So you have the talent, the desire and the flair for art and design.
The good news is that design drives innovation and is now widely recognized to be the key to improving productivity, fueling growth and increasing revenue. Most businesses are looking towards a creative strategy to make their products go from blah to wow, be it in packaging, ease of use, visual appeal or generating value. Innovation and design have today become a core business value in most industries.
One Subject, Multiple Openings
A degree in art is one of the most versatile. You could, of course, hone your skills in fine arts, visualization, painting, sculpture or installation art if you are inclined that way. But you could also choose to enter the worlds of graphic design, website development, photography, animation, game design, industrial and product design, fashion, film, sets and exhibition design, retail, furniture and interior design. And these are just a few of the course options available to you at art school.
You can also choose to combine your degree with related areas of specialization later to give you a unique skill set that makes you an even more attractive option to employers. For instance, a design background combined with credits in marketing or advertising can give you an edge over a competitor at that job interview.
Plus, with an art degree, you can even choose to go freelance at different stages in your life. An option that’s difficult for an engineer, doctor or even banker in the middle of their careers!
Who Offers the Best Courses In India?
NID in Ahmedabad (Prasoon Pandey, Dadi Pudumjee, Dayanita Singh and Pan Nalin are famous NID grads); Srishti School of Art Design and Technology at campuses in Pune, Bangalore and Trivandrum, Delhi College of Art, NIFT (Designers Ritu Beri, Manish Arora and Sabyasachi Mukherjee are notable alumni) at multiple campuses across the country are great options.
There are a number of great schools across the world that are also generous with scholarships and financial aid, so make sure you do your research well. In the UK, Central Saint Martins at the University of the Arts London, Goldsmiths, University of London and the Chelsea College of Arts are good choices. The US has several great schools like Parsons School of Design (Donna Karan, Tom Ford and our very own Raghavendra Rathore studied here!), RISD, MIT, Pratt Institute, California College of Arts, SAIC to name a few. And closer home, Singapore’s LaSalle College of the Arts and Hong Kong’s The Hong Kong Polytechnic University offer some fine courses.
Stay tuned to find out how to apply to the best art school for you.