Introducing SPREAD

Conception:

 IDIOM is humbly today India’s largest multidisciplinary design firm in the country, In the last few years design professionals at IDIOM Design and Consulting, Bangalore have been using design thinking as a key strategic tool to help in the disproportionate growth of some of the most desired business houses in India. At Idiom we believe that this process could be used to create the same results of inclusive growth for the nation and beyond. Idiom has, in a short span of time, moved from the business of design to the design of business. Creating ideas for India that are taken from mind to market with skill, speed and imagination. Idiom is ‘more’ than a design firm. Design education does not address this need that we see in the market.
SPREAD was hence born as the design outreach program of IDIOM. Since its induction three years ago SPREAD has successfully worked with various institutions and business houses conducting workshops, seminar programs and lectures to make design a weapon to transform and grow our economy and to better plan our lives and environment.  Spread makes design thinking, tools and processes accessible to design and business students, practitioners and even school children.

Need:

As India strives to be the epicenter of the new creative economy. We at SPREAD realize two immediate challenges the nation faces for the desired growth.
India has a severe shortage of Design professionals when compared to countries like the USA or Japan and our education system has been structured to nurture production economy rather than creative economy.
Our aim at SPREAD is to create future thought leaders whose designs would tangibly transform businesses and life. We at SPREAD aim to ignite this thinking process to a wide range of audience from corporate / entrepreneurs / business houses / governance to school children to youth in colleges practicing different streams of specialization Young. We aim to make India’s creative future ready.
What we offer:
 Design education (Design thinking and Design doing):
Design as we see it, has two parts to it-process and skill. The process can be easily taught and applied to a wide variety of problem solving exercise. The process or design thinking as it is better known today is a way of seeing , observing , questioning and foreseeing a problem / demand to get a holistic solution.
Spread also plans to impart soft skill courses for the non designers.

Design research and consulting:

The design and ethnography researchers at SPREAD are constantly caning the market and society for viable insights and ideas that could lead to a sustainable growth opportunity.
Journey so far:
 In acknowledgement to our work in India, team from Idiom was invited to Parsons and Stanford D School in New York in the month of March this year to better understand the true potential of economic growth in India with design as the key driver. The visit resulted in  NODES (A network for design education) was set up as a platform to promote Design and Design thinking, collaboration between SPREAD (Idiom) and Design Knowledge Network (Parsons).   

Next step:

 NODES (Spread/ Idiom and Design knowledge network / Parsons new school of design, NY) will be jointly conducting the first series of workshops from 3rd to 10th of June 2010. Dr. Carlos Teixeira from Parsons will be leading this workshop.


  
Moving forward:

Design is not for the elite; it is for all and can be practiced by all for a truly conscious growth. Hence we must SPREAD Design.
We will be targeting education, consulting services and vocational training for schooling and graduate students, non designers, corporate, social entrepreneurs, governance, small and MSES.
We will also be looking to attract like-minded people, passionate about inclusive and conscious growth as partners and research sponsors on the NODES platform.

Key People:

Carlos Teixeira, Ph.D.

 Carlos Teixeira is an Assistant Professor and Director of Academic Affairs at the School of Design Strategies, at Parsons The New School for Design. He has a PhD in Design from the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA. His teaching centers on the application of design practices for innovation. He also leads a research lab on Design Knowledge Networks. As a practitioner, he has professional experience as a communication designer and strategic design consultant in the United States and Brazil.

Sonia Manchanda

Sonia is Founder and Principal Designer at Idiom Design and Consulting. She believes that design is and can be a potent tool for creating and recreating the world we live in and design is as much relevant to life, as it is to business. She has led teams and worked on large scale projects that are cultural in nature, created public movements, working with city stakeholders, created the thinking, culture and visual identities for some of India's largest and most recognizable retail brands, besides some truly Indian and successful corporate brands. Spread is an initiative that she launched along with Idiom cofounders, to find innovative ways to spread design as a way of thinking and doing things. She is a product of the premium school of design ,  National institute of Design , Ahmadabad and is in the program committee of EPIC an ethnographic conference to be held at Japan.

Nimesh Pilla

Nimesh Pilla is the Leader Learning at SPREAD Design and a consultant on design strategies to Idiom Design and consulting, Bangalore. He has masters in Design strategies from Politechnico Di Milano , Milan and specializes in design innovation and management linked to new product service systems. He is a visiting faculty to School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi where he had done his graduation as an architect. He has worked as an architect and design strategist in India and Italy.