Career Options in Design and Architecture

 Architecture is the study of the art and science of designing a physical structure be it buildings, communities, skyscrapers, artificial constructions, etc. This work includes both creativity and designing of a structure and extends to keep an eye on the actual construction. 

The professional provided with this study and the necessary capabilities and abilities is known as an architect. 

As Julia Morgan, a famous architect once said, “Architecture is a visual art and the buildings speak for themselves.” It is indeed true even today and it begins where engineering ends. 

The newest evolutions in this field are indoor-outdoor living, hypnotic bridges, rotating skyscrapers, natural disaster-proof forts, 3D printed interiors, etc. With the development in technology, we are already observing smart home technology being supported and put to the best use. 

Architecture and profession in Design as a Career option is very pleasing and is going forward due to the massive need for good professionals in these fields.

Architects may be involved in all chapters of evolution and growth, from the initial discussion to construction. Their duties demand a variety of skills e.g design, engineering, managerial and supervisory.

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List of Architecture Entrance Exams in India

In India every year various Architecture entrance exams are conducted by different colleges, universities, and many top institutes. These entrance exams are conducted at various levels such as state level, national level, and university level.

The following are the most popular architecture entrance exams that are conducted for providing admissions to various architecture programs.

1. JEE Main Paper II (Joint Entrance Exam for B.Arch program)
2. NATA (National Aptitude Test in Architecture)
3. HITSEEE (Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science Engineering Entrance Examination)
4. GAT GITAM Admission Test (Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management Admission Test).
5. BSAUEEE (BS Abdul Rahman University Engineering entrance exam)
6. KIITEE (Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Entrance Exam)
7. AMUEEE (Aligarh Muslim University Engineering Entrance Examination)

Design is a tremendously developed field that constantly requires trained and skilled people. It incorporates many subfields within it and is further divided into numerous specializations. 

It involves specializations in Fashion Design, Interior Design, Jewellery Design, Textile Design, and Transportation Design amongst many others. Some specializations in Design require mathematics as a compulsory subject, for instance, Web design, Robotics design, and sound design.

Design as a career has a huge range and there is a constant demand for people who are artistic as well as cordial with new methods in the designing world.

To make a fortunate career in design, an individual needs to not only work on artistic skills but is also required to learn the art of paying attention to every tiny detail.

A career in designing requires lots of accuracy and diligence which is not difficult as long as the candidate is making the apt choices. In order to do well in the design field, it is very crucial to pick out a suitable college for admission because a relevant college can help in creating the future of the student.

Check: Best Architecture Schools in India That You Should Target

List of Design Entrance Exams in India

Check out the list of design exams for career options in design and architecture

1. NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology)
2. NID (National Institute of Design)
3. FDDI (Footwear Design Development Institute)
4. UCEED (Undergraduate Common Entrance Exam for Design)
5. SEED (Symbiosis Entrance Exam for Design)

In this article, you will get to know about all the career options in the design and architecture field.

Major Classification of the Design and Architecture Fields 

When we talk about design and architecture both together then we can divide the design into 6 major fields. The major fields of classifications of both the fields are as follows: -

1. Architecture
2. Fashion Design
3. Interior Design
4. Product Design
5. Communication Design
6. Textile Design

Check: List of Government Architecture Colleges

(1) Architecture - Architecture is both the procedure and the outcome of planning, designing, and constructing buildings or other structures. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often recognized as cultural symbols and as works of art.

(2) Fashion Design - Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is affected by the culture and different trends and has varied over time and place. 

(3) Interior Design - Interior design is the art and science of upgrading the interior of a building to accomplish a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, experiments organizes, and manages such enhancement projects.

(4) Product Design - Product design as a verb is to design a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. A very wide amount and effective generation and evolution of designs through a process that leads to new products. Thus, it is a major feature of new product development.

(5) Communication Design - Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development which is concerned with how media involvement such as printed, crafted, electronic media or presentations communicate with people. Some designers use graphic design and communication design interchangeably due to overlapping skills.

(6) Textile Design - Textile design is the innovative and hi-tech process by which thread or yarn fibers are woven together or interlaced to form a workable, useful, and decorative cloth or fabric which is subsequently printed upon or otherwise adorned.

Check: List of Top Private Architecture Colleges in India

Should I do a Job or be Self Employed?

This question everyone has in their mind is whether we should do a job or be self-employed.

The answer to this question depends on what you want. Usually, a designer will work on their own but again it depends on which field we are working in. 

If you work as an interior designer or fashion designer then it is difficult to work under somebody because there is very limited scope in this field’s job. That's why mostly everybody prefers to be self-employed in this field because being self-employed in this specialization is really good and you will have unlimited scope to rise.

On the other hand, when we talk about communication design, textile design, Product Design, and VFX animation, these specializations have excellent job opportunities with unlimited scope to rise. In these specializations, big companies hire you for their research work, for their effective communication work, etc.

Recently, good and encouraging news came that the biggest recruiter for the National Institute of Design (NID) is Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

Now, you can understand that there is a very high scope in choosing a job then being self-employed if you are doing courses in these specializations.

Check: NATA Colleges List

Overall Classification of the Major Fields of Design and Architecture

There are 24 major fields of Design and Architecture. Above we have mentioned 6 the most pursued or you can say that the 6 fields which are in demand. But here we have mentioned all the major fields of Design.

1. Architecture
2. Ceramic and Glass Design
3. Knitwear Design
4. Accessories Design
5. VFX Animation Design
6. Fashion Interior Design
7. Interior Design
8. Toy and Game Design
9. Apparel Design
10. Shoe Design
11. Exhibition Design
12. Web Design
13. Product Design
14. Transportation Design
15. Leather Design
16. Graphic Design
17. Fashion Design
18. Fashion Communication Design
19. Furniture Design
20. Textile Design
21. Jewellery Design
22. Animation Design
23. Photography Design
24. Mobile Application and Game Design

Check: Career in Fashion Designing

(1) Architecture - Architecture is one of the major fields of design. In the Architecture Field, you can be a building architect, a landscape planner, and you can also practice as an interior designer while being an architect, you can specialize yourself in house or bungalow making, you can specialize yourself in hospital making, making commercial buildings, and factories, etc.

There are many things that you can do while being in Architecture. 

(2) Interior Design - Interior Designing is related to Architecture but the scope in Interior designing is much more than Architecture.

If you want to make a house today then all decisions like the color of the wall or which wallpaper will be the best, which tiles or floor will be good, what kind of sofa or sofa color should be there to make your house look nice, which light will be more suitable, etc. These things come under interior designing only. It is a big field to work in.

 (3) Product Design - When we talk about a product it can be a physical product or digital product or both. And if we talk about both the products then the significance or importance of product design will come.

Every new thing which is made is a product design. 

(4) Furniture Design - Furniture design is part of product design only. If you want to specialize in product design you must choose furniture design. In furniture designing, you have to make designs related to different and new types of furniture. The furniture should be both economical and less space-consuming.

(5) Ceramic and Glass Design - Ceramic and glass design is again a very big field. The National Institute of Design (NID) offers a separate specialization in Ceramic and Glass Design. 

(6) Toy and Game Design - Recently you must have heard the news that our prime minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji has emphasized that for the past many years we have been importing toys from china but now we should develop the toy and game industry in India itself.

By developing this industry in India, there will be more scope for the Toy and game designer candidates to earn more salaries and rise in this field also.

Check: How is Life at NID

(7) Transportation Design - Mostly every student thinks that in transportation designing we have to design a car or bike but no transportation design is much more than that. When there is effective city planning going on then in that planning transportation plays a very important role.

The transportation design can be used in public movement, cargo movement, material movement, etc. You should have often heard that in supply chain management also transportation design plays an important role.

(8) Textile Design - Textile Design is a very big field and has a very wide scope. In textile design different - different types of fabrics are made for use in making clothes, curtains, different kinds of towels, napkins, etc.

(9) Knitwear Design - When you go to NIFT (Nation Institute of Fashion Technology) for a bachelor’s degree than in NIFT (Nation Institute of Fashion Technology) there is a separate section for knitwear designing. Knitwear designing is basically all the clothes or things made of woolen like sweaters, jackets, etc. when all these things are produced at an industrial level then that is called knitwear designing.

(10) Apparel Design - Don’t get confused between Apparel and fashion designing because they both are different from each other. The major difference between apparel and fashion is that fashion is always being done in a limited quantity.

For example: If I make a bridal dress or any other dress for a specific function and in less quantity that is called fashion.

And if that same or any other cloth is produced in large quantities for many people that is called apparel designing. The material produced in mass quantities is called Apparel designing.

(11) Leather Design - when we talk about leather design it doesn’t only mean leather shoes but also belts, jackets, accessories, purses, and even clothes are made of leather, etc. 

(12) Jewellery Design - Jewellery design is the upcoming and biggest industry in India. In this field, designers have to design precious and non-precious metals. Precious metals Like gold jewelry, diamond jewelry, etc, and non-precious metals like when you work on artificial jewelry.

(13) Accessories Design - Accessories Design is also a big field to work on. Shoes, Purses, bags, tattoos everything comes under accessories designing.

Accessories designing is very important when we talk about anything under fashion, anything under designing something for a particular person then accessories design comes into the picture.

(14) Shoe Design - Shoe designers are specialized fashion designers that create original footwear.

They sketch designs, select materials, and patterns, and give instructions on how to make the products they design. Some growth is projected in specialized design firms and in the performing arts and sports industries.

Check: NID Entrance Exam

(15) Graphic Design - Graphic comes from every source and corner of the world. But graphics is a very different field in terms that a graphic designer can be from a computer operator to a creator.

Because nowadays what happens is that if you go to any graphic designers what they do they copy templates from google and then he or she will make graphic designs for you. But if any student who has studied graphic design from a very good college will make their own graphic designs.

(16) VFX and Animation Design - VFX and animation design is one of the biggest industries in the world. And you know what the biggest hub for VFX and animation design is in India. In this field, there are a lot of big companies involved.

(17) Exhibition Design - Exhibition means anything which is displayed in front of everybody is called an exhibition. In the National Institute of Design (NID) there is a separate subject name as exhibition design.

(18) Fashion Design - Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is affected by the culture and different trends and has varied over time and place. 

(19) Photography Design - Photography design is a part of communication design and in some places, they offer specialization in this photography design.

Photography is not only capturing a human being or taking a photo of individuals. But it also means capturing some objects, products photography, food photography, etc.

(20) Fashion Interior - Now fashion interior design has become a very huge industry. The fabric used in home decoration is called fashion interior design. 

(21) Web Design - Web design is one of the oldest specializations but till now has also been very effective because now whenever one starts a business the first thing that comes to mind is how our website looks. 

(22) Fashion Communication Design - This specialization is not common nowadays but when talking about NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology). In NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) the highest rank goes in this specialization field.

The highest rank seats are closed from this specialization only in NIFT. Fashion communication design is one of the leading fields in design nowadays.

After completing this specialization you can work in magazines, webpages, fashion shows, you can do fashion blogging, etc. These all come under fashion communication.

(23) Mobile Application and Game Design - When digitally a game is designed and launched it is launched and made by experts who have studied the mobile application and game design. 

Check: NID Exam Latest News

Starting Salary in Design and Architecture

The table below shows the starting salary and job profile of all the specializations. This table will help you to think accordingly about which field you should go to.

Design Specialisation	Job Profile	Average Base Salary (Annual)
Interior Design	Interior Designer Interior Decorator Exhibition Designer Set Designer	Rs. 3,00,000 to Rs. 3,50,000
Graphic Design	Graphic Designer UX / UI Designer Art Director Multimedia Artists and Animator Web Designer	Rs. 2,50,000 to Rs. 3,00,000
Automobile Design	Automotive Designer Automotive Engineer Product Designer	Rs. 6,00,000 to Rs. 6,50,000
Web Design	Web Designer Front-End Developer Back-End Developer Web Application Developer Design and Layout Analyst	Rs. 2,50,000 to Rs. 3,00,000
Textile Design	Textile Designer Fashion Stylist Visual Merchandiser Quality Control Personnel	Rs. 4,00,000 to Rs. 4,50,000
Jewelry Design	Jewelry Designer Jewellery Retoucher Jewellery Setter Gemologist	Rs. 3,80,000 to Rs. 4,20,000
Product Design	Product Designer UX / UI Designer	Rs. 6,10,000 to Rs. 6,40,000
Industrial Design	Industrial Designer	Rs. 5,80,000 to Rs. 6,30,000
Toy, Mobile Application and Game Design	Game Designer Video Game Designer Animator Graphic Designer QA Game Tester	Rs. 5,70,000 to Rs. 6,20,000
Fashion Design	Fashion Designer Fashion Stylist Fashion Coordinator Fashion Journalist Fashion Blogger	Rs, 3,60,000 to Rs. 4,10,000
Knitwear Design	Knitwear Designer Textile Designer Quality Control Personnel Retail Manager	Rs. 3,80,000 to Rs. 4,20,000
Leather Design	Fashion Designer Accessory Designer	Rs. 3,40,000 to Rs. 3,90,000
VFX and Animation Design	Animator Graphic Designer Modeller Character Animator 2D Animator 3D Animator	Rs. 2,90,000 to Rs. 3,40,000
Ceramic and Glass Design	Ceramics Designer Ceramic and Glass Designer Product Designer Model Maker	Rs. 2,65,000 to Rs. 3,25,000
Multimedia Design	Graphic Designer Animator	Rs. 3,30,000 to Rs. Rs. 3,80,0000
Architecture	Architect	Rs. 7,00,000 to Rs. 8,00,000