Abhijit Bansod is a quirky designer whose products connect deeply with the user by telling vivid stories, by overlaying the familiar with the new and surprising. He believes in celebrating creativity that combines fragments of Indian tradition with cutting-edge technology, and fuse cultural motifs with new age thinking. Propelled by humour, craft, rituals, people, situations and Indian heritage, he creates products that speak a unique language - an Indian design vocabulary. Studio ABD, a multi disciplinary design studio works on design experience services (product, branding and spaces) for clients and creates and markets their own products.

Abhijit Bansod, a NID postgraduate, has been part of the new age design movement in India. His creations have won him many national and international awards, including the RED DOT DESIGN AWARD 2010 and Best Designer Award in 2008.

www.studioabd.in

Medhavi is the founder of happy hands foundation. Happy Hands works to revive Indian art, crafts and culture, and works with low income groups to empower them for a sustainable life. They work in more than 12 states of India and in urban sectors. Happy Hands foundation works with young people on community projects to sensitize the youngsters to those issues that are neglected in our society. Through numerous workshops and exchanges held between the artisan and young people we promote traditional/ethnic arts and create art pieces which confer to the contemporary tastes. Recently, Happy Hands started ‘The People’s Project’ which brings people together to participate and interact with the arts to talk about a variety of issues/causes and in the process create Art Installations across cities.

www.happyhands.in / www.people.happyhands.in

Abin Chaudhuri founded Abin Design Studio (ADS) in October 2005. ADS is among the few young enthusiastic design studios that aims to create a universal dialect of “responsible architecture” and to create ‘biophilic spaces’ that respond to the changing socio-cultural, economic and environmental traits.  ADS also renders comprehensive design and management solutions in interior, industrial, graphics and signage design.

Completed projects of ADS have earned them numerous accolades and have been published in several international and national magazines over these five years.

www.abindesignstudio.com

Ayush Kasliwal is the founder of Ayush Kasliwal Design. The business is organised as an association of related noncompeting modules that work as revenue streams. These share essential service units which provide the infrastructure support. The latest venture in this direction is AKMD based in Chicago, where Ayush has partnered with Michael Dreeben to take high quality design and production to the US market and exhibited in ICFF.

www.akfdstudio.com

Himanshu Dogra is the founder of Play Clan. Play Clan combines fashion, art and design to create collections in home, apparel, gifts and stationery, inspired by vibrant colors and local culture. Play Clan celebrates life in India and reflects the energy and inspiration taken from the people of modern India and everyday observations.

With prestigious collaborations with Sir Paul Smith, Absolut, Levi's Strauss and India Fashion Week, Play Clan is currently working with the Mehrangarh Museum Trust to develop and commissioned line of products based on The Jodhpur Heritage.

www.theplayclan.com

Pranav Sabharwal is the founder of Loco-motive Design Company, a design consultancy specializing in accessory design, product design, packaging, communication design and branding. Loco Motive designs are aimed at helping brands connect better with customers and putting products in the market that are relevant, clutter breaking and saleable. As a third party solutions provider, they are able to bring newer ideas and fresh perspective as well as devote time and energy to a lot of aspects that their clients may not have the resources for.

be.net/loco-motive

Sourabh Gupta is the manager director of Archohm Consults. Archohm offers consultation for architectural, urban, interiors, landscape and product design. With a great interest in cross cultural dialogue, it has now established offices in the Middle East as well.  Sourabh is also a co-founder of Zolijns, a lifestyle product store where designs from India and Europe are manufactured in Europe and made available to the Indian market. In his quest to increase the design quotient of the country, Archohm now aims to build a much needed design village in the country by partnering with the premier design schools of the world.

www.archohm.com