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Dhimant Vyas pg 28 | Photographed by Rahul Sompura NID Online Design Education 02 Vlado Franjevi 08 Nishikant Palande 12 Ragini Ahuja 20 Ashwin Joharapurkar 40 Aanchal Goel and Sugandh Kumar 46 Roxan Irani 52

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Editor in Chief | sudhir@indidesign.in

March 2016 | # 67

Dedicating IBDSA 2016 to Ranjan

Sudhir with Ranjan

Last year, when a well publicized designer didn't find the name of her well publicized design studio in the shortlist of India's Best Design Studio Awards, she wrote to MP Ranjan, who was a juror for the awards, asking him to keep away from the Jury. Ranjan replied to her, and sent the mail to me as well. He was spot on about the spirit of the contest; I couldn't have explained it better myself.

Here is what Ranjan wrote: "I accept your criticism that the shortlist does not include all the major names that we are familiar with but there are so many more that have not seen the spotlight of our media and we have never heard about since the Indian media just does not think it fit to talk about design activity here in India. POOL magazine has started doing this and has sustained their publication over five years now, and I thought that this was a good enough basis to support a nascent activity of both listing as well as rating design activities in India. The India Design Council too has been partisan in its approach to being inclusive and transparent in its functioning so far.

However, there needs to be a multiplicity of efforts and we need to support and nurture several of these initiatives.

www.indipool.com pool@indidesign.in facebook.com/poolmag twitter.com/poolmagazine

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

Endorsed by

"This may not be a perfect beginning but I can see some good that can come out of this if there is more sharing and discussion about the work done by design studios across India. Most design competitions ask for participant submissions and some choose to participate and some others refrain from doing so and that has been the pattern in most competing ratings, even those done by established media houses like Business India and others.

"Perhaps Sudhir can explain the process of shortlisting via DesignIndia and social media channels and if there are shortcomings in this process we can address these as we go forward from here."

We will miss Ranjan as a Jury member, and as a strong supporter.

This year we have a website www.indiasbestdesignstudio.com

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Sudhir

design education

LOOKING FOR THE NID EXPERIENCE? NID Online Design Education (NODE) will allow students anywhere in the world to access design instruction from NID faculty and design professionals

Prof. Pradyumna Vyas, Director, NID

Not everyone gets the chance to benefit from an education from India’s most prestigious design institute. For all those who have coveted admission into the National Institute of Design (NID), there’s great news in the form of NID Online Design Education (NODE), which will kick off with a Design Fundamentals course.

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art

ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES The Spiral-Channels project is an interdisciplinary work in progress by Croatia-born artist and author, Vlado Franjevi. Based in the Principality of Liechtenstein, Vlado started to develop the unique project in Estonia in 2004 and has since expanded it to eight European countries. In 2016 he and his team will take it to Germany.

The complex art project has its roots in the premise that a spiral has no beginning or conclusion – it goes endlessly inward and outward. International professionals, co-workers and project collaborators throw light on this unusual, multi-layered project…

(L-R) Dr. Albert Inyoung Choi, Vlado Franjević und Liu Xuguang

"He digs in, ascending or descending into the earth, so that the spirals not only expand or contract, but are also increasingly deepened and increased. This action is accompanied in nature by a communicative interaction with colleagues, with interested parties, with people from all over the world. They’re invited to send contributions, a poem, a picture, a drawing, a note, a gesture: an exchange begins, a collection and charging around the place.

These contributions are part of the Spiral-Channel project.

Spontaneously and as the

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illustrator

DRAWING STRENGTH FROM LIFE

Nishikant Palande, founder of Mumbai-based Thoughtline Design Studio, has had an arduous journey becoming an illustrator, but he wouldn’t have it any other way!

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fashion

DRAWN TO FASHION Ragini Ahuja uses an unusual canvas for her own forays into art

It takes passion to make a success of any venture, especially if it is something as mood-and whimdependant as fashion. Ragini Ahuja obviously had it in the right measure when she started her own label ‘ikai by raginiahuja’ a few years ago. “Starting my own label was always on my mind. I wanted to translate my hand done illustrations onto garments and products,” she recalls. “In July 2012, I finally set up a small workspace and started work on my first collection. Since then we explore newer artworks on easy box silhouettes every season.”

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cover story

SO MANY DIMENSIONS!

Dhimant Vyas has multiple talents and skills that he puts to good use as an award winning animation film designer

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cover story

Actress Nandita Das admires Dhimant's painting

and a lot of other aspects of photography are used in films. It is a basic medium to tell the story. I was fascinated with photography even before I came into animation.

I learnt a lot from my uncle, Chhel Shankar, who was a great photographer. At NID, I had won a Gold medal in the 55th International Photographic Salon of Japan. I always take my camera along with me wherever I go.

I enjoy painting, sculpture, craft, etc. It was my dream to create a painting series and have painting shows around the globe! I had a solo exhibition at Jahangir Art gallery, Mumbai in January 2014 and continue to hold regular shows at different galleries. I am also planning a short animation film, hopefully in the 2D classical drawing animation style.

The potential of animation There is a lot of awareness and openness about animation in India at the moment. A lot of people are 36  POOL #67

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advertising

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Ashwin Joharapurkar believes in telling good stories, whether through his advertising career or in his own time

Patriotism is not something that moves very many of the current generation of artists, and it is surprising to find the sentiment in the work of a Mumbai-based advertising professional. For Ashwin Joharapurkar, Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather, creating a series of illustrations of Indian freedom fighters seems to balance his other commercial projects. “Though I illustrated these portraits, they are not just good-looking pieces of art. They tell a story of that person.

Advertising too is also all about telling stories,” he admits.

“I always looked up to Bhagat Singh,” says Ashwin, recalling how his patriotic spirit was first wakened. “He inspired an entire nation by the age of 20 and gave up his life in the process. When I was 20, I didn't even know what to do after graduation! Whenever I saw Bhagat Singh’s framed photo in government offices, schools or in the textbooks, I used to feel sad about the quality. That’s when I decided to make one myself. After I illustrated Bhagat Singh, I showed the drawing to a few of my friends and they loved it. That encouraged me to work on Lokmanya Tilak, Subhash Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandhi and Chhatrapati Shivaji.”

Born in a small town in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra, Ashwin has had a long journey to Mumbai. “Finding design in my home town was as difficult as finding water,” he exclaims.

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product design

THE THIRD DIMENSION Product designers Aanchal Goel and Sugandh Kumar of Objectry are open to experimenting with materials ranging from charcoal to chocolate!

How did Objectry come about?

A&S: Sugandh and I both have a Bachelor in Design (B.Des) degree. We worked for a home accessories (metal exports) firm for three years, where we learnt a lot about materials and design. Eventually we both quit and went separate ways. He started to work with wood and I learnt pottery. We met after a few months and decided to work together. We started Objectry, and are based in Gurgaon; I am the Design Head while he is the Business Head.

Both of us are really intrigued by design and the arts in general, whether architecture, fashion or graphic. We ventured into product design because we personally like the third dimension - the way things become tangible in three46  POOL #67

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textile & printing

BLOCK BY BLOCK Roxan Irani concentrates on hand crafted, one of a kind creations for women who love to experiment!

How did you decide on a career fashion?

RI: After studying Fashion and Textile in Mumbai, I started my career with designer Rocky S, where I got significant exposure in the field of class, quality and detail of design. These four years were a great beginning - I was involved in everything from the bridal collection to the Prêt line, the excitement of fashion shows, and Bollywood styling. I went on to spend three years in retail at Shoppers Stop where I believed I learnt the numbers game, but found it didn’t interest me much.

I decided to take a break and travel to London, where I studied for a year at an interior design school at Chelsea. When I got back to Mumbai, I started working at Talati & Panthaky, a leading architecture firm, but my love for fashion continued. My workbooks were filled with garment illustrations and that’s when I decided I had to be brave and follow my dream.

How did you come up with Seventeen05?

RI: Seventeen05 came to being when I was working at an architecture firm on my return from London. I remember we were designing a classical site for a client and I was looking for reference for columns and cornices in an old book in the office library. As I doodled my ideas I came across this interesting pattern - I drew a window architrave and sketched a silhouette of the Eiffel tower through it (like a view 52 POOL #67

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WALLFLOWERS Vintage lithographs, advertisements and textiles on your walls

Framed Vintage Rajasthani Miniature Paintings

Every society continuously draws from its own past to redefine its collective esthetic and it is quite often visible in clothing fashions, decorations in the home and of course in the revival of ideas. In this spirit it is a great idea, and one that is rapidly gaining ground, to use vintage lithographs, advertising collaterals and textiles to refresh home decor, add a new stroke of color and texture, and still find something that would fit in harmoniously with contemporary art pieces and themes.

Contemporary home decor is a lot of things nowadays; what it certainly isn't, are plumes of peonies and morning glory vines lacing the walls. There are no beleaguered warships stuck in a raging ocean, neither are there pictures of gods 60  POOL #67

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