The mandate for NID is to offer world-class design education and to promote design awareness and application towards raising the quality of life by and through

• World class education to create design professionals of excellence to help meet India's diverse design needs. To train design trainers for other design and design-related institutions and positions in the 21 st century as global leaders in Design Education and Research by recognising the changes in economic and business environment nationally and globally.
• Ensuring the expansion in the number of quality design professionals and faculty, through existing and new institutional mechanisms.
• Becoming a repository of design knowledge, experience and information on products, systems, materials, design and production processes related to traditional as well as modern technologies.
• Encouraging the design of products and systems of everyday use in a spirit of restless search for indigenous design solutions by focusing on affordable design for the masses.
• To undertake fundamental and applied research to create cutting edge knowledge in the areas of design especially those concerned with user understanding and trends.
• To help place designers in key sectors of national need for benchmarking of standards of design education and practice, and encouraging “thinking global and acting local.”
• To offer integrated design consultancy services and cutting edge design solutions providing practice opportunity to students as well as revenue stream.
• Providing design inputs from the point of view of using design as an integrating force in varied areas like science, technology, management etc. to raise quality of life through well designed products, services, processes, systems, etc.
• To humanise technology and integrating the physical with the virtual and digital worlds through better information and interface design and other multidimensional applications by moving towards ‘holistic experience' creation.
• To provide design intervention for craft, handloom, rural technology, small, medium and large scale enterprises, and outreach programmes for capability and institution building and sustainable livelihood, employment opportunities and economic growth.

The Philosophy
Design is the professional capability of creating and developing concepts and realising them into products and systems for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer. The design of objects, services and systems requires the synthesis and knowledge of a variety of disciplines. Design thinking brings together the finest sensibilities of the arts with the logic of science in an innovative framework. While learning a craft brings students close to materials and material culture, a design attitude and methodology helps them realise larger patterns and connections in the fabric of society.

The Vision
The National Institute of Design has to emerge as a global leader in providing excellence in the area of design education and creating design awareness by building on its traditions of innovation, problem solving and interdisciplinary collaboration to meet the changing needs of society.

This vision acknowledges that higher education in design will have greater responsibilities to meet the needs of society both in India and abroad. We must be prepared to accept this challenge so that we can continue to lead advances in educational and technological innovation, creative expression and design led problem solving. At the same time NID will anchor itself to cultural strengths of India and foster strategic design linkages of innovation and entrepreneurship with the various sectors of industry.

NID will also have to identify opportunities for newer linkages across institutional, national and cultural boundaries in order to create newer opportunities for the development of people and industry. We shall also continuously evaluate our position and either reinforce or refocus our strengths to exploit comparative advantage. As the external environment changes, we at NID must reshape existing programmes or initiate new programmes to maintain or gain leadership positions.

It is our vision to achieve systematic evaluation and improvement of infrastructure, including facilities, equipment, networks and knowledge base to support the competence to face emerging challenges for design.

Hands On Minds On
NID is an institution with varied capabilities, design excellence, intellectual wealth and a time-tested educational culture. NID has created a landmark in setting standards not only in design education, but also in the over all design sector by providing immense awareness and service. It has taken over four decades of pioneering hard work by the academic community at the institute to develop a system of education which lays more emphasis on learning than on mere instruction.

Over a span of the last 45 years, the institution has made it a point to lay emphasis on learning to learn and to pursue innovation led designs through the development of the mind and skills of designers. This technique has motivated students to perform better and has given them an edge over other design professionals. The institute's client servicing team facilitates students in getting involved with real life projects, which in turn adds value to the upcoming professionals giving them a taste of actual situations.