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In a path-breaking move to break barriers in cultural participation, for the first time, 24 Durga Puja pandals were made accessible for persons with disabilities in Kolkata this year. For a city that reverberates with and lives on Durga Pujo, this effort redefined celebration-entwining art, empathy, and accessibility into one seamless experience. It was born as a pilot project led by massArt in collaboration with UNESCO, IIT Kharagpur, and the United Nations, with this simple yet profound vision: making the world's largest public art festival universally accessible. 

Ramps and lifts came up on temporary structures, Braille signage guided visitors, QR codes gave access to sign language interpretation, and calm zones came into being for those wanting relief from the festive crowd. Each thoughtful addition spoke volumes, turning inclusion into life. During the recording of Make Calcutta Relevant Again, educationist and planner Dr. Haimanti Banerji spoke about how the movement took shape, along with sign language educator Priyanka Ghosh and United Nations Resident Coordinator Shombi Sharp. Priyanka Ghosh pointed to another critical dimension: that of emotional accessibility. 

According to her, from the training of volunteers to the availability of interpreters, inclusivity has ceased to be merely about physical access and grown into domains of communication and belonging. From the perspective of global policy, Shombi Sharp framed the initiative within the guiding promise of the UN- "to leave no one behind". But his most striking reflection came from the story of a father who, for the first time, took his 17-year-old daughter, a wheelchair user, to a Durga Puja pandal. For them, it was not just a visit-it was participation, a shared moment which made accessibility a matter of joy. 

At this crossroad of design and humanity, Kolkata offers a new vocabulary for relevance. In truth, the city's experiment in accessible celebration shows us how art, education, and urban design combine in teaching society empathy-not as charity but as culture. Because when inclusion becomes integral in how a community celebrates, then festivals evolve into powerful civic classrooms-teaching us not only how to build better spaces but, more important still, how to become better people.

The careers of design are in fast transition: from what once was a focus on print and product aesthetics to now UX for AI products, sustainable systems, and immersive AR experiences. That makes design education a tempting but tricky choice: Which design trainings will actually lead to steady jobs? Where is demand growing, and where is it shrinking?

Design education can promise a shining, vibrant career by 2025 and beyond, fueled by rapid technological changes, shifting consumer tastes, and strong focuses on innovation and sustainability. Large-scale growth in demand for design professionals, other than in graphic design, is reported through research and industry reports in multiple specializations like product design, UI/UX, and interior design.

Indeed, among the high-growth jobs, a number of digital and product roles feature in the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, as companies invest in customer experiences and AI interfaces. Strong demand for jobs which combine design with fluency in data/ AI was also noted in the report. The Future of Jobs Report 2025 looks at how macrotrends are shaping jobs and skills across 2025-2030.

Growth and demand in design careers

The market for interior design shows excellent growth prospects. According to a report by Amordesign, published in September 2025, the global interior design services market is valued at USD 145.01 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach up to USD 186.22 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 5.13%.

It was confined to the tech hubs, but it has now begun to reach into industries such as media, marketing, and design. And it is restructuring job markets within those industries. Reports by Burning Glass Institute have shown how AI and data skills make their way into both marketing and product roles and into design-the number of companies looking for designers who are fluent in AI or with data skills keeps growing.

 Equally, Burning Glass notes that such shifts by employers to competency-based hiring are a mixed bag for degree programs without specific skill training. Automated generative tools do routine design work, such as layout and templating, but increase demand for higher-order design skills: strategy, systems thinking, ethics, and human-AI interaction design. Burning Glass maps the diffusion of AI into design and marketing jobs. Businesses now compete on experience and hence product teams employ designers who understand research, analytics, and A/B testing. 

The World Economic Forum and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics data also point out that this is a structural shift. Sustainability, circular design, mobility, and health systems require design thinking at a systems scale hence opening roles in policy, product strategy, and service design that traditional studio courses may not cover. The World Economic Forum has also highlighted the green transition as one of the big job shapers. Employers increasingly screen by demonstrated output and skills, including Figma prototypes, GitHub, and case studies rather than degree titles alone. 

This means that programs which produce strong, hireable portfolios do better. Burning Glass' skills-based work documents this trend. In a blog dated July 2025, Mahindra University has mentioned that this innovation-driven approach to design education is now changing the way designers work around the world: real-world problem-solving lies at the heart of the approach, supported by cross-disciplinary collaboration and user-centered design thinking. This transformation opens up new career options related to sustainable design, immersive technologies, and more. Further, the blog has focused on how such a model of education will prepare students to address modern challenges and changing industry needs. 

Technological influence and specialisation of skills With recent transformations, there is an increasing focus on UX/UI design, motion graphics, AR/VR design, and data analytics to interpret user behavior so as to create personalized experiences. Remote work also reshapes the design job market, enabling greater flexibility and wider pools of talent. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 4% job growth rate in design fields from 2020 to 2030, driven by AI, automation, and the need for specialized design skills. 

On LinkedIn, articles as far back as 2024 indicate that this will manifest as jobs being developed around the emergence of AI tools like Adobe Sensei, which enables designers to automate mundane tasks and focus their time on creativity. Jobs merging design thinking with machine learning, such as that of an AI Design Strategist, will become essential. A 2020 paper entitled Educating the Designer of 2025, published in the journal Design Studies, made a case for expanded design education-one that deals with grander societal challenges and increasingly interdisciplinary solutions. What this points out is that innovation-led education will better equip designers to proactively solve complex problems with user-centered approaches. Similarly, the 2025 U.S. Design Industry Benchmark Report by Think Lab, featured in the January 2025 issue of Architecture & Design, yielded insight into a number of developing themes: the growing use of designers and AI tools; shifting employment landscapes; and a growing interest in sustainable and client-driven design solutions. It therefore follows that education programs will have to mature to equip the designer with technological and sustainable competencies in order to thrive. 

All in all, design education will be a robust, future-ready career choice in the year 2025 and beyond. Digital transformation, integration of AI into processes, demand for sustainability, and growing scope across design specializations drive this. Academic institutions embracing innovative, interdisciplinary, and technology-integrated teaching models will be in a good position to equip the next generation of designers.

The fast-evolving design sector in India makes the choice of getting into the right design college particularly paramount for aspiring creatives. Nuanced takes on how students should approach their choices, and what sets good institutions apart, come from visionaries such as Dr. Sanjay Gupta from World University of Design.

Breadth of Specialisations

The best design schools offer a variety of programs, from traditional fields of graphic and fashion design to new fields such as digital products, UX/UI design, animation, gaming, and industrial design. The WUD offers choices for more than 40 programs at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels in order to align with diverse interests and career goals.​

Industry Links

 At this time, this is very critical for skill development and also to keep the students employable. The curriculum at WUD integrates real-world projects in partnership with leading firms, opening the doors to future opportunities.​ 

Mentorship Culture 

Effective design education goes beyond mere mastery of skills into personal growth and the creative mindset. Colleges that boast strong mentorship by accomplished faculty and visiting professionals nurture reflection, guidance, and career clarity. Mentorship is intrinsic to WUD's model in helping students come into confidence to shape their aspirations.​ 

Practical Learning Opportunities

 The most successful design schools believe in experiential learning through studios, workshops, and interdisciplinary modules. WUD places students in the midst of live industry projects and allows experimentation to prepare them for new emerging roles in digital and product design.

​ Global Exposure 

Global perspectives will be of immense benefit in today's interlinked world. WUD is recognized by UGC and offers merit-based and special scholarships for meritorious students.​

While choosing a design institute, look at them holistically: specialisation offerings, mentorship, industry links, hands-on learning, and global reach. On all counts, World University of Design, Sonipat represents this, thereby enabling students to have highly dynamic and successful careers across the wide spectrum of design.

One of the most important instruments for influencing a student's education is the curriculum. The 2023 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report predicts that by 2030, the growth of AI, the demand for sustainability, and the use of big data would have altered over 40% of occupational abilities.

According to UNESCO's recent web article, the imperative is toward developing lifelong learning and interdisciplinarity in students in order to prepare them for the complexity of the future. In their generation, rapid technological, environmental, and social changes urgently call for a rethink of higher education across disciplines.

In this changing scenario, the roles of design schools everywhere would be entirely different by the year 2030. Most of the design programs these days align their curricula with theoretical concepts and cases that are already outdated, while mastery of tools and techniques includes the primary ones, such as typography and sketching.

On the other hand, designers who can look beyond the aesthetic solution of systems design for complex challenges are in increasing demand. As a matter of fact, the whole design industry, which once was about sketching, ergonomics, and prototyping, is adapting to make room for subjects such as artificial intelligence, bio-design, extended reality (XR), robotics, and sustainability technologies-issues that today are the new essentials in a creative curriculum.

Leading design schools around the world, such as MIT Media Lab from the US, L'École de design Nantes Atlantique from France, Parsons School of Design from the US, Royal College of Art from the UK, Stanford d.school from the US, and The Design Village from India, have already taken important steps to adapt to this new reality. It is this transition that other design schools around the world should embark on. The new framework needs to concentrate on: Transdisciplinary Knowledge: For designers to become more deeply trained in tackling some of society's increasingly complex and interconnected problems, they would need a transdisciplinary approach-one that incorporates knowledge and methods but also the perspectives from technology, social sciences, environmental studies, and the arts. This will also give designers a better understanding of how to work with other professionals in dealing with uncertainty and co-creating meaningful futures. Tech Collaboration: Technology needs to be integrated within the curriculum of global design colleges in the form of AI - understanding generative AI, algorithmic limits, and ethical risks; Big Data - using Big Data for underpinning design decisions and for assessing impact; Metaverse - to use AR, VR, and XR for immersive prototyping and experiential storytelling; and Robotics - for them to understand technology and design interactions for adaptive systems, wearables, and responsive environments. Ethics and Policy: The rapid changes in the creative industry, along with recognition of the design process in non-creative industries, means design schools will have to institutionalize courses on IP rights, legal implications of creative work, policy-sensitive design, ethical literacy, etc. New Material & Fabrication Practices: Design schools, by 2030, need to change the emphasis of regular material and prototyping courses toward circular materials, computational fabrication, net-zero prototyping, and embedding sustainability metrics. In the future, courses will have to put emphasis on a 'creative' and 'critical' lens whereby students test out ideas and explore material behavior, but also understand the ecological and ethical and technological implications of production.

Future designers' education will need to be rethought by design schools. They will need to educate designers who can contribute significantly to the development of ethical technology, sustainable economies, and inclusive societies—designers who simultaneously think like artists, anthropologists, and scientists. Only when global d-schools institute this expanded role of designers will the world be in a position to leverage the full potential of design.

Design education today in India has grown beyond curriculum delivery, with the best institutions and mentors acting as catalysts in personal and professional development.

Defining Purpose and Building Direction

Students are guided through consistent mentorship in specializations, choosing the right streams, and on to portfolio building as a reflection of an individual journey.​

Practical Exposure and Integration with Industry

According to Dr. Gupta, students should seek colleges offering much more than classroom lectures since real impact through experiential learning-internships, live industry projects, coworking with professional design firms, and collaborative studios-is what exposes students to real-life problems and solutions.​

WUD is one of those institutes that work hand in hand with the top design and creative enterprises to ensure practical experience along with academic learning. Summer internships, competitive placements, and direct links with alumni enable students to build up their network and skill set, making them more market-ready.​ Holistic Mentorship and Portfolio Guidance Mentorship at an institution like WUD is multi-dimensional, drawing upon experienced faculty, visiting professionals, and alumni networks. Students get guidance related not only to technical skills but also towards developing critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and career planning. Faculty and industry mentors help learners build robust portfolios and refine their unique voice as designers.​ Special wings like IDEAHATCH at WUD encourage entrepreneurship through one-on-one expert mentorship, exposure to innovation labs, ideation, patenting, and business setup for aspiring design entrepreneurs.​ Collaborative and Innovation-Friendly Environments These institutions that invest in infrastructure, creative labs, industry partnerships, and alumni associations provide a safe space for experimentation, collaboration, and development for students to grow as independent thinkers and professionals.​ Conclusion Mentorship and institutional support are very essential to getting a holistic and enriching design education. Aspirants will do well by choosing those colleges that encourage real-world exposure, collaboration, and strong support systems to guide personal and career growth-as is the practice in top institutions like WUD

The Indian design industry is in a process of dynamic transformation, now extending well beyond areas related to fashion or interior design to such aspects as digital, industrial, and experiential domains. As the Vice Chancellor of the World University of Design, Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains, the current wave of design education is all about translating creativity into problem-solving, user-centricity, and innovation.

The design industry in the present times is an all-encompassing industry, from graphic and web design to UX/UI design, animation, industrial product design, and digital media. This diversity is fueled by new-age demands in which visual identity and user experience have become intrinsic to how businesses communicate with consumers. As Dr. Gupta also points out, design today is embedded in fields like technology, healthcare, education, retail, and brand strategy-things that were hitherto thought to be outside the realm of a designer's work.

Dr. Gupta asks students to begin the design journey on a very introspective note by deeply understanding their personal interests and natural aptitudes. According to him, the laying of the foundation rooted in understanding one's own inclinations-be it a love for drawing, digital art, or visual composition; or maybe fascination with emerging technology or an instinct at solving complex problems-is what will steer one to a satisfying career in design. As far as young professionals are concerned, it helps them to identify their right specialization early on, provides them with long-term vision, and aids in gaining a competitive edge.

He further emphasizes that design as a career in India is at an exponential growth stage. With companies increasingly realizing how design tells the story of brands, makes products more usable, and creates customer engagement, skilled designers are increasingly sought after. Be it as a freelancer, startup, or global corporation, designers today are not mere creators; they're strategists influencing the way people interact with the world through thoughtfully designed interventions. According to Dr. Gupta, it is the embracing of both creativity and technology that will define the next generation of designers. The future belongs to those who blend artistic sensitivity with analytic reasoning by merging aesthetic appeal with functionality and purpose.