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Design is often treated as merely an aesthetic category far removed from plebian thoughts and engagements. All the more, Indian design, instead of setting a precedent towards innovation and community engagement, often resorts to taking inspiration from more occidental ideas of design. Even though that is not necessarily a bad thing and can actually contribute to the flow of intercultural exchanges, there is sometimes, a need to shift the gaze because there is a lot left to be discovered locally as well. The same becomes even more pertinent in the light of the fact that global gaze does not always apply to regional specifics.
“The history of design in the country has often been placed into a euro-centric framework, and demarcated into the strict categories of ‘good design’ and ‘bad design’. With the exception of a few key, contemporary incidents, ‘design’ is viewed as an imported ideal, as opposed to one that involves problem-solving measures. ... Even the design movements we learn about in design schools tend to revolve around the Bauhaus,” says Kevin Angelus, whose budding venture, Indian Ephemera started this year (2020) as an extension of his own curiosity for a kind of design rooted in the very fabric of community life in India. The initiative also tries to explain what design is, and can potentially be, as opposed to something purely visual or ‘beautiful’.
The project is an attempt to bridge the gap between the so-called ‘good design’ (read: formally educated) and ‘bad design’ (read: not formally trained) – two fledgeling categories that have been inspired by western ideas of design, and has lesser compatibility with the grassroots reality of India. Indian Ephemera aims to find a middle ground to create designs that are closer to our history and appeals to our sense of nostalgia and imagination.
“Indian Ephemera having one foot in the accepted euro-centric design canon, and another in the more visceral design sensibilities of popular imagination in India,” says Kevin, “is trying to pull off a balancing act in terms of staying true to our roots, whilst gleaning insights around designing from the grassroots.”
In doing so, Indian Ephemera makes an attempt to make design inclusive by appropriating it as a reflection of our roots – the very place from where we draw our visual vocabularies. As a result, one is able to draw on the myriad layers of their own identity, which are a direct creation of the visuals they see around themselves. The indigenous designs of cultures and communities, therefore, become the amalgamation of influences throughout the history of the region.
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