By A Correspondent
The Association of Designers of India (ADI) has announced the eight annual edition of the Pune Design Festival (PDF). It will be held on February 14 and 15 at Hotel Le Meridien, Pune (*See Disclosure).
According to Ashwini Deshpande, Managing Committee, ADI Pune Chapter and co-founder Elephant Design, the PDF is a one-of-a-kind initiative organized by practising designers from Pune. “As always, it will be a glocal platform with a mix of designers and design thinkers from India and overseas,” she said.
Pune Design Festival, has earned accolades for exploring diverse design and design-led business segments, noted a communiqué adding: “This year’s theme, Design Unlimited, will celebrate wider interpretations by exploring fields other than design that embrace good design.”
Since 2010, Pune Design Festival also celebrates work by design students through a student project competition in the following categories: Â Industrial Design, Graphic Design & Visual Communication, User Interface Design, Media- Film & Animation, Transportation Design and Craft-based products. Â The competition is open to all design students across the country for coursework and student projects. Entries should be submitted as soft copies, not more than 3 jpeg files of A3 size at 72 dpi resolution to competition14@punedesignfestival.org. Â Submission mail must mention category name in subject line. Entry is free. This is also the eighth edition of student competition. In the past there have been winners from design schools across the country including Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. The jury comprises well-known design professionals from across the country.
Said Nachiket Thakur, Head of Design at Mahindra Composites and part of the managing committee of the ADI Pune Chapter has been leading the awards initiative: “Battle of Design Projects – a student design projects competition is being arranged for the fourth time in a row. We started this initiative to encourage the good design work happening in various design schools in India. One of the competition winners last year went on to win the Red Dot award in Singapore for the product concept category. The competition is getting overwhelming response with each passing year. We are extending the submission deadline to February 1.”
Said Nikita Kanade, who was a winner in the 2013 edition: “Pune Design Festival is a wonderful platform to meet designers across disciplines and also to get your work noticed and analysed under their watchful eyes. I had the privilege of being associated with PDF 2013 through the student project competition where I won in the visual communication category. The event triggered insightful thinking and also opened gates for new conversations and design collaboration opportunities. It is a great window of opportunity for young designers to step in the professional world and experience a slice of it.” Ms Kanade was a student at MIT-ID when she participated in the competition and now works with Microsoft. More information on PDF is available on www.punedesignfestival.org.
*Disclosure: MxMIndia is a media partner of the Pune Design Festival