POOL 84

84

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Pan Nalin pg 10 | Photographed by Rohan Thakur Swaroop Roy 02 Neha Lad 24 Naman Shah 30 Sachin Samson 36 Suchitra Ravichandran 42 Ishita Singh 48 Manika Nanda 56 S Balaram 62

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Editor in Chief | sudhir@indidesign.in

August 2017 | # 84

Sudhir at Secret Garden of Changdeokgung Palace at Seoul, South Korea

84

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Romance of Seven ‘Seven’ pops up in so many fairy tales, religious stories and folklore. We have seven skies, seven seas, seven climes, seven days in a week, seven dwarves, and seven sins.

Becoming seven years old is considered a turning point in a child’s development. And then there is the seven-year itch in marriage! There is a certain cyclicality about the number seven; it seems to be of great sociological significance.

In Catholic theology seven is considered near perfection.

In Hinduism, seven is recognized as a spiritual and sacred number. ‘Sapta’ in Sanskrit, is an abstraction of many divine concepts and philosophies: sapta-swaras (music), Sapta Puri (seven holy cities), Sapta Dweepa (seven islands), saptanadi, sapta lokas, saptarishi, saptadhatu... the more I look, the more I find important things associated with seven.

Pan Nalin pg 10 |

Photographed by Rohan Thakur Swaroop Roy 02 Neha Lad 24 Naman Shah 30 Sachin Samson 36 Suchitra Ravichandran 42 Ishita Singh 48 Manika Nanda 56 S Balaram 62

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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.

And now Pool is seven years old...84 issues! Not a new design magazine anymore, it has matured, settled into its editorial stance, and has a certain maturity to its visual language. Of some repute, the magazine has influenced and educated a generation of designers in these seven years.

It is a good milestone to be at.

But seven seems incomplete; it looks like there is some more distance to go, we at Pool are excited and looking forward to the coming times. We often stop and imagine how they will be... will design take center stage in our life; will our government finally understand the impact design has on lifestyle; will designers grow up and take their social responsibilities; will professionals band together to create a spark; will designers become more important?

Looking forward to the next seven years!

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

Endorsed by

Sudhir

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1

TRANSPORT

Transportation designer Swaroop Roy gave up exciting opportunities with auto majors to pursue an equally fulfilling career in academics

2 POOL #84

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COVER STORY

The

On the sets of ‘Beyond The Known World’ 10 POOL #84

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TEXTILE

A fervent supporter of Indian handloom and the artisans who create it, Neha Lad is currently using her textile design background in the automotive domain

How did you become passionate about handloom?

NL: As a part of my student years at NID we had a module called ‘Craft Training’ for which we had to select a craft and a region of our choice, and find a crafts person or an organization who could teach us the basics of this handcraft. The explorer in me wanted to use this as an opportunity to travel and explore places I had never been to and meet people from completely diverse backgrounds. The slowly dying craft of making footwear out of hemp fiber yarns - pula chappals - in the Kullu region of Himachal Pradesh caught my attention. Essentially, this craft entailed a technique of interlacing hand spun hemp yarns to form a strong base for the footwear.

Soon after this first step into the craft sector I realized that I derive immense joy from traveling and meeting people (specifically artisans) from diverse cultural backgrounds who are absolutely selfless while sharing their precious skills with you. For me, it was all about the people and experiences. Good work and collaboration always followed! I gravitated towards handloom over all other crafts because of my fascination for structure, texture and mathematics (weaving is all about numbers)! Also, no matter how much you try to visualize the result of your design on paper it always has an element of surprise and unpredictability!

Tell us a little about your journey in design.

NL: NID introduced me to the strong basics of design, functionality and technical expertise. My time at the Royal College of Arts, London, where I pursued a Master 24 POOL #84

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FOOTWEAR

‘Cuero – Handcrafted Luxury’ was born out of Naman Shah’s desire to change the way Indian men look at a pair of shoes

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All photographs by: Rohan Desai & Naman Shah

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ILLUSTRATOR

Versatile visual artist Sachin Samson could have been an animator but realized that it was easier, and far quicker, to tell stories through illustrations

The art of adding color My style is defined by the details and chaos that I add to my illustrations. I would call my style dystopian surrealism...mostly black and white with some colors here and there. My favorite part is the process. When I paint I like to leave a lot of room for experimentation, for spontaneity, for instincts… the colorful elements aren’t planned. When you draw a line it describes a space and when you draw two lines together it creates a form…when it becomes a whole network of lines it becomes even more complex, and then when you add color to it, it becomes something that can take you to a new place.

The lure of illustration I started drawing and painting with my father at an early age. Growing up in Kerala I was always surrounded by art and design. When I joined Maeer’s MIT Institute of Design in Pune, my parents were very supportive. I was very confused in the beginning about what discipline to get into. After the foundation course I realized that I love the act of drawing and creating, especially a story that is personal or if it’s something that I haven’t done before! Keeping this in mind I decided to learn animation design in college. The animation course improved my sketching and storytelling skills a lot, but later I realized that animating a story is a very time consuming medium. It can take you months to make a short film! Then I focused on illustrations because that was a convenient medium to convey a message or tell a story within a short time. For me story telling is absolutely everything.

36 POOL #84

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JEWELRY

Much more than mud Suchitra Ravichandran’s Scorched Earth provides a livelihood for disadvantaged women, who help transform riverbed clay into beautiful pieces of wearable terracotta art Where can you trace your passion for terracotta?

SR: I’ve been fascinated by clay as far as I can remember.

As a child growing up in Mumbai, I would wait for the Ganpati festival every year, when impromptu workshops selling idols would crop up everywhere. A few men would be making smaller idols with clay, and I would make it a point of tarrying there on my way back from school. The raw clay was not for sale, so it was no less than a triumph when I could persuade them to sell me a small amount.

This precious sticky lump would keep me occupied for many hours for as long as I could make it last.

As I grew up and academics took over my life, time for such indulgences became limited. As a student at Sir J.J. Captured by: Babitha Yatheeswara College of Architecture in Mumbai, I encountered a potter while taking part in the Malhar festival at St. Xavier’s College. Getting my hands dirty at the wheel triggered an ‘Aha’ moment and I was hooked for life. Unfortunately in those days, studio potters who taught were very few and those who did accept students ran their studios in the far flung suburbs and had timings that were unsuitable for a working professional.

It was in Sydney in 1998, when my first born was about a year and a half old, that my dream finally came true. I had the opportunity to learn pottery and hand building with Pim Hodge, 42 POOL #84

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PHOTOGRAPHY

LIGHTING UP THE LENS Ishita Singh enjoys the adventure of wandering where her camera and peripatetic nature take her even as she tries to balance her pursuit of art with more commercial projects

for VIKKI 48 POOL #84

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FASHION

As Fashion Director of her own label, Manika Nanda is aiming for timeless feminine chic through her creations

What the heart desires Despite having a creative flair, passed on to me from my mother, and a bag full of books with doodles, I enrolled at a prestigious Delhi University college to pursue Psychology Honors. Knowing my love for colors and doodling, my sister persuaded me to go for counseling at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and as luck

Floral Magnetism ‘15-floral peplum blazer with flap trousers

56 POOL #84

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How can education prevent deteriorating values in modern society?

Excerpts from the book ‘Q&A on Education’, S Balaram’s meditative, minimalist, experimental art book that attempts to throw light on a weighty subject through simple questions and answers 62 POOL #84

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