How to choose appropriate design pattern?

What discipline should I choose for my undergraduate design (GDPD) programme?

• Hi, I'm 17 from India and I'm looking for an undergraduation design course in India. But I am confused on deciding which discipline should I opt for. I will be giving the design entrance tests of NID and other design colleges from January. I am still not clear on what discipline should I choose for my UG design course. I am interested in many design disciplines and I am finding it difficult to decide to opt for just one discipline. I want to be an industrial designer. But my interests are also wide in this field. I like product design, animation character design, graphic design, UX design. I am also a semi- pro photographer. I've been into photography for like 7-8 years now. So, also the communication design adds up. Also, I am still not in process of preparation of portfolio because I want to showcase my work on only one discipline and be clear on what discipline should I go for.

• Answer:

  It is the irony of life that we are expected to carefully understand and decide our own future at an age when we are not even eligible to vote or drive! I understand your concern. I have been through it and so have many others before you and me. I was a district-level topper in school, but I wanted to join Armed Forces. I failed at that miserably and go into NID almost purely by chance. Didn't know anything about which discipline to take, I said Product Design in the interview. Toyed with the idea of Animation in the first year, ended up taking Graphic Design as my major and am now working as a UX Designer for the past 3 years. The point is that you will never 'know' what you want to do. Being creative and young makes us 'distracted by shiny objects'. You will like doing everything interesting, be it screen-printing, knitting, photography, electronics, generative art, pottery or product prototyping. You HAVE to explore everything in the first year in order to reach your goal through the process of elimination. Only you can be the best judge of what you should be doing... P.S. You can be a good photographer as well as a Product Designer (Eg. https://www.flickr.com/photos/saikat/sets/)