Design Takes Over the City with the First Edition of Bengaluru ByDesign

Bengaluru ByDesign celebrated its first edition with an inspiring programme of installations, workshops, talks, screenings, design pop-ups and more which saw the city transform throughout 23 Nov - 2 Dec. Bengaluru ByDesign is a democratic festival for the local and general visitors, along with the design industry engaging over 200,000 individual visitors. The Festival highlighted India’s design talent whilst it also functioned as a platform for global creative dialogue, featuring a strong participation from design professionals from across the world. This year’s Festival covered three key themes: Design & Public, Design & Education and Design & Business and celebrated creativity, encouraged design thinking and explored the innovations in design today.

“Bengaluru ByDesign aims to bring together designers from across the globe and demonstrate the city as a powerhouse for the creative industries to come together. Design Weeks globally are a hugely valuable platform as they enable economic diversity and development as well as increase public awareness and appreciation of all aspects of design, whilst fostering recognition of the vital role design plays in our lives. With Bengaluru ByDesign, we aim to create a platform for design stories to be told. Each of them talks to an expanding audience hungry for design ideas and enjoying the quality and diversity of what’s to offer. “ Suprita Moorthy, Founder, Bengaluru ByDesign

“For the first edition of Bengaluru ByDesign, the focus on impacting the public was well received through public installations. At the same time collaborations with design universities and corporates such as TVS, VU Technologies, Titan, Asian Paints and WeWork was interwoven in our programme seamlessly, benefiting each one of them. ” Priyanka Shah-Bhandary, Co-Founder, Bengaluru ByDesign

The Festival aims to foster innovation, creativity within the community, with a core objective of changing public perceptions of design through experience. Multiple key landmarks across the city were activated with 7 public installations including Karolina Merska’s Pajaki Chandelier made out of local flowers titled A Little Paper, A Little Poland, Bluecat Paper’s Stop & Stair - Unchained Symphony: Birds covering the staircase at UB City with handmade paper make out of cotton, 20+18 Chair Project showcasing one functional object with multiple interpretations featuring process, material, form, quality and time, A Different Point of VU by VU Televisions aim to open a dialogue on the role of technology plays in our lives and Tales of Indigo by Asian Paints gave viewers a unique insight into the story and history of the colour - Indigo. Other public installations included Green is the Colour by Total Environment at St. Marks, Bengaluru. This installation formed a twisted arch made of metal and jute covered with baby spinach plants creating the appearance of a continuously twisting green ribbon and When Buildings Come Alive, where Townhall Bengaluru was wrapped with warps and wefts with the exquisite weaves from Aadyam Handwoven’s collection creating a disruptive sight capturing the public’s imagination. 

India’s largest design conference, India Design Forum (IDF) was one of the key highlights of the Festival who featured global thought leaders and practitioners of technology, innovation, and design, to Bengaluru for the first time. Exploring the topic Disruptive Design this year's theme discussed how cutting-edge innovation and technology is creating lifestyle changes universally. From what we wear, the way we consume information, how we engage with our environment; to how we live is changing rapidly with disruptive businesses and products.

Key highlights of the IDF included sessions by Jay Kothari, Project Lead, X- The Moonshot Factory, USA and Sanjay Poddar, Project Lead, Accenture Labs on collaborative innovation. Chris Solarski, Swiss Game Designer and Biren Ghose, Country Head for India at Technicolor discussed how emergent technologies seen in gaming and experiential media shape and interrogate our relationships with reality, and help to solve real-world issues. Steve Lidbury,  Managing Principal,  Eight Inc. talked about designing for the experience economy: how today's consumer is more concerned with experiences and transformations than goods and services. This is forcing designers and brands to tear up the rulebook and rethink their strategies. The internationally-acclaimed Graphic and Type Designer, Shiva Nallaperumal talked about the way he uses his work to disrupt expected norms, the power of graphics and typography to be subversive.

“IDF2018 @Bengaluru has been a great success for us. Our USP has always been our curation and the topics were relevant to the current debates on technology interventions, Design education, craft in modern luxury retail, designing for the Millennials and sustainable practices in architecture. IDF2018@Bengaluru is a huge success with a riveted audience and highly inspiring Speakers. Congratulations to BBD for an amazing city-wide celebration of events and installations, we will be back next year!” Rajshree Pathy, Founder, India Design Forum

Sanjay Garg, Founder, Raw Mango, talked about contemporising fashion traditions and breaking away from the established industry structures such as fashion weeks and runway shows. Maximiliano Modesti,  the French-born  Founder of Les Ateliers 2M, the Indian embroidery partner for major international luxury brands such as Hermes, Isabel Marant, and Chanel, spoke about changing perceptions of craft and of making in India. Gautam Vazirani, Curator, Lakme Fashion Week  and  IMG Reliance, was in conversation with  Parvinder Marwaha, Design Program Manager for the  British Council, UK, on craft in a world of rapidly evolving technology and the visual mediums being used to pass down these stories - showcasing projects with Storyloom Films for the global Crafting Futures campaign. Kamal Sagar, founder of the architecture and building firm Total Environment talked about 'big city life' and the design innovations that will change our urban environments to make cities safer, cleaner, and more livable. Rahul Mishra, spoke about the need for innovation in the production and consumption of fashion.

Other pioneering design industry influencers and practitioners speaking at IDF Bengaluru include Malika Verma Kashyap, Border&Fall;  Brian Parkes, CEO, Jamfactory, Australia; Jahnvi Dameron Nandan, The Perfume Library;  Revathi Kant, Chief Design Officer, Titan; Bandeep Singh, Photo Editor, Fortune India; and Abhimanyu Nohwar, Founder-Director, KibaDesign.

Bengaluru ByDesign featured three design districts in the city by activating design events at Whitefield, Electronic City and Yalahanka, that played host to various events. At the Electronic City, building on the Festival’s ongoing ambition to promote design thinking within the region, the Design Day at Titan was received with critical engagement and debate reinforcing the platform at the Festival as a vital forum for discussion within the region and globally. Notable speakers, sharing an array of engaging themes, included Antony Parham, Creative Director, FITCH spoke about Designing For Future. Ravi Bhogu, Founder and CEO, Monitra Healthcare, Anshuman Singh, Founder, ReTiSense and Abhishek Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Goqii discussed The Future Of Wearable Technology moderated by Somprabh Singh, Business Head, Titan - Wearables and P.A.D. and companies including Under 25, ToneTag and Banyan Nation covered the topics on Ideas that Shake the World. 

Yelahanka ByDesign featured workshops for students at Srishti School of Art Design & Technology. Srishti also played host to the Contemporary Japanese poster exhibition featuring 15 key graphic designers from Japan showcasing their works created between 1986 - 1991, a period in Japan known as the Bubble Economy. The creation of these posters which were then made for international meetings and expositions was influenced by an increase in awareness towards environmental problems as signs of globalization started becoming visible.

To make design inclusive, educational and accessible, other activations around the city included  Museum of Everything curated by Sarayu Hegde, Founder, Bombay Attic, and Virja Shah, Founder, Kit and Caboodle focusing on Indian contemporary alternate fashion, ethical clothing for sustainable living and lifestyle products. TVS and Bengaluru ByDesign launched a Design Challenge wherein students and young professionals were invited to render colour and graphics to TVS Apache RR 310 and TVS NTORQ 125. Total Environment in collaboration with the Festival conducted their annual event, Think Design at Whitefield, Bengaluru and focused on their large residential projects along with showcasing their capabilities in design, food & sustainability.

A series of events and workshops were curated with Workbench Projects and Wework to engage and educate the audience on Design & Making and included an object shop, design documentaries, Origami, Pajaki, lighting design, 3D printing and laser cutting workshops conducted by industry experts. Chris Solarski, Swiss artist-game designer and author,  conducted workshops with Industry specialists like Technicolor and other gaming companies and introduced the magic of Gaming Art & Design to a general audience at their Whitefield campus. 

The Festival was in collaboration with TVS, Progress Partner, Asian Paints, Colour Partner and WeWork, Productivity Partner.  Titan, Total Environment, VR Bengaluru, Technicolor and Shrishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology have come on board as Design District Partners. Workbench Projects, The Swissnex India, The Polish Institut New Delhi, Institut français en Inde, The Japan Foundation, Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan are the Content Partners and Anant National University, the Education Partner. The Festival is supported by VU Technologies, Aadyam, Aditya Birla Group, Nicobar, Hospitality partner Oakwood & Logistics Partner: Star Worldwide.