On September 22 at the Old Truman Brewery in east London, India will be the first guest country invited to the 2016 London Design Fair (LDF), the 10-year-old prestigious international meet that celebrates innovations in design. Nearly 10 designers are showcasing their India-centric work at this exhibition, titled “This is India”, that is supported by e-commerce retailer indelust. Their work has been fashioned by inspiration from street corners, markets, board games, people and faces, anger and love. The city is currently abuzz with design carnivals such as the London Design Biennale and the London Design Festival, and India is making its presence felt. While Rajshree Pathy’s India Design Forum has connected with the idea of the chakras as an evolution of the inner self and perfection, the India Design Platform takes forward the culture of recycling. Indian design has walked a long way since the 1950s, when an exhibition titled ‘Textile and Ornamental Arts of India’ opened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), curated by Charles and Ray Eames, designed by architect Alexander Girard and organised by Edgar Kaufmann Jr, the director of industrial design at MoMA. While it introduced the world to India’s rich heritage, there was a definitive divide between fine art, craft and design. Design was divorced of industry, looked at as something done in the villages, which garnered respect following the Swadeshi movement. It wouldn’t be until Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru saw the power of design as a catalyst and believed that “something good and new will emerge” from this that design would get a serious makeover in India. Nehru invited the Eameses to prepare a report on the future of Indian design. The India Report 1958 is a scripture every designer in India has read. Ashoke Chatterjee, former executive director, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, in his article “Design in India: The Experience of Transition” in Design Issues (2005) says, “Government officials were expecting a feasibility report. What they got was an extraordinary statement of design, as a value system, an attitude that could discern the strengths and limitations of both tradition and modernity.” At LDF, it is this value system that these designers capture. If Sanket Avlani of Taxi Fabric uses the power of design to communicate issues of women rights and road safety through graphics in Mumbai’s taxis, Chinar Farooqui honours forgotten weaves of trade between Africa and India. Inspired by the word ‘Kalabari’ that people of Nigeria gave to the Madras plaid fabric, Injiri, Farooqui’s design label, combines techniques of selvedge, borders and textures allowing patterns to form. “For me, beauty is in the processes of creating a piece of textile; the textile must tell its own story. Its beauty is in the aesthetics traditional people have been dealing with, within limited resources. What initially inspired me for my homeware, were the textiles of the Rebari community of Kutch, Gujarat. I find it overwhelming to see the stark whites with graphic elements of just black in the borders; those textiles are classics for me,” she says. Bangalore-based Michael Foley, Founder, Foley Designs speaks of divergent influences defining the Indian perspective. “We are still a culture that is rooted in tradition yet embrace change quite openly. We thrive on diversity of expression, and may be that will play catalyst in bringing greater momentum to design in India.” Spandana Gopal, founder and creative director of Tiipoi, a London-based studio that promotes design concepts and manufacturing in India, has co-curated the show with Jimmy MacDonald, founder-director, LDF. “My challenge in this project was to reveal that design in India does not exist in isolation, but is part of a larger ecosystem of creation. I want to show that although India’s exports to the West is of standardised designs, India’s domestic consumption is actually about one-off pieces, bespoke, having a relationship with the person making the piece for the customer — be it is furniture, architecture or clothing,” says Gopal, of the four-day show. Graphic artist and sculptor Aman Khanna knows a thing or two about staying up close and personal. His “clay men” are a representation of his surroundings and the people he meets. They are faces that share your existential angst. In his designs, one would meet the “introvert” who prefers to stay by himself, shaped thin and lean, taking minimal space on the shelf, or the “loud mouth” which sits with a big ‘o’ in the centre of his face. “I draw from real life observations, experiences and interactions, which compel me to create new characters. Sometimes, I just make a face and then suddenly, I remember a line that I may have read and find a suitable name for it,” says the Delhi-based designer. Industrial and product design has come a long way in the last 10 years, says Aditi Singh. Assistant professor of Industrial Design at School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, Singh says design focus has moved from mass production to user experience. “Today, if start-ups go to a venture capitalist, they are always asked, ‘Do you have a designer onboard?’ Companies have realised that design is that intangible thing that connects the customer to the product,” says Singh. So when Sarah Fotheringham and Maninder Singh of home textiles brand Safomasi visited the wholesale flower market in Delhi, it birthed the “Flower Market Piece”. From the chaiwallahs and ladies stringing marigolds to the stray dogs and details of a Playboy jumper worn by a flower seller, their fabric captured the essence of a memory. At LDF, Safomasi will be showing an oversized scroll, mounted from the ceiling, starting with a single colour at the bottom, while more colours, shapes and details gradually build up to form a full image at the top. Mumbai-based Ajay Shah, known for his Rubberband stationary brand, takes it a scale higher with his metal tables and wire seats. At the Fair, he will also introduce his newest collection of notebooks designed in collaboration with French graphic illustrator Jean Jullien. Jullien is the architect of the peace symbol inspired by the Eiffel Tower after the November 2015 Paris terror attacks. Shah’s design muscle comes from an industrial space, straddling the worlds of handmade and fabrication. “The most commonly understood design in the Indian context is one that borrows from heritage and the love for objects made by hand. But industrial production is embrace worthy, as it can result in an output which is aligned correctly to material, process and finish. Industrial production in India is a case of nudging, convincing and determination, all of which can be gratifying over a course of time,” says Shah, whose furniture doesn’t fight shy of colour and is built to accommodate new age devices. Each of these designers place a premium on craft; their art of everyday speaks quietly of what India has to offer – the confidence to mould a local language for a global audience. It’s minimal, shaped by need and moulded by collaborations with both consumer and craftspeople. “But we still have a long way to go,” says Singh, “The true triumph will be when the designer becomes a facilitator, and brings systems in place such that the craftsperson becomes the designer.” But there is hope in having that unique mix of smart design and accessible technology, says Foley. “Today there is greater faith in innovation stemming out of Indian roots. We are at a threshold of creating a viable eco-system for long-term product development, and I believe product design from India will have a great impact in the future,” he says.
