interview Rajesh Kejriwal
The activist conference What Design Can Do, held May 26 and 27 at the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam, focuses on design in social context, highlighting the role of the designer in imagining and realising a more sustainable future world.
Rajesh Kejriwal - Kyoorius Design Yatra and partner in Addikt
Rajesh Kejriwal sees himself as a facilitator for collaborations between the design studios in NL and IN. Years ago he initiated Kyoorius, a platform that organises the successful conference Designyatra. It can be seen as a foot on the ground for the Dutch in India, facilitating exhibitions and collaboration. "My biggest role is to ensure making friends. If you make friends the rest will follow." Rajesh Kejriwal has a long experience in working with the Dutch. He started in NL with the help of BNO in 2007. He now knows what works and what does not.
Disciplines to bring
Netherlands located graphic designer Peter Bil'ak says: “Rajesh has been incredibly active in bringing the Indian design community together. He has created the first Indian design magazine and first Indian design conference, and been a catalyst behind many collaborative projects in India”. Together they initiated the Indian Type Foundry (ITF) which is the first company to develop and directly distribute digital fonts in India. Though Kejriwal states that graphic design is not a good discipline for the Dutch to take to India. "But interactive design, digital animation, packaging, wayfinding, and, in future, museum design, are disciplines that India has very little knowledge of."
Preferable partnerships
From an Indian perspective, Rajesh likes Dutch professionals because they are honest, very transparent, straightforward, and - sometimes too - blunt. "The Dutch master skills in particular disciplines are far more advanced than what Indian companies have. And they are very willing to share those skills. The Dutch do not mind working on small projects, as opposed to other Western countries. The Dutch are easier with forging partnerships than the Western community at large."
#Fail
"Where I think the Dutch fail is marketing themselves. Their marketing skills are far below those of the US and Britain. That is a gap DutchDFA needs to bridge. How can the Dutch studios do better in projecting themselves in India?"
3000% growth
"Indian design is where Dutch design was 20 years back, in terms of knowledge and understanding of the design world, especially in trans- and multidisciplinary projects. But it will not take India 20 years to catch up. That will happen in the next 3-4-5 years. The design industry in India is said to grow 3000% in the next years. But the Indian design community can not do it on their own. It will have to be with partnerships.
We need to forge partnerships between two countries. That need not be The Netherlands, but they were here first. For the last two years the Dutch have consistently been visible in India, so the design community feels comfortable with the Dutch. Compared to 2007 when nobody in India knew about Dutch design, that is a big step.
A Dutch channel in India
What is needed now is focus. There is a project by DutchDFA on education, Premsela has an exhibition, and NAI and BNA are doing something as well. For us in India this is confusing. Rajesh would like there to be an active office in India to coordinate activities. An office that brings it all together.
Friends
Rajesh is a stakeholder in Dutch motion graphics agency Addikt and is now exploring possibilities for KesselsKramer to open an office in India. So is Rajesh an ambassador of the Dutch in India? "Yes, but for the people I like."
Read the other views on India-Dutch cooperation here:
- Interview 1: Rajesh Dahiya
- Interview 2: Harmeet Bajaj
- Interview 3: Aravamuthan Srivatsan
