Faculty - JKLU Design

Meet the Faculty of Institute of Design

Prof. A. Balasubramaniam

Director, Institute of Design

Bala is an alumnus of NID, Ahmedabad, and has taught across major design institutes in the country, including NID, NIFT, and the School of Planning & Architecture (SPA), New Delhi.

He is the founding Director of the Institute of Design at JKLU. He is also the President of ADI (Association of Designers of India) for the term 2022-24.

He was the Dean of IILM School of Design in Gurgaon from 2007 to 2010 and has also been a member of the Academic Board for several design institutes, including SPA, New Delhi and Nirma University. He is a regular jury member at NID, NIFT and other places. Bala has been a Design Consultant to Oxfam, where he helped Indian artisans develop products for the European market. He was instrumental in setting up the Prototype Initiative for Design Excellence (PRIDE), the design division at NSIC for the Government of India Initiative. He holds the unique experience of creating one of the first programmes in Design based on digital delivery.

He has designed market-leading products as diverse as tractors and torches for Eveready, Eicher, Usha, Hero Motors, Bajaj, NIF and UNDP. He writes on the subject of Design in leading magazines and newspapers and on his blog.

Raj Gopal Menon

Professor & Dean, Institute of Design

Raj Gopal Menon is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Calicut University with a postgraduate degree in Industrial Design from IIT, Mumbai. He has more than 35 years of experience encompassing a wide array of industries and sectors such as technology, consumer products, energy, health, and design. Kaynes Technology, RAL Consumer Products, Duron Energy Pvt. Ltd., Geneva Innovations International, Perfint Health, Vital Bio Systems, Indez Designs, and his alma mater IIT, Mumbai are some of the prestigious organisations and institutions where he has significantly contributed as a design professional.

Prior to joining JKLU, Raj worked as a Consultant where he was involved in medical devices prototype production for the last two years. He is an avid reader with profound interest in music, calligraphy and origami.

Faculty Members

Suranjana Satwalekar

Exhibition Designer; Senior Faculty - NID Ahmedabad; Founder - Satwalekar Design Studio; Alum - NID Ahmedabad, St. Stephens, DU

Prof. Devanuj K. Balkrishan

A designer with qualifications in three different domains of design namely, Architecture from IIT, Roorkee, Product Design from IIT, Delhi and Human-Computer Interaction from IIT, Bombay. He is trained to work on human problems related to habitat or usability.