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Sharp design

Hetal Ajmera worked in advertising for 12 years, at top agencies like Leo Burnett, Ogilvy and JWT. Bianca D’sa worked in art and design at McCann Erickson and other firms. But they still felt the lack of an adequate platform to truly express their love for design. That’s what led them to start Sharpener Inc — a design studio that has in a short while, won Hetal and Bianca lots of kudos for their work.

Ask the girls what their greatest milestones have been since setting up their studio in Mumbai, and Hetal says, “Starting Sharpener itself has been a huge milestone for us. Our vision was to be part of the evolving design story of India, and we decided to set up our own shop and be part of this exciting journey… We began with a belief that we had it in us to not just contribute, but also better the overall design landscape.”

A chance to put their beliefs to the test came soon after Sharpener’s inception. Hetal and Bianca were approached to design the brand identity for the Burma Burma restaurant in Mumbai. Inspired by Burmese dolls, the traditional longyi motif and Burmese art, they designed the logo, packaging, merchandise and even details like placemats for the restaurant. “Burma Burma was the first project we designed. We were completely involved in every design aspect of it, right from the interiors of the restaurant to the paper napkins,” Bianca says. “It got us our fair share of awards at the Abby’s, Fox Glove and Kyoorius.”

Another equally satisfying project was creating the brand identity for The Cheese Collective, which curates handmade and artisan cheeses from all over India. Hetal and Bianca designed a logo that used a rustic platter as the base, with the name (“The Cheese Collective”) traced over it in thread, looped over pins.

Of how the idea for the logo design came about, Hetal says, “When we met Mansi Jasani, the owner of The Cheese Collective, she described her love for making cheese and the vision she had for her brand. We started thinking about what we wanted to do, and it so happened that within the next few days, we had a working lunch at a café. When the food arrived, it was served to us on a platter that we immediately fell in love with. Spontaneously, we decided that this was it. After a lot of requests, the manager finally obliged and handed the platter to us. And that’s how the logo was formed.”

The portfolio for Sharpener is very diverse, not just in terms of the style that Hetal and Bianca adopt for their various projects, but also the actual work they take up — everything from brand identity, visual design, concept designs, illustrations, even stop-motion videos for certain brand campaigns. The girls say that this is probably because of the way they view “design” itself. “We look at good design as an imaginative expression, with a job of reaching out and fulfilling our client’s needs through methods of production. And we try to keep it honest to its purpose and treat it as something that is alive and breathing,” says Bianca. “So any problem that can be solved through design is something we are happy to take up.”

With two creative brains working on each project, isn’t there scope for creative clashes as well? Hetal responds, “The rules at our shop are pretty simple. No long drawn board meetings. No endless strategy processes. And no misunderstandings and mismanagement.” They’re equally clear about what their work is all about: “We understand beauty and novelty; richness and minimalism; complexity and simplicity; chaos and order… We are designers by design, because there is nothing else we’d rather be.”

( Source : deccan chronicle )
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