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Shashank Deshpande pg 30 | Photographed by Rahul Bhavsar Jit Chowdhury 02 Tenzing Nyentsey 10 Nasheet Shadani 16 Jimena Martinez 22 Anusheela Saha 42 Anjali Mody 47 Pradeep Pillai 54 Harshita Gautam 60

Editor in Chief | sudhir@indidesign.in

June 2014 | # 48

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.org

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level programs in

2 year Postgraduate Master level programs from

Last date of submission 15th June 2014

c28c sector 8, noida 201301, India +91 120 4566695 +91 7042166695

admissions open

Beyond Ideas The design industry is different from the advertising industry in many ways. One of these is that traditionally designers are used to doing their own intellectual thinking and using their own skills to bring those ideas to life. Designers mostly start as skilled people and slowly graduate to thinking-skilled people, who then collaborate with many other people to make things happen.

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Shashank Deshpande pg 30 |

Photographed by Rahul Bhavsar

Jit Chowdhury 02 Tenzing Nyentsey 10 Nasheet Shadani 16 Jimena Martinez 22 Anusheela Saha 42 Anjali Mody 47 Pradeep Pillai 54 Harshita Gautam 60

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Designindia was founded in 2002. It was started as a platform for interaction for the design community in India and abroad. Over the years it has grown into a forum spread over many social and professional networking domains, linking design professionals into an active, interactive and thought leading community.

http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/designindia International Design Media Network Participant

The advertising industry on the other hand recognizes the fact that ideas and skills are two different departments. So, there are people who think of ideas, and script stories, which are then handed over to skilled people who bring them to life. Of course it is also all done with a definite purpose of selling something.

All around, as advertising companies replace 'campaigns' with 'projects' (as is visible in award shows), design companies are learning too. You see heads of design agencies who are not designers themselves but ideas people, who bring the 'campaign' effect to the 'projects'.

Designers are opening up and collaborating in ways that are becoming models for other industries to follow.

Sudhir

Endorsed by

Supported by

Illustrator

RECREATING THE ORDINARY A freelance illustrator and visualizer by profession, Jit Chowdhury describes himself as a storyteller who is inspired by the everyday lives of his countrymen

Were you always drawn to art?

JC: Art has been an intrinsic part of me since childhood, so somewhere I always knew that I would want to be an artist. However, it was my parents who realized this before me and have been encouraging me since then. When I was still in school I enrolled into the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata, where my artistic journey began. After completion of the course, I got the opportunity to work and practice at a senior artist’s studio in Kolkata, which helped me to polish my skills.

The three years spent in his creative world were invaluable in terms of observations, conversations, stories and insights, and turned out to be 2 POOL #48

illustrator an incredible experience for someone young and inexperienced.

I am currently based in Indore. The journey so far has been quite a roller coaster ride. I have been in the process of exploring myriad directions and possibilities, with their share of hits and misses. These decisions, whether right or wrong, have been useful and played a crucial part in my learning experience.

When I think back, I remember my stint at mime classes. At that time I was skeptical about its benefits to my work, but I continued attending classes nonetheless, since I enjoyed them. Only much later did that learning come as a boon when I started creating characters for my comics with expressions and gestures.

In a very similar way, watching good theater and inspiring films have and continue to give shape to my visual language.

and gesture drawings. Based on these I develop ideas for a story, till I finalize one and begin to visualize it through sketches and thumbnail drawings, followed by the final illustrations. There are times when I like creating contrasting characters and situations that are a visual misfit. Juxtaposing different observations, thoughts, and dreams always gives interesting results, adding humor and giving a twist to a mundane story.

What tools and mediums do you use?

JC: I have been changing my tools over time; it gets very monotonous otherwise. A change in tool and medium brings about a modification in my visual language as well. I feel it is important to juggle between mediums as each of them is special and embodies unique characteristics. It is up to the artist

What process of creation do you follow?

JC: The process I’m most comfortable with starts with observation, notes

An illustration from the book, Pandita Ramabai, Medium – Ink

www.poolmagazine.in  3

'Hanky Panky Sips' - A simple coffee conversation can end up with an interesting outcome | Medium - mixed media

to understand the tool and use it to its best potential. It is like diagnosing a disease and prescribing an appropriate medicine. When I experiment I simply do not switch from one medium to the other on a whim. My process remains the same – I first observe, think of a story and then visualize and that is when I think of my medium. If my current medium supports the tool then I go ahead with it, but if my visual asks for a particular medium, I switch. Once I get a hang of it, I explore and experiment with it more. An interesting example would be when I dabbled with natural color pigment from leaves and flowers for some illustrations. My strongest mediums are water color and ink and with both I enjoy experimenting with strokes and layers.

What themes do you tend to explore in your work?

JC: There are numerous themes that I am interested in, some of which are evergreen and continue to feature in my practice. For instance, I love the theme of the common Indian in his day to day acts. What I find 4 POOL #48

most amazing is how in an almost semi conscious manner and with easy skill, the average Indian does his work so religiously.

Like how the chai wala dips his fingers into the empty glasses and with expert ease lifts several at a time or how the jalebi wala swirls out perfectly shaped concentric jalebis with the smooth movement of his hands. In other words, I like to portray the act of the ordinary people as anything but ordinary.

Sexuality as a theme has also been omnipresent in my explorations. I love to break the hushed notion that it is synonymous with it, and bring the act from behind closed doors into public view. For me, the viewer’s reaction to it is priceless! I perceive a sexual encounter to be a friendly, collaborative and natural act, rather than an unsocial, shameful and forced drama.

Then there are politics, futuristic drama and dark illustration themes which are seasonal indulgences. All in all, I usually like working on a situation with an ounce of humor to it

illustrator

'Being colourful' - The world has already seen a positive change from b/w to color in television. So why question the humans | Medium - Poster color, pen and pencil

and find it difficult to visualize without that.

The visuals and situations I depict through my visual language always tend to make things relatable to my viewers, like as if it’s within their grasp. I consciously avoid portraying themes as glamorous and larger than life, like those Bollywood dream sequences which make the viewers end up feeling depressed about their not-so-filmy life.

With the passage of time, I have increasingly learnt and developed a mature perception about these themes. Initially I had started from the surface and now I have reached the depths and see things from a refined perspective.

Are skills like yours natural or can they be taught?

JC: The skill of storytelling is too vast and complicated to answer with a simple yes or a no. The conceptual process is extremely personal and varies from individual to individual and cannot be imitated or transferred. Developing one’s style of

illustration requires years of perseverance, practice, reading, observing and thinking. A shortcut to it would require simply adapting someone else’s hard work. A so-called artist with someone else’s thought construction cannot be considered an artist at all!

Teaching one a particular visual language would be disastrous for the receiver as it will end up destroying the latter’s innate ideas and esthetics. Originality in thought and execution should be encouraged rather than taught or imposed upon. However, what could be possibly ‘taught’ is how to polish one’s visualization, which will provide the artist with positive guidance to grow and walk the right path. I firmly believe the skill to conceptualize, visualize and tell a story should come to one naturally.

How important is knowledge of basic anatomy for an illustrator?

JC: I feel it is mandatory. Only if one knows the basic anatomy, will one be able to break it successfully. Otherwise, there is a chance that in the name of destructing, exaggerating or styling, it turns out completely wrong.

There is a reason why Fine Arts emphasizes human study the most. All visualizers dream of having a distinctive style of their own; knowing anatomy gives an added confidence and comfort to one’s style that definitely reverberates in one’s work. On many occasions I make the mouth of my characters big and exaggerated, not because I had momentary anatomy dysfunctions, but because I want to give it importance based on the character or composition. It is similar to how poets repeat certain words or phrases to lay emphasis. Ogden Nash often uses words which do not exist in the dictionary, but he can afford to use his creative license in this case because he has an authority over the language.

Do you ever run out of ideas?

JC: For almost a decade now, I have been noting and making sketches at the slightest opportunity. I document everything that www.poolmagazine.in 5

illustrator perspective. This is the phase when I get the compelling need to churn out new ideas to add to my list.

What is the biggest hurdle in your style of work?

strikes my eye, so it is safe to say that I rarely run out of topics these days. All the sketch books that I have been maintaining serve as a image library! There is so much to see, so much to observe and absorb, that running out of themes is a rare possibility. This also brings with it an abundance of practice and variety in flavor.

However, there are times when I suffer from a creative block. It catches me unawares and usually involves themes which I have explored the most. This is when I immediately stop working. I go out for tea with friends, have a good conversation, relax, or doodle and this is rejuvenating. I have noticed that the blockage invariably brings about certain positive changes to my work and I tend to restart with a fresh

JC: When I was working in an ad agency, the biggest hurdle was lack of time for my own practice and exploration. The dry corporate world neither asks for explorations nor risky experiments. Playing safe had become second nature to my job as a creative head. But things have changed since I have become a full time freelance artist, with ample time to explore and expand my horizon. Now the hurdle is the negligence from the client’s side and the myths associated with my trade.

Most clients believe the work I do is very effortless and not time consuming. I have often faced these misconceptions and I know that it is a common ideology issue experienced by most freelance artists and designers in India especially. A lateral approach to a theme invariably fails to impress the clients.

Who are your inspirations?

JC: The first few that come to mind are Satyajit Ray, Sukumar Roy, Ronald Searle, Ogden Nash, Dr. Seuss and Tim Burton. They all are my heroes for fantasy fiction and are an inspiration for portraying different flavors of humor. I absolutely love the way they have played with words and some basic ideas.

When it comes to storytelling, I look nowhere but to the best creative writers who penned our religious scriptures. They were the best character designers, the most effective storytellers and excellent visualizers. www.poolmagazine.in  7

illustrator

(Top - both) Children’s Book Illustrations | Medium – water color

become priceless to me as they turn out to be an untold, unpublished gold mine of inspirations!

Do you want to carve out a recognizable style, or are you willing to explore different directions over time?

JC: That is a dream, definitely something that I sincerely want to achieve - a distinctive style of my own, a visual language which viewers recognize as my style. In order to master it, I am ready to push the boundaries and dedicate all my mind and energy towards it.

'Shiva Anna' Illustrating an auto driver from Chennai.

Medium - water color & charcoal

I openly take inspiration from the streets of India. Sometimes I feel that the variety of body language, expressions, stories and emotions of people around us is enough food for thought and imagery; referring to books becomes almost secondary in this case.

When I interact with these subjects and give a patient ear to their stories, they

I have visions of juxtaposing two extreme forms of art together and see what comes of it. If it happens to turn out the way I am visualizing it, it would be a grand step in visual art and storytelling. It would require me to learn and maybe master the other art form which I hope to merge with the art of illustration.

Besides that, I will continue to document the daily life events around me. I am also on the verge of planning an illustrated biography.

The thought of having visuals without words, giving rise to infinite interpretations, is an enormously exciting prospect, enough to give me goose bumps! jitchowdhury88@gmail.com www.poolmagazine.in  9

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social design

WHAT’S BREWING? When Tenzing Nyentsey is not managing his design studio in Gangtok, he is creating a mixed brew of design-based activities for school children

networking with other organizations, and conceptualizing various projects to be undertaken by the organization.

Shall we begin with a brief background?

TN: Currently based in Gangtok, Sikkim, I have Diploma in Communication Design (Faculty of Exhibition Design) from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

I am the Managing Director of a design studio called Echostream Pvt. Ltd., and Co-founder of an organization called BREW. I juggle between managing Echostream, and BREW where I am responsible for drafting the direction for the organization, planning the monthly itineraries, managing the volunteers and 10 POOL #48

Tell us a little about BREW. TN: Sometimes you have an idea and you look for a space. For us it was the opposite. Our studio had just acquired a huge space on rent for which we got a good deal. Our design studio could occupy just half of it and the space outside, which had a huge hall and a lovely garden, was underutilized. That’s when my wife Alpana and I had the idea of starting a concept café, a place where people from different walks of life could share stories, have events and exhibitions…a social organic place, which our town lacked. We bounced the idea with my colleagues in the office and they all readily supported it. We named the space BREW, an acronym for Bakery, Retail, Event and Workshop.

With a huge open space and a lawn, the space really favored children and slowly the kids became our regular visitors.

With my wife’s skill in baking and our design studio’s support we started

social design

'2 DAY FOR TOMORROW' - DESIGN FESTIVAL: Students understanding headphones as a product before they start re-designing.

BREW WORKSHOP Students making prototype for their designs

having creative workshops for school kids during weekends and holidays. The kids loved it and soon a lot of private schools approached us in collaborating with them to develop their creative curriculum. With our limited knowledge in design education, we started creating different assignments for the school kids, ranging from theater to filmmaking, and logo design to carpentry. It was a real task for us to simplify the assignments so that the school kids could understand

the objective and later apply it. However, with time BREW’s future direction was slowly being sculpted. The kids loved our workshops, the schools slowly started understanding the value, and we loved revisiting our design basics. Since then we all have been working really hard to make design a part of their school curriculum and more a part of a student’s day-today life.

What challenges did you face while setting it up?

TN: The challenges were countless. From a tight budget to start a concept café to getting access to the right materials, everything is a challenge in a place like Gangtok. However, the biggest challenge was to change the notion of design in the minds of the school kids, the parents and schoolteachers. Like in any other place, design was no more than fashion, and art was always a hobby. However, www.poolmagazine.in 11

'2DAY FOR TOMORROW' - Initial concept design for a rice cooker

show on a specific activity, we improvise on the activity there and then. The activities range from pottery to baking, and carpentry to animation. The energy level is 100% and at the end of the day we are dead exhausted!

However all workshops are not kids-centric. We have done five-day bamboo workshops in collaboration with a few architects here, where everyone volunteered to build a bamboo deck. It was an exercise to understand bamboo as a building material '2DAY FOR TOMORROW' - Initial briefing and understand its and brainstorming with a group of students various properties.

For us it was five long energy-filled days of discussion, bamboo our constant effort to expose the kids, splitting, climbing, bending, and most the teachers and parents to the idea importantly, having fun. of design thinking and not a specific discipline of design has been more We have also done a deep diving effective and to see them understand workshop on design thinking. The event the process and utilize it in real life is was called 2DAY FOR TOMORROW. It just amazing. was a two-day festival where students What kind of workshops do and teachers were given the opportunity you conduct? to get inspired and express their ideas for a better educational system for the TN: At BREW we believe in the idea of future. Key concerns relating to learning learning by doing, so all activities are environment and ICT schools were real hands on. The attention span of among the various topics discussed small kids lasts for not more than and analyzed. The students were taken ten minutes, so before the workshop through a proper design thinking starts we have the basic skeleton of the process and the ideas, scenarios and workshop ready with time slots. Then visualization the students came out with depending on the interest level of the were really beautiful and innovative. kids and how much enthusiasm they 12  POOL #48

social design

(L) The first day of the bamboo workshop – group consisting of architects, engineers and designers.

(R) The last day of the bamboo workshop with the deck almost near completion

How do you fund this initiative?

TN: In most of the workshops at BREW, the students need to pay a nominal fee for participation, which takes care for the stationery and the refreshments provided to them during the workshops.

However, for the Konnect project, the initiative at present is sustained by BREW through the other workshops conducted at private schools. We will soon be looking at other funding sources like corporates who are working towards the same field through their CSR wing and other international/ national organizations who can provide grants for such initiatives. Another model is to directly link a corporate CSR wing to a school, where the corporate adopts a school and BREW becomes the implementing organization.

What is the ‘Konnect’ project?

TN: Most of the workshops we conducted were to be paid for, and with time we started having the same bunch of people from the same private schools, let’s say, kids who could afford the workshops.

We felt that the idea of BREW had to reach a bigger audience, especially the underprivileged students from government schools; and we also had

to think of a model that could be easily scalable. At the time, our design studio had just finished a research project on making a vision report for quality education in Sikkim. One very interesting insight was that most of the government schools had the best infrastructure, and the best land, but what they lacked was the idea of critical thinking. The teachers were there to teach and the kids to listen.

That was when the idea of the Konnect project came to us.

We had worked with the students for almost two years and were confident enough to pitch the idea to the Government. We made a presentation to the Human Resource Development Department on the idea of BREW adopting a government school and introducing design-thinking workshops as a co-curricular activity. The department supported our initiative and the Konnect project was born.

The main objective behind the Konnect project is to trigger a critical thinking process among the students in the school. The students should be able to question different ideas, analyze and synthesize the information given to www.poolmagazine.in 13

'KONNECT PROJECT', Lingding School - Music & Sound Workshop with Class VIII students

them. Various other supports will be required in meeting the objective. Proper resources, teacher training, learning materials and an effective environment are required, which all have to be addressed under the Konnect project. In future an initiative will be undertaken to fill these gaps.

How has the community reacted to BREW and your efforts to introduce children to design?

TN: Fingers crossed, the response has been pretty positive. Either the people totally believe in our idea and they feel that such initiatives are important in the present education model or they are totally clueless of what we are talking about and see it as another experimental venture! I think it is more the latter but that is what we are here for: to make them understand the idea of design and how it is so integral. We are really happy that the students are taking it in good spirit and whatever few empathizing activities we have conducted have shown good positive response.

14  POOL #48

Our main concern lies in our second level, in which we deal with the teachers.

They have been with the school for decades and we have to take good care that we do not step on their shoes and make them feel they are not doing things the right way. We try to involve them as much as possible but we are still in the process of cracking it.

What kind of design attention do you think is required in a place like Gangtok?

TN: Gangtok as a town has seen real fast development in the past 15 years. From the year I left to study design until now, the change has been massive and I guess no time has been spared to stop, take a step back and reflect. People tend to always catch one idea and neglect the other factors that tend to affect the outcome. For example, people here will take into consideration what they desire, but totally forget the viability and the feasibility factor and come out with such projects that do not at all fit the context.

I guess people need to look at everything in a holistic manner and then approach a

social design

'KONNECT PROJECT', Lingding School - Student drawing what they understand by the word 'school'

project. I feel it is this that is lacking in a place like Gangtok, and due to this very negligence, design opportunities pop up at every corner, from urban transport in hilly terrain to waste disposal systems, and from rural development to creating an urban concrete jungle.

How do you network with like-minded agencies and other professionals in your field?

TN: Gangtok is a small place and we tend to know almost everyone, especially people who are in a creative field. We know almost all the architects/ designers here and I guess two-thirds of them are good friends. So, networking is more by word of mouth. We start a small initiative and everyone one gets to know about it and is ready to support it in all their capabilities. There is a good energy among private creative professionals and this positive attitude has had some effect on seeing a few good designs in Gangtok.

What would be your advice to people who want to start a similar initiative?

TN: I remember going to a school where a student quoted the Mahatma’s words, “Be the change you wish to see.” That has been my motto ever since. I believe

people follow through examples and you need to be that example and not wait for other people to give you a push. I also believe that education is the only way to change the thought process of people, and this education model is what needs to be addressed, challenged and sculpted to carve the future of the nation.

What’s next?

TN: There are lots of things in the to-do list! The very next thing is to develop a design education curriculum for the school we have adopted and start with the activities. We have already started a library project, where we are collecting books to build a library for the school, which we think will be done by July. Then we will go hunting for some funds to build their kindergarten wing, which at present is old and dilapidated, using traditional architecture. Since this is our pilot project, it will take a lot of experimentation and exploration.

Once we are clear about what works and what does not, we will be ready to pitch the idea to corporates and other organizations and slowly scale the project to other schools.

Presently I am focusing my energy towards the Konnect project, hoping the pilot project becomes a success and an example which then later can be adapted to all the schools in Sikkim and India.

Our design studio, Echostream, is also working towards product development in the villages throughout Sikkim through the SHG MODEL. In the future, we could also come out with our own range of products working in tandem with the SHGs throughout Sikkim. ninzey@gmail.com www.poolmagazine.in 15

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calligraphy

the

Face

of Art

Nasheet Shadani, Associate Creative Director, Grey Group Asia Pacific, was inspired by the words of three creative icons to come up with a calligraphybased campaign for a college of arts in Singapore

What is the background for the ‘The Art of Inspiration’ campaign?

NS: It all started as a pretty neat story. A month or so after my joining Grey Singapore, I was involved in a brief for our client LASALLE College of the Arts. In conjunction with the anniversary of the founding of the LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore, a design driven campaign was needed to push awareness and drive in admissions. LASALLE wanted to attract students of all artistic interests - from painting to typography and much more. The tricky part was how to stand out in a small city/country where competition is strong with many other art colleges around.

After prolonged discussion we reached an emphatic conclusion that since art is all about inspiration, it made sense for us to be inspired ourselves. However, the client being an art college, we started thinking of ways to make the communication look more like art than like ‘ads’. Research led us to some very interesting art-related quotes by Picasso, Van Gogh and Steve Jobs. These three figures are considered to be most inspirational among art students and the fact that LASALLE is the first to introduce these quotes automatically positions the college as one that truly values art and all the doors it can potentially open for its students.

16 POOL #48

calligraphy

www.poolmagazine.in  17

calligraphy

Finally, we brought these iconic figures to life by crafting their respective quotes in a calligraphic style to construct and develop their faces. Faces, which incidentally, nearly everyone knows. We chose calligraphy because of the level of detail, effort of craft and overall elegance it offers as a style to help the campaign stand out as a unique work of art.

The call to action to students for each execution is also specific in relating back to the quote being mentioned.

What are those quotes?

NS: “Had I been born Chinese, I would have been a calligrapher not a painter." – Picasso 18 POOL #48

"I want to try to paint my self portrait in writing." – Van Gogh "If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do." - Steve Jobs What inspired the idea?

NS: Great artists and innovators always fascinate me. I don’t just study their works, I also study their lives. I started practicing calligraphy two years ago.

It’s an ongoing journey for me. For this brief, I had calligraphy in my mind but could not hit the bull’s eye. But special

calligraphy

thanks to my boss, Till Hohmann; he pushed hard enough to make this campaign stand out. And I must say all his inputs really helped it reach a thoughtful level. It is not just my craft of calligraphy but also our team’s hard work and dedication that paid to make this campaign shine. Our CEO Raju came in with full support for this campaign and helped us at every stage.

What tools and techniques did you use?

NS: I used all the traditional tools: bamboo pens, Chinese brushes and inks,

calligraphy slit pens, etc., which are not as easily available anywhere else in the world as Singapore. Only layouts and printing work was done with a computer.

What we are seeing here is calligraphy but behind it all is a lot of illustration work, practice, craft and innovation.

I, perhaps, am the cause of more trees being cut this year than any other person on earth!

When we look at these three pieces, they look quite simple but arriving at this www.poolmagazine.in  19

Missing link between Photographer and Photographees

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calligraphy

(Clockwise) COLLATERALS AND APPLICATIONS - 1. College Exhibition | 2. T-shirts | 3. College stationery

place was a journey in itself. There were more boundaries than ways to explore.

I stopped crafting the day all three of them started looking back at me.

How long did the campaign take to execute?

NS: To be honest, when we finally arrived at the idea of making portraits out of Roman/English calligraphy, I had some apprehensions. I had never tried calligraphy with Roman letters. It took me double the time as I started from scratch. Though I had been learning Urdu /Persian calligraphy, the styles as well as the angle of the brushes are totally different. As the press release was

close, we had to rush, spending days and nights, buying calligraphy books, learning from here and there. I slept on piles of paper and bathed in Chinese ink. Finally, we presented these three handmade artworks to LASALLE and they really loved it. I finally slept soundly after more than a month.

What did you take back from working on the campaign?

NS: As this campaign was about quotes, I would like to sign off with one of my favorite quotes from Picasso: “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” nasheeet@gmail.com www.poolmagazine.in 21

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overseas

LEMON AID Consumer researcher Jimena Martinez, founder of Paris-based Lemon Lab, believes in constantly reinventing herself. Having lived and worked in several countries, she has years of hands-on practice in consultancy and industrial contexts. In her latest avatar as Managing Director of INDI Paris, she hopes to help bridge the gap between consumer real life and design.

How did you get involved in the world of design?

JM: I’m not a designer…but I wanted to be one! As a child in Colombia, I grew up watching my father build plane models, and being his ‘assistant’ when he needed to fix something in our old Buick. I was fascinated by the smell of glue and felt pens, and always dreamed about a tree-house. So I applied to Design and Architecture faculties, but for some reason things didn’t turn the way I thought. I did three years of architecture studies and then found myself fascinated by the human part of the creativity processes, and the path shifted a little. I started Psychology courses, and finally became a Psychologist.

How did you get into the field of consumer research?

JM: I majored in Market Research from Universidad de los Andes, Bogotà. My passion for human behavior (Psychology) and human creation (Architecture) eventually came together in the field of Consumer Research! I worked with companies like Whirlpool Europe, and Market Dynamics International in Italy, and Johnson Controls Automotive Holding in Germany; and was a consultant for companies in France and Italy. From 2008 to 2012 I worked as research director for international projects for Paris-based Zed Marketing Research. In 2012 I founded Lemon Lab in Paris – for qualitative consumer research. I wanted to reconnect with the freedom of running an independent business.

Tell us something about Lemon Lab. JM: Lemon Lab proposes innovative research approaches, all inspired by the power of simplicity. I believe actionable 22 POOL #48

overseas

insights are the result of observing and experiencing real life with light and interactive tools … as simple as listening and playing. It’s about ‘less thinking’ and ‘more experiencing’... and about making research accessible in all senses.

What kind of projects have you been involved in?

JM: I’ve been involved in projects ranging from automotives to a new generation of yogurt! For instance, I was part of the team that designed a show car for the Paris Motor Show years ago. We wanted to foresee the urban car of the 2010s, and we fueled the whole process with a deep dive into the consumer’s life. On this base, the designers developed a concept car, and to make the story short, I recognize quite a few of the usages and features we predicted at the time when I’m riding in a car today!

Recently I spent two days with French women, blogging, visiting their homes and engaging in a long discussion www.poolmagazine.in 23

overseas

around yogurt. A French brand is thinking about a completely new brand. Yogurt is probably the very item that is always in a French fridge, and the yogurt aisle in the supermarket is very, very rich... therefore the challenge is tough! We are now almost ready with a new concept of yogurt: its positioning and its features, based on the very specific consumer needs that haven’t been addressed by the big brands up to now.

What makes you ideally suited to the work you do?

JM: Living in, experiencing and observing different cultures and different languages allows me to adopt a truly wide horizon and creative approach to my work. I am fluent in Spanish, French, English and Italian, and can discuss strategic issues with top managers of an international corporation as easily as moderate a focus group with teenagers about the next buzz product, or partner up with a design team to make research findings tangible.

How did you come to collaborate with INDI Design?

JM: I met Sudhir Sharma, CEO of INDI Design, through my husband, who happens to be the Design Director of Faurecia. When he met Sudhir in the context of a project for his company, he called me and simply said, “Don’t ask me why, but you should 24 POOL #48

overseas each individual seems to be burning inside!” It’s so true! I just felt that he is a designer with a researcher soul, and I’m a researcher with a designer soul, and that we would do great work together, most of all because we have the privilege of seeing things from a completely different point of view. And we are just a few hours’ flight, or a Skype conversation away.

call this guy, I believe you have lots in common.” So I did! We had a couple of conversations about work and interests, our shared passion for cultural nuances and design value. And we just followed our intuition. And we keep doing it! INDI Paris was born during a conversation in the gardens of Louvre Museum. Sudhir said something like, “The difference between European traffic jams and Indian traffic jams is just a matter of where the noise happens. In India, everybody honks and yells, but they feel quiet inside. In Europe, nobody honks, everything seems controlled, but

What are your expectations from this collaboration?

JM: We haven’t formalized strategies or specific projects yet, but there are a couple of themes in my mind. On the one hand, INDI Paris can become the ‘consumer knowledge’ wing of INDI developing methodologies and proactive projects to fuel innovation on the base of cultural and consumer understanding. And on the other, I hope that INDI Paris becomes a sort of a bridge to Indian culture and design for European companies.

A sort of ‘design embassy’ - a space to showcase and to experience Indian design.

As the Managing Director, what is your future plan for INDI Paris?

JM: To give a concrete shape to the lines above, and make it happen!

What philosophy do you live by?

JM: I’ll tell you my philosophy about life… and I have to admit that it’s not easy to be consistent with it all the time! ‘Once you allow your intuition to lead any situation, the results can be www.poolmagazine.in 25

Design Drives Innovation.

A philosophy that nurtures a culture of innovation.

For over six decades, Forbes Marshall has been building steam engineering and control instrumentation solutions that work for process industry. Today, we are leaders in process efficiency and energy conservation through technology tie ups and focused investments in manufacturing and research.

Constant innovation in our product range is what helps us stay at the fore. We have

consistently brought to the market innovations in technology and design.

Several of our designs have won awards, the most recent being the Steamon Vortex Flowmeter which has won the iDesign award for the Best Design in Capital Goods.

To know more about what drives innovators at Forbes Marshall, write in to us at response@forbesmarshall.com .

Energy Conservation | Environment | Process Efficiency

www.forbesmarshall.com

P B # 29, Mumbai Pune Road, Kasarwadi, Pune 411 034, India. Tel. +91 20 27145595, 39858555, Fax. +91 20 27147413 A-34/35, M.I.D.C., H Block, Pimpri, Pune 411 018, India. Tel. +91 20 27442020, 39851100, Fax. +91 20 27442020

overseas

Consumer workshops

ASTONISHING; you just need to learn the art of listening!’

What fascinates you about India?

JM: India is a wonderland for somebody who grew up on the other side of the world in the ’70s and ’80s - a sort of magic kingdom where people own the secret of wisdom. My opinion today cannot be more than a bunch of clichés, nuanced by the few experiences with friends and colleagues from India. I try to find the words, but actually India is a matter of sensations: colors, spices, crowds, fabrics…and a land where creativity and spirituality can live together. It’s probably a land of paradoxes, and for this reason, such an inspiring world!

What, in your opinion, has propelled the present international interest in Indian design?

JM: I’m not an expert, but from my position as an observer of social

changes, and having lived in Europe for 20 years, I believe that Western minds have finally understood that other cultures are not simply ‘exotic’.

Europeans are experiencing a transition, the good old values are no longer solid enough, ideas seem to turning in circles; there’s an urge for fresh air and meaning.

Indian design offers amazing examples of creativity with a strong Indian identity… such a combination is not easy to achieve! There’s a lack of ‘soul’ in western design that is not engaging, not aspirational anymore.

What are your plans for the future?

JM: To expand the competencies of my company with a larger team of people who share my passion for innovation. To develop proactive projects with INDI, to concretize the value of our partnership.

My goal is to bridge the gap between consumer real life and design… jimena@lemon-lab.com www.poolmagazine.in 27

BONJOUR

INDI-Paris

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cover story

Bringing Clarity to Design Shashank Deshpande, Co-Founder and President, Clarice Technologies, has crafted customer experience of interactive systems for more than 15 years.

Apart from a keen nose for business and an impressive mix of technical and creative talents, he can also lay claim to superior coffee making skills!

How does a Mechanical Engineer end up doing Industrial Design?

SD: Since I was a child, I have loved creating things.

I made a film projector when I was 12 years old, and I still recall the joy when I was able to project a film negative using this contraption of a lens, bulb and a film. Similarly, I made a telescope, windmills, and periscopes, using simple things like cardboard, wires and homemade glue. Earlier, I was not aware of design schools so it was natural that I took admission to the local engineering college. During my engineering days, I think it was my inclination to design that helped me think of simple and elegant solutions using my lateral thought process.

My interest in designing mechanical machines grew. I prototyped a mechanical calculator, and designed robotic components and systems. I got introduced to the world of computers, specifically the area of computer-aided design (CAD). I wrote several computer programs that allowed me resolve complex mathematical and mechanical problems.

My final project of design of turbine blades profiles 30  POOL #48

cover story

'Quick Heal Total Security' - Comprehensive Anti-virus Protection, Web & Email Security Platform Challenge: Design a non-intrusive interface for novices and yet have the same advanced set of functionality for power users. Eliminate complex anti-virus technology and make it consumable for home PC owners.

Solution: Through research it was observed that most users were unfamiliar with abstract anti-virus jargon like anti-spam, DNAscan or firewall protection.

However, users could perceive threats associated with day-to-day objects like emails, files/folders or external drives. The solution was thus based on objectcentric information architecture. Security features were associated around protecting core objects to ensure intuitive navigation. www.poolmagazine.in  31

cover story

'Ericsson' Integrated Analytics Suite that measures Service, Loyalty and Churn and Campaign and Promotion Management.

The Suite converts raw data from multiple silo sources, BSS system, Core Network, CRM system, and processes this data into a customer centric dashboard. It provides information which combines data about a customer from all aspectsspending, usage, refill, lifecycle, demographics, etc. and thus increasing the knowledge of the operator about the customer and allowing the operator to take timely decisions and actions.

for various combustion and mechanical parameters using the CAD programming language was something unique in those days.

This combination of a creative side and technological bent led me to NID, which offered me a green field to explore the application of design to technology products. At NID, where I worked on a graduate diploma in Industrial Design, I was exposed to the fields of Cognitive Ergonomics and Human Information Processing, which led to me being the first student from the institute to work on software interface for a multilingual word processor. My colloquium paper proposed that NID should introduce a course in Interaction Design, by combining Industrial Design and Visual Communication. It took another ten years before it took shape.

Personally, I decided to make a career in user experience design much before the rest of the design community started realizing the importance of this field. I was the first from NID to venture into this field and had my share of excitement as well as delusion.

When and how was Clarice Technologies conceived?

SD: Clarice Technologies was conceived and set up in Pune in mid-2008. I am one of four co-founders. ‘Clarice’ derives from the word ‘clarity’, and its sole aim was to bridge the chasm between design and technology in software products. Very early on in my career, I had realized that visual designers do

32 POOL #48

cover story

'Benego' - Real Language for the Real World.

Challenge: To create a thriving community of casual language learners - the goal was to connect native language speakers with language learners. Through this exchange, users create a community that can share language as it is spoken. It is human powered instead of unintelligent machine translation that misses the context in most situations.

Solution: Multi-platform (Web, Mobile & tablets) solution with a comprehensive on-device database of commonly used phrases and seamless speech recognition and delivery capability that make it simple to learn and share words and phrases. The community also validates the accuracy of the translation so there are no ‘machine translation’ errors.

not understand the language of software engineers and vice versa. This was the seed that led to the conception of Clarice.

Prior to Clarice, I was the Chief of Technical Staff at Human Factors International, the world's largest usability consulting company. Before that I had established the User Centered Design function at Symantec/Veritas.

During the formative phases of my career, I had set up my own consulting company called Quipus Design and operated it for close to seven years. I have always been an entrepreneur and

love the risks and rewards associated with running a business.

What was your first major project at Clarice?

SD: Clarice was started right in the middle of the recession in 2008. It was a struggle for a few months, before we got our first break. One of our former colleagues was running the India operation of a US entity.

They had built an interesting technology that would allocate compute resources from a server farm to applications, based on business rules. The company needed a partner to shape this complex technology www.poolmagazine.in  33

cover story

'Mobiplex' - Sports motion analysis technologies that advance the way we learn, teach and enjoy sports.

Golf Analysis & Performance App: Reproduces a video-like animation of your swing, lets you compare a best swing and reports on key impact metrics. Also, high-order of algorithms analyze power and plane to pinpoint strengths and flaws across nine swing aspects. Summarizes performance stats and tracks your improvement.

34 POOL #48

into a product with a very intuitive interface. This kind of thing was right up our street. Needless to say, we made the best use of this opportunity and delivered a world-class product that was used by many banks and insurance companies worldwide. This initial impetus helped us win many projects in subsequent months.

How did you attract employees to Clarice in the early days?

SD: It is very difficult for a small company to attract talent; however, people are willing to listen if you have a strong story. Your mission or vision is very critical to attracting and retaining talent in an organization. Clarice started with a unique differentiation of shaping ideas into exemplary products. We were driven with a missionary zeal and that helped us attract good talent from above as well as below our food chain. I believe for any entrepreneur to attract good talent, he should have impeccable personal integrity and a great track record. Designers choose to stick around in Clarice as it has the informality of a design studio within a businesslike setting. Also we believe in ‘design led innovation’, which is reflected in our industry defying ratio of designers to developers (1:3).

cover story

'Digital showcase for Philips Lighting Products.'

Created a hybrid tablet application to showcase 1500+ lighting products along with their detailed specifications and its usage under various settings. Product information gets updated regularly and is downloaded on to various devices used by the sales representatives in their local languages.

What is your professional philosophy?

SD: My professional philosophy is that a person’s track record and integrity matter. I lead from the front - setting right examples for others to emulate is important. I consider myself an organization builder - I have established high-performing teams at Quipus Design, Symantec and now at Clarice.

I believe you should hire folks that are better than you and challenge them to perform.

What kind of business model did you adopt?

SD: Our model is to establish a dedicated team of consultants that will work very closely with customers on long-term, strategic projects. From being mere manpower providers, we have moved to a more strategic, problem solving

role with our customers. Today, Clarice is among the global 100 Red Herring Emerging Companies.

What were the challenges you came up against?

SD: It was very difficult to get work in this field during the initial part of my professional career. However, every designer has to be a good salesman.

I focused on product companies that I believed wanted to build world-class products and then tried to be their coach, mentor, and guide to help them understand and ramp up the design curve.

Clarice is born in a post-iPhone/iPad era, where global product companies are aware of the value that design can bring to their software products. We www.poolmagazine.in  35

cover story

'Librato' - Monitor and manage large-scale deployment of servers for optimal utilization Challenge: To show status of 10,000+ servers at a glance for system administrators to effectively monitor and balance their load. Key challenge for designers was to effectively organize the servers and provide UI paradigm to show a large number of objects.

Solution: Delivered a scalable, resilient and scalable platform optimized distributed and modular technology architecture to monitor and administer large cluster of physical and virtual servers. This allows System Administrators to quickly scan through loaded as well as idle servers and apply management policies to optimally balance load on each server.

36 POOL #48

had to do very little selling; however, we had to ensure very high-quality of work output that matched Western standards.

Most of our business still comes through referrals from our existing customers. Each of our current customers is a big advocate of the ‘Clarice experience’ – be it people, processes or product quality, and it is a challenge to keep meeting their expectations, year on year.

What, in your opinion, makes a good designer?

SD: Good designers are keen observers and learners, great communicators and T-shaped professionals – with an excellent understanding of the design process and the ability to dig deep into a particular domain and abstract the picture.

Having said that, I believe that there is huge difference between a good and a great designer. Greatness can be achieved only by effectively collaborating with various other functions of an organization (either yours or your customer’s) like technology, business, marketing, sales, etc.

What influences your design thinking?

SD: My personal philosophy is that nature loves simplicity, and humans, by nature, abhor complexity and clutter. Designers

cover story can use their thinking, process and methodologies to design products that bring deeper meaning to users, society, or the environment.

Design thinking can be used to tackle a whole range of business problems, not just creative problems. Companies that view design as just making sleek-looking products are missing the point. I believe that it is far more complex to make things simple, and organizations do not have the courage to embrace radical design innovation. In most cases, it is incremental innovation that is accepted. At Clarice, we innovate using design to build products that are usable, consumable, and desirable.

In a few cases, we have gone beyond our brief and helped our customers in product versioning, pricing, or deployment.

Who are your inspirations?

SD: Donald Norman has had a significant influence on me and is one of my gurus. He has written seminal essays on human-computer interaction and design thinking.

More recently, I have been influenced by Tom Kelly of IDEO on the ‘business of design’. I believe that design should go beyond its functional and emotional appeal to something that brings deeper meaning to self, society, or the environment.

What is the most design driven, challenging project you have worked on?

SD: Very early in my career, I got involved in the design of the first online stock trading platform for BSE (BOLTS). This was a text-only user interface for stock 'Corel' - Paint it! Show: Slideshow that turns your photographs into amazing works of art!

Challenge An app that has the same performance and response as its desktop counterpart, but with less than 20% compute power and memory footprint. | Solution Reduced 1M+ lines of code to less than 200K to build a new application layer in Objective C.

www.poolmagazine.in  37

cover story

'Tap n Tap' User-centric ecosystem of applications, platform modules, and cloud services around Android Market Challenge: Create an iPad-like user experience with a differentiated signature look and feel on Android tablets.

Solution: UI Platform and suite of applications was designed which targeted homes. The user can experience seamless integration across multiple applications like traffic, weather, and view photographs in an intuitive manner. Designed for family members to consume, share and view content - either personal or work.

38  POOL #48

brokers who were virtually computer illiterate.

With the BOLTS automated system, traders could strike deals at a much faster rate, but that led them to make errors and losses. Since there was no mouse interaction we had to ensure optimum mapping of keystrokes/combinations to on-screen functions. We conducted about 15 user trials to get the key mapping right - at one point we had all given up due to the complex constraints involved. It was a daunting design challenge in terms of the users’ cognitive capabilities, input/ display mechanism and system lag/performance.

However, the final design worked very well in a short time BOLTS had more than 3,000

cover story workstations achieving millions of transactions in a month.

What is the role of a designer in an increasingly digital life?

SD: Interacting with digital products, from modern cameras to smart phones to booking tickets online, involves learning a new interaction paradigm and visual language. Dealing with information exchange between digital devices and digital immigrants is a fairly complex design problem, which involves understanding the users’ cognitive capabilities. In the world of miniaturization and virtualization, users will have access to powerful computing services and resources through digital interfaces, which usually have tiny visual screens, limited input, and output facilities, and poor audio interaction techniques.

Starting with the iPhone/iPad, designers have started making a significant impact; however, I believe that we have just scratched the surface - there is a range of gestural, audio and touch interactions yet to be explored. These days it is impossible to think of a venture that involves design of a digital product or service, where a designer is not at the helm of things. All successful startups - AirBnb, Vimeo or YouTube - had a designer as part of their founding team. I expect this trend to become a norm.

Which key differentiators will set the Indian design industry apart from others?

SD: There is tremendous design talent in the country; however, we lack the overall eco-system that will nurture this talent.

We need to strengthen our eco-system further through good quality educational institutes, good senior people that can mentor budding design talent, and

collaboration with industry/government.

I believe there is good potential for industries across the world to look at not just technology talent in India, but design talent as well. We can see design outsourcing taking shape in the country.

In your opinion, what are some of the general principles of interface that cannot be ignored by novice designers?

SD: Two principles that get often missed by many designers: • Behind every great design lies its technology architecture. Gestural and touch interactions would have been fascinating flights of designer fancy if not implemented well technically - we have seen many products fail till the iPad and iPhone got it right.

• The user should never have to remember or search for information that the system already knows. In fact, the user will be delighted if he is presented with whatever the system knows about the user or makes intelligent guesses about what should be presented as defaults.

Understanding the user’s usage pattern, his preferences, interests, favorites and many such details will delight users. It’s like having a good conversation with someone who knows you well. Travel booking and e-commerce sites do this well; however, the principle can be applied to many enterprise as well as consumer software products.

What advice would you like to share with fellow design entrepreneurs?

SD: Have a mission, work with passion and dedication, and surround yourself with people who are better than you. shashank.deshpande@claricetechnologies.com www.poolmagazine.in 39

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design thinking

LET THERE BE LIGHT! A simple but innovative initiative spearheaded by Anusheela Saha, Senior Creative Director at Cheil India, brings light into the lives of slum children in Delhi 42  POOL #48

design thinking

What is the Light Bag Project?

AS: Most of Delhi’s slums have no access to electricity and the frequent power cuts ensure that the children do their homework either under candlelight or kerosene lamps. The flickering light not only makes it difficult for them to study but eventually leads to them losing interest in studies and even dropping out of schools.

I felt very strongly about this problem and believed there was a simple and sustainable way to tackle it. I conceptualized the idea of a school bag with solar panels and LED lights. These bags could act as school bags during the day and www.poolmagazine.in  43

design thinking

become a study lamp at night, providing the children with their very own source of light. The bags could get charged when the children walked to and from school, and even at school, as most of them go to open schools.

Salaam Balak Trust is an NGO that has been working with slum children in Delhi for the past 25 years. We approached them with the idea and they agreed to partner with us. Kudos to them, they believed in the idea the moment they heard it and allowed us to go ahead with it. The objective was simple, to make it easier for slum dwelling kids to study at night.

How did you come up with the idea?

AS: A conversation with my maid about the power cuts in Delhi put the germ in my head. I started thinking about a way that could make lives simpler for the slum dwellers. The fact that India is a country that has plenty of sun and lacks in providing electricity were the 44  POOL #48

two ends I had to connect. We did some research before we started making the schoolbags – in terms of the weight of the solar panels and LED lights; the minimum time the solar chips should be charged in the sun; the thickness of the material for the school bags.

What was the most challenging aspect of the project?

AS: The most challenging aspect was the design and execution of the school bag.

The solar panels and LED had to be weightless as they were to be attached to a school bag which was to be carried by kids on their shoulders. The thickness of the bag had to be just right, so that it could stand on its own to act as a study lamp at night. We also had to ensure that the bag had the right kind of space to hold school books. It was surprising that even the smallest of solar panel samples had to be brought in from China. In India the big solar power players are not interested in smaller projects. So, solar

design thinking

www.poolmagazine.in  45

design thinking

panels and LED lights were shipped from China and then my local ‘darzee’ helped us put it all together as a school bag.

What was your role in the project?

AS: I conceptualized the idea and the design and then worked with the team to make it into a reality. Sudarshana Borgoyary, a senior art director in my team at Cheil India, was of tremendous support. All the still photographs are her work. She was also responsible for getting Vikas Maurya into the team - he beautifully shot the AV piece for the project. And last but not the least, our Chief Creative Officer, Nima Namchu, who believed in the idea from the very beginning and was its biggest supporter.

How much does each bag cost? How did you fund this initiative?

AS: The bags cost Rs. 1,500 each. The initiative has been completely funded by 46 POOL #48

Cheil India. However, we are planning to figure out a way in which people can donate towards this cause; and we are in talks with Salaam Balak Trust about that.

What was the response of the community and the children to the project?

AS: The children loved the bags. They all thought the light was battery driven – you should have seen the smiles on their faces when they were told that it runs on solar energy. The parents were relieved to know that they never had to spend anything ever to keep the lights on. The end result? Definitely more homework is getting completed! Class performances have improved and most importantly the project has initiated a will to learn and study amongst the children. anusheela.saha@gmail.com

furniture design

FURNITURE THAT FITS Anjali Mody likes to play with the familiar and turn it upside down! The young furniture designer, Founder and Creative Director of Josmo Studio in Mumbai, enjoys encouraging clients to express their personal style.

What motivated you to take up design?

AM: I believe creative thinking was encouraged more than anything else in my family, which incidentally is a family of lawyers. My parents always encouraged my sisters and myself to think out of the box in everything we did. My interest in design stemmed from a fascination with all things creative. As a child, my eye was drawn more towards the finer details of things - the knob on a door, a brass buckle on a bag. The experience of interacting with an object seemed extremely fascinating to me. As a psychology and sociology major in high school, the study of how people perceive things trickled into my fascination of how people perceive design. It is this understanding that has helped me use design as a universal tool for experiential learning. I pursued a BFA in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in the US. Why did you opt for furniture design?

AM: I chose furniture because everyone across the world engages with it. Just like cutlery or clothing, it is a commodity that continues to be a necessity www.poolmagazine.in  47

furniture design

across cultures, therefore making it timeless in nature. I wanted this universal medium to act as an expression of different ideals through design.

Tell us something about Josmo Studio.

AM: Josmo is a boutique furniture design studio, creating individualist, bespoke furniture that caters to the specific needs of the buyer. We offer a wide choice in systems and loose furniture ranging from bookshelves, wardrobes, and beds, to tables, sofas, chairs and storage. All our pieces are created from locally sourced materials. We usually use wood, metal and fabric for all our furniture.

I started Josmo Studio in 2010 in a very organic way. I had moved home from 48 POOL #48

New York after getting frustrated with the lack of responsibility given to me at work. With a lot of time on my hands, I started making things for friends and family that wanted well designed items in their homes. My first breakthrough came with a large project I did for a private client in New Delhi – I had the opportunity to make furniture for their entire home. With just a little push from my father, I decided to get a space, build a team and service this large project. One project came after the next and the rest is history…

What does the name ‘Josmo’ mean?

AM: The term ‘Josmo’ comes from a very personal space; ‘Joss’ means luck in Chinese. I am the eldest of three girls

furniture design

and as a child, my parents called me ‘An-Joss’ because they believed that my birth brought luck into the family and its prosperity. Close friends and family began to call me Joss and that became a nickname of sorts moving forward. I wanted the studio to have a personal name that was not obviously linked to my name. Jos, from my nickname, paired with the first two letters of my last name Mody, made Josmo.

What do you keep in mind while designing a piece of furniture?

AM: As most of the pieces today are custom made, our main focus lies on transforming radical ideas into purposeful furniture. While the studio’s strengths lie in designing and building contemporary furniture, our priority is to create pieces of furniture that are expressive of the client’s personality. Our research is driven towards practicality, detailing and usability of the

piece so that the end product is representative of the marriage between form and function What are you currently working on?

AM: Alongside working on a few large residential projects, Josmo is currently in the process of building a couple of in-house furniture collections due to launch in the coming year. Our model is going to be moving from being a custom made studio to a studio that focuses on building product collections ranging from furniture to lighting.

www.poolmagazine.in 49

furniture design

50 POOL #48

furniture design What, in your view, is an ideal piece of furniture?

AM: An ideal piece of furniture is something that tests the boundaries between form and function; something that portrays ‘out of box’ thinking.

Is furniture design in India esthetics-driven or functionality-driven?

AM: Currently, there is a great disparity between both trends. A very small percentage of the Indian market has found the perfect balance between the two.

While a large base of customers is looking for functionality versus form, there are a few patrons that recognize the need for artistry in design.

I believe the next 10 years are going to be very crucial for the Indian design industry; innovation is going to play a major role in recognizing that affordable design is essential for the Indian customer base. Hopefully, this will open India up to a global understanding of design and expose consumers to the value of good design.

What keeps you inspired?

AM: Competition and innovation in design keeps me inspired. I hope to provide India with a global standard of furniture design and finishing that is both esthetic and utilitarian. anjali@josmostudio.com

www.poolmagazine.in  51

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textiles

Timeless Textiles Clothing and textile designer Pradeep Pillai’s creations can best be described as contemporary classics

What inspired you to engage in textiles?

PP: I always wanted to do something creative. I did a diploma from NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology), majoring in fashion design, and that’s how this incredible journey with textiles began. At NIFT I was more inclined towards traditional Indian textiles than ‘fashion’ as I was never convinced of the seasonal nature of popular fashion.

Also my interest in surface design led me to explore the 54 POOL #48

depths of the whole process - from fiber to yarn to fabric to clothing. I’ve been associated with the handspun, hand woven and handcrafted sectors and try to create pieces that are timeless in essence - a far cry from the glamorous, seasonal nature of popular fashion that urges and tempts the customer to blindly keep on buying.

Tell us a little about yourself.

PP: I’m a Malayalee, born and brought up in Gujarat, presently settled in New Delhi, where I’m Creative Director of Pillai Design Studio. I work with artisan clusters in Bihar/ Andhra/Madhya Pradesh. So, in a sense I belong to nowhere, yet everywhere. As I continue to work in more regions I start relating to newer cultures and people in general.

What kind of work do you do?

PP: I paint with yarn on the six yards which I treat as my canvas. You will find a lot of geometrics, abstraction

textiles

VENKATAGIRI SAREES ANEK CHIDIYA : winged wonders www.poolmagazine.in 55

NALANDA DESI TUSSAR SAREES: SARNATH : The motif used in the saree is from the Buddhist site of Sarnath

and asymmetry in my sari designs. The result is a completely new design vocabulary which appeals to the younger generation.

In Nalanda, Bihar, I specialize in different forms of the supplementary weft-weaving technique on tussar silks. My collection of saris uses the same weave but the use of desi tussar yarn gives it a classic yet contemporary twist. I have been trying to give a fresh impetus to the bawan booti sari - the traditional sari of this Buddhist belt which had 52 bootis (florets) in its body - by introducing newer motifs. I travel a lot across the Buddhist belt and some of my designs are named ‘Sarnath’, ‘Surajpur’ and ‘Padmapani’ corresponding to the names of ancient Buddhist places of worship from where the inspiration for these designs comes from.

Whenever I travel, I make sure that I visit old textile stores close to the weaving clusters. These stores sometimes have a lot of old saris from the 1980s and ’90s. Although they may be torn and in a dilapidated condition, there was a great sense of simplicity in form and color in those designs which is missing nowadays. Antoine de Saint-Exupery famously said, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away.” I’ve tried to convince a few weavers to stay put by reintroducing old designs. For example, ‘Tanjore’ is a design 56 POOL #48

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VENKATAGIRI SAREES TANTRA : an assymetric spray of Tantric motifs

woven in Venkatagiri whose pattern used to be woven for the royal families of Thanjavur. Nowadays you rarely get to see them.

What makes your saris ‘contemporary classics’?

PP: Over the years I’ve developed an esthetic that is both indigenous to India and contemporary in design. For example, if the design is very modern, then the use of yarn would be very traditional and vice versa. My saris tend to feel and drape better with regular use and hopefully will be passed on as heirlooms from mother to daughter. Added is the fact that I do not follow fashion trends or color forecasts, so they will never go out of fashion.

What are the diverse challenges a textile designer in India faces?

I’m training my artisans to work with graphic asymmetric patterns. These saris are designed in such a way that they cannot be reproduced on power looms, thus making it a unique feature of the collection. Also interesting is the fact that as I work in various regions across India, a constant exchange of ideas takes place. Like the use of a wild tussar yarn from Bihar is used in Venkatagiri; or the use of yarns like linen, muga and eri silk that were not traditionally used in this region adds to the www.poolmagazine.in 57

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VENKATAGIRI SAREES GULISTAN : Floral aanchal in zari

feel and texture of my saris. The challenge lies not only in creating new designs but also keeping the whole system running, from procurement of the best quality yarn to convincing weavers to try out newer and higher skilled techniques. So it’s a new challenge every day.

At present wherever I go, weavers only want to work with Chinese silks instead of the locally available cottons and wild silks. In Nalanda, I’m using desi tussar yarn and not the popularly used Chinese yarn. The use of this yarn makes weaving these saris very tedious and time consuming but the result is that these saris are unique in texture and gives the fabric a nice drape.

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VENKATAGIRI SAREES TANJORE : A traditional pattern originally woven for the royal families of Tanjore

Anyone familiar with the Venkatagiri weave knows that this is traditionally a fine 100s count cotton sari from Andhra Pradesh. Here I’d like to note that fine cotton weaving is a high skill technique compared to that of silk weaving. To add to its woes the market is not willing to pay more for cotton saris and hence the making of these fine cotton Venkatagiris is on the decline. I’ve tried to convince a few weavers to stay put by re-introducing old designs with heavier aanchals which result in better remuneration for their skills.

What has been your biggest learning experience from working with local artisans?

PP: Once in Bihar I heard a weaver saying that the design that he was

weaving was first made in the 1980s.

That design was so popular that he’s been weaving it ever since and he’s got his three daughters married by just weaving that design! I hope to make a few designs that can attain this level of timelessness that can sustain a weaver’s family for a generation.

What plans does Pillai Design Studio have for the future?

PP: My immediate future plan for this year is to come up with a clothing line.

Pillai Design Studio won’t restrict itself to clothing and textiles alone. I also have a special interest in home textiles, furniture and product design. studio@pradeeppillai.com www.poolmagazine.in 59

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fashion

BOHEMIAN WRAPSODY Harshita Gautam of Nomad designs for the free-spirited woman!

Colorful skirts with eye-catching motifs are the hallmark of Nomad, Delhi-based designer Harshita Gautam’s label. “Nomad was started to channelize my creativity,” she admits. “It is the modern expression of rural fashion. We are inspired by the nomadic tribes of India - a ghagra is an integral part of banjaran dressing. My love for ghagras and tribal women is evident in the designs.”

Nomad’s creations will appeal to the gypsy in the modern woman. “The ghagras are for women who are free souls, those who are not bound by fixed ideas of fashion and style,” says Harshita. “They are for all age groups and all body sizes and can give an unconventional twist to any wardrobe.”

While Nomad’s star product is the ghagra with kalis ranging from 32 to 80, it also boasts of a range of scarves, dupattas and tunics. “We also work on limited edition collections which consist of pieces with individuality, having their own truth which is never replicated,” informs Harshita.

Nomad creations are made from super fine cotton mull, cotton chanderi and silk chanderi, and hand 60 POOL #48

fashion

Collection : 'Masti main firdi'

www.poolmagazine.in  61

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woven Mashroo. The characteristic floral prints are called cheenth.

“Chintz, originally known as cheenth, which is the predominant flower print you see in the garments, is nomadic in its origins too, just like the brand itself,” says Harshita. “It travelled all the way from India to France where it was commonly accepted to be known as Chintz.”

Up next is a wildly colorful autumn-winter collection that will feature full ensembles, such as ghagras with kurtas, shirts, backless cholis, scarves, jackets and more. “The fabrics will be suited for the festive season - we will be exploring silks in the coming season,” says Harshita.

In true nomadic spirit, she hopes to make the label known worldwide. Meanwhile she watches with joy as clients whirl wide in her distinctive creations. diariesofnomad@gmail.com

www.poolmagazine.in 63

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