing; this the real intelligence of your fingertips, and that’s why it must be taught in schools.”

“There is a famous English saying: ‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.’ However, design has always turned this upside down; here, only those who can do can teach design; you cannot do otherwise. One has to be a good design professional in order to be a good teacher of design.”

“Theory can never precede practice; theory should always follow the practice.”


Excerpts of his views on introduction to design – in the featured article, ‘Rocksolid: Foundation of Industrial Design’, Pool Magazine, 12^th Issue) [15]:

“Right from the beginning, real-life projects of national and social relevance were accepted as one of the three ‘tools’ for education; the other two being studio assignments and small production runs at NID workshops. The industry would naturally be included in the ambit.”

“If I have to offer a course, my first concern is not what I am going to ‘teach’, but the kind of experience I have gained, which I am going to share further. What am I going to learn from them? I see myself evolving, most of the times unconsciously, sometimes consciously”

“Mind is a software of the brain. That is the software you operate and the computer cannot. What happens when you are confronted with a problem is that you immediately begin to work out possible solutions. This is the way the human mind is programmed to work; these are what I would call the ‘conjectural solutions’ or ‘design conjectures’. They will happen all the time. No computer can reproduce this yet. What you require is a paper and pencil to put these conjectures down using both words and images.”