Offcuts (wood)

Journey of how I started creating simple designs.

I chose offcuts because I wanted to make more. With the memorial garden, which was my first choice, I was making models to have an Impactful garden space. What I missed making was everyday objects. Contrary to memorial garden, offcuts can have an impact in everyday settings.

When I began brainstorming for offcuts, my direction wasn't clear. I like to call it, ill-defined problem. It means I had an unclear problem which led to different paths and different solutions. It is a much confusing method and it made me feel lost.

I chose to pick up things that interests me and began exploring.

I thought of remaking few of my ideas from my early design journey. It was then pointed out to look forward instead of remaking what I have already worked on. while I thought it would be cool to remake some of my older stuff, it made sense to start fresh.

Be Labdhi 2.0

My earlier exploration involved taking inspiration from an animated movie. It was a flooring design that had different flower Imagery on It. In the movie, the flooring would light up when people danced on It. I was fascinated by It and wanted to mimic the same effect with my tiles. That Is when I thought of using thermocromatic pigment to achieve the colour changing effect. For me, the tiles would encourage people to move. It conveys a message to not stay stationary and keep moving. This phenomenon is followed by jain monks where they are always engaged in rituals, spiritual and religious practices. The concept of tiles and connecting it to Jainism was too far fetched. It was heavily influenced by the movie and my liking towards it. I continued to explore tiles until I realised I was in a wrong direction.

I tried mixing the thermocromatic pigment with different colours. It didn't work.

I tried Incorporating the artistry of temples. I brainstormed and tried wood carving.

I then started exploring how I could incorporate concepts of Jainism in household objects. I narrowed down the most common symbols in Jainism and tried to incorporate those in lighting products like a lamp.

The idea was to make a calming night lamp with 14 dream symbols that every mother of a Tirthankar (omniscient beings) sees. the symbols and Its meanings acts as a reminder to embody those qualities In oneself. each circular disc would have symbol in front and its meaning in the back. user could rotate the disc while also controlling the amount of light coming out.

Problems: The symbols wouldn't be much visible because of the direction of light. The design was a little complicated and too direct. This was the point where I just couldn't figure out how to incorporate Jainism in design.

I was working within the contraints of my fear of what would be religiously acceptable. I was limiting myself. I didn't know this until I showed the idea in a meeting and I could hear the doubt in my voice as I was explaining it. I knew I was overcomplicating and overthinking a lot. Not just in my academics but in my personal life too.

It was then pointed out to me that it seems like I am on a wrong path. I agreed. I felt Jainism was limiting me instead of empowering my design. I was reminded the kind of a designer I am. I love simplicity. I love clever designs that are easy on the eyes and mind. I love earthy designs.

It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple.

Steve Jobs

Good design is as little design as possible

Dieter Rams

The highlight for me was to simplify my designs. How can I simplify this design further? For the next few days I tried a new approach to get out of a stuck place. I began to simplify everything I came up with. I kept simplifying until there was a point where I couldn't simplify it further. My goal was to reach a point where I was out of my head, where I wasn't overthinking and overcomplicating a design. I was consciously following the same mentality in other areas of my life too. Simultaneously, I gave myself enough time to simplify my life first as how I was in my life was getting projected on my academics.

I started making small changes In my personal life. Similarly, In my work life too.

One thing that helped me was to break down the product I am visualising. I tried to remove the unnecessary elements. I started to question the most basic structures and if certain basic elements where even necessary? This needs to be done in every stage of making. The initial structure after the removal of unnecessary elements may still not be the most simple or clean form. I found constantly reminding myself and evaluating at every stage to be helpful. It also meant that my designs were changing as I was progressing.

I started to look at Jainism as a way of living rather than a religion. This simple change in perspective helped me to focus on core principles rather than strict compliance and rules made by people. It helped me to think more openly.