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They think of themselves as busy bees, who find their honey buzzing over Google. Inhabitants of the Web jungle, they are the new explorers — a creative force that looks at the world in a distinct way. The odd, the funny, the idiosyncratic catches their eye. And they draw it with a slant, looking askance at the world. Their designs bring a smile, a frown, a sneer on the face of the onlookers and the wearer becomes a target of neighbour’s envy!
This absolutely apolitical young brigade is not looking for a 9-to-5 job. Discourses on issues like reservation or the Anna crusade do not figure in their agenda. They create a pool of unique Indian creative gene, which provides design concepts to top-ranking global fashion houses inspired from graffiti and crazy campus capers. They walk the path less trodden and find it exciting. In February this year, when the first ever Comic Con brought the cartoonists of the country on one platform and presented the Indian cartoon characters to compete with Superman and Spiderman, it was evident that the unleashing of this creative force would not stop at creating cartoon characters, cartoon strips and graphic novels. It will find more channels to bifurcate, to multiply and to grow. So, when Web platforms like Inkprint, Red Bubbles, Mysoti.com, Teesort.com, Sheepspot.com, Threadless.com, and even the Cotton Council of India, to name just a few, launched a Web space for young designers to showcase their talent and to let their designs compete based on public vote, it unleashed a young creative force that is urban, semi-urban, trained, self-taught young and not so young. They belong to a new caste of creative India, which believes in breaking all brackets of convention.
Meet Gavin Remedios and Delwyn Remedios, aged 28 and 25, respectively, educated at prestigious institutes like the Sir JJ School of Art, Mumbai, and NID, Ahmedabad. As owners of Remedios Designs, they provide refreshingly innovative design ideas for T-shirts, shoes, graphic novels, graffiti, murals, short animation films and edutainment for kids. Six of Gavin’s design ideas for T-shirts based on a twisted idea of dictators and scholars have won at Inkfruit. Though money is not as good on the Web space as he earns from other sources, he does it to know how the world opens up to new ideas. He nurtures a grouse that people have not grown beyond one-liners for T-shirts though. Gavin worked for four years,`A0designing`A0apparel for international celebrity lines like Sara Jessica Parker’s ‘Bitten’, Venus Williams’ ‘EleVen’, Amanda Bynes ‘Dear’, Stephon Marbury’s ‘Starbury’ and others like Ben Wallace, Bubba Watson and Laird Hamilton. This was not enough, he moved on to do a Master’s in Strategic Design Management from the NID. The blog of Remedios Designs, which has designs like crunchy numbers, is visited by thousands. Gavin says, "A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. Our blog was viewed about 12,000`A0times in 2010. That’s about 29 full 747s." No wonder, copyright issues do not bother him. In fact, he feels flattered when copycats steal his ideas.
Jolene, 27, is a Mumbai-based housewife ‘hooked’ to creating new designs. Her husband once bought a T-shirt, the tag on the shirt informed her about Inkprint and she entered the design contest. Since then, it’s been an obsession, "Designing T-shirts is addictive, I’m always thinking of a design, even if I don’t mean to, and I’m always trying to figure out how to turn everything I see into a new design." So far, 15 of her designs have won and are under production for T-shirts, girls T-shirts, boxer shirts, laptop skin and wallets etc. Since printing, production and selling of all the merchandise is done by Inkfruit, she is engaged 24 x 7 with creative ideas that she posts on Facebook to seek feedback from friends.
Suresh, 25, a Hyderabad-based fashion designer, entered an online design contest to test the waters and felt his creative juices flowing as never before. "I fly like a bird on this jungle called the Web and see a lot of new design ideas happening across the world. A Web contest exposes me to a challenge that I face with my own creative sensibility. Public votes help me to feel the pulse of the people — their likes and wants." Though, he wishes the online sites would pay him more, he feels creativity is not a means of earning money alone, enhanced creative skills are a boon for personal relationships, too. Sinan`A0Nalagath,`A0aka Naked Monkey, 23, from`A0Kannur,`A0a small town in`A0Kerala, is planning to open a designing studio in Kannur to make Naked Monkey a uniquely funny designer brand. The name Naked Monkey was inspired from the Chinese zodiac. Once he saw a shop selling one of his designs, selected by Inkfruit, reprinted and sold in different colours. This made him feel confident of his design ideas and he never looked back. He has shown his works at several portals, which revolve around things he likes — music, party, animals, nature, and, at times, he lends a dark feel to these designs. "This life and our experience is enough to make thousands of designs, we just don’t notice things and give importance to them `85 the falling of a drop of water, street light, full moon etc, it’s about how you execute things. And they have a design," he says. Saksham was a graphic designer with Dainik Jagran, based at Jamshedpur. It was a usual online search that made him aware of online opportunities to get recognition for his hidden creative talents. After winning the second and third prize for design by the Cotton Council of India, his will to explore his talent at designing more fabrics received a boost. Online exploration introduced him to several sites where he started uploading his work. The response was encouraging and then came Inkprint, where he won a prize for his designs.
Web platforms like Inkprint, Red Bubbles, Threadless.com, and even the Cotton Council of India have created a space for young designers to showcase their talent
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Patience is the name of
the game, he says, when it comes to making it online. "You have to
keep uploading your work, interest is generated over six months, once
you know you are sought after in this Web jungle, you know you must be
good and that helps you sustain creative pursuit."