In this episode of Aedge, Sushmita Charlu, a designer with a multi-disciplinary approach, chats with Madhavi Nadig, the CTO of Adeptic Creative Labs. It is a free-wheeling conversation covering Sushmita’s diverse body of work and her thoughts around industrial design, circular economy, sustainability, game design with recycled materials and designing for water equity.
- Unable to choose between arts and science, Sushmita chose to study Design where she didn’t have to give up either.
- She graduated as a Product & Interface Designer from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, studying industrial design and UX design.
- Her mentor kindled her interest in sustainability with a book called “Cradle to Cradle”, which talks about moving away from a linear economy to a circular economy.
- An ideal design is one which lives perpetually, maybe in different forms over time, but nothing is wasted.
- Cradle, here, is a metaphor for birth. Products are (re)born with a new form once the previous form is obsolete.
- Sushmita has found her ikigai in industrial design and creating a circular economy
- As an industrial designer, she looks at products as a service to people.
- At every stage from production to packaging to delivery, as an industrial designer, she considers how to create a circular economy.
- India had a strong circular economy in the past, when repairing and renting products were the norm.
- Pride in product ownership led to the collapse of the service economy.
- Now, with renewed interest, both consumers and companies are realising the benefits of a circular economy.
- Industrial designers must consider the locally available systems and service economies while designing for that region.
- In her current role at Good Business Lab, Sushmita focuses more on social sustainability than environmental sustainability.
- She designs interventions for blue collar workers in the space of physical & mental health and safety.
- The interventions are created with a human-centric approach, delivered as a service, not as acts of charity.
- She incentivises businesses to invest in such interventions and helps them recognise the business returns from them.
- As a non-profit labour innovation lab, Good Business Lab measures the effectiveness of such interventions using quantitative research techniques like randomised control trials.
- Having government-mandated Environment, Social and corporate Governance (ESG) norms pushed corporates to invest in sustainability initiatives whose results are not seen in the short-term.
- Greenwashing is easy. But real change requires time, strategy, innovation and prioritisation.
- Madhavi wants to know the hurdles preventing the adoption of sustainable alternatives. Sushmita quips that she has opened a can of tofu and shrimp!
- Though sustainable alternatives are more expensive right now, when sustainable businesses are supported and encouraged to scale, in the future, they should become more affordable.
- Millennials & Gen-Z are currently open to paying the premium for sustainability
- Blue collar workers, who are busy earning their living, will opt for the cheapest alternative.
- Sustainable businesses can be encouraged with monetary investments and hyperlocal consumption.
- Flatheads, a sustainable brand of shoes, received a lot of support from the public after the founder appeared on Shark Tank.
- Shark Tank is showcasing many sustainable businesses from across India and it’s heartening to see them get funded.
- Sushmita calls millennials the “ready-made generation”, the first generation to have free access to and consume mass-produced goods.
- Madhavi observes that there are fewer people around to repair things today.
- The Japanese art of kintsugi values restoring things. But restoring things today is tedious.
- Sushmita shares that this is due to planned obsolescence, a strategy adopted by many businesses.
- Tech companies continue to take back your used gadgets while pushing you to upgrade by purchasing newer gadgets.
- Sushmita’s entrepreneurship journey with Vrtta includes creating an Icelandic strategy game called Hnefatafl using reconstituted tetrapacks for Kavade Toy Hive. It was an effort to combine the ancient with the modern.
- Madhavi loves the new-found focus on Indian games. She appreciates the revival of ancient Indian games and the creation of new ones, like Hampi, with artfully created pieces and minimal packaging.
- Sushmita prefers a minimalistic style which is almost a blank canvas and adds a pop of colour using rich fabrics. She chooses long-lasting furniture which will keep her carbon footprint low in future as well.
- Sushmita was concerned that Ikea’s entry into India would kill the local furniture market. But she’s observed a trend where people get ideas from Ikea’s curation, but purchase locally.
- How does one start a career in design? What skills must they acquire?
- Sushmita shares her experience of up-skilling with Offsite, a program about Industrial Design.
- In the Bali Fab Fest, Sushmita and her inter-disciplinary group designed a solution to tackle the water crisis that Bali faces as a tourist island.
- Sonam Wangchuk recently went on a Climate Fast to draw attention to the water shortage in Ladakh, due to climate change.
- To promote Water Equity, Sushmita’s Fab Fest team open-sourced their design with clear instructions to replicate it locally. They have received some funding too.
- Sushmita advises new designers to figure out what they love and pursue it relentlessly.
- She is working on social and sustainable design projects with her international peers from the Offsite course.
- Her pet project involves creating a circular economy for coffee.
- Since Sushmita has interviewed designers as the co-host of the Design Lota podcast, she had hoped there would be no bad karma in this one.
Sushmita is a designer with a multi-disciplinary approach to her work. Her work lies at the intersection of creative problem solving, technology and envisioning a sustainable (present and) future. Sushmita is currently a Senior Design Associate at Good Business Lab. She is also a co-founder & designer at Vrtta, a collaborative focused on sustainability and craft.
This podcast is brought to you by Adeptic Creative Labs with support from the team at Clearly Blue Digital.
Write to us at podcasts@adepticlabs-com.in9.cdn-alpha.com.
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