Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

The designer man

Style act Siddhartha Das and a brochure designed by him

It is not only the Indian film fraternity that has been making waves on the international platform through Slumdog Millionaire. There are others too who have also silently toiled to make India proud. Siddhartha Das is one of them. He has just been conferred The International Young Design Entrepreneur (IYDE) – 2008 Award in London, presented by the British Council. On the occasion, Siddhartha’s utilitarian products such as marble inlay, brass inlay wooden coaster and lacquer-wooden products were shown at the “100 Per Cent Design Festival” in London, regarded as one of Europe’s three main design fairs.

Siddhartha’s biodata, overflowing with his achievements, is in striking contrast to his studio in Safdarjang Enclave with barely any signs of his feat except a few computers and an almirah stacked with brochures, posters, and book covers he has designed. Siddhartha defines himself, “I am a cultural professional. I work through art and design and address developmental issues through it. I design public spaces in and outside India that include heritage sites, museums, exhibitions, integrated signage, posters, publications and souvenirs.” So when you sit on the bench at the Gateway of India, Mumbai, or see those exquisitely carved marble bath tubs, eat in the latest bone china plates with Rajasthan pichhwai inspired lotus creeper motifs, or just happen to read those attractively designed flyers in tourist spots like Jodhpur Fort, they might all be designed by him.

Siddhartha, a DU graduate, went to Italy’s Domus Academy for a course on exhibition and museum design and then to the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Says the 30-year-old, “Design for me is all about utility. My aim is to show how a design can be a problem solver and touch a large section of society.”

Siddhartha has lived in Jodhpur with dyers’ families, learnt block printing, dye and indigo making, went to Ladakh to learn Thangka painting and spent months with Orissa’s craftsmen. “I have worked with 150 craftspersons in seven states,” he shares.

Siddhartha is also the first Asian to design in Haus Zum Kiel Museum Rietberg Zurich, Switzerland, some years ago. A Charles Wallace scholarship awardee, he bemoans the designs of museums and public spaces in India. He says, “Museums here are not interactive but a statement in jingoism. We are sitting on a goldmine of cultural and heritage riches but we don’t know how to make them interactive.”

Siddhartha, the son of artist Jatin Das and writer Varsha Das and brother of Nandita Das, has never capitalised on his lineage. “I make a conscious effort not to work with known people, even my father,” he quips.

His future projects include the design of Khalsa College in Amritsar. His craft-based products under the brand ‘Siddhartha’ are retailed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. “This range will soon be sold at a few leading stores in Paris, Tokyo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai,” he concludes smiling.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail