You could be equipped with the skills to create the next “it” dress, state-of-the-art building, or revolutionary digital art—but if you can’t sell your wares, says global design school Raffles Design Institute Manila, it’s hard to make it in today’s cutthroat design industry.
With their first, recently opened campus in the Philippines at Accralaw Tower, Bonifacio Global City, RDIM offers four advanced diploma courses: Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing and Management, Interior Design, and Visual Communication.
Each program is set for two years and will equip RDI students with globally competitive design skills, says RDIM academic director Janet Emmanuel.
After those two years, students are given the option to pursue a full bachelor’s degree in other Raffles campuses in Australia, China, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand.
“We are offering something very exclusive, with a college like this,” says Emmanuel, a fashion and textiles specialist in the United Kingdom.
RDIM is named after Singapore’s founder, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, “an entrepreneur, first and foremost,” says Darion Lim, RDIM marketing director.
“Here at RDIM, students are taught design and entrepreneurship hand-in-hand,” he adds. RDIM is under the multinational firm Raffles Education Corp.
International market
Fashion Design, taught by Emmanuel, focuses not just on developing students’ creative and technical skills, but also on design concepts that will help them compete in the international fashion market.
Fashion Marketing and Management, on the other hand, is more for those interested in other aspects of fashion, such as buying and merchandising.
“It’s the program for those who are not so much into the creative side of fashion,” says lecturer Nela San Jose.
“It’s for those who can’t draw to save their lives, but still have the same enthusiasm for fashion,” added San Jose, who has worked in Los Angeles for fashion brand Kavio, and Van Heusen here in Manila.
Interior Design is taught by Lee Miles, who also specializes in architecture. His classes are designed to enhance “skills students need to communicate their designs on paper.”
Visual Communication, a popular course choice for those wanting to pursue an advertising career, is also for students interested in graphic design. Those enrolled under this course will work with Buz Walker-Teach, a visual artist, illustrator, graphic designer and design entrepreneur.
“Visual Communication is an interlapping and holistic program, which will cover design in general, and, later on, digital-type designs,” says Walker-Teach.
Raffles Design Institute Manila is at #18-01 Accralaw Tower, 2nd Ave. and 30th St., Crescent Park West, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
