Dr Gayatri Menon

Dr. Gayatri Menon is a principal faculty at the National Institute of Design, NID with more than 23 years of experience in design education, research and practice. She is currently the Activity chairperson for Research & Development and also heads the Center for Teaching-Learning. She did her two-and-a-half-year postgraduate course in Product Design at NID after completing her graduation in engineering and a short stint in the industry. Her interests include Design methods, Design thinking, Creativity, Play and learning, Design Research, Visual fundamentals, Design for social concerns, Systems Approach and Innovation. She has initiated the area of 'Play design' and has also developed courses in 'Creativity and Innovation' for Strategic design management discipline and 'Research methods' for Product design discipline.

As a design faculty at NID, she has worked as a project head and designer/consultant for several industries including Asian paints, TCS, UNIDO projects, public sector design, institution building, craft heritage and socially relevant projects. She has also conducted Design workshops for organisations such as HUL, Wipro, DRDO, Accenture, Leo Burnett, WESEE, NTPC School of Management, TISS etc. She has worked as part of an expert committee with NCERT to introduce design and creativity modules as part of the National Education Policy NEP2020. She likes to constantly explore the boundaries of Design thinking and Creative methods and has carried out extensive research studies in this area.

She has presented papers and conducted workshops both at national and international levels. She has received an award of excellence for her PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, IIT-Bombay on A "Conceptual framework for opportunity identification in design innovation". She has been invited as a tutor to International Creativity Workshops held in Italy, the UK, and Germany; and as a visiting faculty at design schools in South Africa & Canada and national institutions such as IlMs and IITs.