Focus areas for the project:

A. Conceiving new directions and creation of new material

At the core of the project is the idea to bring together those that share a love for creating communication. One envisages these to be educators,
writers, artists, animators, programmers, publishers. The various research projects undertaken by the faculty at IDC has helped in building a network of
like-minded organizations and individuals. Some of these are non-profit organizations and some are professional entities that seek to enhance the
understanding of their chosen area of expertise.

The project shall actively seek to build links and create opportunities for like-minded creators to interact and build ideas that lead to books as well as new
learning material that could take the shape of appropriate media from toys to interactive games and animation. This is sought to be achieved through a
series of meetings and workshops at regular intervals.

B. Engaging with traditional visual art practices and practitioners

The current proposal seeks to extend the learning from the earlier projects in this area and include interactions with visual art traditions, some of which are
extremely marginalized. The outcome of these interactions shall take the shape of research monographs, books and animation. This focus carries with it the
belief that in an age of diffusion of cultures, the understanding of traditional strengths and revitalizing the essence of these traditions with new forms will
bring in diversity to the otherwise ‘homogenized multi-culture’.

This interaction with visual art practitioners is sought to be achieved by artist-residencies in which traditional visual artists interact with IDC, IIT Bombay and
through field-trips by faculty and students to study and understand traditional visual art practices.

C. Focus on Indian Languages

Another project focus shall be to include design strategies to enrich and enlarge the
availability of children's books in Indian languages. This may involve workshops directed at Indian language publishing, nurturing local talents, and creating design
formats which will facilitate multiple editions in various Indian languages. This effort will be directed towards addressing the acute shortage of good children's books
in many Indian languages.

D. Encouraging research and education

It is important to encourage and facilitate research by students into the visual art traditions of India. This envisages sponsored student projects in which students
of IDC visit traditional visual art practitioners to interact with them and develop new learning materials. An annual seminar that enables discussion and dialogue on matters pertaining to the development of materials for children would be helpful in consolidating the various aspects of the project. This meet is viewed as an annual gathering of educationists, artists, writers and publishers to exchange ideas and carry forward the objectives of the project. The seminar would involve paper-presentations and
discussions that will be published as proceedings.

E. Identifying potential projects for publication from the existing database

There are about five-hundred post-graduate design projects done at IDC over a period of forty years. A few of these have already been taken up for
wider dissemination and there are a significant number of projects that would be of immense value if they are made available to their intended audience
with some necessary additions. In a few cases, an additional effort would be required in preparing camera-ready art-works – this part of the proposal
envisages a scrutiny of available projects to identify those that have a potential for a larger audience. The existing database of projects would be evaluated
by a team of educationists and publishers. In the second phase the projects would then be developed by a design cell, so that they become acceptable as
material for publication.