AOD CEO Ranmal Ekanayake and Principal Karen MacLeod disclose why businesses trust AOD design, as they venture into latest mega-project partnering automotive and apparel industries —Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

With design becoming one of the most important aspects that can contribute to innovation in industry, Sri Lanka’s largest and most powerful industries like apparel, tourism, hospitality and automotive are keen to incorporate it into their businesses. Apparel and automotive industries recently collaborated to launch Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Sri Lanka as a major initiative that uses the power of design to renew and reposition their brands and businesses while impacting the country. As the preferred design partner of the government and the business world, Sri Lanka’s dynamic design educator AOD, was entrusted to conceptualise and lead this initiative. 

A design educator leading a project of this calibre which connects the country’s most powerful industries is, quite rare. How did AOD establish this trust with the business world, and the state? Why is education leading and collaborating with business? And how does this benefit the student? Answering these questions, AOD’s CEO Ranmal Ekanayake and Principal Karen MacLeod joined in for an exclusive i n t e r v i ew. As Merc e d e s - B e n z Fashion Week is scheduled to take place by the end of this month as a partnership between AOD, Dimo representing the automotive industry along with Sri Lanka Apparel , these i n s i g h t s b y Ekanayake and MacLeod prove to be great reflections of what education can truly deliver for a nation. 

Q: Mercedes- Benz Fashion Week is about to unfold, and AOD is the driving creative force behind it, partnering several major industries in the island. Can you share the story behind it?

RE: Mercedes- Benz Fashion Week is actually a product of our work for the past decade where AOD worked with the apparel industry to take it to the next level with design i n t e g r a t i o n . Through that work, we have actually established a fantastic relationship with the industry and this has helped us foresee the future of fashion in Sri Lanka, together with the industry. So, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is something we conceptualised to help the industry propel itself into an exciting future full of opportunities for new business and growth.

Q: What is AOD’s role in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week?

KM: AOD is the creative energy behind it. Conceptualising the event, curating the shows, nurturing and presenting the fashion talent that gets showcased at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and actually organising, designing and setting up the event is all AOD. We’ve had the incredible support of all our partners from various industries and together, the outcome will be a quite remarkable thing.

Q: How is this event going to benefit the apparel industry and how is AOD linked to that idea?

RE: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week will use the international network of the acclaimed Mercedes-Benz Fashion Weeks to elevate the local fashion and apparel industry to an international platform recognised worldwide, linking it to new business and buying circles that strengthens the country’s export economy. AOD has been championing the vision to use design for the development of Sri Lanka and its industries for over a decade now, and has developed a close relationship with the government of Sri Lanka and the country’s business sphere through projects like Sri Lanka Design Festival and Island Craft that used design for social and economic progress. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is an extension of this vision, taking the fashion industry to a global stage that gives it enormous power in terms of reaching new audiences and markets for business.

Q: How is this event going to benefit the AOD student?

KM: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week has allowed AOD to extend an exclusive set of benefits and opportunities for its students and alumni graduates who are able to work with industry and the government as young design leaders. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week will take place curated, produced and participated by these young design leaders from AOD, in Colombo this October.

Q: How has AOD shaped its education to prepare its designers for this kind of platform?

RE: AOD was founded with the vision of establishing an international design campus that works in partnership with Sri Lanka’s major industries, like apparel, to progress through design and innovation. Of course, this meant that the kind of education we delivered had to be relevant for industry and also internationally. This is why AOD partnered with UK’s prestigious Northumbria University to offer a series of design degrees that complement Sri Lanka’s major industries by educating young design professionals in the areas of fashion, interior design, fashion marketing, animation, graphic and visual communication design. Through this powerful partnership with UK’s Northumbria University, AOD now contributes a generation of design professionals trained in par with international standards, to Sri Lanka’s industries, such as the apparel industry.

Q: You mentioned that AOD has also pioneered several more projects like this, that connected design with business. Can you speak a little about those?

RE: Yes, over the past decade AOD took several pioneering steps towards contributing to the Sri Lankan industries. Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) founded in 2009, is annually organised by AOD to drive interior architecture, homeware and graphic design further. SLDF is a powerful platform with a global audience of buyers, sourcing specialists, design opinion leaders and media. AOD’s pioneering initiative Island Craft was a project that connected contemporary AOD designers and their expertise on curating products that are desirable to a global market, to traditional craft artisans which helped to create new livelihoods and incomes for these communities; the project was acclaimed as a great use of design to elevate traditional industries.

Q: And what kind of influence have these projects had on the kind of designer that AOD produces?

KM: All these initiatives allow AOD design students and graduates to interact and learn from various industries, collaborate with them and use design to power up industries. It has made the AOD designers to evolve into true professionals who understand the role of design, and role of designers like themselves in business, across industries and in developing their own nation’s economy and changing the lives of fellow Sri Lankans. It has made them empowered, inspired young creatives who want to do something for this country through their talent and education. Our recent partnership with the global style icon Mercedes-Benz to host Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Sri Lanka, directly links AOD’s fashion students and alumni to the country’s apparel industry and also, the global fashion industry and will show them how their talent is relevant on a massive platform seen across the world.

Q: How does this translate to students’ success after they graduate?

KM: AOD sees these initiatives as a way to connect its young designers to bigger opportunities and also to work directly with industries which prepares them to become qualified professionals with real work experience by the time they graduate. This direct exposure to industry and early network building is what has built a continuing trust on the design talent that AOD creates. Through this long-standing industry trust and reputation for creating professionals for business, AOD has been able to continue a 100% post-graduation employment rate for its designers. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka curated and conceptualised by AOD and hosted by the automotive industry giant Dimo, and supported by the apparel industry of Sri Lanka along with several other power industries like hospitality and tourism for the event’s extended benefits, will take place from 27 to 29th October at the Mercedes-Benz Centre for Excellence at Dimo 800 in Colombo.

For more information on the event as well as design-industry links, design education and registrations for 2017 intake in BA (Hons) design in fashion, interior design, fashion marketing, animation, graphic and visual communication design with Northumbria University UK, reach AOD on 0115867772/3 or www.aod.lk