Interior Design at Parul University: Jhanvi Jhagada’s Studio 603 Story

Most interior design students leave college with a portfolio of academic projects and the hope that a firm will see something promising in them. Jhanvi Jhagada left college with a portfolio of three live projects under construction, a paid stipend at a respected Ahmedabad firm, and the kind of practical confidence that only comes from designs being built in the real world.

Jhanvi Jhagada is a recent graduate of the Parul Institute of Design who has completed a three-month paid internship at Studio 603, an architecture and design firm based in Ahmedabad. The internship coincided with her eighth and final semester. She has since concluded her academic requirements and is currently awaiting her convocation ceremony. This article documents her specific story, the live projects she worked on at Studio 603, and the academic foundation that prepared her for them. The broader Parul Institute of Design programme and the interior design career pathways available to graduates are treated in the companion article.

Jhanvi Jhagada is from Somnath, Gujarat. She pursued her bachelor’s degree at the Parul Institute of Design with a focus that ultimately concentrated on furniture design and interior space design. Her academic trajectory followed the standard four-year programme structure, with her seventh semester anchored by a thesis project that asked her to engage with broader conceptual frameworks, and her eighth semester dedicated to practical industry exposure through her Studio 603 internship.

By her own framing, the thesis-then-internship sequence was a deliberate progression. The thesis gave her space to think about large ideas before the internship demanded that she translate ideas into work that contractors and clients would actually build.

The technical foundation Jhanvi built at the Parul Institute of Design proved to be the operational asset that distinguished her at Studio 603 from day one. The curriculum was structured to integrate conceptual design thinking with hard technical skills, and that integration is what her senior colleagues at the studio responded to during her first weeks of the internship.

• 2D drafting and AutoCAD proficiency. The institute developed her technical drafting capability to a standard that her senior designers at Studio 603 explicitly noted. AutoCAD fluency is the baseline currency of interior design practice in India, and Jhanvi entered the internship with strong working capability rather than introductory familiarity.
• Electrical layouts and flooring detailing. Beyond general drafting, the curriculum covered specific technical detail layers, including electrical layouts and flooring plans. These are areas where junior designers are frequently entrusted with significant responsibility, and Jhanvi’s existing competence here meant she was assigned substantive work early.
• Conceptual to tangible translation. The curriculum’s emphasis on translating abstract concepts into practical design frameworks shaped how she approached her thesis work, and the same orientation translated into how she handled real projects at Studio 603.
• Furniture design workshop methodology. A specific workshop at the institute reframed furniture design from a purely aesthetic exercise into a problem-solving discipline. Students were asked to design pieces that solved specific spatial or functional problems. The framing shaped how she came to evaluate good design generally, not only furniture.

Two faculty members anchored Jhanvi’s academic development. Sanika Ma’am served as her primary mentor, with Ritu Ma’am providing parallel guidance throughout the programme. Both played significant roles from the early conceptual phases of her work through the final stages of her thesis preparation.

The mentorship process was iterative rather than directive. Jhanvi would bring ideas, the mentors would respond with specific feedback, she would implement changes, and the revised work would return for further review. This loop trained her in the revision discipline that professional design work requires. By the time she arrived at Studio 603, the feedback-implement-review cycle was an operational habit rather than a workplace adjustment she needed to learn.

Jhanvi’s application to Studio 603 was direct. She compiled her professional portfolio, prepared her resume, and emailed both documents to the firm. There was no intermediary, no placement coordination layer, no application platform with multiple rounds. She sent the email, and the firm called her back the next day.

The selection process consisted of a single telephonic interview. After that conversation, the firm confirmed her selection. The efficiency of the process reflected the strength of the portfolio she had built across her academic years; the firm did not need multiple rounds to recognise that the work spoke for itself.

• The portfolio is the load-bearing element. For interior design hiring, the portfolio carries more weight than the interview because it shows actual capability rather than describing it. Jhanvi’s portfolio included her thesis work and the technical detailing she had built during her coursework.
• Proactive outreach over passive application. She did not wait for placement cells to coordinate or for firms to post openings. She identified Studio 603, prepared her materials, and emailed directly. The proactive pattern is common across successful design student outcomes.

The work environment at Studio 603 surprised Jhanvi positively. Faculty had warned design students that working outside the university setting would bring significant pressure and a markedly different culture. Her experience contradicted the warning. The firm was supportive, the workload was manageable within standard 10 AM to 7 PM hours, and she did not have to carry excessive work home. As a junior intern under the supervision of two senior designers, she received clear direction without undue pressure.

• Voluntary stipend. Studio 603 offered Jhanvi a stipend without her having mentioned or negotiated one during her application. The firm extended the offer voluntarily, and notably did so in front of senior staff who were not themselves receiving stipends. The structural signal mattered: the firm valued intern contribution operationally rather than treating internships as free labour.
• Mentorship from senior designers. The two senior designers Jhanvi worked under took the time to teach her specific software competencies, including SketchUp, where she was less proficient when she arrived. When she made mistakes, the seniors explained the error patiently rather than penalising her. The teaching orientation was structural to the firm’s culture rather than personal kindness.
• Site visits and contractor interaction. The most significant difference from university life was the face-to-face interaction with construction workers and contractors that interior design practice actually requires. Jhanvi spent time on sites, communicated directly with on-site workers, and saw her designs being executed in real time.

Within her three-month internship, Jhanvi was entrusted with substantive live project work rather than only assistance tasks. Three projects defined her internship output.

• The kid’s room design. A future project being prepared for handover, intended for a five-or six-year-old boy. Jhanvi took full creative control of the room’s design, conceptualised a cohesive whimsical theme for the space, and incorporated a mezzanine structure into the layout. She produced both the 3D models and the 2D working drawings necessary for eventual construction.
• The living and dining space in Ahmedabad. An ongoing residential project, and her self-described proudest achievement of the internship. She designed the living and dining areas, developed the 3D designs that were approved by the relevant stakeholders, and generated the detailed working drawings that the construction team is currently executing on the live site. The designs she created are being built as the article is published.
• The custom door design. Beyond full room layouts, she designed a custom door for one of the firm’s projects. She later visited the site to see the door under construction, providing a tangible moment where her digital work translated into physical reality. The internship structure that allowed her to follow a design from concept through to on-site fabrication is unusual for a three-month junior intern engagement.

One specific framing Jhanvi has emphasised concerns the over-reliance on visual reference platforms like Pinterest in junior design portfolios. She has observed that diploma-level students frequently copy-paste concepts directly from Pinterest references rather than developing problem-solving designs of their own. Her position is firm: taking references is acceptable, but failing to add a personal touch renders the design useless. A designer must give their own unique contribution to a reference so the viewer can visibly see the original creative input and the distinct change.

Her advice to design students who are building portfolios is to aim for minimalist yet different designs that clearly communicate individual effort. Minimalism is not an aesthetic preference. It is a discipline of stripping out borrowed elements until only the designer’s own contribution remains visible.

Jhanvi’s working philosophy emphasises continuous process over rigid expectations. Her framing is that expectations often cause distress because the gap between expectation and reality produces disappointment regardless of how the actual work performs. The alternative she advocates is to keep working, keep iterating, and trust that the right results will follow without being weighed down by predetermined outcomes.

Her own example for this came from her furniture design workshop at the institute. She even mentioned the epic exposure of Parul Institute of Design, wherein different programs in communication design, product design, fashion design, animation & VFX, and TV production courses are designed in a way to extend global opportunities. She had begun a live exam with one specific idea in mind, but as the work progressed, the final result turned out substantially better than her original concept and earned recognition from her peers and faculty. The lesson she has drawn from this is to go with the flow, keep processing the work, and trust that the right results will eventually emerge.

Having completed her bachelor’s degree and her Studio 603 internship, Jhanvi is currently focused on her next professional step. She is actively looking for a permanent job placement in the interior design industry. The experience at Studio 603, combined with her foundational education, has positioned her well to enter the workforce as a capable junior interior designer.