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Craft and
Design
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF CRAFTS AND DESIGN

ROLE OF DESIGNER IN CRAFT SECTOR

UG 3RD SEMESTER
HARD MATERIAL APPILICATION
(2018-2022 )

M.MOUNIKA REDDY
ANKITA DUTTA

PRAV INSINH SOLANKI

(16Th - 20Th SEPTEMBER )

I 1 WHAT IS A CRAFT?
WHO IS A CRAFTMEN?
WHAT IS A ROLE OF CRAFTMEN IN SOCIETY?

N
2
CONTEXT
WORKING ENV IRONMENT

D
RAW MATERIAL,TOOLS & PROCESS

3
CRAFTSMEN SKILL

E WORK PATTERN

X
4 WHAT IS A DESIGN?
WHO IS A DESIGNER?
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF DESIGNER IN THE SO-
CIETY?

5
ENV IRONMENTAL ISSUES
SUSTAINIBILITY

6
GOOD DESIGN
EXAMPLES OF GOOD BRANDS
INTRODUCTION
Handicrafts are, by definition, ‘made by hand’ using simple energy efficient tools, with minimum
environmental impact and a low carbon footprint, using locally available natural raw material.
Crafts are produced in a community-friendly manner and are of great artistic and functional value.
Crafts have always been a significant source of employment and income in our villages and towns.
Crafts have been interwoven with the culture of the people in India from the beginning of human
history. Crafts have been an integral part of daily life in villages, towns, courts and religious es-
tablishments. The variety of crafts and craft skills available in India and their continuous develop-
ment throughout the centuries make India a unique country. The crafts sector provides livelihood
to a large number of people and makes an enormous contribution to India’s economy.Handicrafts
accounts for one-fifth of India’s total exports. It is estimated that today there are over 1.2 crore
artisans and craftspersons working in the crafts sector.
However, India today occupies onlytwo per cent of the world trade in handicrafts despite there be-
ing over 3 crore artisans and weavers in this crafts sector. Compared to this, China has over 17 per
cent of the world trade in the crafts sector.
At the same time crafts sector in the country is facing threats from different corners. Industrial
manufacturers who produce cheap products in large quantities and are quick to diversify to meet
changing trends and fashions pose the biggest threat to the crafts sector in India. Globalisation of
trade policies have meant that quality handmade products from all other countries can enter and
compete with the existing crafts industry in India.
In the context of extreme disadvantageous position of crafts sector in the country steps need to be
taken to sustain craftasaneconomicactivity and preserve the traditional beauty and skills of
crafts.
It is in this context that design acquires important role in rejuvenation of crafts sector. Improving
designs is needed for realizing enormous potential of the crafts sector in the country. Crafts com-
munity needs to be provided with a global market perspective and expertise in design and develop-
ment to meet these new demands.
In building a brand identity for Indian handicrafts that meets these global concerns the role of
design becomes even more important.
At a time when global warming and climate change have become serious concerns importance of
making Indian handicrafts synonymous with environmental sustainability need to be underlined.
Craft is one of the few professions that is a direct result of the natural environment in which it is
practised. The existence of the surrounding natural materials—stone, wood, metal, clay, cotton,
cane and bamboo, silk, lac—is the impetus of most traditional crafts. This harmonious balance
between man and nature, economy and environment, not requiring huge inputs of artificial energy,
“A craft or trade is a profes-
sion that requires particular
skills and knowledge of
skilled work, usually em-
ployed in branches of the
decorative arts, or in an as-
sociated artistic practice. A
key feature of crafts is that
they involve a high degree
of “hands-on” craftsman-
ship rather than just skill
with a machine”.
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENTS OF CRAFT

Originally coined during medieval times in Europe, the term “Craft Guild” refers to an occupa-
tional association which typically consisted of all the artisans involved in a specific branch of in-
dustry or commerce. Largely developed after 1250, medieval craft guilds varied little in their general
organization. The disappearance of craft guilds signalled the end of master-craftsmanship as an
integral part of industry and commerce, and its replacement with machine-tool dexterity in both
factories and workshops.

This issue - the redundancy of individual hand-based craft skills, and the emergence of mass-pro-
duction methods to produce faster, cheaper but less “beautiful” products. The first reaction against
this mechanization was the Arts and Crafts Movement, which gathered momentum during late
Victorian times.
ARTS AND CRAFTS
MOVEMENT
The Arts and Crafts Movement was a social and
aesthetic movement of the late 19th and early 20th
century that advocated good design and craftsman-
ship at a time of increasing mechanization and mass
production. Mainly concerned with architecture
and the decorative arts the movement originated in
Britain but also had a significant impact on the con-
tinent and in America.

The movement’s name came from the Arts & Crafts

Exhibition Society, founded in 1888, but its origins
go back to the 1850s ideas of John Ruskin (1819-
1900). Ruskin abhorred the type of highly decorated
machine made products that dominated the Great
Exhibition of 1851 which led to the foundation of
the Victoria and Albert Museum and believed that
the beauty of medieval art sprang from the pride
His ideas had a huge influence on William Morris (1834-96) who, via
his decorative arts firm, set about the recreation of hand industry in a
machine age, producing a range of textiles, printed books, wallpaper,
furniture and other items. Commercially and aesthetically, his work was
a triumph, but he failed completely in his idea of producing art for the
masses because only rich people could afford his products. Even so, his
ideas strongly influenced craftsmen and teachers.

The Arts and Crafts movement also inspired designers, like Henry van
de Veldt , as well as styles such as Art Nouveau, Art Deco, the building
of the Honan Chapel (1916) in Cork, the Dutch De Still design group,
the Viennese Secession movement, the Deutscher Werkbund, the Wiener
Werkstätte, and eventually The Bauhaus Design School. Some art histori-
ans even regard it as a precursor of Minimalism, whose pure forms found
their way into architecture, painting, sculpture and many areas of applied
art.
There are thousands of crafts presents India which makes country a rich in heritage. These is a
small list which includes diifferent types of craft :
• Textiles
Appliqué, Crocheting, Embroidery, Felt-making, Knitting, Lace-making, Quilting, Weaving.
• Woodcraft
Wood-carving, Wood-turning, Cabinet making, Furniture making.
• Papercraft
Paper Modelling, Collage, Decoupage, Origami paper folding, Papier-mâché.
• Pottery and Glass Crafts
Ceramics, Mosaic Art, Glass Beadmaking, Glass Blowing, Glass Etching.
• Jewellery
Metalwork involving processes like embossing, repoussé work, engraving, enamelling .
“An CRAFTSMEN is a
skilled craft worker who
makes or creates material
objects partly or entirely by
hand. These objects may be
functional or strictly deco-
rative, example furniture,
decorative art, sculpture,
clothing, jewellery , food
items.A craftsmen practice
a craft and may through ex-
perience and aptitude reach
the expressive levels of an
artist”.
•Craftsman are the reason why different types of craft
are alive.
•Craftsman can be creator of the meaning of everyday life.
•Betterment of human and utility with their product.
•The educational system in developed countries sanctified
intellectual intelligence and looked down on manual skills.
•In the arts of conceptual innovation had overtaken crafts-
manship as the core competence.
•The consumer culture that stresses authenticity and quality.
Craftsmanship needs to meet such preferences.
•Craftsmanship further more satisfy the need for meaningful
work.
•Mastery provides essence of self-worth.
•Craftsmanship have the ability to restore the waste product
and make their own masterpiece with the precision.
 C
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DESIGN F
“The design as a specialized field of activity has evolved over a
period of time. However, apart from its industrial role we now
discuss design within the ambit of cultural, social and economic
phenomena where the designer plays a significant role. Therefore,
design could be understood as a form of human intervention to
make our surroundings more hospitable”
We as individual or groups or as members of the society are the oc-
cupants of this space as well as users of these designs. Design is
everywhere. It is around us in various forms such as zebra crossings,
barricades, road signs, rituals, and so on. Design, in the contemporary
society is all pervasive, an omnipresent phenomenon.

Design has manifold applications and usages ranging from the most
obvious or surface-level usages to the most subtle and indirect usages
that have far-reaching and deeper level impact. The significance of
design lies in its ability to fulfil these demands whether aesthetic, tele-
ological or semiotic.
By aesthetics, it is broadly understood as its sensory and beauty values i.e.
concerned with the judgment of visual taste. Design has function as well as
some purpose. In theoretical terms ability of design to fulfil the function or
purpose is called ‘teleology’ of design. Apart from the above two, there is
one more aspect of design called ‘content’ or meaning of design that can be
broadly called as semiotic value of design.
“A designer is a person who makes designs for objects . More formally, a designer
is an agent that “specifies the structural properties of a design object”. In practice,
anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games,
graphics, services, and experiences is referred to as a designer”.
Something well designed is created with a clear
intention, usually for the purpose of improving
some aspect of a user or consumer’s life. When
done well, designed objects or experiences are
difficult to spot because they’ve been created in
a way you only notice how delightful the expe-
rience of using them is, not how aesthetically
pleasing they are or how unique they appear

If the thing you’re designing is unique but not

useful, we call it imaginative (art is typically
more unique than valuable, for example). Or if
what you’re working on is useful but not unique,
it’s merely “status quo.” Design can comfortably
fall into a state of status quo, as the purpose
is to solve a problem and the problem itself is
typically where the creativity lies in the work,
not the execution.
It’s only when the things you come up with are
both unique and valuable that they can label
them as being creative.
Designers in particular have to study the medium, and production processes, so as to make the
design a reality. Artists do as well, but in a different way.

Art is the representation of a vision of the artist, whereas design is about communicating a solu-
tion to a problem, that will be produced by others. A designer must receive feedback from those
people actually producing the product, and adjust design based on the needs of the product, and
the medium the product uses. Industrial design is a very easy case to describe the difference.

Although both skills can be present in the same individual, they are vastly different processes, and
thought patterns.

An educated designer will spend time learning engineering, as well as their artistic skills. You can
see this in the curriculum of industrial design, or even landscape design. The designer must un-
derstand how materials are delivered, and how they are put together, in order to communicate and
effective design.

An artist has no such requirement, they are free to use their materials to express their idea in any
way they see fit, and they are most interested in how to express their vision, or emotion.
Environmental issues
The challenges for all involved with design and technology is to design and build products that –
• People need
• Are safe to use
• Do not pollute the earth or harm the environment in any way
• Do not destroy wildlife habitats
• Do not waste finite resources

Every year , the UK discards 2.5 billion paper cups , which are difficult to recycle because they also
contain polyethylene .

Europe commission says that “ nearly 80% of a products environmental impact can be improved
through eco-design” .

Eco-design minimizes a products negative impact by factoring environmental concerns into its
specifications , such as preservation of precious or non- renewable resources , the prevention of
pollution and the absence of danger for animal and plant species .
Sustainable
“Sustainability is an approach to design and development that focuses on environmental , social
,and financial factors that are often never addressed”
-Nathan Shedroff

Focuses on efficient and effective solutions that are better for society , the environment and com-
panies via effectively using natural resources , and reducing waste and toxins in the environment .

Key features of sustainability-

• Decrease of carbon foot prints
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Reducing over – consumption
• Diversity
• Decentralization and more
The philosophy of sustainable design, Jason F. MCLennan said designer should “ eliminate nega-
tive environmental impact completely through skilful , sensitive design”.
Principles of sustainability –
•Use non-toxic, sustainably produced, or recycled materials which have a lower environmental im
pact than traditional materials.
•Use manufacturing processes and produce products which are more energy efficient than tradi-
tional processes and end products.
•Build longer-lasting and better-functioning products which will have to be replaced less frequently,
which reduces the impact of producing replacements.
•Design products for reuse and recycling. Make them easy to disassemble so that the parts can be
reused to make new products.
•Consult sustainable design standards and guides .
•Consider product life cycle. Use life cycle analysis tools to help you design more sustainable prod
ucts.
•Shift the consumption mode from personal ownership of products to provision of services which
provide similar functions.
•Materials should come from nearby, sustainably managed renewable sources that can be compost-
ed when their usefulness is exhausted.
Good Design
According to Dleter Rams , good design should have the following characteristics –
1.Good design is innovative
2.Good design makes a product useful
3.Good design is aesthetic
4.Good design helps us to understand a product
5.Good design is unobtrusive
6.Good design is honest
7.Good design is durable
8.Good design is environmental friendly

Good design creates a connection with your customers . when you create a visually impactful
memorable and emotional connection with your branding design , you are showing your customers
who you are as a company .

Good design plays an important role in creating strong marketing strategies .

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REFERENCE

WIKIPEDIA
YOUTUBE
DESIGN TIMES
CRAFTS OF INDIA