Prateek Jain and Gautam Seth express their creativity through lighting options for your home
Hyderabad: Diana Vreeland’s “Give ’em what they never knew they wanted” is an apt description of what the progressive designer duo Prateek Jain and Gautam Seth do with their home décor brand Klove. Lighting mavericks who forayed into designing items made up of fragile glass as well as building artworks with robust materials such as steel, brass and wrought iron, Prateek Jain, a business administration graduate and Gautam Seth, a chemical engineer, started their brand Klove in 2005.
“We were not trained designers, had no technical knowledge of production, had no design mentor but just had a will to do something creative and we wanted to express our creativity in a certain way. We explored the idea of creating objects for a home, and began our experiments with stones, metals and glass. Our first collection explored these three different materials in various forms. It was then that we discovered how much can be done with glass. It gives you the freedom to interpret your vision, dreams and inspiration. We became extremely fascinated by glass it was beautiful and easy to work with. It responded well to light and created a certain amount of drama, which people like,” Prateek says.
Since their first collection, Prateek and Gautam have brought out awe-inspiring collections every year. But it wasn’t an easy ride. For one, explaining their modern approach to home décor to craftsmen was initially tough. “India has been the home of exporting scientific glass for 30-40 years and we wanted to explore the arena of decorative items created especially from glass. We thought the best place to tap resources and expertise was the glass sector. However, it was not that easy. We found a large pool of skilled craftsmen available to work with glass, but it was challenging to find those who would be receptive to our design ideas,” Prateek says.
Despite the modern approach and use of new age materials, they do keep a certain Indian element intact in each of their pieces. Prateek says, “We’ve lived in India and our roots are here and as they say, you tend to reflect on the things you see around you. We are no different. Our work expresses love, spirituality, religion, relationships, humanity… Our end products come across as uber-modern and edgy but our design sensibility, essence and ethos remain Indian. Our perspective is global and we try and amalgamate the two to create products that the global citizen can relate to.”
Inspiration comes to the duo from their many travels, especially from the architectural sites they love to explore. “Luckily both of us inherited the same design sense and are drawn to almost the same sources for inspiration. Buildings, temples, cathedrals, and churches intrigue us and we spend a lot of our time observing these historic structures. We love to watch the play of light and shadow, inside a cathedral or a temple, it’s fascinating. We also love observing the minute details of nature, such as the shapes of stars or a lotus flower,” Prateek says.
Prateek adds that they find artists who manage to do the work that he and Gautam haven’t, very intriguing: “Jeff Koons for example, is so amazing. He takes everyday objects and transforms them. Gautam and I find that very compelling.”
Prateek and Gautam have done several projects with Bollywood celebrities like Bipasha Basu, Shilpa Shetty, Karan Johar, Varun Bahl, Sussanne Roshan, Raveena Tandon, etc. Their recent collection ‘Vintage’ is inspired by travel and comprises six exquisite styles of lighting pieces available as installations, chandeliers and pendant lamps. Apart from design projects, the duo also loves taking up installation projects, their most recent being “The Great India Collectors’ Ride”, conceived and led by OLX in association with xBhP, the largest motorcycling community in India. They presented a 10-14 feet long art installation called “Freedom Bike’”, made entirely of used goods including old typewriters, railway lamps, gramophones and masks. “We love doing public installations not limited by functionality,” Prateek says. “They let us express freely what’s within us.”
( Source : dc )
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