Giant walls

Love these goofy toys/dolls from Giant walls. Giant Walls is the creation of Rahul and Yadnyee Gaikwad, a husband wife team that is deeply in love with design, colour, creative expression, and all forms of art unconstrained by material or medium. They also are the brains behind Giant Robot, an urban design house engaged in innovative graphic design, conceptual illustration and motion.

Mozez Singh

Mozez Singh’s first design collection is Mughal Pop.  The collection finds its inspiration 

from Mughal art/architecture/designs/motifs. Mozez explores the tradition and heritage of India by giving it a modern, contemporary and vant-garde twist. The utilitarian furniture pieces are made in various delightful colors of acrylic and jeweled with fabulous semi precious stones. This evokes a style more like pop art, but at the same time, the gems add a richness and luster that transports each piece to the royal era of the Mughals. Mughal Pop is a luxe collection of furniture, home accessories and objet d'art.

Tobias Mergerie

Final Cut , a collection of skateboards hand carved in wood by craftspeople from Mahim, Mumbai, is the brainchild of German curator Tobias Megerle. Each piece is one of a kind, probably not very functional but extremely cool. This ones for the collectors! via CNN

Tanvi Arora

Tanvi Arora is a Fashion Jewellery student of London College of Fashion. 

She was inspired by the colourful eccentricities of the circus. 

"“Cirque de Folie” or The Circus of Madness, takes you to a world of drama, mystic and magic.

From playful rabbits to fierce lions, this hand crafted collection of sunglasses are made up of different materials like 18k gold plated Silver, Acrylic, Enamel & Acetate.

The colours used are vibrant blues, pinks, reds, with gold and rose gold."

Kirath Ghundoo

Kirath Ghundoo is a surface designer based out of Northern England. She launched her first wallpaper collection, 'Mix n Match 11' at 100% Design, a design conference, last september. Kirath graduated from Leeds College of Art in 2006 with a 1st Class BA (Hons) in surface pattern and textile design. In January 2011 she went on to graduate from Huddersfield University with an MA in Textiles, scoring a distinction.

Kirath primarily works within a digital format.The wallpaper is a juxtaposition of mercurial pastel hued geometric prints that can be mixed and matched, making it eclectic in styling. The rolls are designed to be applied in a 'drop, cut, paste' technique that make it more sustainable , while limiting wastage. An element of surprise is added in how they can be combined, making it schizo fabulous.

Kirath also designs fashion fabrics, iPhone sleeves , magazines and lampshades to name a few. Her collections are represented worldwide through a number of stockists in Paris, Germany and New Zealand. 

Kya Cheez Hai

The people at Kya Cheez Hai are all about putting the fun into functional .Their first range of Magnets, USBs and paperclips/bookmarks all feature moustaches - an essential of you want to retain any sort of credibility at work. Or not . KCH , is a two people team of designers based out of Bangalore,  who came together to create a range of utilitarian objects that make you smile. Cant wait to see what they do next!

 Grab yours at the MASALA CHAI store in Chennai .

Lokesh Karekar : Locopopo

Lokesh Karekar's artistic skills are nothing short of superb. This J.J. Institute of Applied Arts alumnus knows a thing or two about design. One look at his stylized Indic script illustrations or even the rendering on his desi-hip  brand locopopo, is all you need to be convinced of this fact. In a sublime mix of austere line drawings and intensely hued folksy vectors, you see a glimpse of Karekar's visual identity. When quizzed about what inspires him, Lokesh dutifully pays tribute to his city Mumbai , amongst other things. Click here for an interview.

Available soon at the MASALA CHAI store, Chennai

Kanika Bahl : Anek Designs

Kanika Bahl is a textile designer from NID, Ahmedabad. Kanika recently started 'Anek Designs' from her new home in  Pune.  At Anek you will find  handcrafted home decor accessories and fabric nick knacks designed and crafted by Kanika. These products, though Indian in their essence will sit beautifully in any contemporary home to add that little warmth and colour!


Available soon at the MASALA CHAI store.

Designwallas

Noticed these gorgeous notebooks by Designwallas on my routine trip for book hoarding. I was quite tempted to pick up a few for their luxurious sleeves but they had no unruled notebooks in stock !  Probably a good thing too , considering the giant stack of unused "pretty" notebooks in my room. Check out more of this stylish stationary at their website.

Laid

These sheets are a few years too late! I would have adored them in my adolescent , rebellious years but I still dig the one with the giant skull! MTV along with Portico NY has launched a fabulous home furnishings range , the first of which is Laid. Nice! Get them here.

Doshi Levien

Quirky design couple Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien once again awe and entertain with their first large scale installation titled Myth and Material in New York last month. The installation featured their 'culturally hybrid' products typical to Doshi levien, designed for the Italian brand Moroso. The star of the show was the pebble shaped couch so poignantly named, My Beautiful Backside, the design for which was inspired by a brightly hued miniature painting. Psychedelic graphic cut outs and motifs occupied the walls while rangoli inspired rugs were laid out on the floor. The installation also featured the 'Charpoy' daybeds flanked by cushions covered with vintage embroidery of Indian household staples like chai strainer and sewing kits.

I love their Industrial-meets-Indian style. Their creations constantly blur the lines between design and art. For more , visit www.doshilevien.com.

Haathi Chaap

Haathi chaap is a line of paper based stationery goods made from elephant dung , a one-off idea that originated from founder Mahima Mehra's serendipitous trip to Jaipur. The dung undergoes a tedious process carried out mostly by hand, to finally become paper. It is safe, organic , eco-friendly and handmade. And no it doesn't smell and it has little elephant bum motifs all over it's products. I'm sold, bring on the poop paper!

The Doers

Stale News disposable Coasters

Bright Idea Magnets

The Doers are a mad motley group of designers based in Mumbai who design witty, socially & environmentally conscious products. While they make t-shirts and stickers and what not , it's their smArt products that caught my eye. They also have a dozen blogs , here's one.

Yasmin Sethi

Yasmin Sethi is a product designer from Delhi. She has just graduated from Central St. Martins , London . I was quite intrigued by her ideas , my favourite being the mail-a-plant. I also love the fact that most of her products are eco friendly.

Mail-a-plant was designed in response to a brief about sending a gift through the mail. On opening, the letter folds into a small plant holder containing a porous seed envelope. The daily watering of the plant prolongs the connection between the sender and recipient.The folding is inspired by origami folding.

Both these lamps are made of recycled material. The first lamp is made out of a single piece of moulded paper rope. It is completely biodegradable. The second lamp is made out of shredded office reports woven at the base through a wire frame. The irregular and random arrangement of the shredded paper produces interesting visual effects. The string lamp was feature in Elle Decor , India.

A Chess Set inspired by the novel 'Alice through the Looking Glass' where the pieces magically turn transparent when they touch the board. For more of her brilliant work , visit her website and read about her ideas in detail.