About Suresh Sethi, Ph.D.
Bio
Suresh Sethi is Chair of Industrial Design, School of Art & Design since 2020. A Professor and James Avery Endowed Chair in Industrial Design, Sethi holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Design from IITB, a Master of Lighting Design from Domus Academy, Milan Italy, and a Bachelor’s in Industrial Design from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. Sethi joined the Illinois faculty in 2017. Sethi is a powerhouse of global experience – he has worked in America, China, Holland, Italy, India, and Singapore. Sethi was in the leadership role in a corporate environment – as Vice President, Design, Whirlpool Corporation Asia. He has been a founding Professor of the School of Art, Design, and Media, Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore.
Sethi’s designs emerge from the user’s identity and lifestyle. For him, design is about building relationships between – product and user, product and profits, product and production. He expands beyond the physical limits of materiality to an emotional level. His research on life under artificial light as multisensory interaction includes culture, emotion, and sensation together is published as a book “Light Shines, Light Reflects.” His current research focuses on the role of narratives in product form visualization.
Positions Held
• Chair, Industrial Design, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2020- present
• James Avery Endowed Chair in Industrial Design, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2017-present
• Professor, Industrial Design, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2017 -present
• Global Design Director for Air and Water, Whirlpool Corporation, 2015-2016
• Vice President Design, South Asia, Whirlpool Corporation 2011-2016
• Director, Global Consumer Design Asia, Whirlpool Corporation 2011-2014
• Associate Professor, Design, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2005-200=11
• Co-Director, Center for Social Media Innovation for Communities, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 2010-2011
• Director, NTU-Domus Academy Program, Singapore 2008-2010
• Director Digital Creativity Center, NTU 2008-2010
• Interim Chair, School of Art, Design, and Media, NTU, Singapore 2008-2009
• Associate Chair, Academics, NTU, Singapore, 2006-2008
• Vice Dean, School of Art, Design, and Media, NTU, Singapore 2006
• Lead Faculty, Product Design, NTU, Singapore 2005-2008
• Associate Professor, Industrial Design Center, IITB, Mumbai, India 2003-2005
• Principal, Circus Design Studio, Bombay, India 1989- 2003
• Designer, Philips Concern Industrial Design, India/Netherlands 1983-1988
Education
Ph.D. Industrial Design, IIT - Bombay, Mumbai, India
Master in Design, Domus Academy, Milan, Italy
Master in Design M.Des. National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India
Research and publications
Selected publications
Sethi S., (2021) Narrative—A Vehicle to Generate Product Form, In: Chakrabarti, A., Poovaiah, R., Bokil, P., Kant, V. (eds.) Design for Tomorrow. Volume 3 Proceedings of
ICoRD 2021. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 223. Springer, Singapore DOI: 10.1007/978-981-16-0084-5
Sethi S., Sethi S. (2020) Personal Experience in Concept Generation of New Products. In: Markopoulos E., Goonetilleke R., Ho A., Luximon Y. (eds) Advances in Creativity,
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1218. Springer, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_20
Thomas J., Windham J., Sethi S., Arora M. (2020) Exploring a New Future in Collaborative Design Processes in Education. In: Shin C. (eds) Advances in Interdisciplinary Practice in Industrial Design. AHFE 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 968. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20470-9_19
Sethi S. (2020) Role of Narratives in Visualizing Product Form. In: Fukuda S. (eds) Advances in Affective and Pleasurable Design. AHFE 2019. Advances in Intelligent
Systems and Computing, vol 952. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20441-9_31
Regina Bittner et al. "Between Chairs - Design Pedagogies in Transcultural Dialogue," pp. 22, 85, 86, 87, and 89. Spector Books, Bauhaus Foundation, Dessau. 2017
Teaching and advising
Classes taught
Industrial Design V Studio (ARTD 401) Advanced design projects in the context of the business environment in which product design and development takes place; marketing,
branding, merchandising, entrepreneurship within the context of globalized marketing and manufacturing.
Industrial Design VI Studio (ARTD 402) Capstone project integrating all aspects of the design process from concept through final design, documentation, and presentation;
reconciliation of user-centered constraints such as socio-economic, environmental sustainability, manufacturability, health and safety, and ethics.
Product Design and Development (TMGT/BADM 366) Presents an overview of the product development process from concept generation to design manufacturing and
project management. There is an emphasis on product definition, early concept development, visual reasoning, and engineering graphics