Prof. Mandar Rane

IDC, School of Design
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Powai, Mumbai 400076, Maharashtra, INDIA

Mandar Rane is a Professor of Communication Design at the IDC School of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. A recognized authority in the field of communication design, his research spans over two decades and is centered on the effective organization of information and the strategic construction of messages. His work engages deeply with the theoretical underpinnings and practical applications of visual semantics and communication theory.

Professor Rane has developed a distinctive pedagogical approach that emphasizes learning through visual means, particularly the use of images to foster conceptual clarity and enhance design thinking. His academic and professional contributions comprising research, teaching innovations, and design projects are comprehensively documented on his personal website: https://mandarrane.in

The core philosophy of my teaching is to cultivate independent thinking in designers by gradually reducing their reliance on the instructor for solutions. I create hypothetical scenarios that simulate real-world design challenges, allowing students to engage with problems in a safe yet realistic learning environment. Through a hands-on, experiential approach, students learn by doing, testing, and refining their ideas through multiple iterations.

I view failure as an essential part of the learning process. By encouraging students to analyze what works and what does not, they develop the ability to make informed design decisions. Curiosity is nurtured through carefully structured moments of challenge and discovery, while discussions, debates, and constructive critique help students articulate and defend their ideas.

Rather than providing answers, my role is to initiate conversations that prompt reflection, questioning, and reasoning. By rationalizing their choices and evaluating alternatives, students develop the confidence, critical thinking skills, and decision-making abilities necessary for professional design practice.

Rane. M, Joshi. P, “Two faces of trust - Advertising, Regulation, and Information Design in Indian Food Packaging” – Vision Plus 2026 Information Design Conference - (Oral presentation) // 29 MAY 2026 // Day 2 // Online session - Empowerment

Rane. M. “Exploring role of healthcare pictograms in the context of people living with ALS ” –
Symbol ’2024: Icons for society - Past Present and Future - (Oral presentation) // 19-20 SEP 2024 // Session 2

Rane. M. “In pursuit of a Non-ambiguous icon” – Symbol ’22: Symbol Sourcebook@50 Symposium
Online Symposium - (Oral presentation) // Day 2 // Saturday 8 October 2022 // Session 2

2015 “The Mumbai Rail Map” – The missing infrastructure”, GBF, Global Business Forum 2015 – presented in Smart cities + Infrastructure (Special Interest Group) Goa, PAN IIT event. (Oral Presentation) Rane, M.

2013 - ”Non-verbal communication” codes of Banni grasslands, Kachchh, Gujarat. DDEI: Designing Design Education for India Conference (Pune) INDIA, National Education Conference. Paper presented on March 13, 14 & 15. 2013 (Oral Presentation) Rane, M. Kulkarni, Aditi.

2004 - “Visual Order”, International Conference on (DETM) Design Education Tradition and Modernity., National Institute of Design, (NID). (Oral Presentation) Rane, M.

Rane, Mandar. Waarde, Karel van der (2025), From Tick Marks to Crossbones: Designing and Testing Visual Primitives for Medicine Instruction, International Association of Societies of Design Research Congress (IASDR) Design NEXT. Taipei, Taiwan 2-5 December. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1123

Rane, M., Joshi, P., (2025), “AI, the Internet, and the Designer’s Mind: Navigating Inspiration and Dependence” 15th International Illustration Research Symposium, Apparatus: The Role of Technology in Illustration, Istanbul, Türkiye, 21-22 Nov. (Poster Paper).

Shende, A. Joshi, P. Rane, M, (2025) Translating Auditory Stimuli into Form: A Methodological Approach to Teaching Form Generation, Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2025) DS 137: Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education 
DOI: 10.35199/EPDE.2025.81

Shende, A. Joshi, P. Rane, M, (2024) “The challenges of teaching product configuration and detailing course to heterogeneous background students,” NORDDESIGN CONFERENCE, REYKJAVIK, ICELAND
DOI: 10.35199/NORDDESIGN2024.85

Visual Discourse 2024: An international conference on research into Design of Visual Narratives
Conference Chair for Pictorial Papers, IDC School of Design, Mumbai, INDIA 6-8, November 2024
Joshi, P., Rane, M., (2023) “Demystifying The Act Of “Design” Through Functionality, Usability And Desirability Framework,”  Seventeenth International Conference on Design Principles and Practices held at Polytechnique Institue of Lisbon from 29-31, March 2023. Lisbon, Portugal

Rane. M, Joshi, P., Shende, A., (2022) The Pandemic Effect: challenges of teaching the invisible student, International congress on typography & visual communication, ICTVC, Thessaloniki, Greece,  2022-07-09 

Shende, Avinash. Rane, Mandar. Purba, Joshi. Design interventions for sustainable livelihood of the bamboo craft community, 8th International Forum of Design as a process - Disrupting geographies in the Design world, 2022, Bologna, Italy

Rane. M, Deconstruction as a method for sketching three-dimensional objects, 21st International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (EPDE) University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. 2019 

Shende A, Joshi. P, Rane, M. Design intervention for sustainable livelihood and well-being of bamboo crafts community in Syntein, Meghalaya, India, Solutions for sustainable growth (SSG) Wroclaw, Poland, 2019 (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M. The habit of asking for travel information versus using a rail map, International Institute of Information Design, IIID, Traffic Transport Forum, Linz, Austria, 2017 (Oral Presentation)

Joshi. P, Rane, M. “Pedagogical Intervention to Enhance Spatial Visualization in the Context of Packaging Design: An Exploratory Study with Design Students”, 11th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices, Toronto, Canada 2017-03-02 (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M. Mokashi, R, Shende, A. “Design of an entrepreneurial model in product development and strategy for the marketing of handicraft products in the Northeast of India,” International Committee on Design History and studies (ICDHS), Taipei, 2016 (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M. “The Mumbai Rail Map – Why do Seven Million People commute without a Map”, 10th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices 2016, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (Oral Presentation)

Rane. M, Sharma. N, Scenario-based Teaching Method in Design Education: Challenges and Reflections, International Conference on Design principles and practices 2015, Chicago, USA (Oral Presentation)

Rane. M, Gami. H, Patel, J. “162 Years without a map - Strategies of propelling inclusive design into the public realm”, Birmingham Institute of Arts and Design, Birmingham city university, Vision Plus Conference 2015 (Poster Paper)

Rane, M. IDA, Information Design Association, 2014. Immunization and vaccination card redesign in the state of Maharashtra, London, UK (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M. Kulkarni, A. Design principles and practices 2013, Visual and Information Design Decisions: Their Impact on Perception and Wayfinding on a Portable Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Campus Map, Chiba-Shi, JAPAN (Oral Presentation)

Rane. M, B, Braj. Design principles and practices 2012, Studying Perceptual Differences between Designers and Non-Designer: A Visual Identity Design Problem Los Angeles, California, USA (Oral Presentation)

Rane. M, Designing a systemic model for new heritage walks in India, International Senior Project Conference (ISPC) 2012, Taiwan (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M. Anirudha, J. “Interactive Voice Response system to improve compliance with medication”, Mobile Plus Conference, Chennai, India, 2011, (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M. “The Art of Managing Uncertainty in the Design of Temporal Messages”, International Conference on Design Principles and Practices 2011, Rome, Italy, Sapienza University (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M. Anirudha, J. “Design Opportunities for Supporting Treatment of People Living with HIV/ AIDS in India”. Interact 2011, Portugal (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M. “Investigating visual relationships through family ties – Basic Typography”, Between Design conference, Graphic design between boundaries, Sicily, Italy, Oct 2008 (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M. “Intellectual Observers”, Moving Type Conference 2007, Type events, Birmingham, UK (Oral Presentation)

Rane, M., Braj B. Exploring the effect of imagery on Visual Identity of educational institutes; An eye-tracking study, The International Journal of Visual Design, 2015, pp. 8-18

Joshi A, Rane, M. Design Opportunities for Supporting Treatment of People Living with HIV/ AIDS in India. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011, Volume 7058/2011, 263-282, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-25364-5_20

Joshi A, Rane, M. Healthcare IVRS for Non-Tech-Savvy Users - Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011, Volume 7058/2011, 263-282, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-25364-5_20

Rane, M. Visual Appetite, Design Thoughts, IDC, IIT Bombay. India 2009, 11-19

Rane, M. Visible Language, 39.2, Rationalizing Design Sensitivity, Rodhe Island School of Design, USA 2005, 147-167 (International Journal of Visual Communication - Paper)

Joshi. P, Rane, M. “A qualitative study of dental hygiene practices of visually impaired people in India”, Design4Health, 2018, Sheffield, UK, (Conference Proceedings)

Rane, M., Braj B,. Apoorva, S. Reducing the communication barrier between ALS patients and their family/ caretakers by creating a visual language in the form of icons, using virtual reality. Design4Health, 2018, Sheffield, UK, (Poster paper)

Rane, M. Mokashi, R, Shende, A. “Design of an entrepreneurial model in product development and strategy for the marketing of handicraft products in the Northeast of India,” International Committee on Design History and studies (ICDHS), Taipei, 2016 (Conference Proceedings)

Joshi, A. Rane, M, Supporting the treatment of people living with HIV/ AIDS in resource-limited settings with IVRS, “CHI’14 Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, 2014, Toronto Canada, SIGCHI Best of CHI Honorable Mention Award, Rating A (Conference Proceedings)

Rane, M. 2017. The Design Journey of Prof. Sudhakar Nadkarni (English), Mrane Publications, India. 

Rane, M. 2021. Design of the Mumbai Rail Map - Discussions about concerns, systems, and methods of designing a rail network map for India (English), Mrane Publications, India. 

Rane, M. Joshi, P 2019. A Qualitative study of dental hygiene practices (English), Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-93-5361-885-8

Rane, M. 2019. Visual Appetite. (English), Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-93-5351-496-9

Rane, M. 2017. The Design Journey of Prof. Sudhakar Nadkarni. Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-93-5268-727-5

Rane, M. 2017. Making of the Mumbai Rail Map and MRM App. (English), Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN (Awaited)

Rane, M. 2018. The HfG Ulm – A short history. (English) Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-93-5311-442-8

Rane, M. 2012. Intellectual Observers (English) Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-93-5196-616-6

Rane, M. 2012. प्रज्ञावंत निरीक्षक (Marathi) Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN 978-93-5196-624-1

Rane, M. 2010. Designed Coursework for graduate programs in Visual Communication. (English) Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN 978-93-5196-617-3

Rane, M. 2010. दृष्टि-संवादातील पदवी शिक्षणक्रमांसाठी रचलेला अभ्यासक्रम. (Marathi) Mrane Publications, India. Paper back. ISBN 978-93-5196-618-0

Rane, M. 2012. Visual Order. (English) Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN 978-93-5196-615-9

Rane, M. 2012. दृष्यक्रम. (Marathi) Mrane Publications, India. Paperback. ISBN 978-93-5196-616-6

Spatial enquiries with text and images”, Communication in Perspectives, Rane, M. Verlag Amani International Publishers, Edited by Prof. Braj Bhushan, Sep 24, 2011. ISBN 978-3938-054-253 Chapter 6, pp. 101-128 

The challenges of designing the rail Network map/ Diagram as the critical, missing Transit infrastructure for Mumbai. Rane, M. Patel, J. Patil K. Kulkarni A. Bhushan B. Gami H. Advancing a design approach to enriching public mobility, Selby Coxon, Robbie Napper, Publisher: Springer  ISBN 978-3-030-64721-6 Chapter 10, pp. 161-189
 

Creative Pedagogies + Visual culture - Online Lectures - NIFT Delhi , 23 Nov, 2020

Visual Order Workshop - Vishwaniketan Institute of Design, Kumbhivali, Maharashtra, INDIA. 2020, 29-01 March 

Semiotics and communication theory - 8 Lectures: 2 hours each - Ecole intuit.lab, 88, Old Prabhadevi Rd, Prabhadevi, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400025. 2018 - 2019

Springboard - SETU, Lecture series. 8 Lectures. 13 Feb. 2016

Skhen - Creating Identities for craftsmen // Design Sostenibilita Cultura Digitale Territorio Conference // 2025 Feb 20 

Communication Design Principles // CDP . 2013 // 20-29 MAY /2013 // IDC IIT Bombay