Saar

SAA

An abstract excerpt of life.

Volume One Issue One Rs. 850

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ART 30 Inside a Phillumenist’s Mind 40 A Never ending design epoch

52 Digitalising the unexpected picture 64 Art has a song of its own 75 Less is the new more

CULTURE 10 Art of skilled hands :Tattoography 22 Changing Hues of the Delhi Skyline

ENTS Volume One Issue One

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FASHION 84 The Bold and Beautiful: Luxury Swimwear 92 A Limned Canvas 110 Innovators of Pop and Colour 116 Right Hue to your wardrobe LIFESTYLE 125 An Abstract Extract ‘ 136 Print Chaska 184 Tete-a-Tete 142 A La Mode Art this season 192 Carpe that mo 158 Adorned-A Projected Narrative 202 The Geometric Life 178 Travel in Style ^

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CONT Volume One Issue One

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RIA GUREJA

DEVIKA KHOSLA

Art is constantly evolving everyday, so it is important to get in touch with our surroundings and absorb the beauty behind everything. Saar, a journal magazine will take you the abstract extracts of life in every possible manner. It is a medium for all the art lovers to get in touch with the artists and know more about their stories.

Who doesn’t like some fame in their lives. Saar provides a platform to the underground artists as well as known artists and designers around us.

In this first issue of our magazine, we interviewed some great designers and I hope you love their love as much as we do.

The magazine Saar suggests an abstract art magazine. It provides an indigenous illusion as soon as the name springs to our minds. This proves to the point that we only concentrated on national and indian graphic art in the current scenario.

There hasn’t been a magazine before that caters to a niche consumer base which is artistically bent and appreciates this form of upcoming art. We tried to keep our content authentic by including first hand experiences and interviews and providing a platform for budding artists and professionals who haven’t gained that much of fame but need the recognition from art lovers. We at Saar magazine hope and wish that we communicate this art well through our new venture to all art enthusiasts out there.

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arunima sharma

shreya mehta

Saar. A Sanskrit word meaning Extract. An initiative to take out an excerpt from the ever running life. When things exist in thoughts, feelings and as theories, and don’t have any solid or concrete form of existence, they become even more valuable. That’s the power of the art of Abstracts.

Saar- The abstract excerpt of life, is a path to express thoughts and share stories in a rather symbolic manner where the focus is not just on the external reality, but the graphic truth.

This issue highlights some of the very talented names in town who all fall under the graphic art umbrella. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

The magazine is special to me in many ways. Getting out of my shell, my comfort zone is one of the main reasons. Dealing with challenges, new ideas. It always feels wonderful to deal with challenges and get out of your boundaries to complete a task.

Saar- the magazine has helped me broaden my perspective when it comes to art and graphics. My personal favourite remains our cover shoot, A Limned Canvas wherein I was pushed to my limits and experienced an all new take on styling, photography and post processing. I hope you all enjoy going through the magazine as much as we enjoyed creating every bit of I.

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CULTURE Art of skilled hand : Tattoography Changing hues of the Delhi skyline

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PHOTOGRAPH BY RIA GUREJA

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ART OF SKILLED HANDs : TATTOOGRAPHY Tw o f a m o u s t a t t o o a r t i s t s t a l k a b o u t t h e c u r r e n t scenario of this art form and its evolution over time.

Art is a form of expression and since the olden times Tattoo’s have deemed to communicate this form of graphic art. Tattoo’s mean different things to different people, for some its an unfinished story or chapter in their life, for some it might be a heartfelt memory or a simple belief. With changing times this art is now finally being widely accepted among the masses globally and india swell. The only reason why tattoos were frowned upon by society was because they were only a part of the skin of a pirate or someone who held a criminal reputation. Tattoo art these days has started representing fashion as the society has gradually become liberal and expressive leading to the inclusion of this art form in the mainstream culture. This art communicates individuality since the selection of images, design process and artist simply conveys the significance of the person’s imagination.

Words by Devika Khosla Visuals sourced from the artists

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Just to give clarity and avoid confusion tattoo lovers have segregated this art.

Abstract: This is a modern style of art and usually doesn’t have any type of outline. It breaks away from the traditional representation of animals, people, and the world around us.

Black and Grey: This is when shading is heavily utilised. Black and grey work is typically used to create some type of 3-D effect without using colour.

Highlights are often added using white. White ink can also be used to smooth out sharp transitions between the different shade.

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Fine Line : Fine Line Tattooing is one of the newer styles you’ll find in tattoo shops and has been achievable because of the improvements made with tattoo machines, inks, and needles. Fine Line is often used in portrait tattoos or to achieve a delicate look.

Colour: Coloured tattoos an be vivid or subtle depending on the effect the tattoo artist is after.

Realistic: Usually represented by portraits or true to life scenes/ landscapes that showcase the fine line detail of a photograph or painting.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY VARIOUS ARTISTS ON TUMBLR

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To gain more knowledge about this art form I interviewed two famous tattoo artists.

Karan Sidhu works as a tattoo artist at Punk Tattoo’z.

When asked what tattoo art meant to him he told me that he was passionate about this intriguing art since childhood. Besides numerous genres of art he specialises in making permanent artwork on skin tops his list. He claims to live and breath tattoo art, owning numerous out of love towards it and spreading more because he feels privileged to do so. Karan chose this as a career option because he has always been curious to do creative things in life, being a tattoo artist being one of them.

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He says “It was never an option in my teens,“ the curiosity towards it was growing since I was 9, this led me to being a professional tattoo artist.

The creative process behind his work is solely based on understanding, visualisation and execution. ’Understanding’ the requirement of the client in regards to what they are looking for. He claims that having a strong ability of ‘visualisation’ prior to actually starting the process about how it will look so that it can be communicated about with the recipient of the permanent art on their skin.

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KARAN SIDHU

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TATTOO ART BY KARAN SIDHU

‘Executing’ the imaginative piece of art after the discussion on the piece of paper or directly on skin (temporarily) are the prime aspects which concocts as a profound creative process behind / before the work.

As far as this industry goes Karan faces challenges day to day when people are not clear with what he/she wants to go for. The Challenge erupts when the subject is unclear. Making a collective decision by shortlisting the designs from a variety (once the subject is clear) is still an easy task. Another challenge is when the person becomes impatient and expects the work to be done in an inappropriately lesser time

whereas the more time we give the better it becomes.

Tattoo art according to this budding artist is being accepted in india more widely but in certain places it’s hard not to be aware of people gazing and noticing this body art. Tattoo’s are being more accepted in the major cities whereas it’s doubtfully acceptable in the urban areas. Karan has a list of whacky down his spine that include unacceptable abusive words done at unique places. He has also been included in the Guinness World Records for tattooing someone from the skull to the back and was left humbled by this experience.

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TATTOO ART BY KARAN SIDHU

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AMAR

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Amar is a tattoo artist at Devilz Tattoo, one of the best tattoo studio in the capital.

His experience in this field is shown through his excellent work. According to Amar, tattoo art is the only art which in fact is still done by hand in a time where technology has taken over. He believes in the authenticity of this art form and has been a part of it since a child. He began his career 7 years ago and confirms that in this career its only experience that teaches you well. Over the years society has accepted tattoo’s as an art since number of clients have increased and people have started becoming more experimental with tattoo’s.

Intially he claims that people only got tribal tattoo’s or text tattoo’s inked but nowadays people have become creative and more artistically

bent towards designing their own piece of graphic.

This artist tells us that before people with tattoo’s were labelled as rebels and were looked down on but now he has inked doctors and engineer’s which prove that there has been shift in the mindset of people where the acceptance of this art is concerned. Crazy tattoo’s done by him was a lord shiva tattoo on the back which took 5 months to cover and he has the hang of it and does not mess up. He firmly believes that people should embrace this art and it cannot be sold to people.

Therefore, I conclude that tattoo art stands as a form of graphic art that is noticeably being accepted and appreciated by the more creative sects of the society.

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TATTOO ART BY AMAR

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Changing hues of the delhi skyline The Street art revolution is witnessed by the capital of the country and goes on to spread its wings.

Nowadays street art is regarded as a legalised form of art even though others hold a perception of it being as nothing but vandalism. In other countries where it is still illegal it is called underground art for this reason. India being one of those countries where artists create their work of art in the wee hours of the night hiding from authorities. Street artists also go on to keeping their identities a secret.

Words by Milly Sethi and Devika Khosla Visuals sourced from the search engine

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DELHI STREET ART

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What is graffiti? If we go by the definition, it is a form of vandalism, but what’s happening in Delhi? Is Delhi getting inspired by this art of vandalism? Well this is a form of graffiti but its called Street Art. Whereas, Graffiti limits an individual to what he or she can do with a spray can, on the spot.

Street art, on the other hand, while employing some of the application techniques of graffiti, often involves a finished product that is readymade and brought to the location. While graffiti, is under a anonymous signature, street art is to beautify your nearby environment.

Although street art owes a part of it’s glory to free willed artistic expression, it is a marvellous art form in it’s own right, and it is amazing to gain knowledge about the evolution and diversity of street art in the 21st century. Evolution of this art form as been seen as the industry has witnessed a transition into a new era of artistic freedom and unlimited style. The society around us has also become more tolerant, appreciative and supportive towards street art. Some artists are known to have shown their work in art galleries and exhibits. India as a country in particular has undergone an evolution where its street art has

been influenced by current events, Bollywood, environmental issues etc.

The walls of the the city have been covered in creative and magnificent murals of all sizes.

Street art festival in New Delhi named St.Art Delhi is one of the largest street art festivals in India to date, as it brings together an array of international and Indian street artists to bring alive the walls of three city districts, Shahpurjat, Khirki Village and Hauz Khas Village.

These perfect pieces of art created remain on these walls permanently and with each street art festival in Delhi the outdoor urban gallery will broaden its horizons.

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“As a kid we all loved drawing on the wall but our parents always said no.

Our society is the same, when we draw something on the wall that they can’t make a head and tail of, they say NO! and treat it as vandalism. However Street art is something which is grown from the concept like, if I made something good on the walls of my room and some people appreciated or my parents would see it and find it to be beautifying my room they would come and say good carry on, I think thats the simplest way I

could explain the difference.

Street Art today is making the mark on the society by beautifying not only the walls but also the dustbins, bus stops, toilets and many more leaving a powerful message on the minds of viewers. They are made to think on the message that is painted by the artists.

When I went around in Delhi and witnessed the great art of Gandhi done on the walls of PWD building, I thought it made so much sense to be there on that building…”Milly Sethi

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DELHI STREET ART

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ART Inside a Phillumenist’s Mind A never ending design epoch

Digitalising the unexpected picture Art has a song of it’s own

Less the new more

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INSIDE A PHILLUMENIST’S MIND

NIKHIL’S COLLECTION

The kind of art that usually goes ignored.

Who thought a daily used product like matchboxes could find a place in the hearts of art lovers. Widest range of graphic designs and artistry appear on the packaging of the tiny pieces of paper. Every little entity needs finesse and so does the appearance of these matchboxes. Art finds its way to express in every item, be it these ignored products which have been there with the humankind for quite a long time now. Some are enhanced with the manufacture’s emblem while some have designs from Bollywood posters and some have bizarre advertisements on them.

Words by Ria Gureja Visuals sourced from the artists

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NIKHIL’S COLLECTION

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It is strange for some people to hear that some have a hobby of collecting matchboxes but for some, art doesn’t hold any shape or form, they discover it anywhere and everywhere.

Phillumeny is the term used for this hobby. Folks from around the world have been recognised for accumulating hundreds and thousands of matchboxes, each with an offbeat and extraordinary design printed on them.

The designers of these matchboxes play a lot with typography and pop colours to make them look eccentric and unconventional.

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A chap from Bangalore, India, Matt Lee has a collection of over 600 exceptional matchboxes which he collected from the roadside tea-stalls, footpaths or on the roads of Bangalore and wherever he travelled.

He documents whatever he captures and tries to express the special memories attached plus the experience he had with the stills from the places he travels.

His collection is full of visuals which include religious and historical iconography, Indian pop culture, western imagery, various animals and images of typical objects.

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MATT LEE’S MATCHBOX COLLECTION

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NIKHIL RANGANATHAN, CLICKED BY ILA JAIN 34

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There are Phillumenists and there are people who collect matchboxes just because they like to remember where all have they travelled and where did they find the matchbox from. Nikhil Ranganathan is one of them.

He has been gathering these boxes for the past 3 years now and has a collection of over 725 matchboxes which are preserved in a box, they trigger some or the other memory. “Random, colourful and expressive- it’s like someone has just condensed all of Indian culture into a small 2 inch drawing” says Nikhil. For him collecting matchboxes holds more of emotional value than of material or numerical value.

His collection includes matchboxes which has

illustrations of Ganesh with the tag line Big Boss which is absolutely brilliant as the designer combined our religion with our love for Television. There are some which have advertisements of brands such as Airtel, TATA Nano, Maruti Swift and so on. A part of the collection is based on Bollywood actors, a few on sports and the others on cartoon characters.

Its so appealing that they are all designed in a uniquely Indian manner which makes them look alluring.

It feels refreshing to see how people these days, in the tech century, are interested in art which is eye-catchy yet unseen as well as unheard off and are promoting it.

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NIKHIL RANGANATHAN’S MATCHBOX COLLECTION

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A NEVER ENDING DESIGN EPOCH The story of an art prodigy.

“Illustrations. If I wasn’t doing it at the back of my notebooks, it was happening at the back of my mind.”

Veer Misra (born and raised in Delhi, who completed schooling from Delhi Public School, RK Puram) is a young illustrator who left Math in 9th grade for Art and believes he’s born with a creative gene. His specialty lies in creating fashion as well as graphic illustrations , sometimes in less than 15 minutes.

Words by Arunima Sharma Visuals sourced from the artist

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VEER MISRA

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LILY ALDRIDGE

CANDICE

BEHATI

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ALESSANDRA

KARLIE

TAYLOR SWIFT VEER’S ILLUSTRATIONS

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“ I’ve always always drawn women. I don’t know why that is. But around the age of 10, I started filling up spiral sketchbooks with what I thought were as close as I could get to fashion drawings.” Veer mentions.

By 9th grade, Veer had started to explore into other media like charcoal, soft pastels etc. and moved into a more fine art vibe while still making what his family called ‘The Women.’ Back in school he knew that he wanted to illustrate and get into a creative environment,

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which is why he calls school his ‘waiting period.’

Somewhere along the line he started to subliminally look for more visually inclined people to associate with as he thought he wasn’t growing as a creator back in school. Eventually he started looking up works of other illustrators around the world. He believes, that year he matured as an artist and started taking it more seriously as he had a deadline of only 2 years before he applied to a design school.

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VEER’S ILLUSTRATION

LINGERIE COLLAGE

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VEER’S ILLUSTRATION

BLANK SPACE

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WELCOME TO NEW YORK

VEER’S ILLUSTRATION

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THIS LOVE

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VEER’S ILLUSTRATION

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“Since I am the child of a designer, I’ve always had a plethora of reading material around me as well as a father who thankfully never held back with critique. Because otherwise I never would’ve improved. That’s also how I learnt to take criticism and critique for my art. Because in my normal social life, I still can’t. So inspiration came from everywhere, the world, internet, magazines ranging from nat geo to vogue and especially music videos, ” Veer talks about his muse and the early years of his journey of design.

Every illustration of his has a backstory like every song has an emotion attached to it. Veer only makes fashion illustrations when he’s calm because its something he likes doing the most. Except its not a stress buster for him by any means as he mentioned, that since it requires patience, he’s not ready to give it to them all the time.

“More often than not they’re just my minds interpretation of a lyric. Or if not that, then the product of a thought that started from a lyric. But sometimes I really sit down to make work that’s actually my mind thrown onto whatever

I’m working on. Sometimes even I’m scared of exploring my mind too much. I feel like it’s much darker than I realise.

Oh and books. A lot of times books but never movies for some reason.” He adds.

From Lorraine Loots and Hayden Williams to amateur illustrators on Instagram, there is a vast list of illustrators that Veer takes his inspiration from.

On asking about his signature style, he states that he doesn’t have one and his style keeps changing from time to time.

On an ending note, when asked about the one common thing in all his works, he states, “Its almost always been influenced by whatever music I’m listening to literally while making it.

If I switch from jazz to punk while making it, chances are I’ll go into a completely unplanned direction.”

Of late Veer has been working on his college projects and experimenting on stroke heavy illustrations and cathartic canvas paintings alongside. He maintains to live a life full of design and looks forward in doing so till the day he dies.

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KATYAYANI SINGH

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DIGITALISING THE UNEXPECTED PICTURE S h e ’s “ s o m e s o r t o f a n a r t i s t ” a n d m o r e .

When you look at someone’s digital art work and then compare to the one drawn with pencil, you are amused by the beauty. Katyayani Singh is a photographer, an artist and a student from Delhi University who has created some of the spectacular illustrations by hand and then converted them into digital form of art. Her illustrations are the scanned line drawings made by hand and coloured over illustrator.

Words by Ria Gureja Visuals sourced from the artist

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MADMAN

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KATYAYANI’S ILLUSTRATION

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DISSOLVE ME

KATYAYANI’S ILLUSTRATION

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“I have had an interest in visual aesthetics and design for a really long time. I was initially into photography and had tried my hand at fine art previously in high school but I got into art again more seriously about 7-8 months back”, says Katyayani when asked how did she get into illustrations.

KATYAYANI’S ILLUSTRATION

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RBW

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Katyayani tries to make her art look simple using basic line drawing, but at the same time she tries to make those line as detailed as possible. Although she still retains the minimalistic aspect of the illustration plus all the illustrations mean something so different and unique to her.

What are you heavily influenced by?

We could talk for ages about the things that influence me, but one of the most dominant influences on my work has been that of other varied art forms. Be it music, film-making, literary art or any other art form at all. Not exclusively visual art, I mean to say. And within visual art, I’m influenced by the work of a wide variety of people - from Frida Kahlo and LS Lowry to something like Lasse Hoile, Storm Thorgerson and Junji Ito. Too many things I seek inspiration from, basically.

Share some memorable experiences with your illustrations.

I can’t exactly say which illustration it’s about because

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no one has seen that piece yet. But this particular piece was drawn on a really large scale, about the size of a0 paper, and it was very detailed. So for about 2-3 days, I just sat making around a million(or more) 0.5 millimetre lines. It was rather taxing, but it surely paid off - as people will hopefully see in the future.

What are you currently fascinated by and how are you implementing it in your art work?

Animals. But then I’ve been fascinated by animals all my life and a lot of it has shown in my work I guess.

I’ve also been fascinated by a lot of psychedelic and minimal wet paint art lately and have been working on a few pieces of my own.

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GIRAFFE COLOURED

KATYAYANI’S ILLUSTRATION

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KATYAYANI’S ILLUSTRATION

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MIRROR

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What are your thoughts on the current scenario of graphic design in our country?

As I’m relatively new to this industry, i really don’t know much about the scenario of graphic design in our country but I think that the few young homegrown artists, designers and photographers I do know of are absolutely brilliant and their work inspires me a great deal. All of them are really nice and helpful, wonderful people.

On noticing some of your art and illustrations, my perception was that your art has a little dark element in

it. If it’s true, what’s the story behind it?

I wouldn’t want to exclusively tag my work as dark. I don’t personally think of it as just dark or morbid or sad which is a tag that comes along. It’s just what appeals to me visually and mentally, and something that I’m fascinated by. I’m a huge fan of Japanese manga illustrations. I think you see a lot of horror manga influence in my work. That’s where the darkness comes from I think.

Does your art depict a part of your lifestyle?

It’s all jut surreal imagery, nothing I actually engage in or draw from my lifestyle.

Katyayani has also done several album art works for bands like One Sock/Placebo’s EP Apophenia and another for Sidharth Gupta’s EP called Madman along with which she is currently working on Yatin Srivastava Project’s next EP.

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ONE SOCK PLACEBO APOPHENIA

KATYAYANI’S ILLUSTRATION

POTHEAD

KATYAYANI’S ILLUSTRATION

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ART HAS A S O NG OF ITS OWN The album covers too have a story to tell.

They say ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, but that may not always be true of an album art. A little unorthodox and unconventional piece of graphic art on a CD cover never hurt anyone.

Words by Arunima Sharma Visuals sourced from the search engine

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“UFABULUM”, DESIGNED BY TOM JENKINSON

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Call it strange, odd, peculiar or even bizarre, but an eye catching album cover never fails to sell. In today’s scenario, where most of the discographies are easily available and bought digitally, album art is losing its importance and becoming rather extinct. The digital copies of an album may be cheaper than an actual CD, but nothing can be compared to how expressive the album art on hard copies are.

Let’s have a look at the catalogue of seven interesting and extremely expressive album cover arts that will most certainly inspire you to start collecting hard copies of the albums.

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CENSORSH!T DESIGNED BY RAZAUNO

1) Album: Censorsh!t Artist: Genji Siraisi (Based in Brooklyn, New York) Cover Artist: Razauno (Based in Brooklyn, New York) Easily one of those album covers that catch your eye, firstly because of the use of such distinctive colours (hot pink graphic art on pastel blue background). It’s the kind of cover that one looks at multiple times and always finds something new every time. In case you missed it, there’s also a little comical aspect in the legal text of this album. It is always nice to know that people handle piracy issues with such humour.

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GHOST STORIES DESIGNED BY MILA FURSTOVA

2) Album: Ghost Stories Artist: Coldplay (British rock band with origins in London) Cover Artist: Mila Furstova (Czechoslovakia) A medieval art driven artwork which features angel wings against a painting of an ocean and a black sky full of stars.

These angel wings in turn feature small medieval drawings juxtaposed with contemporary concepts within them. This cryptic imagery contains a man looking at the mirror, a girl by candlelight sitting on the last stair, a flight of white doves, a tornado out of the window, a maze and a lot more.

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PLACES LIKE THIS DESIGNED BY WILL SWEENEY

3) Album: Places Like This Artist: Architecture in Helsinki (Fitzroy, Australia) Cover Artist: Will Sweeney (London, UK) An Art Nouveau inspired album cover that features the different aspects of architecture in the city of Helsinki in Finland. This artwork is quite the amalgamation of contemporary meets modern. The artwork includes a three dimensional portrayal of a futuristic city, with characters that look like they’re right out of The Jetsons show.

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THE ERASER DESIGNED BY STANLEY DONWOOD

4) Album: The Eraser Artist: Thom Yorke (Northamptonshire, England) Cover Artist: Stanley Donwood (London) The album’s cover is a linocut series by Donwood where on the front page, a man wearing a trench coat and a hat is trying to command what looks like a flood or an ocean to stop. Around him are some iconic buildings in London, like the Big Ben, the Tower of London and the Thames Barrier, swept away by the flood, possibly caused by the Thames.

The story behind the cover is based on the floods that Donwood and Yorke had witnessed in Cornwall in 2004.

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HOMOGENIC DESIGNED BY ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

5) Album: Homogenic Artist: Bjork (Iceland) Cover Artist: Alexander McQueen (London, England) Bjork’s album artworks have always been as experimental as her music. For this album, she approached designer Alexander McQueen and explained the essence of her album ‘Homogenic’. On explaining that she wanted a warrior woman who fights evil, not with weapons but with love.

McQueen styled her in a Kimono, as a Japanese warrior woman with 10kgs of hair on her head, special contact lenses, artificial fingernails. The image was further manipulated on Photoshop to give it a more graphical and artistic feel.

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ORCHESTRA OF WOLVES DESIGNED BYDAN MUMFORD

6) Album: Orchestra of Wolves Single from the album: In the belly of a shark Artist: Gallows (Punk band from England) Cover Artist: Dan Mumford (Freelance illustrator based in London) After working on the cover art for the hit single ‘Abandoned Ship’, Dan was approached again to design an artwork for another single from the same album. This particular artwork is more or less a continuation of the artwork for ‘Abandon Ship’, where Mumford has shown a zombie shark, swallowing everything that’s left from an abandoned ship.

In continuation to the previous artwork, this one too has a nautical theme to it with intricate detailing on each stroke.

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X&Y DESIGNED BY TAPPIN GOFTON

7) Album: X&Y Artist: Coldplay (British rock band with origins in London) Cover Artist: Tappin Gofton (Mark Tappin and Simon Gofton, both based in London) The coloured blocks on the album cover is a graphical representation of the Baudot code, which is an early form of telegraph communication. When deciphered, the image on the cover says ‘X 9 Y’ and it is still unclear whether it was to confuse the fans who decide to decipher the album name from the liner notes, or a hidden message or probably just a genuine mistake by the graphic designer duo. Apart from the genius idea of making an ITA2encoded alphabet themed cover, all singles from this album also have artworks in the same code. There’s no mistaking all those songs are a part of the same album.

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les s i s the n ew m o re Graphic designers at Letternote take us through t h e i r m i n i m a l i s t i c d e s i g n j o u r n e y.

Minimalism is the key to design that encompass Letternote.

Gurpreet Singh is the co-founder with wife Anisha Singh and both transform functional designs into execution in the form of mugs, notepads, wall art, phone covers, coasters etc.

Words by Devika Khosla Visuals sourced from the search engine

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Gurpreet has studied architecture and studies design from a 3D perspective giving him a completely different approach to design than any other graphic designer. He is the founder of Pixpa an online portal for budding designers,artists and photographers to display their exquisite work. Along the pipeline Gurpreet also founded Ideas Inc, a branding solutions agencies that caters to clients all over the world.

Over an interview with this self taught graphic designer we got to know things that go beyond the Letternote.

1. What made you think that designing everyday quotes and phrases (that we usually tend to ignore) would be a good option in the market for the sales point of view.

Ans. “I started designing things that I would like to buy,it all began with an instinctive approach. There was an assumption that there would be people out there that would share the same kind aesthetic sensibility.

Instead of conducting a structured survey in the market I focused on what I wanted to do and hoped that there was a niche market for it” 2. How do you go about your creative process?

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Ans. “Any creative process begins first with the life you are exposed to. It depends on the design around you, on media, cinema and music. People see things and keep storing this data at the back of their mind, they get inspired by books hoardings or banners etc and bringing these thoughts together.

Design is a cumulative process as you keep adding things as you discover them and incorporating them in your designs. The basic creative process used in designing product lines for letter note is very organic, its not driven by any specific agenda. It simply means we do whatever springs by our mind.“

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3. What is your consumer base?

niche

Ans. “Our consumer base is primarily young professionals. People who are out of college, who have just started working, basically people between 25 to 35years. People who travel, who have a sense of aesthetics, people exposed to good design, designers, photographers. A lot of college and school going kids purchase from us, confirming our reasonably large target audience”.

4. What is the common background in all your designs? Do you always keep in mind that your illustrations have to be crisp and clean?

Ans. “Our design sensibilities is very minimal and clean.

Here in Letternote we are try to cut out all the noise and work in only one or two colours. Typography is also kept minimal and concentration is just on maximum two font families.

The message we try to send out through our designs is just one strong voice.

Illustrations are not used very frequently and the idea of a Letternote design is such that the process and

conceptualisation can take time but the implementation and execution should be done within 5 to 10mins for instance “Do Epic Shit” is done in the most basic design without any colours and simple helvetica in white.”

5. Before opening your own brand, did you get motivated by a designer or brand which is selling similar products, because as far as we can remember, Letternote is one of the oldest brands which sells art on daily use products like mugs and diaries?

Ans. “Globally,I’m inspired by similar designers and design brands like Ikea,Mucci who are minimal.Design for me is something that connects with my customers and the product makes them feel relatable,probably a state of mind. Communication is the purpose of design for me and doing so through statement pieces in most minimilistic ways” 6. When is your next collection coming up? Are you working on something new?

Ans.“Our product range is expanding to tee-shirts.

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Later on watches, ties, scarves and more lifestyle driven products. Bags like carry bags, totes and wallets.

I believe in expanding design philosophy by adding and implementing new ideas. I want to inspire and not preach my customer through my designs. I want to expand through feelings and not just product ranges.”

7. What’s your current work piece that you’re working on right now?

Ans. “What is occupying us right now from product point of view is tee shirts. from a design perspective we are working on new designs that go beyond typography. I would love to do designs with no type at all. Design that focuses on illustrations yet are minimal.”

8. What’s your current work piece that you’re working on right now?

Ans. “Currently my concentration is on Letternote only.Its one thing to design for clients and its one thing to design products for customers who would come to a store and purchase it.”

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9. Who or what has been the biggest single influence on your way of thinking or designs?

Ans. “The biggest influence has been the fact that i’v studied architecture. It has shaped me into a certain way. Studying architecture for 5 years has given me a completely different orientation to design.

Design when it comes to architecture is 3D, you think of experiences that people would walk into.

My inspirations have been people like Cease Wander whose work is very real and organic.”

10. What originally made you want to get into designing?

Ans.“Its been a long journey of an evolution of 20 years.

I did interiors, retail design opened design agency in college and slowly travelled around the world. Now the agenda is what I want to do, not what someone like a

client wants me to do.”

11. Do you have a backup story to tell about the time when you were designing a collection?

Ans. “There are small moments all along, designs which you expected which would be loved by everyone were rejected and the ones you thought wouldn’t do so well, were lapped up by people.”

12. Do you have an advice for the amateur designers who plan to take up something similar as a career?

Ans. “I think the biggest advice I would give is stay open. Design is about staying about open to ideas and keep evolving.Be critical and clear about the idea that you need to change and do things you have never done before. We should be able to set challenges for ourself.

Expose yourself to other things find inspirations that is important for any designer.”

Letternote stands as a perfect platform for a designer to figure out what he/she wants to do when there is no fixed agenda. Its a clean plate to figure out as per the individual what they want to design. It is an amalgamation of free willed design coupled with minimalism.

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FAS H I O N The Bold and The Beautiful : Luxury Swimwear

A Limned Canvas Innovators of Pop and Color

Right hue to your wardrobe

An Abstract Extract Print Chaska

A La Mode Art this season Adorned – A Projected Narrative

Travel in Style

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The bold and the beautiful : Luxury sw i m w ea r Striking prints and a colour blocked saga of swimsuits.

Few years back the duo designers Shivan and Narresh entered the fashion industry with a different design sensibility that set them apart from everyone else on the block .Who would have thought that one day the Indian woman would be styled so confidently in a Bikini-Sari and it would turn into a fashion statement?

Words by Shreya Mehta Visuals sourced from the search engine

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SHIVAN AND NARRESH

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These two men have brought about drastic changes in the world of fashion in last few years. We know we are praising Shivan and Narresh, when we are talking about modest cuts, bold usage of colours, handcrafting, luxury swimwear. Their line of bikini sari’s, bold gowns and colourful swimwear have already attained them the attention and glory in the industry.

After completing their graduation from National Institute of Fashion

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Technology, Delhi and their Masters from Milan and Rome respectively, Shivan and Narresh launched their label at Cannes in 2008. It was a challenge for them to introduce a swimwear brand in a country like India where fashion only meant occasion and wedding wear. Like they say hard work never fails, their toil and effort was successful as the designers gained appreciation for their excellent craftsmanship and became a rage.

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Shivan and Narresh is India’s first luxury swimwear brand, with a bold, confident and sophisticated style. Five years back the Indian swimwear market was simply nonexistent. They came up with the concept of one-piece maillot in classic silhouettes and color blocking in 2010.

Shivan and Narresh is the only luxury swimwear brand in the world to offer customized swimwear. Quite reputed in the industry and internationally the brand has been worn by plenty celebrities like Freida Pinto, Fergie, Nicki Minaj, Dita Von Tesse and Padma Lakshmi.

Their work is very unsual and that is why it has been getting highlighted. The way they have been designing the garments, their twist to the traditional Indian sari’s gained instant popularity.

Their sari’s can be draped in “10 different ways” without

losing the grace of the outfit.

Indian women are known not to be very confident about their bodies. Not being in shape, birth marks, pregnancy scars etc. made them uncomfortable and nervous to wear a swimsuits or a bold revealing sari.

Keeping all the problems in mind that women were facing, they came out with colourful, customized swimwear and gowns that made a women feel confident about herself and her body. Shivan and Narresh have studied Indian body shapes for nine months in depth to develop designs that are cut and contoured to fit the Indian body type.

One can easily understand their knowledge about Indian women through their garments,which talks about Indian women being proud of their curves and celebrating this freedom.

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A l i mned canvas When Art was born it had no words, just like Colours had none when they emerged. But together they speak a language of their own. Ever wondered what the colour White has to say? She contains the equal balance of all the colours of the spectrum- a reflective, awakening imagination and creativity.

She is a blank canvas, waiting to be limned upon. She opens the path for the creation for everything the mind can design.

Visuals shot by Arunima Sharma, Devika Khosla, Ria Gureja and Shreya Mehta Model: Malvika Rallan

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INNOVATORS OF POP AND COLOR A lifestyle brand that gave fashion an edge.

Quirk box as the name suggests is a fashion and a lifestyle brand that screams pop, colour and everything kitsch. Quirk Box debuted its Resort Wear Collection at one of India’s finest Fashion week-Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2013. The soul of this innovative statement brand lies in the diverse creative sensibilities the founding designers come together to form a common platform of a perfect blend of fashion, graphic and art.

Words by Devika Khosla Visuals sourced from the search engine

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Co Founders, Jayesh Sachdev and Rixi Bhatia come from different design backgrounds. Jayesh is an artist and has held art exhibitions from New York to Singapore. He is famously also known to hold a national record for painting India’s largest new media artwork and he also runs his design studio called Emblem. His Partner Rixi Bhatia is an innovative entrepreneur, designer, an art enthusiast graduated from National Institute of Fashion Technology, Mumbai. She has her own label and a partner at a life store called Attic. This couple together with their creative insanity

and offbeat ideas have won Lorels like The British Council Young creative Entrepreneur award finalist and runner up respectively.

Quirk box came into existence as a small start up but ended up with a turnover of 100 increase within a span of four months. The success of this brand is because of its loud bold colours coupled with statement silhouettes and prints inspired by the Manga’s. Quirk Box does not ape trends but tries to keep up with its surroundings.

Customers and followers of quirk box are people associated to be fun, unconventional, free

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spirited, passionate and independent having their own personal sense of style.

It may be anyone who wants to make a statement.

Quirk box products are easy to wear, simple to coordinate and an instant head turner.

The labels help you extend your style quotient to your home, office, and the designs are functional.

Some interesting lifestyle products that you would find here are quirky and colour blocked mouspads, coasters, playing cards and wall paintings. This brand definitely and successfully communicates unconventional graphic art through fashion and lifestyle.

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The in-house designers at quirk box gave us an insight on the brand and their working: “At Quirk Box we are inspired by our experiences, which change every day, and we allow that to reflect in our designs. We simply create what we enjoy and what we find fun. The ideology of Quirk Box prints is to have a global appeal. Every viewer must

connect with the designs as they are storytellers, instant mood changers and conversation starters. Quirk Box is about innovation and originality. We strive on creating concepts which are fresh, fun, internationally appealing, unique and of course, quirky. We are not trying to capture any trend, we are creating what we experience every day”- Rixi Bhatia.

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RIGHT HUE TO YOUR WARDROBE When the clothes are crafted for you and not the other way round.

A small indie design label whose aim is to make fashion a treat for everyone- Pranav Misra and Shyma Shetty of Huemn, believe in making fashion comfortable yet modish. The label may have some minimal, crisp and edgy garments but it also looks at fashion from a perspective of everyday comfort and luxury. ‘In simple words, the garment should be more for you than for the viewer’, say the designer duo at a Blouin Artinfo interview.

Word by Arunima Sharma Visuals sourced from the search engine

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“Fashion, we believe, should be a treat, yet an everyday indulgence. This balance is only achieved in the amount of comfort a garment provides. The label’s sensibilities are based on the idea of minimizing elements in garments, making them uncomplicated and easily wearable. We believe that the appeal of a high-value product should be more on the ease it provides and the inner detailing which your skin feels, rather than just about the look or aesthetic decoration.”, they say about the aesthetics of the brand.

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So what makes this brand different? The simple idea behind the aesthetics of Huemn is to make pret even more pret, ie. more wearable. These garments may look androgynous as some say when they talk about their famous sari trouser, or structured and minimal, but it’s the hint of graphics so effortlessly etched in their garments that do the trick.

The fact that Pranav and Shyma have experimented by amalgamating asymmetrical and international silhouettes with Indian tribal art and embroidery, makes them stand out of the rest of the designers. Who would er known that even silhouettes can be fabricated into edgy shapes and look absolutely bang on? The aesthetics of this brand is futuristic yet wearable.

The duo has always been ahead of the curve and their collections have always taken the ramp by storm. Talk about powerful portraiture prints and embellishments assembled in the most atypical way.

What struck people the most is that the brand has never compromised on wearability. A styled look, if taken off the runway, and broken down into separates will still look as incredible as it looked on the runway when it was put together.

From starting with simple minimal silhouettes and prints to growing up to create more experimental looks, Huemn has been true to its motto. Be it the simple line-across-the-collarbone dress or asymmetric pants, the sport luxe look and the #selfie top, or the eccentric Bukowski with a band-aid portraiture, the collections always have something crisp and abstract, yet making them easy wear garments.

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An A b s t r ac t E x tr ac t It exists in notion, thoughts and theory but doesn’t have a tangible and concrete existence- Abstract. It moves on a widespread road where change is the only constant- Trend.

An extraction of the juxtaposition of the in vogue trends and digital imagery- An Abstract Extract.

Visuals shot by Arunima Sharma, Devika Khosla, Ria Gureja and Shreya Mehta Model: Viren Barman

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Print Chaska!

The eternal and eloquent language of prints always deem to be in vogue.

Imagine a field of grass. Now imagine it with flowers. Beautiful right? How about orange moon and blue cow? Interesting to think about. That is the magic of prints on garments. If you want to look out of the crowd, always go for prints.

Words by Shreya Mehta Visuals sourced from the search engine

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Prints are something that can never get ignored and are always in fashion. Prints have been in fashion since decades now. The type of print we wear, reflects our personality too. Basics are for everyone but prints are something which everybody can not carry. Technologies like Illustrator, Photoshop, and Digital Photography have almost changed the working of “fashion factory”.

Digital print clothing is making it’s own place in the world of fashion. Maxi

skirts, leggings, dresses, shoes, digital prints are popping up everywhere.

Talking about designers and prints, many designers recently showcased their collection, prints being the main part of the theme.

Many designers are also known for prints, like , Manish Arora, Masaba, Satya Paul, Roopa Pemmaraju, Abraham & Thakore, Nida Mahmood. Masaba’s lipstick, camera print was so famous sometime back.

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One of the top designers, Ritu Kumar also said in an interview that she can not think a collection without prints. Floral prints are quite common in today’s fashion. Floral prints are the most commercial ones out of all the prints as they sell quite easily in the market.

Some designers really think out of the box when it comes to a collection which is only about prints.

Consider these: Chai cups, owls, roosters, film images (Nida Mahmood); Table fans, cows, cameras, palm prints, Nandi bull, Tamil script (Masaba); Doodles, sketches, stamps (Aarti Vijay Gupta); Tribal prints (Tanvi Kedia), Digital batiks, black and white motorcycles, hearts (Dev r Nil), Nagainspired red, black and white prints (Atsu) Kathakali prints (Nikhil Thampi) Dazzling geometrics by newbie Yogesh Choudhary.

Any story related to prints in Indian fashion would be

incomplete with talking about contribution of Puneet Nanda, ex chief-designer of Satya Paul and Manish Arora, masters of Modern Indian prints. Puneet did and exceptional designing for the brand.

Contemporary prints, impressionist art , modrian paintings, oriental calligraphy, taking Satya Paul to a whole new level.

Manish Arora’s style was different. He is inspired by Indian fashion with all the old themes and showed futuristic stories through prints. He showed the exotic India through his creativity to the world and for us, the Indians, it was the exotic world inspired by India. His prints are always very edgy and unique.

Om print, circles, balloons, space machines, mudras, film posters are some prints that he has showcased. For some Indian designers, prints is not business, it’s the reason of their being in some way.

These designers are making life so colourful and exciting with such amazing prints. One should definitely have an attire with exotic prints on it, in the wardrobe. It changes the personality. Makes you look positive, happy, creative, stylish… What not!

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A La mode art this season Some serious graphic business going on this Fall Winter The Indian Fashion scene never fails to impress when it comes to new and exciting trends. It doesn’t matter if it is Spring Summer or Fall Winter, when it comes to showcasing what would be a-la-mode and making it go viral, Fashion Week is the go to place to find out the upcoming it-thing in the fashion sphere.

Visuals sourced from the search engine

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A GREYSCALE STUDy

431:88 BY SHWETA KAPUR

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NAMRITA JOSHIPURA

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RAJESH PRATAP

ROHIT GANDHI AND RAHUL KHANNA

SANCHITA

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Block, Pop & Tone

ABRAHAM & THAKORE

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EKA

BODICE

NOT SO SERIOUS BY PALLAVI MOHAN

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PAROMITA BANERJEE

SANKAR

SNEHA ARORA

TAIKA

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Grids, Checkers and Boxes

PERO

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EKA

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ABRAHAM & THAKORE

PAROMITA BANERJEE

RAJESH PRATAP

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The Asymétrie

11.11

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AMIT AGGARWAL

NIKHITA-MYNAH DESIGNS

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HEMANT AND NANDITA

GAURAV GUPTA 3

TAIKA

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The flat front

ABRAHAM & THAKORE

BODICE

EKA

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HEMANT AND NANDITA

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PANKAJ AND NIDHI

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The Graphique

AMIT AGGARWAL

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ANJU MODI

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PIA PAURO

TAIKA

SANKAR

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Vertical Veins

PAROMITA BANERJEE

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PERO

AMIT AGGARWAL

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Adorned – A Projected Narrative She is timid, but she can be dauntless when time calls. She is fierce, but serenity basks in her roots. Adorned, she projects a different persona every day. Adorned- the story of a girl behind countless painted faces.

Visuals shot by Arunima Sharma, Devika Khosla, Ria Gureja and Shreya Mehta Model: Palak Kohli

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Tr av el i n style The Power woman and how she travels as the ultimate style Diva.

Words by Devika Khosla Visuals sourced from the search engine

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Michelle Obama is known to have a impeccable taste where her wardrobe is concerned as she stepped right off Air Force One to Greet Narendra Modi and stole the show in a mesmerising floral dress and coat with a graphic floral design. The combination of the jacket and coat looked stunning and gave a conservative business appeal whereas the bold and structured patterns provided a youthful flare to the look.

Black pumps coupled with the whole attire sealed the deal. Bibhu produces clothes that our inspired

MICHELLE OBAMA

IMAGE SOURCED FROM WWW.HOLLYWOODLIFE.COM

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by bright colours and feminine patterns of india.

The Mysterious designer behind Michelle Obama’s dress on arrival in india was none other than Bibhu Mohapatra. Mohapatra is an indian american fashion and costume designer belonging to Odisha, India.

He has studied in Fashion Institute of Technology, New York city and is famous for Luxury Women’s Wear.

He gained global fame when the first lady Michelle Obama was spotted wearing garments from his spring collection 2015.

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Kate Middleton is known globally for the sophisticated attire she carries herself with. She arrived in Sydney Austalia in a sunny structured yellow dress suited fit for the occasion she was attending.

After the rain of New Zealand the royal tour arrived to sunshine in Australia - and Kate wore a vibrant yellow dress for the occasion. Kate’s drew was a bespoke sheath dress by a

KATE MIDDLETON

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Serbain designer, Roksandal limcic, based in london.

The dress was dominant with yellow and flashes of white coupled with a square neckline. She looked elegant with a Annoushka pearl earrings and her hair neat in a half up hair do.

Middleton has worn a lavender Peridot dress by the same designer on her arrival in Los Angeles on her first royal tour.

IMAGE SOURCED FROM WWW.DAILYMAIL.CO.UK

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Peng Liyuan, China’s first lady is listed by Forbes as the 57th most powerful woman in the world. She believes strongly in power dressing while traveling and making public appearances.

For one of her appearances at Nanjing’s Purple Palace,

Peng looked mesmerising in a cabalt blue Qipao-style knee length dress. Her dress was delicately embroidered with patterns which added life to the dull subdued blue tone. She added accessories that added a statement to the dress and a matching clutch.

PENG LIYUAN

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IMAGE SOURCED FROM WWW.STRAITSTIMES.COM

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lifestyle Tête-à-Tête Carpe that mo The Geometric Life

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THEPOSTBOX COLLECTION

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SOURCED FROM THE WEBSITE

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Têt e-à-T êt e A conversation with nostalgia It’s not too often when you come across people who give platform to amateur artists and designers to showcase their art work to the world and help them grow. The Post Box is an online platform where creators from all around the world, especially upcoming and unestablished artists meet and showcase their brilliant art pieces.

Words by Ria Gureja Visuals sourced from the artists

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The brand is all about collaborating and promoting skills along with creating designs inspired by surreal spaces and popular culture through different mediums.

When it comes to graphic artists, they should be ready to experiment and to accept the change frequently, similarly, our two exploratory designers, Madhuvanthi and Nikhil, the co-designer and founders of The Post Box, curate the crowd to build an artistry eco-system.

Question 1. Why the name Postbox?

The name PostBox is because we wanted people to start connecting again from all around the world.

If you have a look at our collection, all the designs have some or the other element of nostalgia and according to us, the only symbolic representation of nostalgia and connecting people is a post box. Hence, the name PostBox. Question 2. What is your creative process and design methodology?

We interviews the designers along with which the portfolio review takes place which is either on their blog or Behance which

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leads to the selection round. Our main criteria is that the designers should be versatile with different mediums. One more thing that we look for is a certain kind of discipline in terms of keeping up with the pace as we work against very strict deadlines.

After the selection of the graphic designer, they propose 2-3 concept ideas with proper story boards and brain storming and then we come up with 2 exclusive collections to launch the artist on the platform.

We recently launched a fashion designer called Insiyah Shahpurwalla with The Fabric Loft, she’s a textile designer.

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MADHUVANTHI

NIKHIL

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THEPOSTBOX COLLECTION

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Post Box not only gives a platform to people living in India, but also gives a chance to budding artists from around the world.

That is why there is no uniformity in the designs and hence, no two collections look similar. The idea behind this is to offer a variety of designs to the consumer and a separate image to the artist.

Question 3. There are so many brands promoting amateur graphic designers and artists. How are you different from them?

In terms of products and designs, we have two competitors, Culture Shock and Cupick. Culture Shock is a platform where already established artists showcase their work, whereas on the other hand, Cupick has a huge list of designers to showcase their work. Where we stand apart is, we have a pipeline of 25 designers and we keep rotating them to avoid the monotonous look on the platform.

When it comes to designer collaborations, we curate a lot of designer and select the best, we give them a platform so that they get noticed and not become a part of the crowd. That ways, we have a personal relationship with the designers which changes

the ball game entirely and design makes a lot more sense.

Question 4. Why do you feel like the youth will be drawn to you more than they would be drawn or attracted to your competitors?

According to us, design work which is constantly changing over a period of time will attract the youth. There needs to be evolution of design on the platform. The youth would want to come to our platform because of the exclusivity of the design.

For instance, if you buy our terracotta mugs, we will give you a postcard with the picture of the person who made and also a personal message from him.

All the designers who are collaborating with us already have a massive followings, that ways a lot of trust is given to the platform.

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We recently launched a Non-Profit Campaign, #artyourself on Instagram and we have tied up with initiators from different parts of the country. There will be 50 features on our account in the month of April and in the end, all of them will be compiled into a coffee table book. People are engaging themselves everyday by uploading their art work and photography.

Question 5. Since you guys started recently, where do you see yourself in the next five years? Will you be expanding your business?

Our plans are at a very basic level. We are branching into something which is completely different from our brand, i.e., The Shaadi Project which is solely for themed Indian weddings.

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Starting from the invites, custom made props, wedding favours and gifts, everything will fall under this. We have a separate team for this project to implement different ideas according to the client. This is will launched in May. The other plan that we have is to expand our product line into mason and spice jars along with other unusual products. We have launch 7 new products and in the next two months we want to launch another 7.

Other than this, we want to have an art summit, where we will invite all the post box family along with some established designers. It will be a live streaming event so that people worldwide can see the potential present in this country.

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THEPOSTBOX COLLECTION

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carp e t hat mo We are so caught up in the rut of our everyday 9-5 to survive, that we tend to turn a deaf ear to the untold beautiful little things that happen around us. Stop the world for a minute, get off and look around. You will find an ineffable beauty in the numerous things that go ignored. It’s all about seizing that moment and noticing the unnoticed and unattached.

Sometimes Ignorance is ‘Miss’ and not ‘Bliss’.

Visuals shot by Arunima Sharma, Devika Khosla, Ria Gureja and Shreya Mehta

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RUGBERRY COLLECTION

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SOURCED FROM THE WEBSITE

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Th e g eo m et r i c life The idiosyncrasy in our lifestyle.

As we grow up, we tend to ignore the little things around us in our homes. These little things could be something as basic as the art that we’ve been forever ignoring on the carpets our mothers used to take out in the winter, or the new cushion covers and bed sheets that she bought for our rooms.

There was a time when the carpets in our drawing rooms were the true speakers for the almost love for art in our heartsobviously along with the paintings on the walls. But gone are those days.

Words by Ria Gureja and Arunima Sharma Visuals sourced from the artists

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In a day and age where everything around us is majorly influenced by geometry, shapes, forms and graphics, imagining the same digital and abstract art on lifestyle products-instead on the walls- isn’t that hard. A few years ago, everyday products with abstract prints on them came out in the market, making a revolutionary change.

This wave of idiosyncratic lifestyle products came and revamped the entire home furnishing market.

We picked out two of these players in the home furnishing and lifestyle scene.

-Rugberry -Safo Massi To know more about the graphics and design aesthics in lifestyle products, we interviewed Rugberry.

1. What is behind the aesthetic appeal in your design?

Rugberry products are made with handmade rugs, which is art itself. It is the artistry that goes behind the design and colour combination of rugs. Each rug takes 4550 days to make and it goes through 20 people till its woven and finished.

These beautifully created rugs are then used to make high quality bags using the best materials.

It is the utilisation of centuries old rug making techniques that are crafted into luxurious accessories.

2. How is art used in your designs different from any other art form?

Handmade rug is art; it has been for many centuries.

We make products using these rugs in combination with high quality materials to make exquisite and one-

of-a-kind products.

3. How do you combine the global tastes with India?

India has a comparatively younger population in relation to west which explains demand for bold and bright colour designs.

Our taste is similar to Europe (Germany, France, Italy) where bold graphics and edgy designs are accepted. US are more into sober and subtle colours like beiges, browns and pastels.

4. What is your niche market?

We target metro cities of India where our customer base is largely saturated. If we look at our customer database you will find VJ’s, Artists, Designers, Foreign embassy ambassadors, diplomats and NRIs.

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5. How fast are you expanding and how?

We started off in 2012 and have come a long way since then having associated with various interesting companies online. This year we are in the process of launching Rugberry CUSTOMS which will allow users to make their own rug using 40 colours and over 250 patterns. It is extremely exciting because it will enable everyone to mix and match rugs as per their own style, room dĂŠcor and colour theme.

We plan to set a network

of 1500 distributors till end of 2016.

6. Is there a market for oriented home dĂŠcor?

I am sure there is because culturally our homes in India are decorated with traditional furniture so there is a market for it.

7. Do you give amateur designers to work with you?

We continuously have new interns working with us on current projects.

8. What influences you when it comes

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to designing your products?

I make sure every year to visit international exhibitions like Heimtex, Frankfurt and Maison Objet, Paris to be aware of trendy colours and new materials that are used globally. From then on, it is about compiling all ideas and bringing it all together to make the best rugs and products out of it.

9. How do you go about your creative process?

Trial and error, trial and error, trial and success.

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The brand that communicates the tales of rich cultural prints in your daily lifestyle-SafoMassi Safomassi is the brain child of Sarah Fotheringham and Mininder Singh. The co founders of this homeward brand share a design background as Sarah ( Safo) is a skilled illustrator and art director and Maninder (Massi) belongs to the fashion and production industry.

Together they combined their talents added some love and sprinkled

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some creativity to form SafoMassi.

The duo is heavily inspired and driven by the adoration of everything beautiful around them and their love for travelling and compiling exotic prints into a range of cushions, quilts etc. Their products showcase a mix of culture and extract of their travels into a unique handmade product that communicates their

journey through the colours, illustrative yet contemporary prints and a luxurious style that adds visual appeal to your home. This Delhi based brand is new in the industry and has already attained awards and recognition in the design field. Their Camel Trader print has also won them design awards at the Elle Deco international awards.

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SAA

... a journal magazine

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