National Institute of Design, Shillong

NID Shillong is a campus of the National Institute of Design in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. Known as the "Scotland of the East" for its rolling hills, pine forests, and pleasant climate, Shillong provides a distinctive environment for design education in Northeast India. The campus admits students through NID DAT and offers B.Des programmes in Product Design, Communication Design, and Textile and Apparel Design.

Meghalaya's three main tribal groups — Khasi, Garo, and Jaintia — each have distinctive craft traditions that provide NID Shillong design students with rich material for research and practice. Cane and bamboo craft in Meghalaya is of exceptional quality: artisans weave baskets, furniture, and traditional carrying frames (duli and khup) with precision and pattern work that reflects accumulated generational knowledge. Handloom textiles from the Garo community include the distinctive Dakmanda and Nokrek designs in cotton and silk, with bold geometric patterns. Khasi and Jaintia women wear the Jainsem, a two-piece wrapped garment often in silk or cotton with distinctive checks. Beadwork and coral jewellery are important elements of traditional dress. These traditions offer material, pattern, and form vocabularies that connect textile and product design students to living craft systems.

NID Shillong graduates enter NID's national placement network alongside the distinctive Northeast India design research background their campus location provides. The campus is a pathway to government-standard design education for students from Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and neighbouring states.