Ambitious design festival to open on November 23

Bengaluru ByDesign brings together 30-plus designers from across the country

The city will turn into a hub to discuss and appreciate design, thanks to the first Bengaluru ByDesign festival.

Indian and international designers are showcasing their work at the event starting November 23. The hosts expect five lakh people to attend the various events.

Workshops, forums, and installations at venues across the city will explore design in relation to public spaces, education, and business.

The Museum of Everything, for instance, brings together contemporary sustainable garments, jewellery, homewares and art.

Curators Sarayu Hegde and Virja Shah want the event to appeal to conscious consumers. “We wanted to create a difference in the city,” Sarayu says. “India has so much talent and we want to bring that here.”

She believes it is important to provide people with well-designed products, not just “run of the mill” goods.

“There’s a shift happening with people wanting quality over quantity,” she says. “The biggest challenge has been finding the right mix of people to be part of it.

Eco-friendly paper

Kavya Madappa of Bluecat Paper is bringing her unique paper work to the event, cladding a staircase in natural paper birds in an installation called Unchained Symphony - Birds.

Appalled at the use of chemicals to make brochures and printed products, her search for an eco-friendly alternative began two years ago, and led her to establish Bluecat Paper.

The company converts natural products like cotton, coffee, corn and banana into paper, also recycling by-products in the paper-making process. That includes pressing water, avoiding dyes, and air-drying paper.

“We use none of nature’s resources to make our beautiful paper,” she says.

“We can proudly claim that we do not waste a single drop of water in our processes.”

Ambitious event

Festival founders Suprita Moorthy and Priyanka Shah-Bhandary have been working on the event for the past year.

The aim is to give designers an opportunity to showcase their work, as well as inspire up-and-coming artists.

“We want to make this the destination for design people,” Suprita says.

In its first year, they are prepared for criticism that the event is too ambitious. “If you’re not going to be ambitious with your work you’re not going to reach for the skies . . . nothing like this has been seen in India,” Suprita says.