The walls and panels of the recently revamped office of a foreign news agency in Bangalore has a collage of global news in graphic visuals. Graphics design, as a medium of communication of an idea or a message in interiors, is becoming a rage as designers hasten to create a brand identity for corporates, retail showrooms, hotels and offices in India.
Anything that can be seen on a photograph, poster or a computer can now be reproduced on the walls, pillars, ceilings, partitions and furniture.
Design experts claim that with the emergence of experiential marketing in India, the environment is as important as the product itself. Experiential marketing, as the name suggests, is about connecting with the consumer through experiences.
"Today's customer has developed a certain amount of apathy to traditional means of communication (read mass media advertising), and needs more reasons to believe and buy into a brand ethos. Experiences offered through the environment help create a differentiated impression," explains Rabia Gupta who runs the Rabia Gupta Design (RGD) consultancy in Mumbai.
For one of her clients, the 20,000 sq ft lifestyle store in Mumbai called Good Earth, Gupta gave a "distressed finish" to the walls as it was built on an old flour mill land.
Since 99 per cent of its products are handmade, the entire store has designs and textures inspired by nature, like fishscales or the bark of a tree.
The Surana jewellery showroom is yet another example where graphics design has been effectively used for both embellishment and brand building.
"While minimalism is the essence of the place, graphics of uncut diamonds blown up 1000 times of the actual size on the pillars act as a relief to the ornate jewellery that the store showcases," explains graphics designer Anthony Lopez who worked in coordination with the Ahmedabad-based interior designer Canna Patel on the project.
Incidentally, graphics is just one component of the entire gamut of designing. Today an interior designer fuses architecture, textile, sculpture, furniture and graphics into design.
"A decade after India's economy opened up, we have a new generation of clients who expect that greater attention be paid to the smallest detail," says Canna Patel, design director (interiors) of HCP Design & Project Management Pvt Ltd.
Besides the Rs one crore project of Suranas, Patel has worked on the TNW Retail Show Room in Baroda, Hotel Paras Mahal, Udaipur, two McDonald restaurants at Water Kingdom and Fort in Mumbai, besides the Gujarat High Court building among others.
Clearly, with the real estate boom in cities like Bangalore, Navi Mumbai and Gurgaon, the graphics design market is just beginning to grow.
"Think of the number of hotel lobbies, rooms, reception desks and conference rooms that have sprung up and you get a sense of the tremendous scope for any designer," remarks Patel.
There are different methods of transfering graphics onto interiors and the choice of materials (from flooring to fabric, textiles to glass and wood to stainless steel) depends on the brand values and space.
The most commonly used method of graphics in interiors is using computer generated vinyls outputs onto a self adhesive paper, then laminated and fixed onto a wall.
Rabia Gupta claims to have used this technology for Body Basics, a retail client in Prague. The graphic was done in India, the vinyl was also printed here, and the roll couriered to Prague where it was stuck on the wall.
The pillars at Suranas also used the sticker technique. "The stickers were frosted and spray painted with copper gold and mounted,"says Lopez. Designers also use vinyl cutouts on painted or a glass surface. Other processes involve painting and stencilling directly onto a wall.
Understandably, such specialized services don't come cheap. The costs involved depend from project to project, the choice of materials, the number of elements the designer handles and the level of effort the graphics designer puts into researching and developing a solution.
