A group of students in IND 336 Toy Design (one course in Industrial Design program) joined the workshop conducted by the two visiting professors from National Institute of Design, India as part of academic collaboration. Prof. Sudarshan Khanna and Prof. Surabhi Khanna facilitated the Toy Design Workshop which was held on February 21-28, 2018 at the Jury Hall (SoA+D Building).
Design Educator Professor Sudarshan Khanna was the Principal Designer, Chairman of Education and Research and Head of Toy Innovation Centre at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, India. He is a pioneer in the research of interesting facets of indigenous toys and crafts communities all over India. His daughter Prof. Surabhi Khanna, a designer-educator and architect, has also conducted the workshops with him. They have been invited together by institutions and organizations in Colombia (South America), Denmark and India.
The eight-day workshop was aimed at broadening students’ knowledge in toy design beyond the commercial toy design setting and exploring the realm of toy design as a cultural artifact in India in comparison with the vernacular Thai toy. Hence the following topics and activities were set to materialize the objectives: Toys and tales as cultural resource for design development, Tradition and modernity – playful insights of fusion in design, Ingenious toys and games as innovative tools for design development, Lecture on “Old wisdom in the digital age”, Workshop project – ideation and concept development, Design development and finalizing the concept, Design development and finalizing the concept, Group presentations, Public lecture and documentation, and final interaction with the faculty and students to raise feedback and future direction and ideas for publication possibilities.
