Be careless, reckless! Be a lion, be a pirate!

Designdaku-team_web

This quote by Brenda Ueland inspires the dakus. You ask the three “Dakus” Sahil, Prabhat, and Abhishek, how and why did they name themselves unconventionally, pat comes the answer, “Brenda of course!"

We were having an intense brainstorming session after reading her book “If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit,” they add, “We were awestruck by another interesting passage, which read if you have to leave behind something original, you will have to be willing to be careless to be reckless. You can’t be careful; you have to be a pirate! This completely blew our minds away and we decided to name ourselves designdaku.”

But hang on, if you think pirates don’t have rules, they definitely do! They have four rules to go by:

Rule #1: Strive to make things simple. Design it to a level where it cannot be made any simpler.

Rule #2: Story is very important. To create experiences, there must be a story.

Rule #3: Maintain extremely high level of craftsmanship.

Rule #4: Have fun in whatever you do.

So when did it all start?

Sahil and Prabhat studied industrial design at Industrial Design Center (IDC), IIT. However, Sahil didn’t hang around there to get a degree.

Sahil’s story started when Prof. Anil Sinha of NID was looking for someone who was equally at ease with industrial and graphic design to work on the prestigious Rupee project. He identified Sahil as the one who could shoulder this responsibility. After his stint at NID, Sahil joined a startup called Platypus. There, he designed the products and the company did the marketing.

To know about the second Daku Prabhat, we have to go back a little in time. While Sahil was figuring out the rupee coin, Prabhat was juggling many tasks. He not only working on the product design but also on branding, packaging, animation, and other aspects.

The two met for the first time at IDEA, the product design company in Ahmedabad. It was here that they met third Daku Abhishek, an architect by education, who was working as an industrial designer.

Delving a little bit into Abhishek’s life, we came to know that his career in design started with Honda where he worked as a styling designer. At Honda he was trying to find a way to do mainstream product design. That’s when he joined IDEA.

While working with IDEA, the dakus realized that all the hard work and sweat they were putting in their work was not meant for India. It was for the US market. The patriotic trio was not sure if they wanted to continue further. Their potential was the ability to think and design a product from scratch. They started sketching the map of what they wanted to do.

Abhishek who had moved to Samsung after IDEA to design mobile phones quit his job to joined Sahil and Prabhat to start designdaku. So let’s hear from the dakus on how they started the whole journey.

How did you guys go about starting the business?

When we started designdaku, the easiest work that came our way was graphic design, and let me tell you we pretty much sucked at it but we got better.

We are three dabblers and we don’t see ourselves just as product designers. The idea behind designdaku was to create an umbrella that allowed us to do more things. We didn’t want to create a company where all of our time is spent in doing only one thing extremely well. We would rather do many things reasonably well, if not extremely well. All of us didn’t see ourselves specializing in only one discipline. This is the reason why we enjoy working and collaborating on various projects, which are beyond product design.

You should have a strong will to set up a multi-disciplinary design studio. Our first goal was to create a team that could support our idea. We had a fantastic time putting a team together that enjoys doing anything that’s thrown at us. It is amazing to see a fashion designer from NIFT doing cool graphics for a non-fashion client!

How did work start flowing in?

Apeejay Surrendra Group was planning a flagship store for Oxford at the T3 terminal in Delhi airport. The brief from the client was to design a place that is different from any other retail space that we see anywhere else. That turned out to be our first project!

Projects started flowing in from people whom we had worked together with earlier. We started getting more work when clients’ contacts moved to other companies. We also got work from friends and from client referrals.

Till now we have done both of product design, branding and spaces – exhibitions, retail spaces. We have not done any user interface design work because we don’t have a technical team to do that.

How did you manage to learn about business?

We are designers and we had no knowledge about business and management. We are from middle-class families and we had no idea how credit is different from debit. Obviously we were clueless about how a balance sheet looked like! These were challenges we grabbed with open hands and have overcome it over time.

We started by distributing the responsibilities among ourselves on a trial basis. But we were ready to exchange the roles if things didn’t work out. Luckily, we never had to switch roles.

When we started calling and meeting people to pitch our services, we were surprised to know that people already knew about designdaku. We were also surprised by the visibility we got with our Facebook page along with extra-ordinary help from ex-colleagues and friends.

As design is not planned in the product lifecycle, the clients usually realize about its importance late. For us, whenever we interacted with clients, it has been more of a teaching than a design process. Also, we found it quite challenging to approach the clients in Delhi. For them design was all about coloring and beautification process with the help of DTP guys!

We have heard that you guys teach design in schools?

As kids, we didn’t know anything about design. We got to know about design during graduation. When we say design, students think about fashion design. Schools also concentrate on preparing students for IIT or AIIMS, but never design. That’s why we took up responsibility to make students aware about design. In fact, Sahil and Prabhat are actively engaged in teaching design in design schools. One of their interests is also to teach design in primary and secondary school level.

There is a lot of money in the education domain, but that was never the motivator to teach.

Why Delhi?

Prabhat always wanted to move to Delhi, so we decided to move to Delhi. The moment we arrived, we figured out the potential of the city. Delhi, as you may know, is a hub for SMEs and they usually don’t approach large design firms. This turned out to be a big advantage for us.

Even though designdaku started as a design consultancy, but with time we would like to move to products. Our passion lies in products. We would like to design products in various domains: lifestyle lighting solutions, fashion accessories, modified vehicles, or toys and games for students.

For us proximity with clients and vendors makes a huge difference and that also an advantage. When we plan our own range of products, we will have a set of potential vendors to work with.

Why don’t designers make and sell their own products?

Money is a problem, but it’s a lesser problem. The bigger problem is understanding how business works. Its not that designers are not capable of understanding business but they are just not comfortable with it.

Design entrepreneurs have the ability to look at a problem in various perspectives. Designers have a great future if they are willing to become entrepreneurs. The problems of seed money, office space, approaching VCs are slowly getting solved. Things are changing – incubators at NID and IDC are good places to start.

We believe that anything that happens in India happens despite the Government doing anything. Design stands where we as designers want it to be. There is nothing at a design policy level.

How do you approach design?

We look around and we keep our eyes open. Sometime glaring light gives us insights. Inspiration comes from everywhere.

Where do you see yourself 10 years down the line?

In 10 years we will be very rich. We will not consult unless clients come and ask us to do projects.

We would like to see a common man know about us by using a few products that we have designed for their day to day life.

Do you idolize any firms? Who is your favorite?

We do not idolize any firms, but we like a lot of firms. We really like work done by Fukasawa Naoto and Droog Design.

We also like a small type foundry and graphic design studio called Studio on Fire. They do very impressive work in letterpress printing.

Do like anyone from India?

To be very honest, there are very few. The only one we can think of is Satyendra Pakhale, but he doesn’t come from India.

We look up to Charles Correa and Christopher Charles Benninger for their work. We also like Manish Arora and Anuj Sharma in Fashion Industry. But in mainstream product design, we can’t think of any one.

What do you think of the quality of work of designers in India?

We have seen lots of portfolios and largely we have been disappointed. Bigger names like NID and IDC have been consistently disappointing. On the other hand, we are impressed with students from Shristi, Bangalore. They are more inclined towards entrepreneurship. They are more prepared to try out new things.

We too were disappointing as students, but we want to employ people who can add value, and that’s missing.

Is there any message for design students?

Students must have faith in their projects. There are many projects students complete each year. Projects just lie as reports and students leave it there. We would like to see students take these products and detail them.

We would like design institutes to encourage the students to take up these products and ensure they reach the market.

JAM (just a minute…)

What is the best moment of the day at designdaku?

First designer who enters the studio gets to play the music of his/her style for all the day.

If there were one person for whom you would like to design a thing. Who is the person and what would you design?

A motorcycle for Massimo Tamburini. His bikes are beautiful. But I would like him to go and buy a bike that’s designed by us.

One word that would define your style?

Every work is different. There is no designdaku style. And we are not particularly happy with having a style.

As a designer, one thing that you would like to change in the present system?

Corruption and we don’t know how.

If you were an animated character, which one would it be?

We already have a character for designdaku. We would like to see how animators interpret designdaku. We all like Abhishek Singh’s work and would love to see how he will design a character for us.

If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?

Games Dakus Play!

What are you afraid of regarding the future?

There is nothing to be afraid of. But maybe its the cosmic scheme of things, it’s a creative person’s fear. When you’re gone, your thoughts go with you. How do you differentiate yourself from other designers?

What are the challenges you face in the present context?

Meeting everyone’s salaries at the end of month is the biggest challenge that we are facing right now.

One aspect of design you give the highest priority to?

Empathy. It’s the biggest tool in the designer’s toolbox. To be able to put yourself in someone’s shoes to understand and design.

One design-related book you highly recommend to read?

The art of looking sideways by Alan Fletcher. Its definitely recommended.

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