Postgraduate Diploma Program – PGDP (1 year)

Vision

Connect    ::    Extend    ::    Enrich

Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology now gives undergraduate students of any discipline a unique opportunity: a year to find the time and a space to fill with ideas, with engagement, with passion and with an exploration of the possibilities of a better life, career and profession. Srishti has designed three unique pathways that will give students the opportunity to enter a program that:

• connects the gap between a general B.A. in subjects as wide ranging as history, literature, hotel management or even computer application with professional education programs that service the creative and cultural industries - Bridge Pathway.
• extends, consolidates learning from a 3 year program that touched on professional skills in the creative or design sector such as Communicative English, Journalism, Animation, Interior Design, Graphic Design, Textile Design or others. Students will get the opportunity to master their skills through a year spent on active project based learning, mentoring by qualified professionals with considerable practical and
  professional experience - Finish Pathway.
• enriches the learning in art and design a student would have gained from school by giving them a space to learn through apprenticeship and internship with practitioners – artists and designers in their studios or projects - Apprenticeship Pathway.

Overview of the Program

Taught over two semesters this one-year graduate level program is designed to fulfill the standards set by Level 8 of the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF). It offers three distinct pathways in which a student can engage with the program, all of which differ in method and process of learning. All pathways require active learning, participation in seminars, peer reviews and also require independent learning mindsets.

Pathway 1: Bridge

The primary purpose of this pathway is to make it easier for a student to enter a Masters program in Art and Design even with three years of undergraduate education from a totally unrelated discipline. So, this pathway represents a real opportunity for students who have completed a three-year course such as B.A./B.Sc./B.Litt. or in service sector oriented programs such as hotel management or hospitality as it will give them the essential skills needed to join Srishti’s Master of Creative Arts (M.Cr.A.) or Master in Design (M.Des.) with its multiple choices of specialization.

After the Bridge program, students could consider any of these options:

Postgraduate Program in Design (M.Des.)
Postgraduate Program in Creative Arts (M.Cr.A.)

Pathway 2: Finish

The primary purpose of this pathway is to give students an opportunity to practice and learn by doing – specifically after three years in a quasi-design/creative programs such as a BA (Furniture, Interior, Graphic or Textile Design), B.Sc. in Animation, Advertising and or any other Media or Entertainment skill sectors. Students from Srishti who have successfully completed a one year Postgraduate Certificate Program are eligible for this pathway.

Students will learn from industry-trained professionals and contemporary artists. They’ll work on professional briefs in studios run in a range of creative disciplines. The core of the studio options offered under this pathway ranges from animation and advertising, to craft, product or furniture design, user interaction or media art.

Students who take the Finish pathway will find themselves transformed. Many new careers have emerged today which prize design thinking and creative and artistic expression. After their time at Srishti, students will be able to look at new professions and careers in a range of creative sectors where skilled professionals are in short supply.

Pathway 3: Apprenticeship

This unique pathway is custom designed for graduates of four-year programs in either art or design to practice as an “apprentice” under a master artist, designer or film-maker.

If students want to develop projects under artists in residence they may apply to/be accommodated within the following project:

If they want to apprentice under design professionals they may apply to:

The Apprenticeship Pathway gives students the opportunity to move directly into a practice within the creative sector of their choice. A student could begin work as a creative professional in companies/ad agencies/design houses/production studios etc. Entry levels into these spaces will depend entirely on the quality of the portfolio.

Course Structure

1. Disciplinary Studios are learning spaces where students develop core disciplinary capabilities, while navigating a trans-disciplinary environment
2. General Studies: A common and compulsory programme of study that integrates Humanities, Sciences, Development and Policy Studies and also offers Languages-English, Indian- Hindi and Kannada as well as Foreign (Spanish, French and German)
3. Electives: Of three kinds- this program allows students to expand their skills, develop the interests as well as provide opportunities for travel exchange
4. Project involves the application, synthesis and demonstration of capabilities

Learning Approaches

A variety of learning approaches will underpin the three pathways. However, all of them will focus on self-initiative and independent learning rather than a dependency on the teacher or directed and taught modules. The basic structure of all the programs is based on the following techniques:

• Studios: This is where learning will be constructed and developed through a series of practical exercises that allow and foster the development of skills needed in a predetermined sector (often referred to within Srishti as a Focus Area).
• Charettes: These are design challenges that represent an opportunity to walk through an entire cycle of design from ideation to final prototyping.

The Programs will be based on the following components:

• Projects – these are immersive, contextual and allow for interdisciplinarity, teamwork and also learner autonomy. Projects may also have a strong industry component to it and hence students may be working on design briefs given by an industrial partner in the sector.
• Theory – which includes developing core and essential competences in skills such as writing (a brief, a proposal, a script or advertising copy) to interpretation (through a grounding in aesthetics, criticism, communication for example).
• Seminars – both peer and specialist review seminars where portfolios, projects and papers are collaboratively reviewed and critiqued.

Capabilities

All three pathways will provide for the development of professional competences as described in the Level 8 of the NSQF.

Students graduating from Srishti will develop, in addition to the Level 8 skill requirements the following capabilities:

• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of a chosen area of knowledge and ability to communicate the same through a paper/exhibition written/worked as part of their theory and seminar courses.
• Question and extend known skill sets to develop a practice and ability to demonstrate your skills through studios and charettes.
• Self study, autonomy and creative problem solving through projects
• Teamwork and management in response to design briefs' - through charettes and projects

Opportunities

These Masters program will lead to careers that may culminate in positions such as Chief Design Officers, Creative Directors, Independent Artists or Filmmakers. Alternatively ideas developed within the Masters could be presented for funding as startups.

Award

Postgraduate Diploma in Art and Design.

Enquiries

For further information, kindly email Swati Maskeri at swati@srishti.ac.in