Framework for Engagement of Designers with Artisanal Community Fostered Through Design Education

Artisans in India have continued the craft practice by embracing and adapting to the change for keeping the craft contextual and thriving through centuries. Working with artisanal community is an intrinsic concept embedded in the Indian design education. Design is acknowledged to be relevant to India’s craft industry as a means of innovation. In the Indian context, designers working in the craft sector, work with a co-creation approach with the artisans and designers’ creative processes coming together. The research examines the pluriversal nature of design within a craft scenario, where the designers and artisans collaborate to further develop the vernacular form, knowledge, and practices. This research further highlights the need for in-depth understanding of local history, and knowhow embedded within the society following the work of Noel et al. This study stems from the engagement of design students with the artisanal community of the crafts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The method used for this approach is ethnographic study including observation, interviews and active participation with the community before embarking on the co-creation approach with the artisans to design the artefacts. The curriculum format of the design education for its engagement with the artisanal community is studied through the researcher’s experience of working in the field of design education for more than twenty years. The study suggests the frameworks of design students’ engagement with the community which allows the existence and consideration of multiple worldviews, lived experiences and collaborative creation processes which should be the tacit and explicit part of design-based curriculum.