I am Vinod. I am living in India and at present working as a software developer in a consulting firm. I am an Electrical and Electronics Engineer, graduated from an Indian university in the year 2004. It was a 4 year undergraduate course.
After working nearly 4 years, I have decided to pursue a 2 year course (atleast) in Industrial design. I prefer to study in an European university. I love transportaion design and product design very much. But I have some experience in Interaction design.
I have practiced to be good at freehand sketching, digital designing using Adobe Photoshop/Flash & Inkscape on my own. I do painting with Oils and Acrylics.
At present I can’t afford to study in CCS Detroit or ACCD California, so I had decided to study in Europe. I like very much to study in Germany, but only Master programs are taught in English. So far I have shortlisted TU Delft Holand, UmeÃ¥ Institute of Design Sweden, Strate Collège France and Aalborg University Denmark.
It would be very useful for me if you help me on the following,
I like course Industrial design, where I can design anything in the name of product. From furniture to car. Some colleges have Industrial design course and some has Product and Transportation design as a separate course. Please help me take up a good choice.
How to convert hand made sketches into digitized format (apart from digital scanning)?
There is a school in France that teaches in English? I think your going to have to do a four year program. I’d try for the states as there are more programs. You could go for a non accredited school. SCAD is respected, or art institute for your city is not respected but not expensive (I don’t think) But I would say you really want accredited schools. (accredited by the north central association)
Simon: accreditation is important to a certain extent. If you wish to continue to a master’s program, then it’s a good idea to consider school that have the appropriate accreditation. North Central is a regional accrediting body that applies to only certain states in the U.S. There are others for diferent regions in the U.S.
Vinod: in your case I would suggest figuring out what accreditation is needed where you want to study. I know that in the U.S. you can sometimes transfer courses from other countries and get some credit for them (at least some general education credits), reducing the amount of time to complete a program. I’m not sure if this applies to Europe.
You definitely want to inform yourself before making a move. Better to be prepared and know what to expect than be surprised. It would be a good idea to speak to someone at the University directly (if possible) and ask a lot of questions.
I am not sure I understand what it is you want.
If you want to study at undergrad level, which it sounds like, then I am pretty sure you will have trouble finding a school that teaches undergrad in a language different from their native tongue.
In other words, if Umea, it’s swedish and if Delft, it’s dutch and so on. Maybe you would like to consider a British school. There are some really good ones.
Your portfolio (or what’s on coroflot, which is not a lot) is hard to judge. It is just some basic community-collage photoshop. Not very exiting.
The schools you listed are very competitive and it is hard to get accepted. Especially if you want to transfer into junior level, since you mentioned you only want to go to school for 2 years.
If I were you, I would try to incorporate some of your engeneering capabillities into the prortfolio. For example, design a product in a field you like.
Make the drawings, figure out how it would works and so on. Check out some good process books from other design students and copy their process. Do the same steps but with your specialty in mind.
Your strength is that you know how things are put together and how they are manufactured. Definitely use that in your portfolio. A lot of designer don’t have a clue and can just design a pretty package (see all those paper thin cellphones).
I am not sure I understand what it is you want.
If you want to study at undergrad level, which it sounds like, then I am pretty sure you will have trouble finding a school that teaches undergrad in a language different from their native tongue.
In other words, if Umea, it’s swedish and if Delft, it’s dutch and so on. Maybe you would like to consider a British school. There are some really good ones.
Your portfolio (or what’s on coroflot, which is not a lot) is hard to judge. It is just some basic community-collage photoshop. Not very exiting.
The schools you listed are very competitive and it is hard to get accepted. Especially if you want to transfer into junior level, since you mentioned you only want to go to school for 2 years.
If I were you, I would try to incorporate some of your engeneering capabillities into the prortfolio. For example, design a product in a field you like.
Make the drawings, figure out how it would works and so on. Check out some good process books from other design students and copy their process. Do the same steps but with your specialty in mind.
Your strength is that you know how things are put together and how they are manufactured. Definitely use that in your portfolio. A lot of designer don’t have a clue and can just design a pretty package (see all those paper thin cellphones).
I was in the same situation as you till I gave up. Btw, If your age is not a concern, how about you travel to the Germany or Sweden or France, study their language and work for like 2 years (save some money) and enroll into their school. That was my plan before.
First of all my apologies for the very late reply.
Thank you very much for your precious answers!!!
Thanks for the comment for my portfolio. I haven’t made my hand drawn sketches into a soft copy. I’ll update it soon and get your comments.
Dear bepster: I do have concepts for designing in product and transportation design area. I’ll upload them once I convert them into soft copy.
Dear Sketchme: Education in UK is bit costlier for me. In any ways I’ll look into the colleges you have mentioned and get an idea. Thanks!
Dear Abun Jahal: I don’t know how far it is feasible to get a job in Germany. More over I hear from my friend that it is very competitive to get an admission there. I do have an interest in Pforzheim institute.
My special thanks to simon_four_fingers and erikb81.
I can’t afford an UG program now! It was bit late for me in (aged 25 years).
All I want is to make things which needs me for a great cause.
I chose colleges based upon my ability to spend my time and hard earned money. So I have finally decided my 5 choices and presenting for you here.