The Friday of 25th of January, we were all very excited. This was an opportunity like no other. We were being visited by the kind of person we had never seen before. Amit K. Gehlot started as an advertising agent and then went towards space and material design in Indian Institute of Craft and Design in Jaipur. He is someone who had his eyes everywhere. From industry to education, he was everywhere. Meeting him showed us a lot into this world we had never seen before. He loved all things geometric and in those few hours, he taught us to see the world in shapes and possibilities.
He had a great sense of humour and had us all cracking up in laughter in seconds. He talked about how it is to take a project from concept to reality. His talk was very educational in terms of practicality and industry learning. Not only did he talk about concepts, he even showed us some of his work which was a great insight. He talked about the Kanduk lamp souvenir and how it was used in FIFA, and shared a lot of such inside stories. He told us about cases with wrong designs and research not done well, and about the consequences of all these decisions gone wrong.
From this, we went to the activity that was the most fun element of the entire day. We gave sir a task, which he fulfilled with a laugh and a sporting spirit. The task was to draw a sketch of one’s parents with a blindfold. Everyone in the class took this up. They all opened photos of their parents on their phones and tried to memorize their faces. This was extremely enjoyable to us all. None of us were very great with it, but it was something we would always remember. Sir did a great job though. We could see what we had to learn from. Even when pushed him out of his comfort zone, he could do such a great job.
But this was not the end. We had a great activity in front of us where we had to create a permanent installation in our college with the scrap materials available. We got some time to ideate on the possibilities and planned to meet after an hour or so with concepts.
When we met after a while, sir showed us the projects he had done with colleges before. They were in all materials from paper to metal and wood. He believes that as a designer we should be comfortable using all the materials and I really agreed to this. He showed us how to begin a project via sketch and to take it to any digital software. He told us ways to make the support and structure easily with tricks.
He stayed with us all day and told us that the concept was the main part. We did not have time to execute the project completely but we did begin it. We would love to meet him again and create something for the campus with him. This event was very informative and we saw a new angle to the industry altogether. This Friday really was something else for us.
Written By,
Avantika Kulkarni