A panel of top designers sat down to discuss the biggest challenges they face for an insightful piece on Creative Bloq. The result was a 14-point long-list that included the constant struggle to stay relevant, staying true to design fundamentals, acquiring (and mastering) many skills driven by technology and finding the right clients. “Communication,” a graphic designer friend of mine adds, “is still a struggle.” A new space in Delhi’s new-favourite hub, Dhan Mill Compound, addresses some of these universal problems while making room for innovation, growth, and creativity, in India’s design landscape.
Founded by friends, designers, and travel companions Adishree Singh, Anuradha Thirani and Richa Sinha, AGENC’s purpose is to encourage like-minded individuals to connect, collaborate and create effective content together. Parsons’ graduates, they believe that their education formed the core values of their relationship, and their company that is right at the confluence of design and entrepreneurship. Today, AGENC offers a range of creative services that emphasise on quality, through its online and offline platforms. The big picture? AGENC hopes to develop an ecosystem that nurtures creation with a curated network of this generation’s finest creatives personalities across disciplines.
Perhaps a first-hand, offline experience of the many ways in which AGENC is simplifying designers’ and clients’ lives was almost serendipitous. Instead of launching offline, which is what the founders originally hoped to do, AGENC launched on April 8 with ‘Monochrome’, a two-day immersive experience that merges the worlds of black and white through art, music and design. The weekend launch saw art showcased by various designers and illustrators, a virtual reality (VR) workshop, film screening of ‘Reforest India’, a DJ workshop, and various live sets by musicians on both days – and the beginning of AGENC CoLab, an interdisciplinary hybrid studio that serves as platform to create content, showcase work and learn in a collaborative environment.
AGENCE CoLab is a workspace during the day that moonlights as a venue for events that are exclusively curated to facilitate ideation and collaboration with contemporaries across all fields. All three founders believe that a face-to-face is necessary as they’re trying to bridge the big gap in communication. Describing AGENC over a phone call, Adishree and Anuradha tell me that they envision it as “a community of people who are like-minded and open to sharing ideas. We wanted to come up with a space to learn and improve skills, to be inspired. The idea was to see where a conversation can lead you.” And they’re not just talking to designers. “Even as a business, you can come and identify why it’s important to invest in design and art.” All while you have a little bit of fun.
Their desire to start AGENC stemmed from a need to be constantly inspired. “All three of us are close friends and we realised we could work together well when we could brainstorm and help each other out if we were faced with a creative block.” It was also a way of putting faces to the countless, talented Indian designers and creatives that were blowing Instagram up and making them a part of this conversation and narrative. The result is a gorgeous space with a loft-like vibe and lots of light, which is something the founders saw a lot of in New York. The appeal of Dhan Mill compound went far beyond just the physical area–Anuradha tells me that the close proximity to established creatives like Bharat Sikka, Nappa Dori, Motherland and Manish Arora makes the location perfect for a dose of design inspiration.
If you’d like to check it out, we suggest dropping by for their next event. AGENC CoLab is hosting a calligraphy workshop on April 29. After that, they’re focussing on making the world of art history and design a lot more accessible with informative, fun and insightful workshops penned down on their 2018 calendar – all the while trying to revolutionse the way India designs.
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