The Indian Education System counts its primary education in two parts: 10 years of schooling and 2 years of junior college. After the culmination of the 12th grade, the students stand at the precipice of choosing a bachelor’s degree and launching themselves into whichever field of work they wish to enter. Several course options are open today for students to pursue after 12th – like technology, arts, humanities, commerce, management, or creative Uni courses. Today, design and technology courses have also merged into one, giving birth to a plethora of creative courses after 12th.

Read further to learn about the different options that are available within courses after 12th in the creative field, and how you can prepare to acquire admission into the best ones.

Creative Courses After 12th

Creative courses are the best career options for creative minds after completing their basic education. Creativity can stem from every field – science, commerce, arts, or humanities. Taking a broad look at the creative categories, you can find courses in the following domains:

• Design courses: fashion design, graphic design, product design, and interior design
• Architecture courses that require a science background
• Photography courses that are practical-based or research-based
• Animation courses, including multimedia and digital platforms
• Event management courses that cover budgeting, financial planning, and marketing
• Digital marketing courses that offer a bachelor’s or diploma to join marketing firms
• Mass media courses, including journalism and mass communication
• Film-making courses, including film & video communication, acting courses, and cinematography
• Web development courses, including UI and UX designing

All of these courses are creative career options that have great scope for growth in India. Creative institutes, like the JD School of Design, offer a variety of creative courses with holistic curriculums to allow interaction between the fields, along with enabling individual development.

Parallel Courses in Creativity Display

Several other courses are a part of the creative courses umbrella but have different teaching methodologies and subjects. These are:

• Acting and theatre – includes backstage work, stage management, as well as direction, among others
• Writing – long form and short form, for movies, films, and other forms of art
• Advertising – closer to marketing, prefers a commercial background
• Music – theory as well as performance
• Arts and crafts – commonly called fine arts, for research and freelance
• Makeup and hair art – useful in creative fields like photography, event management, and so on.

How to get admitted into Creative Courses

In India, creative courses do not admit students based solely on their academic performance but evaluate their creative abilities to determine their eligibility for the program. Admission to a creative course in India relies on three key factors:

• An aggregate score of more than 50% in 12th-grade boards, be it any stream (science, commerce, arts, or humanities). This is to ensure that the student holds a basic school-level knowledge about all subjects and will be able to cope with an academic setting.
• Most of the creative courses across India have an entrance test as a part of their admissions process. This can be a nationalised test, such as NATA for Architecture. You must sit for this exam and clear it to be considered for admission.
• Courses that require a display of work, for example, fashion designing courses, also need the students to prepare a portfolio of previous work in design. Usually, students who have cleared the written entrance exam are invited for an interview round at the institution’s campus, where this portfolio of work is also discussed.

What Do I Put in My Portfolio of Work?

A portfolio is important for college admission as it provides evidence of an applicant’s abilities, versatility, and potential in their chosen field of study. For a physical portfolio, you can include the following items:

• Paintings, drawings and other hand-made artwork in a variety of mediums
• Prints of your digital artwork
• Photography sample prints
• Paper art
• Writing samples
• Collages
• Images or prints of stagnant artwork, like murals and sculptures

For a virtual or a digital portfolio, you get the flexibility to include works like:

• Video presentations
• Videography
• Skits and sketches (for theatre)
• Website development samples
• UI-UX samples
• GIF designs
• Animation samples
• Videos of immovable artwork, such as murals and installations

Make your portfolio interesting and aesthetically pleasing and include a variety of works – do not stick to one type of sample work only.

Final Words

Selecting among career options after 12th might seem daunting at the age of 18, but knowing your likes, dislikes, and talents can help you a great deal. Creative courses after 12th are a mere glance into the world of design, an industry that’s growing in leaps and bounds.

Getting into the best creative career options in India requires immense dedication and an eye for detail. If you are considering a design school that allows for creative expression while teaching you practical skills and experience, look no further than the JD School of Design.

JDSD offers a wide range of creative and design courses across all its campuses, such as Fashion Design, Interior Design, Jewellery Design, Product Design, Graphic Design, and UI & UX Design, among others.

So, enrol in a creative course today, and see a plethora of career opportunities and growth options open up for your creative mind!