Pune Design Festival deliberates on the future of design

The ADI community was back with its biggest event held on the 3 and 4 February 2023. Since 2006, the Association of Designers of India (ADI), Pune Chapter, has been organising Pune Design Festival, a national-level conference with speakers and delegates from around the world. It is India’s marquee design event curated by the design community to enhance the role of professional design practice.

The 17th edition of Pune Design Festival deliberated over the futurist agenda for design over the next 25 years for India and for the world.

With the number of design institutes and studios situated in Pune, it was an ideal city to host a design festival. But the real question was, can Pune become a design hub in the upcoming years?

The question was raised by Meeta Malhotra, an active participant in India’s startup ecosystem, advising several young businesses on brand, design, and marketing strategy. 

The event welcomed Professor Sudhakar Nadkarni, who gave a glimpse into his book The Design Journey. His design philosophy is, “Just take up the challenge in front of you without making a fuss.”

Kirti Trivedi, professor at Industrial Design Centre, IIT, Bombay from 1975 to 2013, spoke about India’s first school of digital arts programme planned to start in June 2023. 

The festival ran across a week of concurrent events in the city. The two-day conference also included Battle of Projects, a platform for student designers to showcase their work.

The festival had hands-on workshops, and parallel forums focused on topics such as branding, gaming and animation, interaction design, and so on.

An outstanding lineup of speakers, including Bharatbala, a distinguished filmmaker and Nikki Gonnissen, an experienced designer at Thonik in Amsterdam, spoke on design for the future.

The key takeaway from the event was that design is expected to become better recognised. There will be an increasing engagement with advancements, emerging technologies, social landscape, and climate change, to leave a lasting impact over the next 25 years.