An alumnus of the National Institute of Design (NID), Prof. Vijai Singh Katiyar is currently Principal Designer at NID and has more than 29 years of experience in design education, research, and practice. He has served on NID’s Governing Council and is the member of institute’s Senate. He has been the Chair across various departments such as the Professional Education Programmes, Research & Publications, Integrated Design Services, Outreach Programmes, and International Programmes.

In 2016, he designed and implemented India’s first practice-based PhD programme in Design at NID. He also serves on the advisory board of the National Design Business Incubator. He is the founder of the International Center for Indian Crafts (ICIC) at NID. He has helped state governments in setting up new design institutions and some of the most notable ones include the U.P. Institute of Design, Lucknow and the Kerala State Institute of Design, Kollam.

Prof. Katiyar has spearheaded the setting up of design programmes and institution building ventures. He steered several initiatives of academic reforms, curriculum development, programme reviews besides setting up a System of Educational Excellence in Design (SEED). He has worked on several international projects and exchange collaborations. He teaches Textile Design (Woven fabric Design, Jacquard, and Fabric Structure), Crafts Design and Documentation, Design Thinking, Design Process, System Design, and Design Development Projects.

He works across the textiles, crafts, and educational sectors contributing to innovation, strategy, training, and institution building. He has helped organisations and businesses with creative solutions for strategies, products, and branding through design. Besides having meaningful experience with the corporate sector, he has also successfully accomplished design initiatives for a number of handloom, power loom and craft clusters across India.

Prof. Katiyar has initiated and convened five national seminars and two international conferences. He has initiated and mentored the ‘International Open Electives’, a series of contemporary design workshops annually hosted by NID. He serves widely on committees, boards, and international juries. He has been awarded the Visiting Research Fellowship by the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

His publications include papers, presentations and two major books—Design Education: Tradition and Modernity and Indian Saris: Traditions-Perspectives- Design.