OREANDA-NEWS. June 29, 2011. Tata Elxsi, India’s leading design company, celebrated World Industrial Design Day 2011 (WIDD) on Wednesday, June 29, 2011, with the launch of ‘connect D’, an annual event that endeavours to create a platform to engage with future designers. It was held at the Tata Elxsi headquarters in its design studio, Bangalore. The event this year focused on the global theme ‘Industrial Design: How does it improve your life?'.

connect D aims to strengthen the relations between industry and academia by creating a platform for design students to engage with industry experts. This platform will give the students an exposure to the real-life challenges faced by the design industry and how to prepare themselves for a career in design. It also offers design firms like Tata Elxsi a fresh perspective on design through new ideas and approaches that will help them to meet the demands of today’s consumers. connect D intends to encourage the transfer of knowledge and expertise, and enhance the relevance of design techniques to the budding designers of tomorrow.

Students from leading design schools including NID, NIFT, IISC, Raffles design and NTFF participated in the event. The event featured interactive sessions by eminent speakers who shared their insights and experiences about how industrial design can significantly improve consumers’ lives.

Anil Sondur, vice president, Tata Elxsi, said, “Industrial design as a career has gained prominence in the recent times. Tata Elxsi being at the forefront of design in India believes in connecting with new talent that is always challenging the norms and pushing the envelope for design and innovation. Through connect D we look forward to interact extensively with the student community. As part of these efforts, we have announced two scholarships: one for industrial design and the other for visual design. These would be conferred to design students from premier design schools across the country.”

A design contest was also arranged for design students where they had to come up with distinctive packaging concepts. The participants were at their creative best and displayed in full vigour their innovation skills in product design. The ability to justify design decisions, close alignment of the concept as per the design brief and the final quality of design deliverables were some of the parameters to choose the final winners. The first and the second prize were won by teams from NID.

Speaking on this occasion, Amaresh Chakrabarti, professor, IISC Bangalore, said, “connect D is a great initiative launched by Tata Elxsi and indeed a good channel for students to interact with the industry experts. It was a pleasure to be a part of this event and I wish more initiatives like these are taken up by the industry and Tata Elxsi for international and Indian markets to further strengthen the industry academic relations in the coming years.”

The event also included exclusive exhibit and demonstrations of designs for the Indian as well as the international markets, which enabled the students to interact with the Tata Elxsi senior design team and understand the design nuances and considerations better.