POOL 75

75

Ayaz Basrai

pg 8 | Photographed by Tarangini Jindal

Studio DCA 02 Allen Shaw 24 Pankaj Narain 32 Divya Lahoria 40 Revati Jayakrishnan 48 Ikroop Dhillon 59

Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

www.indipool.com

Editor in Chief | sudhir@indidesign.in

November 2016 | # 75

The Business of Design Have you noticed that we’ve changed the tagline of POOL magazine from ‘Creative India’ to ‘Business of Design’? That was also the theme of the event we hosted for the ‘India’s Best Design Studio’ awards.

I am fascinated by how much the ‘Business of Design’ differs from regular ‘ Business’. A regular business can be defined as ‘Production or services undertaken with the objective of earning profit with the satisfaction of human wants’. This is how I define the Business of Design: ‘Production or services with the objective of earning creative satisfaction with the satisfaction of human needs’. There is a subtle difference that I have always talked about (wants vs. needs) and (creative satisfaction vs. profits).

Also worth noting that in many cases these are not different things. But understanding the subtle difference makes a huge difference to what you do and how you see yourself.

Regular business refers to an activity conducted for the profit of those who conduct the activity. A design business is conducted with the objective of bringing benefit to the user; those who conduct it are mere mediums.

75

www.indipool.com

This perhaps explains the frustration designers feel when you value their business in regular terms.

Here are five ways in which the design business is different: 1. Profit is not the main objective Design business is conducted with the intention of doing good and not just to make profits.

Ayaz Basrai

2. Design skills for business success pg 8 | Photographed by Tarangini Jindal

Studio DCA 02 Allen Shaw 24 Pankaj Narain 32 Divya Lahoria 40 Revati Jayakrishnan 48 Ikroop Dhillon 59

Anyone cannot run a design business. You need to be a designer or have a good understanding of design as a thought process.

3. Buyer and user

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

Every design business transaction has a minimum of three parties: Buyer (client), Seller (designer), and User. Other businesses have only the Buyer and the Seller.

4. To satisfy human needs

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.

Unlike other businesses that satisfy wants (often they create them first) the design business deals more with human needs than wants. This is also why advertising is not a design business.

5. Social obligations More and more businesses are becoming socially responsible, but that’s not the same as socially oriented. Design businesses have social obligations at the core of their business.

Sudhir

http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/designindia

Endorsed by

To subscribe visit Indipool Shop at Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

INTERIOR DESIGN The front façade is transparent, allowing a glimpse into the studio

Out of the Box Design What used to be a warehouse in Gurgaon has been transformed into a strikingly functional workspace for Studio DCA As Delhi continues to expand as a metropolis, the organic settlements that once dotted the surrounding landscape are gradually being subsumed into the city. Existing linkages to suburban nodes are also strengthening as traffic volumes increase and the city’s hugely successful mass transit system spreads into the erstwhile hinterland.

This evolving fabric of the city is creating a complex confluence of building typologies, as pioneering entrepreneurs seek out the elusive combination of large flexible spaces and lucrative capital investments. Located just off the main arterial connection to Gurgaon, the DCA office simultaneously inhabits

a setting shaped by a plethora of influences, the strongest of which is the dichotomy of adaptive reuse within an old structure and the local context of an indigenous settlement.

Designed as a studio space for an architecture and interior design firm within an existing warehouse structure, the main challenge was to retain as much of the original structure as possible, while retrofitting the interior to meet the stringent parameters laid out in the design brief created by the partners. The space was to be day lit as far as possible and needed to provide a naturally ventilated and flexible www.indipool.com 3

Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

COVER STORY

Enjoying the ride

Photo credit: Kunal Bhatia www.indipool.com  9

Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

TRAVELING ARTIST

The world through sketches Allen Shaw is a traveling artist, illustrator, designer and storyteller. Through his ‘sketchbook travelogues’ he engages in conversation with the spaces, places and people he meets on his journeys.

What was your introduction to design?

AS: I was always interested in drawing, sketching and making things but design as a career was never on the scheme of things when I was looking at the future.

Like most Biharis I also went to Delhi after school. Joining St. Stephen’s College was the turning point; within the first few weeks I was designing posters for most of the 50 plus college societies. I figured that finally my drawing skills were being put to some use. In my second year one of my batch mates gave me an article to read about NID; the place sounded like a dream. I applied to study Communication Design and got through, so I quit college to pursue a career in design. NID was a different world, with its ‘no exams, no marks’ policy, and making presentations for assessment by juries really helped me look within. The most important thing I learnt from NID was to become an individual. Courses like ‘Design Process’, ‘Design Management’ and ‘Environmental Perception’ really changed the way I looked at things.

When do you think your design journey really began?

AS: For the ‘Environmental Perception’ course we were taken to an environment which was completely different from the one we were used to, to document by interviewing, sketching and making notes, to see the possibilities of design intervention in the www.indipool.com 25

Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

FURNITURE DESIGN

WOOD STOCK A furniture designer who sees infinite possibilities in different varieties of wood, Pankaj Narain turns to academics to bridge the often long gaps between getting an idea and bringing it to fruition

Cross Section table

32 POOL #75

Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

Timeless appeal Divya Lahoria of Kopé London is hoping to blend traditional craft with global trends in a sustainable and ethical fashion Tell us about your design journey from India to the U.K. DL: It has been pretty remarkable! After training as a textile designer at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, I worked in India for five years before moving to the U.K. to pursue a Master’s in Textiles, specializing in Embroidery, from Manchester School of Art. Being

Bowl of Flowers - Scarf

Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

www.indipool.com 41

CERAMIC DESIGN

A rare talent

Artist, designer and maker is how Revati Jayakrishnan describes herself, and her work is a stunning testimony to all three What led you to design?

RJ: I always loved making things, and engaged in a lot of extra-curricular activities throughout my time at school.

I used to design and make things for my home and also school projects. My first experience of working with clay was a 10-day pottery workshop I attended in one of the malls in Gurgaon. This was when I was in class 10. Later I also took up Fine Arts-Painting as a subject in classes 11 and 12.

I knew for sure that I did not want to be an engineer or a doctor even though I scored well in academics. I pursued a Professional Undergraduate Diploma In Craft Designing at the Indian Institute of Crafts and Design, Jaipur, where I majored in fired material application (ceramics, glass, metal casting).

The four years at IICD, Jaipur proved to be a wholesome experience. We worked in craft clusters, factories, artist studios

www.indipool.com  49

Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

JEWELRY DESIGN Fused glass jewelry

Collection Be-clear

EYE CATCHING IRIDESCENCE Fused glass artist Ikroop Dhillon has found her calling in creating jewelry that brings a little joy into the life of the wearer Fused glass jewelry

How does someone with a management background become a glass artist?

ID: Becoming a glass artist for me was a fortunate stroke of serendipity. After my MBA, I was happily pursuing a corporate career with CNBC TV18 in Mumbai. A vacation in Europe exposed me to the world of glass art. I was really attracted to the idea of melting and shaping glass as an art form and would spend nights scanning the internet for youtube videos and articles about it. www.indipool.com  59

Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

facebook.com/poolmag

Subscribe on Magzter and read all pages

64 POOL #59