POOL 80 by Designindia Magazine

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Nishma Pandit pg 14 | Photographed by Balkrishna Mahajan Kumar Vyas 02 Mudita Bhandari 04 Ishaan Dixit 29 Prakash Thombre 35 Meeta Sharma Gupta 44 Ishrat Sahgal 50 Sudhir Sharma 56

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Editor in Chief | sudhir@indidesign.in

April 2017 | # 80

Sudhir at Geneva Motor Show

It’s a fact that a lot of companies are exploiting big data to market their products and services. Not only is this annoying people, it is also opening up legitimate issues of privacy and security of data. A lot of people are turning off from sharing information as it is eventually being used to bombard them with spam. Companies have been shamelessly using big data to sell more.

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Nishma Pandit pg 14 |

Designing with Big Data

There is a big difference between using big data for designing and planning better futures and products and using big data to increase sales. Very few companies are focusing on using big data to develop new physical environments, products and services.

Photographed by Balkrishna Mahajan

Kumar Vyas 02 Mudita Bhandari 04 Ishaan Dixit 29 Prakash Thombre 35 Meeta Sharma Gupta 44 Ishrat Sahgal 50 Sudhir Sharma 56

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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.

Big data is a very exciting field for designers; it provides insights and usage patterns that can convert company offerings. However, it also confuses designers, since most of it at the moment is related to sales. Designers can use big data to focus on the following: 1. Improving coordination and links 2. Improving the digitization process 3. Developing new design Big data is mostly about consumers - try and make it about users. I see huge potential for design impact here.

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Endorsed by

Sudhir

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TRIBUTE

OF COURSE!

Image credit: Dhun Karkariya

Noted design educator and founder of NID’s faculty of Industrial Design, H Kumar Vyas (88) passed away on 25th March 2017 owing to age-related complications. Born in 1929 in Uganda, Vyas had his early training as an industrial designer at the Central School of Art and Design, London, and worked as a professional designer at Douglas Scott Associates, London. Joining NID in 1962, Vyas established the Faculty of Industrial Design with the aim of initiating training programs for the first cadre of industrial designers in India. In 1970, Vyas helped innovate and introduce NID’s first undergraduate program—the five and half year long professional education program. From 1977 onward, he turned his attention to engaging with youth on concepts of design and design thinking. Between 2011–13, Vyas held the position of Honorary Research Fellow at NID. 2 POOL #80

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CERAMIC DESIGN

The energy of space Mudita Bhandari’s ceramic creations are a reflection of how she perceives herself in the context of an ever-changing world What is the importance of a formal education in art? MB: I guess anyone who is consistently working in a particular field for long gets to understand how things work. But formal education most definitely helped me put things in perspective. In an art college one gets a wholesome exposure to all the fields. One is exposed to different ways of working, thinking and learning, with constant engagement with teachers and fellow students; all the cross-questioning about one’s work, ideas and expressions help in finding one’s own language. I did a B.F.A. (Ceramics) from Kala Bhawan, Viswabharati, Santiniketan; and MA (Fine) from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Vadodara. My time there pointed me towards finding and discovering what was within and expressing that abstract feeling in the right context through a tangible form. Currently I am a practicing ceramic artist, and work largely with clay. Based in Indore, I also do some freelance work - I enjoy taking up commercial projects that include other materials like iron, paper, and fabric.

‘Beyond Walls’

What does your work represent? MB: My days in Santiniketan, where we cycled around under the vast starry night sky or through the endless fields… walks on a pitch dark pathway or just watching the fireflies on the trees as if the stars had descended…it all connected me deeply with the sense of space. The aura or the essence created by a particular space fascinates me. Whether it is the sense of space within oneself or the physical space around, I have been fascinated by all its dimensions. All of this informs my work. I enjoy using different forms, playing with light and shadow, creating a sense of hide and seek with multiple layers to express what I feel or experience.

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COVER STORY

Ticket to transformation

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CONNECTING

Founder of the India Design Project, Ishaan Dixit is a young architect and visual storyteller who dreams of democratizing design knowledge for the benefit of all

What inspired you to become a designer? ID: The credit goes to my father, an artist by heart and engineer by profession. He and I had discussions every day about the 'know how' of things, great artists and inventors. He is my first introduction to the world, sharing with me both the artistic and technical perspective of

everything. Spending my childhood next to forests, lakes, dams and power stations, there was plenty of opportunity to go on walks with my father; we would both learn from nature, sketch things and then try to figure out how it is used/ can be used in the current scenario. At an early age, I also had exposure to www.indipool.comâ&#x20AC;&#x192; 29

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ILLUSTRATION

For Prakash Thombre, Creative Director of Pune-based Widemedia Group, drawing is an intensely soul-satisfying hobby

Not many passengers regularly traveling by the Pune-Lonavala local trains in the years 1981-85 would have noticed the young college boy sketching pictures of men. Engrossed in what he was doing, the young boy was equally oblivious to his surroundings. He had found art in his veins.

Fashion Model

Prakash Thombre was born to an artist father, who served as a draughtsman in the Navy, and often sharpened his skills at home. Prakash would watch his father use both conventional and unconventional tools to bring to life his artistic conceptions, and as he watched, a love for art began seeping into his mind. Accompanying his father to his workplace one day, Prakash was awed by the art materials in use and the scale of the drawings that were created. At home, he www.indipool.comâ&#x20AC;&#x192; 35

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TOY DESIGN

A sturdy rocking horse made from rubber wood

The search for eco-friendly and non-toxic toys for her own children resulted in Meeta Sharma Gupta’s transformation from computer scientist to toy designer How did your toy story begin? MS: I graduated from IIT Delhi with a B.Tech. My time at IIT was magical; it was the first time I was venturing into the world on my own, living in the hostel, living on the edge! Since I was always very inclined towards pursuing research and solving problems, I decided to

pursue a Master’s in Computer Science & Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. And then I went on to obtain a PhD from Harvard University. I began working on advanced computing research at IBM TJ Watson labs, and was very happy to be in the vicinity of Nobel Laureates and eminent

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TEXTILE DESIGN

Interior architect Ishrat Sahgal is using sari silk to raise the status of the carpet from afterthought to centerpiece of a room! When did you first begin to notice design? IS: As a kid, I would notice small details and elements in our family home in Chandigarh - the patterns on the floral upholstery, the tassels and trimmings on a cushion. As a teenager I would point out things I liked and things I would’ve done differently in spaces we would go to. I never had a doubt in my mind what I wanted to do ‘when I grew up’. This is what drew me to applying to Rhode Island School of Design, and it was hands down, the best decision I made. I graduated with a BFA www.indipool.com 51

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EXCERPT

24 hours in the head of Mr. Indi

Sudhir Sharma, Publisher and Editor in Chief of POOL, is not normally to be found on the inside pages of this magazine. Kyriaki Hadjisavva, a graphic designer based in Greece, recently brought him center stage through a freewheeling interview in Pomolo, an experimental fanzine. Reproduced here are excerpts… Sudhir Sharma holds a graduate degree in Visual Communication Design (1983) from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. At NID he met the other co-founders of Elephant, India’s first multidisciplinary design studio, which they launched in Pune in 1989, and where

he worked for almost 20 years. In 2009, he founded Indi Design, which now has 14 offices all over the world. Sudhir is not only a designer, he is a publisher, a speaker, a blogger… the list is long: Founder and Creative Chairman of INDI Design Pvt. Ltd;