The India Design ID 2014 was about experiencing the essence of décor before indulging in it, says Iknoor Kaur
There is more than just colour that goes onto the walls of your room. There’s more to the chest of drawers you took eight hours to choose. There’s more to that small piece of decoration that took you forever to find and there is definitely more to the mirror on the wall that reflects who you are. There is a lot that goes into building a home, but do the emotions of the homemaker always translate into the décorIJ Maybe not. Probably that’s why the India Design ID 2014 was not about introducing people to new trends in Indian décor, but about letting people experience the emotions that lie behind the décor they choose. Our first step into the exhibit halls was on those lines. We walked into a closed, dark room and there were small dots of light, not in a specific number, but so many of them that they reflected back and forth in the mirrored room we stood in. Between those lights emerged colour palettes. Mauve, orange, crimson, tan, green, blue — the colours kept changing. There was depth in the mirror and the tiny dots of light became tinier as they approached the center. There was no end to them or the colour palettes. They were infinite. This was not an illusion, a mind game or a dream, but an installation called Infinity designed by Asian Paints Colour Next that showed the power of colour to define infinite moments. A representative of the installation, Mohammed Shadab, explained, “This palette of colours is very flowy and after doing our research we realised it is for people who like to innovate and explore. Thus, we created this feeling of infinity for people to experience so that based on how they felt while they were inside that room they could go for a colour from the palette.”
“Unless you experience what the décor will feel like, how can you invest in it,” said Natasha Agarwal from the style team of Elle Décor who walked us through three rooms. The first room was called Feel the Grid and the projections of horizontal and vertical lines intersecting each other to form several grids covered the room. Once we went inside, the grids were on us. The second room was Grid Effect. The room showed the effect of the grid on products through the use of light and shadow. The third room was Experience the Grid. This room was full of products that defined the grid. Every product design was based on the grid. This three-part installation was by Elle Décor and used the grid as a tool to define home décor. According to Agarwal, the installation looked at a world that would use uncluttered and clean furniture. She shared, “One of Elle’s predicted trends of the month was the grid. A lot of people don’t understand what the grid effect is, so we wanted to make them experience it. Thus, the first room made you feel the grid on you. The second room showed you the calmness the grid creates in products around it and the third room finally showed products that define the grid. These were all uncluttered pieces of furniture or utilities that one uses in their day-to-day lives.”
These two exhibitioners were not the only ones that stressed on experiencing the décor. Sunil Sethi’s did that too, in a quirky manner. His installation, Mirror Mirror On The Wall had two mirrors. One read 2014 while the other read 2015. The 2014 mirror gave one the impression to people that they are fat and the 2015 mirror made them look stick thin. According to a representative at the stall, Sethi wanted people to get a feeling of inspiration. “Mirrors reflect a person’s true personality. But it also has the ability to put you down or inspire you. That’s exactly what has been done by Sunil Sethi. How you feel about yourself matters and a mirror on the wall can be your source of inspiration,” he said.
Talking about the increased use of these experiential installations, a visitor at the fair said, “I would usually just go and buy what I thought looked nice but with these installations you actually feel the energy that the decor emanates. It has changed my perspective of interior decoration completely.”
There were interactive installations as well. Two installations that were a part of the Asian Paints Colour Next, were interesting. One of them was called Co-Explore. It had two-seater cycles which were connected to different coloured lights on the ceiling. When a couple rode the cycle, two different coloured lights would come on and create a new pattern. There was another installation driving the same concept which had a workout cycle that turned kinetic energy into mechanical, establishing the convergence of two opposite communities. “When two different communities come together, they create something different. This represented the combination of two completely different concepts, making them one,” a representative from the exhibit summed up.