Unexpected inspirations: NIFT Hyderabad students design innovative ideas

Can science, flowers, Harry Potter movies, nature, Army and Cubism inspire anyone to create designs? This is exactly what the students of National Institute of Fashion Technology (Nift) Hyderabad started off with and went on to create exquisite designs for “tool holders” and “coasters” for specific end users.

Flowers were decoded into resilient, unique and serene qualities, with architects in mind as end users. Harry Potter represented courage, miracle and quest with the end user being doctors. Science was decoded into cosmos, Vedas and myth with the end users being design students.

Army represented determination, protection and unity with teachers as end users. Cubism meant rearrangement, geometry and dynamism with the corporate executive being the end user.

Then came the challenge of carrying out a survey of the end-users to identify their needs in the design and the colours to achieve appropriate designs for them.

Blue was used more for the tools designed for doctors with a subtle invisible “plus” marking. Orange and yellow were predominantly used in tools designed for teachers as they represent radiance of knowledge.

Through this exercise, the students were able to understand the structure, functions and behaviour of design information and expand upon the personal experience base.

This method of design process gave an opportunity to gain knowledge form studies and expansion of experiential understanding. There was general unanimity that inspiration from design can come from the most unexpected quarter. Each and every aspect of this universe can inspire a new design.

The most exciting feature of this project is that the students have already started receiving orders to create these designs from individual users and are also open to commissioned works for specific designs.