Saturday, May 18, 2013

Inbam @Varnam

My love for Varnam and its products are undefinable. Varnam comes with its new range of accessories for women from Women,doesn't it sound interesting and at the same time loving!
This product range is called Inbam!I hope all of you will make it and i am sure Karthik is going heights!
INBAM means 'happiness' in tamil. And that is exactly what VARNAM's new range aims to do. may 31st-june 1st. Preview-n-Sale ! 
the ANTS Store, Indira Nagar, Bangalore -08







All images credits:Varnam,KArthik VAidyanathan

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Smoke house Deli @ Khan Market

I still remember the day we went to the Smoke House deli. It was a working day and Monday. The children  didn't accompany us this time. This was one of the few times that we went without  them. We  wanted to have breakfast and talk at a  secluded place and this seemed to be the best option in town. Already Fb, newspapers  and Design 2013 have had their fair shares of the  Design and illustrations being done at Smoke House.

Plain white walls and the illustrations in black permanent maker. But in between yes, we did see red bougainvillea flowers on their terrace walls and that made us fall in love with them. Mirza Ghalib's verses in English and the amazing Lodhi garden on one of the walls, their white iron chairs and the patterns of the tiles. There's so much more on the walls, definitely you need to see it to believe it. They have  embedded tons of information nuggets, stories and layers within these walls and invite you to find them all!

This is an excerpt from the site of Smoke House Deli:




"The nostalgia of 1960s Delhi meets light, happy Deli.

And here's how we did it: Inspired by the history of Khan Market and its pride of place in the nostalgia of anyone that grew up in Central Delhi, we picked history, reminiscence and culture as central themes for the space.

Within that overall theme, our visual and story references spanned life in 1960s Khan Market and Central Delhi, as well as the general history and humanistic culture of Delhi, while remaining within the overall Deli visual language. Khan Market in the 60s presents a delicious look at a slice of life in Central Delhi when a curious mix of Punjabi aesthetic from pre-partition roots mashed with neo-Colonial aspirations: when products and objects were different and described a very different kind and pace of life, when homes were connected and neighbourhoods were family.

These stories were then brought together into a format befitting a modern European Deli and hand-drawn directly onto the walls. Each line, every surface. No stencils, no pre-printed wallpapers. We thought through and questioned the connect with every object, each architectural and wallpaper pattern detail, each poster, book, music cassette etc. while including diverse elements ranging from geometric art-deco/neo-classical inspired wallpapers, cornice details, retro objects and sculptures, to highly detailed foliage, birds and portraits, to several hand-drawn lettering styles".

Kriti Monga and her associates spin magic and tales at the Smoke House Deli. These illustrations were stencilled or a printed wallpaper on the walls of Smoke House Khan Market.

Here's how they did it, : regular black permanent marker + freehand drawings directly on the walls (and other objects). Each line, every surface.Kerosene oil for erasing.


beautifully calligraphed 

the flight of steps above



calligraphed interiors


its enchanting


lodhi garden on walls




loved the cat and those grills
the details

as you walk up the stairs




the details


the upper floor


the mango tree on the walls


beautiful setting


the setting on the terrace


bougainvillea in bloom




loved the floor


shadows on floors




inside outside


all in a frame

the jamaican coffee after the breakfast


(images by Lakshmi Arvind)

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Kriti Monga@ Turmeric Design


Kriti Monga  a brilliant illustrator.I sort of bumped in to her work in the commissioned travel dairies for Calcutta which she worked for the Rollcallroll event. Kriti's works are etheral. I love her amazing calligraphy.With her calligraphy and illustrations she loves to draw stories.No wonder she was asked to make travel dairies of Calcutta,she is born to make travel dairies and has almost made of every place she has visited and brilliant is the word to it. She runs the design studio named "Turmeric Design" in Delhi.

As Kriti quotes"For every spark of brilliance you see in an artist's work, there were a hundred sleepless nights they spent setting themselves on fire"yes its the perseverance and love towards art,travel,illustration and calligraphy that takes you to places Kriti.

There's so much of creativity that she's has been featured on Verve,Creative Review,Platform Magazine blog,M magazine,Elle India and the Pool magazine.She was also a part of the Design Yatra 2011.Recently she had been in news of illustrating the walls of Smoke House Deli at the Khan market and Hauzkhas.(More on that later).To see her brilliance in person,i visited Smoke House Deli at Khan Market.See it in the next post.





her travel diary made into a book ,some years back






travel to bhuj




some blockprints

travel to fort kochi


her travels to Paris







travels to SriLanka








travels to Goa



dairies of train travels

diaries of Bengal..

Images:Courtesy Kriti Monga@Turmeric Design