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Design education has long been limited to a few. We’re here to change that — using over 30 years of collective design expertise, cutting-edge AI, and a global learning community. Whether you're starting from scratch or evolving your skills, we’ve got your back.

Open

Accessible Design Education.

Openness: to people, ideas, and experimentation

Design

Powered by AI

Access: DesignGPT will democratise learning

School

Backed by Experience

Community: learning together, supporting one another

Why We Exist?

Open to Give.
Open to Recieve.

Design is for everyone. At Open Design School, we empower you with tools, support, and AI-driven learning to become a designer—no experience needed. Learn from 30+ years of expertise within a global, inclusive community.

The Role of AI tools
in Design

In an age of AI, we don’t fear change — we ride it. AI is transforming how we learn, ideate, and create. Our courses teach you how to collaborate with AI, not compete with it. The future needs adaptive, curious, and resilient designers.

What is DesignGPT?

DesignGPT is your personal AI mentor—ready to guide, ideate, and give feedback anytime, from first draft to final prototype.

How DesignGPT Works?

Trained on years of design education, DesignGPT gives clear, helpful feedback just like a real teacher. Easy, safe, and mentor-friendly.

What Can DesignGPT Do?

DesignGPT helps you understand concepts, review your work, guide exercises, spark ideas, and suggest what to learn next.

Meet the team

Our Leardership

Meet the visionaries and educators driving Open Design School. A team of designers, researchers, technologists, and dreamers — united by the belief that design can change lives.

Prof. B K Chakravarthy

Professor, IDC IIT Bombay

Founding Dean School of Design Innovation, Mahindra University Hyderabad

Prof. B K Chakravarthy

Asst. Professor, IDC IIT Bombay

Founding Dean School of Design Innovation, Mahindra University Hyderabad

Prof. B K Chakravarthy

Professor, IDC IIT Bombay

Founding Dean School of Design Innovation, Mahindra University Hyderabad

Prof. B K Chakravarthy

Professor, IDC IIT Bombay

Founding Dean School of Design Innovation, Mahindra University Hyderabad

Prof. B K Chakravarthy

Professor, IDC IIT Bombay

Founding Dean School of Design Innovation, Mahindra University Hyderabad

Our story

At Open Design School, we make sure you have the confidence, tools, and support to design your future.

A woman and a child are looking at a microwave.

Design education has long been limited to a few. We’re here to change that — using over 50 years of collective design expertise, cutting-edge AI, and a global learning community. Whether you're starting from scratch or evolving your skills, we’ve got your back.

Trusted by Design Educators & Practitioners Built for Indian Learners
No Design Background Required
Free & Affordable Plans Available

We believe everyone is a designer — whether you’ve studied design or simply solved a problem with creative thinking. At Open Design School, we make sure you have the confidence, tools, and support to design your future.

50+ years of combined teaching experience
Designed for Indian learners
100% online and accessible
Multilingual support coming soon

We help learners across India unlock the power of design. Whether you’re a student, educator, maker, or simply curious — our tools and courses are built for you.

Practical, project-based courses
AI-powered learning through Design GPT
Mentorship from seasoned educators
Learn by doing — no prior design background needed

We help learners across India unlock the power of design. Whether you’re a student, educator, maker, or simply curious — our tools and courses are built for you.

Practical, project-based courses
AI-powered learning through Design GPT
earn by doing — no prior design background needed

Our Patrons

Supported by leading design and education institutions in India.

NIDI helped shape ODS by offering design guidance, community support, and strategic direction. Their early involvement was crucial in turning the idea into a thriving learning platform.

IDC contributed to ODS by providing expert mentorship, facilitating design workshops, and co-creating impactful projects. Their guidance helped shape the design thinking approach at ODS, empowering students to build real-world solutions with confidence.

The Ministry of Education has been instrumental in the growth of ODS. With their support, ODS has expanded its reach, improved content quality, and promoted inclusive, accessible learning for students across all backgrounds.

E-Kalpa (D'Source) is an initiative supported by the Ministry of Education under the NME-ICT program. This collaboration enabled the development of open, high-quality digital resources in design education. It has played a key role in making design learning accessible across India.

NIDI helped shape ODS by offering design guidance, community support, and strategic direction. Their early involvement was crucial in turning the idea into a thriving learning platform.

READ CASE STUDY

IDC contributed to ODS by providing expert mentorship, facilitating design workshops, and co-creating impactful projects. Their guidance helped shape the design thinking approach at ODS, empowering students to build real-world solutions with confidence.

READ CASE STUDY

The Ministry of Education has been instrumental in the growth of ODS. With their support, ODS has expanded its reach, improved content quality, and promoted inclusive, accessible learning for students across all backgrounds.

READ CASE STUDY

E-Kalpa (D'Source) is an initiative supported by the Ministry of Education under the NME-ICT program. This collaboration enabled the development of open, high-quality digital resources in design education. It has played a key role in making design learning accessible across India.

READ CASE STUDY

Our Courses

Explore: Design, Innovation & Ai courses

Our 12-week online programs are designed to transform how you think, with fully AI-enabled learning, real-time feedback, and peer-to-peer collaboration. You’ll engage in projects, discussions, and reflections—beginner-friendly yet backed by expert guidance.

Innovation by Design

The MOOC ‘Innovation by Design’ introduces students to the innovation process through the lens of design, tracing a solution’s journey from problem identification to impactful implementation. It explores the “seven concerns of innovation” across eight modules, emphasizing empathy, iteration, and user-centric collaboration. The course also highlights pitfalls and showcases a collaborative model essential for successful innovation.

Prof. B K Chakravarthy

Understanding Design

We are surrounded by designed objects, from highways that traverse thousands of kilometers to a pen drive that fits a lot in the smallest of spaces. Designers have used their skills to translate ideas and needs into all the objects that we see around us. Design can be interpreted in multiple ways and can mean different things in different contexts. This course aims to create an awareness and understanding of the discipline of design and its multidisciplinary nature. The relevance and value of design and how it impacts society, industry and the environment is established through lectures, case studies and project activities. This course is for those who are curious to understand what design is and why is it important.

Prof. Nina Sabnani

Design, Technology and Innovation

This course focusses on the three cores of any successful product or system: The Design, Technology and Innovation. Through various case studies from different departments, these three aspects are showcased to show the complete journey from research to innovation.

Prof. B K Chakravarthy

Demystifying Board Game Design

This course is not a typical lecture-tutorial material. There are small and major projects spread throughout. The course switches between practice and theory, often in that order. Solving practice assignments and then revisiting theory would be a more effective way of learning game design. Theory can clarify some points, but participants cannot learn the art of designing games without attempting and failing in few. It is impossible to learn how to design a game without actually designing few games, failing and trying again. The focus is clearly on self-learning through doing. However, to help the participants in projects, it does include simple tools that could be of some use. The treatment of the lectures and concepts used are broad enough to cover the basics of game design. However, the examples and assignments deal with educational games because of the authors’ experience and expertise in that area. So, most examples cited here also belong to educational games. However, there is sufficient generic content that is useful for other games with fun and entertainment as objectives. Game design is a unique type of design problem, demanding a different design approach. Anybody with interest in play and games can come up with good game ideas and they often have. The course is an attempt to demystify game design and also suggests a design process.

Prof. Prasad Bokil

Introduction to Human Factors and Ergonomics

Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) is central to supporting the design, evaluation, operation and maintenance of human-centric systems in a variety of disciplines ranging from and not limited to design, engineering and management. As a realm of knowledge HFE transcends disciplinary boundaries. However, in its current practice in India, HFE has remained highly fractured in academic settings. HFE’s multifaceted nature is displayed in myriad instances in various silos of individual disciplines of design, engineering, psychology and physiology. The fractured state of HFE is also partly due to the manner in which it is institutionalized in various academic disciplines in India.

Prof. Vivek Kant

Understanding Ethnography

The purpose of this course is to introduce learners from different disciplines and backgrounds to the fundamental concepts, process and practice of ethnography. The course will offer an introduction to various tools and methods that form ethnographic practice. This is underpinned by an introduction to the concepts, theories and debates that form the theoretical basis of ethnographic research. While the course will be structured in the forms of video lectures, readings and exercises, we hope to design each of these to give the learner as much practice based learning as possible. This also makes the course relevant to practicioners. In this way, we hope, the course will aid the learner in honing their existing knowledge of the subject with a view to improve their practice and application of it. Alternately, it will offer an opportunity for new learners to enter into practice supported by an expansive understanding of the subject.

Prof. Nina Sabnani

Understanding Incubation and Entrepreneurship

The course ‘Understanding Incubation and Entrepreneurship’ uncovers the basics of what it takes to develop an entrepreneurial mindset thereby encouraging the journey of transformation to convert an idea or a solution into a business. Professor Chakravarthy uses a blended learning approach that brings together inputs from various pre-incubators and incubators like GDC, BETIC, SINE, IITH and DSSE to help familiarize the entrepreneurial framework and the start-up projects which help them navigate through their own entrepreneurial journey. This eclectic mix of guidance from expert professors and entrepreneur stories collectively foster the critical skills needed to build your own startup. The course spans 12 weeks of talks, exercises and reading material combined with the classroom experience of students of IITH as they learn to form their problem statement, build teams, understand the rigorous customer discovery process and finally learn to use the Lean Canvas Model.

Prof. B K Chakravarthy

View all courses

Visionaries

See what the Industry experts are saying

Gain insights from the leaders shaping the future of design, technology, and innovation. From transformative ideas to practical strategies, these voices highlight what truly matters in today’s evolving landscape.

Ginni Rometty’s Legacy of Empowering Diverse Teams

"Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM, has been a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. She stated, 'I believe that the best innovation comes from diverse teams.' Rometty's leadership has paved the way for a more inclusive environment in technology, making her a true visionary. "

Sundar Pichai’s Mission to Democratize AI for Humanity

"Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., focuses on making technology accessible to everyone. He believes in the transformative power of AI and its potential to improve lives. Pichai remarked, 'AI is one of the most important things humanity is working on. It is more profound than fire or electricity.' His vision is shaping the future of technology."

Mary Barra’s Vision for an Electric and Sustainable Tomorrow

"Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, is a pioneer in the automotive industry. She advocates for electric vehicles and sustainable practices. Barra has said, 'I truly believe that the future of mobility is electric and autonomous.' Her leadership is steering GM towards a greener future, making her a visionary in the field."

Satya Nadella’s Vision for Innovation Through Understanding

"Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, emphasizes the importance of empathy in leadership. He believes that understanding others' perspectives is crucial for fostering innovation. Nadella stated, 'Our industry does not respect tradition; it only respects innovation.' His approach has transformed Microsoft into a leader in cloud computing and AI."

Elon Musk’s Relentless Pursuit of a Better Future

"Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has always believed in the power of innovation and technology to change the world. His vision for a sustainable future and interplanetary life inspires millions. He once said, 'When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.' This mindset drives his relentless pursuit of progress."

Our Impact

From NIDI to D’source, IDC to the Ministry of Education—united in advancing open, inclusive, and impactful design education

5000+

Learners across rural and urban India, empowered through open design education.

92%

Satisfaction of AI-guided learning, reflecting trust in personalized, tech-driven education.

100+

Original student projects showcased, celebrating creativity and applied learning.

50+

Community events, design jams & mentorships, fostering collaboration and creative growth.

Look What Out Students Say

From everyday innovations to systemic solutions — our learners are shaping the future of design.

Ruturaj Rathod

B.DES, Product Design

"Open Design School made learning fun and flexible. I gained real skills and felt supported every step of the way! "

Premraj Dixit

B.DES, Product Design

"Open Design School helped me grow, both as a thinker and a maker. The mentors, tools, and structure were incredibly empowering"

Ishant Singh

B.DES, Product Design

"The content at Open Design School is top-notch. It blends creativity with real-world application beautifully."

Sakshi Kohli

B.DES, Product Design

"Open Design School gave me the freedom to learn at my own pace. The interactive format and real-life projects made all the difference"

Umesh Mishra

M.DES, Product Design

" I loved the hands-on, AI-supported approach. Every module felt relevant, inspiring, and doable. Learning here reignited my passion for design. "

Contact us

Ping us, prod us, or send a pigeon.
Whatever works. If you’ve got a spark of curiosity, a burning question, or just want to vibe with our team, we’re here for it. Seriously, we love good conversations.

Send us a note and let's start something cool.

odsai.iitb@gmail.com

Industrial Design Center (IDC), IIT Bombay, Powai

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FAQs

Get all your queries resolved, feel free to contact us.

Do I need a design background to start?

Nope! Our courses are beginner-friendly and designed for learners from all walks of life.

Are the courses free?

Many of our resources are free. We also offer affordable paid plans with additional support and mentorship.

How does Design GPT work?

Design GPT is an AI assistant trained on real design learning material. You can ask it questions, get feedback, and learn on the go — just like chatting with a tutor.

What’s the time commitment for each course?

Courses are self-paced. You can spend 2–3 hours a week or dive in more deeply — it’s up to you.

Can I access the content on mobile?

Yes! Our platform is mobile-friendly and works across all modern devices.

Is there a certificate after completing a course?

Yes, we provide a certificate of completion for each course. More importantly, you’ll finish with a portfolio of real work.