HAMSTECH, Hyderabad: Institute of Fashion & Interior Design

Realizing possibilities is the forte of Hamstech. Hamstech, a leading institute imparting education in Fashion and Interior designing in the state of Andhra Pradesh through a network of three professionally managed centers at Hyderabad in Himayathnagar, Punjagutta and Secunderabad. Hamstech has become a well-known center for training in Fashion and Interior designing. Hamstech is growing innovatively and academically organizing great events on fashion as well as Interior designing. Hamstech has association with well-known and renowned experts like Neeta Lulla, Hema Malini, Kasim Ali khan, Ms. Chhaya Momaya, Jawed Habib, Rekha Reddy, Shiamak Davar, Ms. Dinaz Vervetwala, Ms. Raji Subramanyan. There was a time when one used to think of only top-notch fashion institutions, but time keeps moving on and changing, students have yet another option to choose a prominent institute to do a course in interior designing as well as fashion designing which is Hamstech, committed to its vision of realizing possibilities.

To find out more…..in an exclusive interview, TCG speaks to Ajitha Reddy, Director, Hamstech Institute of Fashion and Interior Designing.

TCG: Tell us about yourself.

Ajitha Reddy: I am a graduate in electronics and telecommunication, passed out my engineering from Osmania University and then went to do my MBA from OU. I got into this field of education nineteen years ago. Since then I have been in the field of education, but only eight years ago, actually we started Hamstech, which is an institute for Fashion and Interior designing. Our focus since then has been Fashion and Interior designing.

When asked about the change in her profession…..She explains:

Like passion to profession, it’s always been my interest, but earlier a good student was given only two options either MBBS or Engineering. MBBS was definitely not my cup of tea, so it had to be engineering. So that’s how I went on to do my engineering in telecommunications and electronics. Then later in life you actually know what your interest is, what’s your passion and what really makes you feel comfortable and happy. That’s how I landed in the field of education of fashion and interior designing.

TCG: About Hamstech …

AR:  We technically deal with fashion and interior designing; our prime focus is to ensure that people have careers in these particular fields. We are looking to make people career minded and be more focused on their careers, taking up these options as career rather than a hobby program. It may have started with an interest as a hobby or may be a small element of interest but how to convert that hobby into career, that the focus that we take up. We believe in realizing every possibility.

Realizing possibilities is our vision.

We are there right from the scratch; any body who joins us does need to have basic knowledge of Interior Designing as such we take it up from right A to Z, completely from scratch, we start from simple exercises of drawing to various subjects in the field of interiors. We have drafting course, which is the elementary subject, then we deal with materials, which gives them overview of materials that are required in this particular field. Now since you know how to plan, you should be able to execute the plan, so we go into construction details. Then we have professional practices, you turn as professional but there are certain practices, which have to be followed, we even train on professional practices. We guide them through all aspects of interior designing i.e. the wide spaces, color schemes, theory of colors and many more.

Often many people confuse interior decoration course with interior designing course, when they join, only look at learning decoration rather than designing, they are not looking at designing spaces, they think just filling the spaces with decorative things is interior designing. But not exactly know what designing means, we teach them the internal aspects of interior designing like construction details, color themes, professional etiquettes, work culture and drafting plans.

TCG: What is the specialty of Hamstech?

AR:  Our faculty has been with us for past six to eight years. Over the years, we have done a lot of research in the right methodology of teaching, we have documented every procedure. To believe in any student who joins Himayathnagar center or Punjagutta center or Secunderabad center, the education quality absolutely will be the same, because we have documented everything. Our faculty knows very well how to organize the classes from day one and the subjects. It is completely documented.  They know exactly what exercises have to be done and know exactly what the output we expect of the student. It’s kind of completely systematized. We make study material, which is totally in-house, we have development division which is called in-house development division which comes up with the material for the course that is tuned for our students, the syllabus which has been recommended and which has gone through a series of developments. We then make the study material ourselves, formulate exercises, questions for them and form booklets for them. Apart from class room training, a lot of training which goes behind the scene as well which is giving booklets on each subject, taking them for site visits giving them exercises, questions, workshops, guest lectures  and a perspective of what is outside in the market.

Apart from classroom training, we bring experts guidance in the field, by adjunct faculty, who interact with them and making them understand what is expected of them. 

About Placement division:

One main important thing is our placement division. Our placement division, which tracks students not just after completion of the course, but starts tracking the student’s right from the time they are doing the course. We have a particular person who is in charge of this. She coordinates with faculty to find out the strengths of each of the students. Some are very good at AutoCAD and some are very good at 3D Max, we put them into that particular field. Some are very good at designing, so we kind of focus to know the inbuilt talents of students and focus more on refining them. In the flow of tracking, we find that many are very well in designing but lack communication skills, they have good design quality but they are unable to express their thought and design. We take them away from classroom, we give some additional training in English, and we kind of mould them into a good designer and place them.

TCG: Who are the recruiters?

AR: We have a huge requirement coming in. Various designers like Renu and Siraj, Yeshwant Rammurty and Kasim Ali Khan are recruiting from us. We have so many associates like Simha associates recruiting from us. A lot of requirement keeps coming in, but in some instances, we were unable to complete that requirement also, since the requirement is much higher than the supply.

TCG: What kind of career prospects are there in Interior Designing?

AR: We are into recession frame, but this was not anticipated and expected by even the wizards of finance. But if you have tracked the growth of infrastructure development over the past ten years, every year I think it is multiplying year by year at a real fast rate. If you look at that, earlier the culture was once you build a house, the lady of the house herself would decorate the house in the style she wanted, but now-a-days it’s not like that, and it’s how well you can keep your spaces and how well you design your spaces. Even for the one and two bed room apartments, people have now got away from the earlier mold of a woman doing up her own house. Not only designer houses are now hiring interior designers, but also small houses and simple one bedroom apartment are also looking forward to hiring interior designers. So, if you look at the infrastructural growth rate, there is a parallel increase in requirement in hiring these designers. We have so many jobs on hand, but sometimes we are unable to send that quality and quantity of people. There is far greater requirement than the supply.

The scope is tremendous in career as interior designer.

It’s said IT field has the biggest requirement of jobs, maybe percentage wise if you look at the quantum of jobs available in IT, and is definitely true, there is no denial on it. But, if you look at the speed at which the sectors have been growing, then I think Fashion and Interior designing actually are way ahead of it, in the sense that textile designing and infrastructural development has surpassed the software industry. For anybody who wants to be assured of job, this is the field.

Career Options in Interior Designing: The interior designer course prepares students to pursue careers as Interior Designers, Interior Decorators, Furniture Designers, Consultancy services, Set Designers, Project Managers, Store Window Designers, and Freelancers.

TCG: What courses do you offer in interior designing?

We have three level programs; there is one-year course, which is called Certificate in Interior designing, for which we are affiliated to State Board of Technical education, Andhra Pradesh. This course is offered by them, we train students for that course, and the examining body will be the State Board of Technical education, AP. Then we are associated with SNDT, Mumbai for two-year Diploma program in Interior designing. Another is the Diploma in Interior Designing in which the awarding body is the Hamstech itself.
 
Difference between the two Diploma courses…………..

Diploma in Interior Designing in association with SNDT Mumbai
Diploma in Interior Designing awarded by Hamstech

For both Diplomas, curriculum is the same, students who join in an academic year; if they join in April-June, they have a full complete academic year to take up, where as in the diploma awarded by Hamstech, we give options for two sessions in a year, wherein we take admission in June-July and also in December-January, if someone has missed the wagon in June, he can join January batch without losing an academic year, then we give them the certification from our institute.

New additions………..a Bachelor Degree in Interior Designing

We do have Bachelor Degree, but surprisingly today, we have a three-year degree program for which we are affiliated to Punjab Technical University for degree which is Bachelor of Science in Interior Designing, but the commitment for that is not really coming from students, in the sense that the students would rather be happy in doing either a one-year program or a two- year program, then spending three years for a degree. For us to take commitment of three- year degree, unless we have numbers, it is going to be hard to take up. Anyhow, we are going to launch this program from this academic year onwards.

Higher education in Interior Designing

We are affiliated to three institutions in this category. We have Domus Academy, Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) from Italy, and also looking forward to associating with a new institution.  Especially for Domes and IED, who have got a complete one-year program, where if a student has done one-year program with us here, they can go straight into the second year program which is the diploma there. International based certificate will be provided for them, which is very valuable. A couple of students have gone to LASALLE-SIA, Singapore, some to IED, Italy from Hamstech. We are not into sponsorship for these programs, but we give them guidance where we see the true potential, we recommend those students and also try to convince and guide their parents.

TCG: What kind of personal straits should one possess to be an interior designer?

AR: Passion for design, zeal to learn, because if you don’t have the interest to learn then you really can’t take off anywhere, The regular things that are required are dedication, determination and the will to succeed very essentially, because you are fighting against all odds when you are doing a course. You are fighting for survival when you start a career. You will have to be able to take it on from there and try to explore yourself. Most essentially, you should have the element of design, which is the basic trait.

TCG: What are the eligibility criteria and selection procedure for entry into the course?

AR: For certificate program, a pass in Tenth and for Diploma program, a pass in 12th (Inter or 10+2)

Coming to selection process, as of now when the candidates come for counseling, our counselors interact with them and check out their capacities and capabilities, we also look through their previous examination results and mark sheets and check out their performance and what kind of students they have been and if they would be able to comprehend one year program or whether they would be eligible to take up a two-year program, then the commitment level of the student and seriousness of the student. Based up on the evaluation of the student through interaction, they are enrolled into the course.

There are certain people who want to do the course, they don’t want to get into the career, they just want to design their homes, for such people who are serious kind and don’t want to make career in that line, it is pointless to recommend a two-year program, because they will not be able to complete the program. For such candidates, who just want to decorate their homes, take it as a hobby and not make it as a career, then we recommend a one-year program. Not that a career cannot be made after one-year program, it also has very extensive and serious work, so you can make a career even by doing a one-year course.

For both Diploma and certificate programs, selection procedure is the interaction with counselors. Only for the Bachelor degree in Interior designing, there is entrance test, only if candidate passes the entrance test, he will be eligible for counseling/interview. The eligibility is 10+2 for Bachelors degree. No great skills are required, only a basic element of design.

TCG: What is the fee structure for courses?

AR: The fee structure is Rs.45, 000/- per annum for one year and two-year program. In which there are installment facility, wherein they have to pay it in two installments. For Bachelors degree, there are six semesters. For each semester, they will have to pay 25, 000.

TCG: Tell us about your faculty and their interaction with students.

AR: Our faculty has been with us for past eight years, we have experts in the field of infrastructural designing, architectural designing and material designing. Then we have adjunct faculty who come to take specialized classes, who are well-known figures in the field of architectural designing.

We essentially do not cross twenty admissions in every batch, because we believe in keeping numbers, so that each and every student is given full concentration. We understand to see that each student is going through the whole process, their papers are corrected and guidance levels are there at every point of time. We have a set timetable for them; wherein we have two days of graphic, one day of material, and one day of construction and then the theory classes. The interaction between students and faculty is more specific because of less number of students.  Since faculty has to track the student’s performance in order to report the strength of the student to placement division, there is good interaction between them.

TCG: What kind of technology is employed in Interior Designing?

AR: The main tool for Interior Designing is AutoCAD and 3D-MAX. We train the students in AutoCAD, which is very essential and just give the review of 3D-MAX covering how and why it is useful in Interior Designing and not the whole of 3D-MAX. Apart from the regular designing tools like coral draw, Adobe Photoshop is also taught.

TCG: What about infrastructure and other facilities?

AR: We have classrooms, library and sophisticated laboratories. Our library has extensive collection of periodicals, books for reference from all parts of the world. Apart from which we have a department, which prepares study material extensively and also a department which gives handouts based on the latest trends and newer materials which keep coming in market. We give students updated information as long as they are with us and also guide them to check out what’s new in the market, tell them to keep themselves updated even after finishing their course. They need to do market survey to tune themselves to changing trends in the market. We recommend to them that they join the designer organizations wherein they can be in touch with the designers and upcoming trends in interior designing.

TCG: Are you planning to add new centers of Hamstech?

AR: Yes, we are coming up with a new center in Nagpur, the interiors are done and we will be launching the new center by mid of March that would be our first out of state center. But by the next year-end, we are planning to start another three centers in other states. As of now, we are having three centers of Hamstech in Hyderabad at Himayathnagar, Punjagutta and Secunderabad. We do not want to add any more centers in Hyderabad, we are quite saturated on that, we will just work on to progress on these three centers.  We want to widen our horizons by adding more centers in other states.

TCG: Regarding the industry exposure to students?

AR: As part of our course includes professional practices, we train them in those practices here in our own college level. We recommend to them three – six months of internship, where we put them under one of the leading designers in Hyderabad. That itself is a huge industry exposure to them. Our concern is that they first understand the subject, the importance of designing and the huge requirement in the field of interior designing. Once they understand the subject thoroughly then only it would be reliable for them to learn business and can have an industry exposure. Until then, we purely concentrate on subject knowledge.

TCG: Is the boom of interior designing still in vogue with the recent recession affecting the real estate business?

AR: Yes, the impact of recession is there to some extent in interior designing field too, since the market seems to be down, accordingly analysts have declared a slowdown in infrastructural growth rate in coming six to eight months initially, but with the correction in the market. Though the recession has hit badly the infrastructural sector, there are some infrastructural experts who say it is a very temporarily phase and it will resume back. The boom is still huge, you see different aspects though there is whole lot of differences that are really coming from the market.

The three things of life Roti, Kapada aur Makaan are the elementary requirements at any point of time, so the question of they dying out is not a possibility, maybe slowdown in the market but it could definitely resume back. It is good that we had healthy correction in the market and now we have to look ahead.

TCG: Average income of Interior Designing

AR: One who wants to be in interior designing starting with 10+2 having done a one year or two year program can immediately look at staring salary of 15 k and then further the sky is the limit based upon his proficiency, capability, number of projects he is handling, how fast he is executing the projects. Since everybody is working on 15% to 20% commission basis these days, if you a looking at a project which is about a crore of rupees, in next six months, you can get 15 lakhs to 16 lakhs in on single project on 15% to 20%. There are interior designers who take multiple projects; there is no one who says only one project at a time like Amir Khan saying only one film at a time.  Most of the interior designers handle minimum of 5 to 6 projects at a time. So, if you really have the bent of mind and the will to succeed, absolutely Sky is the limit.

TCG speaks to students of Hamstech

TCG: Why did you choose Interior designing as your career?

Students: Like most of us are quite interested in the architecture designing and have a flair for decoration and designing, which keep us always trying new things out in homes and places of living. We want to add more color and life to decorate places making it more pleasant and presentable.  This idea of making a place desirable and ambient and having a kind of attitude towards designing and decoration made us choose Interior Designing as career.

TCG: Who is the inspiration for you to be in Interior designing?

Students: When it comes to inspiration, it’s generally the nature, colors and ambience. Seeing decorated and well-designed houses or boutiques, we feel inspired that one day, we would also design nice boutiques, stalls, houses and other places. Maybe we will design sets for films too.

TCG: How did you come to know about HAMSTECH? Why only HAMSTECH?

Students: We came to know about it from our friends and some of their cousins who have already done their Interior designing in Hamstech. Actually, they have only inspired us to do the course in Hamstech as it is well known in offering Interior designing course.

TCG: How do you find HAMSTECH as an institute? What role does it play in shaping up your career?

Students: As we are part of Hamstech now, we really are proud to be enrolled in this institute, we are provided the whole knowledge of Interior designing right from the scratch. We are exposed to the professional work culture, which is the most important aspect, because whatever one learns is fruitful only when it is practiced in the right manner. We have experts in every area who teach us the elementary level concepts to dynamic level concepts.

TCG: How is your faculty? Do you have a good rapport with your faculty?

Students: The faculty is excellent, they are experts in interior designing, architectural designing, materials and construction details. Their exposure to the field is marvelous which they share with us. We really have a good rapport with them. Since we are a few in numbers, we are given more focus and concentration which helps us to build a very successful career.

TCG: How is the lab, library facilities?

Students: We have well established and well equipped labs. Our library has extensive collection of periodicals, books for reference from all parts of the world. Apart from which we have a department, which prepares study material extensively and also a department which gives handouts based on the latest trends and newer materials which keep coming in market.

FINISHING SCHOOL- A SPECIALLY DESIGNED PROGRAM FOR WOMEN

TCG: What are the course contents of finishing school program?

AR: Grooming & Etiquette, Personality Development, Fashion Styling, Beauty Culture, Nutrition Dietetics, Interior Decoration, Health and Fitness, Home Management, Travel and Tourism, Ikebana, Dance, Art Appreciation and Internet Savvy. 

TCG: Why do you think there is need for Finishing school?

AR: If you look at a diamond, diamond truly has its own value, but then if a diamond is not polished, although it has value, it still does not have spark in it. If you polish a diamond, you can really bring out the essence of the diamond. So is the Finishing School, like the final polish on a diamond. A person already has a lot of attributes, but fine tuning them and bringing out the best out of a person is the criteria. Like the saying goes, ‘First impression makes the last impression.’

We train the students to learn for the basics of standing, sitting in right postures, eating and talking in. We want them to make an impact in whatever they do, whether it is as simple as standing and sitting to talking and to be dressed in right manner and eating in the correct way. Basically students need to correct their style. These are regular elements but major elements of life. So our program essentially deals with the following aspects of Finishing School.

Primary Aspect is Personality Development: We try to build up a lot of confidence in the person. A lot of people come very pretty, very beautiful and well dressed but they don’t have the confidence in them. They feel shy to talk, can’t look into eyes and their hand movements are so subdued while talking. So you can actually make out that the person has the content in him or her but does not have the confidence to come out expressively. So we essentially take these sessions very seriously. Most of our finishing school hours are spent on personality development classes.  We do three video graphs of students at various aspects of the course, the movement they come in the course, we first video graph them, students introduce themselves very informally, at that point of time they are very camera conscious. But later we tell them where they are going wrong seeing there videos, we train them on that aspects and correct their mistakes. In course of time we again video graph them, and see if they have rectified their mistakes and improved their attitude while talking. If they are done with those mistakes, we move on to deeper aspects like advising them to be confident, regarding the hand movements, how they can keep eye to eye contact while talking and postures. Initially, they might have fears, but after the sessions, they become confident while talking.  So in that way, we bring out a lot of personality development in them. We also train them in various aspects of basic communications skills, how to maintain Inter personal relationship, how to behave in group, anger management. In totality, the inner strength of a person is personified.

Personal Grooming: Now that you are done with personality development, you are now pretty smart in talking, but what if you are coming shabbily dressed. No one is going to look at you or pay attention to you. So here comes the personal grooming. We ensure that we teach them all techniques of makeup, hair care, skin care, and body care & odour. We take up each issue and ensure that they are practicing it every day. We train them the basic technique of day makeup, night makeup, party makeup. We don’t ask them to over do it, but a little kajal, little mascara, little lipstick and hair cut and combed in right way.  What ever is thought every day they are supposed to practice it from the next day. But if somebody say no we can’t keep lipstick or will not have a haircut, it’s a taboo for us. Then we ask them to sit at home, because the concept itself is to ensure that they are in totality fine-tuned. If they are not practicing it, then it is of is no use at the end of the program, you will be the same as you were earlier. We want them to come out of these inhibitions and present themselves very well. We essentially take care from head to toe, right from hair, pedicures, manicures, facials and maintaining neatness.

Apart from that dining is an important aspect which we teach here, we eat at home every day but there is a difference in style while eating. Eating with family is different, Eating with officials is different, Eating amidst people is different and eating informally is different.  There is a decorum, which has to be taken care in fine dining. We teach them the basic elements of how to use cutlery, which cutlery goes with what kind of food, which glass goes for what drink and how to treat various kinds of food. Teach them in making elaborative menus. For instance, if you are dining with a foreigner, if you give them a huge variety of south Indian dishes, if they do not like the dishes, it would end up in foreigners having no meal at all. So we teach them how to make a balanced menu accordingly. We take them to seven course meal or a five course meal, how to use cutlery and make them eat. Initially when they see the fully dressed meal on the dining, they kind of get confused and it might be intimidating. But once they learn the techniques, it becomes very easy for them to dine any course meal. Once they learn in the class-room training, they are asked to go out with their family or with their parents and make their parents or family members to learn to dine. Like the saying goes, “if the woman of the house is educated, then total family is educated.” While you are teaching you are also learning and recalling the learning aspects.

Once you are personally groomed well, you need to keep your places neat and fine. So we teach them basics of interior decoration. If you look great and talk perfectly; but if some one visits your home and find the rooms not decorated in the right manner. It leaves a very bad impression on you, so you not only have to personally groom yourself but also keep your home as well surrounding neatly maintained and decorated well. We essentially also teach them how to pep up the places of your living. We have an Interior designer who comes up to teach the techniques of interior decoration to the students. Not whole interior designing but basics of interior designing.

Then you have styling, based on your body shape, you will be advised for certain type of dress, selection of dress colors, shape of dress and so on. Fashion is basically the comfort in whatever you wear. So the fashion stylist recommends based upon your interest and taste, the right kind of clothing, which will suit you the most. If someone is used to wear only certain type of dress, then we recommend the different modes of dressing accordingly keeping in mind their choice and comfort and can carry it off confidently.

Then we have Fitness, our fitness experts come and teach the student the various modes of fitness. It can be a gym, yoga, an aerobic activity.  We teach the different forms of fitness and also, the importance of fitness.  Then we have dietician who decides or teaches what kind of diet will suit their body type and give them stereotypical diet.

Then we have Travel and Tourism, travel is an integral part of our life today.

If you are going to travel to china, you need to know about their main culture, food habits, we teach the tips of how to go about while traveling to various places. Before you plan to go to place, you need to know the essential aspects of that place.

Dancing is the craze all around among the youngsters. But if you are dancing shabbily and if there is no grace in your dance, there is no use of dancing. We teach them the series of dance lessons and also help them to learn certain basic dance steps if they are going to night clubs or partying outside. They are introduced to dancers, who train them the dancing techniques.

ASSOCIATION FOR FINISHING SCHOOL PROGRAM IS ON TOP OF THE LINE: (FACULTY)

We have for fine dining Ms. Chhaya Momaya, Grooming & Etiquette Consultant, who is the leading Etiquette Consultant in India, Neeta Lulla, Renowned Fashion Designer taking sessions on fashion styling, who has done the designing work for Jodhaa Akbar. We have the Jawed Habib, a professional Institute, which does the grooming. We have experts from each field to take up sessions for our finishing school program. We have Rekha Reddy for Ikebana, Shiamak Davar for Dance, Ms. Dinaz Vervetwala, renowned Fitness Expert for Fitness classes, Ms. Raji Subramanyan, Communication & Soft Skills Consultant who takes Personality development classes.

TCG: Is the boom of Finishing schools catching up? 

AR: Essentially, in Hyderabad people have not understood the concept of Finishing School. Unfortunately, people are not aware of the concept of Finishing School, there has to be a lot more education on these topics, maybe people like you should make them know the urgent need for such programs. When we advertise Finishing school programs, a lot of enquires come asking what exactly this Finishing School is. Although we have done a few ads, which are expensive, it is quite difficult for us to explain or to make them understand what finishing schools are through an ad. Maybe we have better days to see.

TCG: What about course duration and fee structure?

AR: Finishing School program is a 2 ½ months course; we have two batches twice a year i.e. totally four batches in a year. The course fee is 22, 000 and there is no age limit for students who want to participate in the program. Only thing is they have to be above 16 years old and education wise a 10+ is preferred since we cover all aspects.