Written by Chaitali Sheth, Vice Principal, School of Design
A designer has the capacity to envision dreams and the ability to realize them. To fulfil the desire of a passionate individual giving birth to and nurturing such dreams, AnantU provides an international, interdisciplinary, and industry relevant platform to concretize the same. In sync with its vision to become one of the top universities of India in design, built habitat, and sustainability by 2025, it has come up with several programmes to enrol students who aspire to make a remarkable contribution in the field. This article deals with the different facets of the AnantU Design Entrance Test.
The pedagogical principles that drive education at Anant National University are based on the 3 H’s –Head (the technical domain), Hand (hands-on experience), and the Heart (embarking on values of empathy and community engagement). The programmes are further designed in a manner to facilitate observation, logical inquiry and problem-solving. The rationale behind these is to shape quality designers.
For potential candidates, the university’s test aims to assess design sensibilities of a school graduate. It consists of two main parts. The first part which is the main section deals with the elements of visual awareness, observing details that one can remember from scenes, visualizing concepts to tap creativity and imagination, and making colour choices with an understanding of functional meanings. The framing of the test is a challenge in itself as it also focuses on the narrative skills through visual stories and working on problems anchored in the real world. The second part of the test is the situation test where candidates need to create a miniature prototype of their design intervention.
So, how does one crack these tests? Is there any preparation required? To a certain extent, yes. One needs to be observant, with an eye for details and tap his/her aesthetic abilities. One also needs to be abreast with current affairs and theories related to colour. If these are important, so are time management and reasoning strategies/skills.
The AnantU Design Entrance Test is an attempt to gauge the abilities of potential designers, to give them a platform to showcase their skills and refine them in the process of further inquiry to become world-class designers.