Foundation course

Bridging
You
and
Design

Foundation is a bridging program, aiding your transition from school to un-school. The journey of all undergraduate design students begins with one year of Foundation. This phase gives students a creative pathway, preparing them to enter the open-ended, exploratory and experimental design environment at IIAD 

Students gradually evolve into confident, self-directed learners, ready for the future challenges of their chosen design discipline.

Course highlights

  • 2/4

Adapt and Evolve

Culture of Curiosity

Bridging People & Building connections

Learning Adventure

The Foundation year enables your transition from a traditional teaching environment to a studio-based supportive learning space. Rather than tutor-led instruction, we focus on student-led approaches. The course induces the ethos of rigour and hard work, and the open-ended experimental methods empower you to become a self-directed learner.

This is an exploratory phase that opens your senses to observe, question, explore and discover. You learn to ask meaningful questions, and discover ways to get answers. Dipping into your own experiences, you embark further on a lifelong quest for knowledge.

A multidisciplinary learning environment ensures an integrated experience for students, aiding them to make connections and build bridges across disciplines. Faculty from diverse creative fields ensure that you begin your journey of design education by getting exposure to varied perspectives and schools of thought.

Foundation provides an experimental environment where you think with your hands and work with your minds. The emphasis is more on the process than the outcome, which gives you the freedom to think radically and creatively, as well as develop an ability for risk-taking. This cultivates a creative confidence in our students, making them ready for an adventurous journey ahead.

COURSE DETAIL

COURSE DETAIL

  • Foundation
A learner-centric, studio-based approach in Foundation enables students to acquire a broad spectrum of design skills, building their design vocabulary. Students learn myriad techniques, methods and technologies for their future design practice. From hand-sketching to experimenting with materials, students develop sensitivity for a wide range of media. These experiments also give impetus to students to arrive at their personal ways of expression.
Students develop essential creative and critical thinking skills and also learn techniques for research and problem solving, which prepares them for their future design learning. Through theoretical and analytical approaches, they explore cultural, social and commercial perspectives, and begin to understand how context shapes design. This exploratory approach helps students formulate their own definitions and perspectives.
The Foundation year culminates with a Capstone Project. The most significant aspect of the project is that it enables students to articulate their individual creative process and expression through a personalised visual and design language. Students get an opportunity to demonstrate their design learnings by working on a project brief that is based on their future field of specialisation. This marks an important transitional phase, where students become aware of their potential to make a confident choice about the field of specialisation they wish to pursue. After successfully completing the Foundation year, students receive a UG Diploma and progress seamlessly into the BA (Hons) degree course of their choice.
A learner-centric, studio-based approach in Foundation enables students to acquire a broad spectrum of design skills, building their design vocabulary. Students learn myriad techniques, methods and technologies for their future design practice. From hand-sketching to experimenting with materials, students develop sensitivity for a wide range of media. These experiments also give impetus to students to arrive at their personal ways of expression.
Students develop essential creative and critical thinking skills and also learn techniques for research and problem solving, which prepares them for their future design learning. Through theoretical and analytical approaches, they explore cultural, social and commercial perspectives, and begin to understand how context shapes design. This exploratory approach helps students formulate their own definitions and perspectives.
The Foundation year culminates with a Capstone Project. The most significant aspect of the project is that it enables students to articulate their individual creative process and expression through a personalised visual and design language. Students get an opportunity to demonstrate their design learnings by working on a project brief that is based on their future field of specialisation. This marks an important transitional phase, where students become aware of their potential to make a confident choice about the field of specialisation they wish to pursue. After successfully completing the Foundation year, students receive a UG Diploma and progress seamlessly into the BA (Hons) degree course of their choice.

STUDENT WORK

“You have the freedom of thinking. The way we work is really cool, go have a cup of tea, chill out and work according to yourself.”
– Nikhil Shankar, Foundation Year
Sculptural interpretation of the human rib-cage and spinal cord.

Sculptural interpretation of the human rib-cage and spinal cord using ropes and tapes.

Creative experimentation - converting ordinary materials to create sculptural form.

Mundane to magnificent: creative experimentation of converting ordinary materials to create sculptural form.

Light and shadow on an architectural structure using acrylic pieces

A play of light and shadow on an architectural form and structure created by assembling multiple laser-cut acrylic pieces.

Exploring form and space through Plaster of Paris.

Student Work on Display at the IIAD Campus - Exploring form and space through Plaster of Paris.

‘Thinking through making’ - exploring form and space through various materials.

‘Thinking through Making’ - exploring form and space through a variety of materials.

Geometric abstraction inspired by Red Semal flower.

A geometric abstraction inspired by the form of the Red Semal Flower created by IIAD student.

success stories

Nishita Kumari

Communication Design
INTERNED AT
Mad Sam Tin Zin
PLACED AT
Bodice Bodice
2017 BATCH
Nishita Kumari

Nishita Kumari

Communication Design
INTERNED AT
Mad Sam Tin Zin
PLACED AT
Bodice Bodice
2017 BATCH
Nishita Kumari

Nishita Kumari

Communication Design
INTERNED AT
Mad Sam Tin Zin
PLACED AT
Bodice Bodice
2017 BATCH
Nishita Kumari

Nishita Kumari

Communication Design
INTERNED AT
Mad Sam Tin Zin
PLACED AT
Bodice Bodice
2017 BATCH
Nishita Kumari

Nishita Kumari

Communication Design
INTERNED AT
Mad Sam Tin Zin
PLACED AT
Bodice Bodice
2017 BATCH
Nishita Kumari

Nishita Kumari

Communication Design
INTERNED AT
Mad Sam Tin Zin
PLACED AT
Bodice Bodice
2017 BATCH
Nishita Kumari

Nishita Kumari

Communication Design
INTERNED AT
Mad Sam Tin Zin
PLACED AT
Bodice Bodice
2017 BATCH
Nishita Kumari

“Foundation is a learning adventure and a journey of discovery that challenges us. It has given us many memorable moments of triumphs and celebrations”

-Sakshi Jain, Foundation Year

"Faculty is so experienced, that they will look at your face and will know what is going on in your head."

- Srishti Deepranjan, Foundation Year

"We are learning every minute, but we don’t even know it"

- Arjun Yadav, Foundation Year

FACULTY

course

leaders

+

Prachi Mittal

Associate ProfessorFoundation in Design

A firm believer in the potential of Design and Creativity education, Prachi is a designer, educator and researcher. Her 20 years of industry experience spans across product design, social design, publication design as well as the business process of design. An Accessory Design graduate from National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, she is also armed with a PG certification in higher education from Kinston University, London.

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IIAD Faculty Prachi-Mittal

course
leader

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Pranay Mangrati

Associate Professor

Pranay Mangrati graduated from National Institute of Fashion Technology, He is now an associate professor with the Indian Institute of Art & Design and even though he is essentially a product designer at the core, he prefers not being confined to one disciplinary box.

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IIAD Faculty Pranay-Mangrati
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Tanya Kumar

Associate Professor

With over twenty years of experience, Tanya’s work spans across Alternate Construction, Crafts Initiative, Digital Content, Exhibition Design, Heritage Conservation, Product Design, and others. A strong advocator of hands-on learning, it is no surprise that Construction, Design, Graphics and Materials are her main subjects.

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IIAD Faculty Tanya-Kumar
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Kishore Chakraborty

Associate Professor

A sculptor from Kolkata, Kishore Chakraborty has been a practicing artist for the last 27 years. He was a senior fellow in sculpture from the Ministry of Culture. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in India and abroad along with his national and international solo shows. Kishore is a founding faculty member at IIAD.

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IIAD Faculty Kishore-Chakraborty
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Anshoo Rajvanshi

Associate Professor

Anshoo Rajvanshi with two decades of experience in the field of art and design has a fine arts and sociology background. She has conducted numerous workshops, solo and group shows in India, and has been a national scholar awarded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt of India. She was awarded a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, UK in 2018.

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Pankaj Narain

Associate Professor

Pankaj Narain is a Furniture Design Alumnus from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He holds a post graduate certification in teaching and learning in higher education from Kingston University, UK and has a teaching experience of over 14 years at various design institutes in the country. He has also completed a certification programme in Wood Seasoning from The Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. Currently, he teaches at Indian Institute of Art and Design.

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IIAD Faculty Pankaj-Narain
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Josh P. S.

Associate Professor

osh P. S is a young reputed contemporary artist. He secured a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting with distinction from College of Fine Arts Thiruvananthapuram, and a master’s degree from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

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IIAD Faculty Josh-PS
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Hemanshi Sagar

Assistant Professor

Hemanshi’s strong passion for design stems from her days at her alma mater (NIFT). With a varied career experience spanning over 8 years, her knowledge in design expands in multiple domains like UI/UX, packaging, and branding. 

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IIAD Faculty - Himanshi Sagar
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Gauravi Mittal

Lecturer

She is a faculty of Design Research & Context at IIAD, mentoring the students pursuing their Foundation Year Programme. She is a product design graduate from Indian Institute of Crafts & Design, Jaipur. She has worked innumerable design interventions as a facilitator in rural craft clusters under the Ministry of Textiles.

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IIAD Faculty Gauravi-Mittal

STUDIO

AND RESOURCES

IIAD has a purpose-built campus that is aligned to the dynamic learning-teaching needs of its progressive pedagogy and curriculum. The adaptive spaces with studios, digital labs and 3D material workshops have been designed to facilitate seamless multidisciplinary collaborations and exchanges.

Students have the opportunity to learn from and work with practicing design professionals.

Students have the opportunity to learn from and work with practicing design professionals.

Peer to Peer Learning Session

Peer discussion and collaborative work form an integal part of the pedagogical practices at IIAD

Students working with various tools in the Material Construction Lab

Students working with various tools in the Material Construction Lab at the IIAD campus as part of their projects.

Developing critical design thinking

Developing critical design thinking - students presenting, discussing, debating and defending through their ideas.

Student showcasing her work at the first IIAD graduate show 2019

Student showcasing her work at the first IIAD graduate show 2019.

Exploring different mediums of expression by working with hands

Students exploring different materials and mediums of expression by working with their hands.

STORIES