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Shirley Bhatnagar pg 26 | Photographed by Vijay Kante Archana Patil 02 Karthik M 08 Saurabh and Rasika Chandekar 14 Rimzim Dadu 20 Samira Gupta and Dhritiman Deb Pillai 38 Pravin Ahir 46 Shreya Oza 50 Jaya Ramchandani & Nash Paul D'Souza 56

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illustrator

WAITING TO DRAW

Procrastination is the only hurdle in the way of illustrator Karthik M’s tryst with his art

of projects that cover everything from designing huge commercial spaces for big brands to coming up with something interesting to say on an envelope.

How does a commerce graduate become a visual artist?

KM: I'm a Mumbai-based illustrator and designer; currently, creative director of Catalyst India. I never thought I’d end up in this field. I kind of stumbled upon it while realizing what I really didn’t want to do for a living! I’ve been in this field for a little over 10 years now, and a blank page still scares the hell out of me. I guess that’s a good thing. Illustration is something that I picked up around three years back. I love the way it helps me tell stories visually.

What type of projects have you worked on?

As a creative director who is paid to solve client’s problems, I’ve done a wide range

As an illustrator, I’ve illustrated for brands like Sandoz, Cipla, V spot Café+Bar, Tata Indicom, EasyCabs and Kotak Life Insurance. Recently, I did some work for two books: The Dolch Project and Helter Skelter’s New Writing Vol. 4.

Platform Magazine, Creative Gaga, DesignWala and Desicreative have been kind enough to feature my personal projects. I love to create side projects, which usually explore the stuff hidden beneath our everyday lives.

What creative process do you usually follow?

KM: Most of my illustrations are from my personal projects, which are the result of my thoughts about life in general.

I usually have some questions about what I observe around me. Most of the time, they develop into passionate conversations with my wife Archana,

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case study

BORN AGAIN

Saurabh and Rasika Chandekar of Mumbai-based Aaiba Brand Strategy & Design use the concept of reincarnation to introduce a range of t-shirts into a crowded market

About Vaishvik Vaishvik is a lifestyle brand that showcases India's contribution to the world in various fields like management, history, science, wars, etc. The brand was launched with a range of intellectual and concept based t-shirt designs.

Challenge Vaishvik wanted to establish the brand through distribution channels like the online shopping market and retail market.

The task was to alter the buying behavior of the target market from low involvement fashion purchases to high involvement concept driven selection of t-shirts.

Strategy We observed that most of the t-shirt brands in the market were either based on the most talked about topics of the youth or visual treatment centric designs that establish a kind of trend in a market.

In this kind of competitive market, the strategy to distinguish brand Vaishvik was to position it as an innovation in the fashion industry.

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fashion

A FEEL FOR FASHION Rimzim Dadu, creative head at ‘my village’, finds joy in coming up with new textures and surfaces

Fashion is…

A medium that lets me explore, create and express. I convey my thoughts and ideas through clothes and that is what fashion is for me. It’s bigger and broader than just trends and seasons.

In the family I grew up in a family that runs a garment export business, so I was introduced to fashion at a very early age. I would come back from school/ college and spend time in the factory.

I would accompany my father to trade shows all over the world. I was introduced to fashion magazines and books at a very early age. My father is a very creative person himself so the general discussions at home revolved a lot around art. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to get into fashion design and never considered anything else as an option. I studied Fashion Design & Technology at the Pearl Academy of Fashion in New Delhi. ‘my village’ I honestly don’t know how I came up with this name, it was very 20 POOL #55

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cover story

ALL FIRED UP As chief artisan at New Delhi-based Irregular Beauty, ceramic designer Shirley Bhatnagar is still uncovering the secrets of clay

(Top) 'Goblet Drama' from the Anthropomorphic Series

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young blood

DAWN OF A NEW LINE Shreya Oza of Ahmedabad-based ASA creates unpredictable attire designed to make heads turn

ASA means ‘born at dawn’ in Japanese I wanted to create something new in Indian fashion. No Indian designer appeals to me. The only Indians who appeal to me are the villagers, the people who are genuine to their souls. India has this huge gap between the known and the unknown. I want to know about the secrets and later I will decide if I want to reveal them. Inspiration for ASA comes from everything, from reality and from virtuality. ASA wants to be an affordable clothing line that can offer edgy yet very wearable and cool clothing to both men and women.

Fashion is evolution of style When a particular style evolves to a level that can be 50 POOL #55

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