' Sangam' - the collaboration

“Sangam” means collaboration. And for the blog that I followed it means collaboration between traditional and new era graphic art. The writer of this blog is a designer and entrepreneur, who studied MFA in Design at the School of Visual Arts, NY. He then started his own business of designing in Delhi, the capital of India. Some of his projects help to bring out the traditional art to people’s knowledge.  As one can see in the picture, the computer generated graphic design (made by the writer )which is on the top was to be copied by the artisan on a cloth. The blog is a form of the documentary of project on  the traditional ‘ kutch ‘ art, something which can be found only in a small  village in India.  I am personally inspired by the writer’s  designs which are a collaboration of Indian and western designs, something  which is of my interest.

I followed his blog of ‘Sangam’ while he was working on it. It kept a hold on me and I became  a regular reader of it every time he made a new post. The way the design and project was developed, communicated and turned into a finished product.  Moreover, I could get the psychological insight of the designer, his excitement, his reaction when the artisans did not understand him, the way he communicated with artisans through translators, the warm hospitality given by the poor artisans of the country side when the designer came to his home to see work.  I personally like to visit country side places. So the description of the houses, nature of people, the traditional art form preserved by generations of that village was something rare to find. I was reading it from a designer’s point of view. It helped me develop a view of designs even in trivial forms. For example, in this blog he has even described the art form on utensils, the clothes of people.  Even if I had visited to these places….on the first hand I would not have noticed this form of art which I saw and understood from his sense of beauty.

Very often, the process of designing is more interesting than the actual finished project. This was the case with the ‘sangam’ blog.  Had the writer finished all the work and written an article on it, it would not be so interesting. This blog is a record of his progressive work while the experiences were still fresh in his mind. It was a good experience for me which developed me to a further level. I was curious to know where and how the project would end. The blog also inspires me to keep a record of my work progress and experiences while working on something so interesting.
Link : http://ishankhosla.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/sangam-the-confluence-of-craft-and-design/