Permanent Faculties
Raj Gopal Menon
Professor & Dean
M.Des. in Industrial Design, IIT Mumbai; B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering, Calicut University
Raj Gopal Menon is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Calicut University with a postgraduate degree in Industrial Design from IIT, Mumbai. He has more than 35 years of experience encompassing a wide array of industries and sectors such as technology, consumer products, energy, health, and design. Kaynes Technology, RAL Consumer Products, Duron Energy Pvt. Ltd., Geneva Innovations International, Perfint Health, Vital Bio Systems, Indez Designs, and his alma mater IIT, Mumbai are some of the prestigious organisations and institutions where he has significantly contributed as a design professional.
Prior to joining JKLU, Raj worked as a Consultant where he was involved in medical devices prototype production for the last two years. He is an avid reader with profound interest in music, calligraphy and origami.
Suranjana Satwalekar
Professor of Practice
Exhibition Designer; Senior Faculty - NID Ahmedabad; Founder - Satwalekar Design Studio; Alum - NID Ahmedabad, St. Stephens, DU.
Prof. Suranjana holds 18 years of teaching and practice at NID along with professional practice and service as jury and reviewer for several Design schools like CEPT and Nirma University. She has a professional career spanning over three decades that includes teaching and practice in exhibition/ museum design, photography, audio visuals and design for television.
At NID, she also served as Chairperson of Design Office, managing large professional projects and has been instrumental in restarting the Exhibition Design.
Suranjana Satwalekar studied Exhibition Design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad after graduating with Honours in Philosophy from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. As Senior Design faculty at NID, she was instrumental in setting up NID’s multi-image Audio Visual Studio and re-starting its Exhibition Design Programme in 1997, heading both till 2001.
In 2003, she left NID to start independent design practice in Ahmedabad and subsequently in 2007, she set up Satwalekar Design Studio in Mumbai. She was also the Museum Design Advisor to Shapoorji Pallonji for the recently opened Dandi Kutir multi-media museum in Gandhinagar and served on the Interpretation Advisory Committee of the Punjab Heritage & Tourism Promotion Board’s ADB-assisted project – Interpretation of Built and Natural Heritage of Punjab.
She has travelled the subcontinent extensively on numerous photographic assignments for exhibitions and AVs. A large collection of her photographs are in the NID archives. Her photographs are featured in Rashtrapati Bhawan-The Story of the President’s House; Handmade in India, an encyclopaedia of Indian crafts and Great Monuments of India, a DK publication.
Devanuj K. Balkrishan
Professor, Institute of Design
PhD in Human Interaction from IIT, Bombay ; M.Des from IIT ; B.Arch from IIT,Roorkee
A designer with qualifications in three different domains of design namely, Architecture from IIT, Roorkee, Product Design from IIT, Delhi and Human-Computer Interaction from IIT, Bombay. He is trained to work on human problems related to habitat or usability.
Regardless of the domains, his work follows four phases:
- Analysis: Developing a coherent understanding of the users’ context along physical, social, cultural, technological & political dimension
- Exploration: Creatively exploring the solution space
- Design: Prototyping solutions, and
- Evaluation: Iteratively evaluating the competing solutions with respect to original design goals.
He is a noted scholar who has developed approaches to train computers for recognising human handwriting at Tata Consultancy Services. Currently, he is working on understanding and predicting digital technology usage in rural and low-literate contexts in India from a design oriented approach.
For the last three years, he has been on the program committee of the Indian conference on Human Computer Interaction (India-HCI). During his PhD, he developed an inclination towards social sciences and statistics, that reflects strongly in his thesis. Additionally, he is a student-practitioner of traditional Advaita, Vedanta philosophy. He is also an engineer who not only studied at India’s premier technical institutes, but has worked in the country’s largest IT Company in a role that required high proficiency in mathematics and programming. Last but not the least, he also identifies as an artist who has acquired many creative skills, both through academic discipline and outside it. This includes poetry, film making, and music composition.
Anirudha Biswas
Assistant Professor
Industrial Designer; Product Designer; Mentor, Pearl Academy
Anirudha Biswas is an interdisciplinary industrial designer. He is a graduate in Civil Engineering from Biju Patnaik University, Orissa and Masters in Design from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He is the recipient of several international awards and is one among the first Indian designer duo to have received Red Dot award for sustainable rural innovation-led development, 2017; Red Dot nomination for innovative psychological educational tool for children, 2017; Red Dot nomination for sustainable lifestyle product design, 2018 and Red Dot nomination for innovative fashion lifestyle product, 2020. His innovative hangar designs have been nominated for A Design Award, Italy, 2018. His works on lifestyle designs in bamboo are in the permanent collection of World Bamboo Museum, Damyang, Korea. He also worked with Suta, Mumbai for their brand development in 2015.
In India, he has worked as the Design Manager for Godrej and Boyce Pvt. ltd. Where he was looking after research and strategy for new product development in B2C and CMF for B2B markets. He also worked at Pearl Academy as Industrial product designer, Product Design. His expertise lies in subjects related to NPD, Material Innovation, IPD, CMF etc. At Pearl, Anirudha was a mentor and guide to students of industrial design and industrial collaborative projects.
Shivatmika Lala
Lecturer
Animation Film Design; NID, Ahmedabad; Diploma in Stop motion animation, Barreira Arte y Diseño, Valencia, Spain
Shivatmika is a graduate in animation film design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She went on to do her diploma in stop motion animation from Barreira Arte y Diseño, Valencia, Spain.
She likes experimenting with different materials and textures. Having worked with leading animation studios and children’s book publishers, she has also been a part of international collaborative projects with Sheridan College, Canada; Brian Larson (RIT, New York), and Akira Arimochi, Hiroshima City University, Japan. She aspires to inculcate sensitivity through her teaching, not only about design, but touching all aspects of life. The learning experience for her is best imbibed when it is mutual.
Beda Prakash Das
Assistant Professor
Product Design; Automotive Design; Advanced Skills in 2D and 3D Design
Beda Prakash Das in a graduate in Product Design from NID, Ahmedabad. He has many years of work experience in the field of Automotive Design including 5 years in Hero Motocorp under the Motorcycle Design section. He has done projects with Titan, Robert Bosch, GMBH. He was also an exchange student with Politecnico de Milano, in Milan, Italy. Beda has been felicitated and awarded by Sir Ratan Tata Education Grant at NID for academic excellence. He was was also one of the winners in the Honeywell Aerospace Design Challenge, Bangalore in 2015. As a design professional, he is multi-skilled and accomplished in ideation process and original research. He has a rich understanding of materials and manufacturing processes and advanced skills in digital representation in both 2D and 3D. He is passionate about photography with a keen interest in wildlife, portrait sketching and digital illustration.
Astha Gohil
Assistant Professor
Visual Communication Designer; Independent film maker; Academician/ Mentor
Aastha Gohil Is a visual communication Designer who is an international award winning documentary film maker Having done her graduation in film & video communication from the prestigious National institute of design and masters in Screenwriting from Edinburgh Napier university Edinburgh Scotland She has been an Advertising industry expert, documentary film maker in india and abroad and an academician since 2010 at various universities all over india.
Binil Mohan
Assistant Professor
Design management professional; CSIP Research Fellow; Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellow.
Binil Mohan holds an undergraduate degree in Travel and Tourism from Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, Gwalior and a masters degree in Fashion from NIFT, New Delhi. He has also completed an executive education programme on ‘Luxury and Lifestyle Businesses’ from IIM, Ahmedabad. He has more than 13 years of experience to his credit. He has worked with Indian Terrain as an Assistant Manager and as a member of the faculty at Indian Institute of Craft and Design.
Binil Mohan brings along a rich decade long experience in design education, crafts outreach, and international student exchange programmes. He had anchored the ‘Crafting Luxury and Lifestyle Businesses’ programme at Indian Institute of Crafts and Design in association with IIM, Ahmedabad. This is a unique programme for young design entrepreneurs who wish to build strong, conscious global businesses that are deeply influenced by Indian heritage and artisanal craftsmanship. He is a recipient of CSIP Research Fellowship anchored at Ashoka University and Sahapedia- UNESCO Fellowship. He has worked in advisory capacity with an award-winning philanthropic initiative – Kalhath Institute ,Lucknow. Prior to moving into academia, he worked with a prominent apparel brand, handling their product management.
Pritam Singh
Assistant professor
Interaction Designer | B.Des., NIFT New Delhi; M.Des., NID Gandhinagar
Pritam Singh is an established Interaction Designer known for his inquisitive mindset and a methodical, pragmatic approach. He holds more than 5 years of professional experience in the realm of innovative experience design spanning diverse industries like Imagin XP, Deep Loop, United World Institute of Design, Woxsen School of Art & Design, and Mody University. Prior to joining JKLU, Pritam served as a consultant in digital product design for two years. He is an accomplished academician and an authority in UI/ UX with a comprehensive understanding of diverse domains, including user experience, design research, human-computer interaction, human-machine interface, voice-user interface, interaction design, and service design.
Pritam has mentored aspiring designers through his knowledge and enthusiasm for design, technology, and education. His advocacy extends to integrating design thinking principles in both business and academic curricula. He strongly emphasises on using design both as a skill and a holistic mindset that is applicable to a broad spectrum of industries and professions. Pritam was awarded "Winner of Creative Excellence" accolade in 2016 in New Zealand and the "Collection on Zero Waste | Liva Protégé" award in 2017. His distinct area of interest lies in harnessing emerging technologies and employing human-centred design methodologies to craft intuitive, user-centric interfaces that elevate user experience. His dedication to the art and science of interaction design exemplifies his unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation.
Yash Raizada
Lecturer
Graphic Design; Branding; Media Management; Data Visualisation
Yash is a process-oriented graphic design professional with an experience of more than 12 years in Design Education and Design Industry. He is a graduate in Multimedia from Punjab Technical University, Kapurthala with a PG Diploma in Forensic Photography (Animation and Design) from IFS and PGDBA (Banking and Marketing) from Time Pro, Jaipur. He has worked with Advaiya Solutions, RSLDC, Jaipur and Govt. of Bihar on various design and media projects. He has been actively involved in Branding, Graphic Design, Media Management, and Data Visualisation.
Amitanshu R. Shrivastav
Lecturer
Product Designer ; B.Des from IICD, Jaipur; Founder Designer at Amitansh Thinking Studio.
Abhishek Meena
Lecturer
Furniture design; Industrial design; Design execution; B.Des. from NID, Ahmedabad; Founder – Sacca Design
Abhishek Meena is a graduate of furniture and interior design from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad with more than 5 years of experience in furniture design. He has been associated with various export houses and has had his products displayed at the IHGF Delhi fair. In 2018 he turned entrepreneur and founded Sacca Design in Jaipur, where he worked extensively in design consultancy, research, prototyping, testing, and production of various products for B2B and B2C markets.
Abhishek specialises in transforming concepts and ideas into reality by creating tangible and functional custom products that meet the needs of clients as well as end-users. He likes to work on material innovation and manufacturing solutions. Previously he was a visiting faculty at JKLU. Abhishek aspires to create learning experiences around the journey of design, from concept to execution.