De One studios is known for its funky designs and products; one of which is a clock that goes anti clockwise. Surprised? Meet the brothers who run the business form their terrace! Karthick Chidambaram, an Architecture student was once building a bamboo structure on his terrace. But when this structure was a huge failure, his parents told him to make use of it somehow. So he decided to make boxes for his paints and brushes. Then he decided to paint the boxes with some funky designs. From here there was no looking back. Karthick, helped by his brother Ashwin now makes pencil boxes, hookah pipes, etc. The brothers don’t have a store in Chennai, but people are free to contact them through facebook or give them a call to place their orders. ChillyBilly and Orange Bicycle in Bangalore sell some of their products. Karthick and Ashwin prefer selling their products at exhibitions because it’s faster than stores and they can meet their customers directly. They are also a regular feature at Art N Soul’s Sunday market. They also customized products for the RJ concert. The extremely talented duo who are extremely fond of art, are thinking of expanding their product line to paintings, wall graffiti and photography. His clock, the one that goes anti clockwise is one of the recent additions to his collection.
In conversation with Karthick:
Q: What inspires your designs mainly the clock? A: Our parent’s anniversary came by and we had to gift them something so we decided on the clock, but the normal one was boring. So we did the anti clock. The main inspiration to do things is we are always short of money to buy things, so we make them.
Q: What are the challenges you faces in this product design and how? A: I try overcoming it. Designing a product takes some time. First we come up with an
idea. Making it work/user friendly is the biggest challenge. So when we make something, we make it for ourselves first. We use it for some time, find out the pros and cons and improvise.
Q: What does your brother do, is he also an architecture student? How did the union between you two come into existence? A: Ashwin is a commerce student (doing his ca now).Both of us learnt art from an awesome artist Hariraam. From then on, anything related to art and design we consult/work together
Q: Are there challenges when working with your brother, how do
these agree, disagree and sort out issues? A: Usually our wavelengths match. But when it comes to art, he has his ways of doing things and I have mine so we don’t interfere.
Q: Should all young designers start on their own? Is that the way forward? A: We have just started; I’ll be able to answer that after a few years.
Q: Who is the designer and who is the business person in the team?
A: Both of us design. As of now I take care of the business part also.
Q: What is there future plan for this company? Are there challenges and how do they plan to take it forward? A: We plan on making it a little bigger. We have a marketing guy now so the next step should be to set up a small manufacturing unit next.
Q: What are the products you have till now and what are you working on?
A: We have bongs, boxes, tags, clocks, pen holders, sound boxes, etc. Right now we are working on improvising the products and branding.
Q: Is this something you always wanted to do? A: There was nothing I always wanted to do. Doing this is fun, hence I do them.
Q: Do you have a back-up plan? A: This is the back up. I am an architect.
Q: How are Chennaiites responding to your work? A: The response is awesome and I’m grateful to all the people who like our work.
Q: What are the new products you are introducing? A: It’s a secret!
Q: How has the response been so far? A: The response has been good. A lot of people come to us directly and in the shops, it’s steadily increasing. We are also increasing the number of shops we are supplying to.
Q: How do you market your products? A: Until now it was just Facebook. We should start something more serious very soon.
Q: What are the difficulties you face? A: Nothing much. We are just having fun.
Best Work:
as far as photography :
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=109391670922&set=a.36352480922.68699.515180922&theater
“This is one picture of a series I made. I worked with a French photographer in Auroville , who was just amazing. He’s in his 70's. and we got the idea of movement photography...or capturing a series of actions in a single photo , like capturing time. So we worked on it for about 4 days to get these results. and these are direct from cam pictures. No Photoshop or computer manipulation.
Paintings
I meditate and stuff like that. So this is just how I feel about the existence.
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