Russet Studio is the recent venture of Kedar Naik (who is also the founder of The Turtle Story) & Asha Suvarna. Presently, still in its relative infancy, Russet, the colour of Earth, was founded in 2018 with a deep passion for the vibrant, artisanal traditions of India. Apart from their B2C retail customers, they also have a B2B service model in which they customize furniture for architects and interior designers, which is tailor made for the clients requirements. Russet Studio has been wanting to expand their product portfolio for a contemporary and urban market. After talking to friends and colleagues who were working from home during the pandemic and student's industrial mentor, Kedar Naik, all were facing multiple problems while working. Kedar was very enthused about the project on creating furniture for a work-from-home scenario and to cater to the crisis the pandemic had given rise to. Thus, led the opportunity to design useful and functional products for day-to-day work situations. The project initiated with understanding the identity, philosophy of the brand, its ideologies and principles. Research on how “office” has evolved over the years and how pandemic has accelerated the trend towards teleworking, possibly for the long term and user research opened-up different perspectives on the users latent needs, challenges and how issues of working-from-home are being tackled were delved into. Different concepts and directions were derived through brainstorming and based on the research and it’s analysis in-line with the design brief. Further, after initial exploration of concepts “acoustic space dividers” was what they arrived at. The design process of sketching and form exploration was a process that involved great attention to detail. It was a great learning experience as the student got direct industrial exposure, which broadened their design thinking possibilities.
Acoustic Space Divider, Modular Workspace, PET Felt Space Dividers, Space Dividers, Work-from-home Furniture
