Handicraft and small cottage industries in Nepal have taken an enormous beating over recent decades, predominantly due to stagnant product development. As just one example, at its height in the early 2000s, the pashmina industry in Nepal generated revenues topping $110 million a year, but within a decade that number had shrunk to $25.83 million in 2010.1 Although the Nepalese product was superior to global competitors, the lack of innovation in product and patterning commoditized pashmina, devastating the industry. Nascent efforts to encourage product development within the handicraft market have only been met with limited success, primarily due to the inability of companies to recruit and hire trained designers. Many handicraft companies rely on traditional craftsman to develop new products, a task they are ill equipped for. Other companies attempt to develop talent from within, hoping that experience working with overseas buyers will translate into the design skills needed to innovate, but it can take years to build those resources from within.
The overarching goals of introducing a product design curriculum in the developing country context of Nepal with its limited manufacturing base were more focused than traditional design pedagogy. These goals were to:
- Aid students in relating to the world in visual, tactile and spatial terms and understanding art, design and craft in a variety of contexts – historical, cultural, economic, social and personal.
- Develop aesthetic sensibilities, creativity, and ingenuity along with the ability to critically appraise and evaluate his/her own work and the work of others, to refine and improve one’s own work product.
- Develop a core understanding of the diversity of Nepal’s most accomplished handicraft and production processes, materials, technologies and constraints in order to design effectively within the Nepali context.
- Internalize product design methodology in order to sustain a project from conception to realization.
- Develop an awareness of the historical, social and economic role and value of design and craft,
especially as it relates to the progress and development of Nepal within the international context.