Industree Crafts Foundation, Sandhi Craft Foundation and Home Solutions Retail India Ltd wanted to bring handcrafted products into the mainstream market through ‘Hands of India’ brand. So, I had to develop a range of home accessories, simple accent furniture and other product lines in keeping with the production capacity of the producer groups or artisan guilds.

The methodology ranged from handicrafts cluster identification, crafts mapping, studying the home system requirements, identifying different market ends, know-how of Big-Bazaar / Industree price points, supply chain in this sector, followed by NGO identification for product development and finally prototyping. A sound study of the retail sector was mandatory to gauge what Indians are comfortable with and what they expect the market to serve them.

The short listed crafts were as follows: Sankheda lacquered wooden furniture, Sankheda, Gujarat; Woodcarving from Srikalahasti, Andhra Pradesh; Meenakari metal craft, Udaipur, Rajastan; Madhubani and Warli folk paintings from Bihar and Maharashtra.

I had to understand the interplay of economic, ecological, cultural, and ethical dimensions in the ‘sustainability sphere.’ Design interventions were done wherever appropriate, for e.g. Meenakari was introduced as a panelling element on dark wood furniture, a concept never thought of in that sphere.

Never did the ethics of a designer take a back seat; behind all of this was a strong thought i.e. “These are real people we are dealing with, we need to be practical and if they have anything that can be bartered for their own sustainability, then why not.”