How did I follow the path of design? It’s a funny story as I come from a family that didn’t even know designing as a career existed. I was never interested in academics in spite of being sent to a boarding school.
My mother once came to visit the principal after being worried about my marks. The principal calmly replied, “Don’t worry about him, he’s creative than other people. Try for NID.” Thanks to my principal, his feedback served a turning point in my life. Thereon I realised what designing was and also the fact that colleges existed for such a discipline.
Transformers
Transformers actually transforms into a truck (manually, just like a toy), a chopper with a USB headlight and a small car.
I was always the artistic kind. Other than that my love and curiosity towards household scrap was growing stronger. It gave me immense inner peace every time I made something useful out of waste. Be it an installation or solving a problem faced in daily life; scrap came in very handy.
This later inspired me to become a product designer. My projects are quirky and functional; to begin with I want to tell you about Transformers!
Transformers actually transforms into a truck (manually, just like a toy), a chopper with a USB headlight and a small car. Pen refills was one of the main ingredients of this design element.
Zephyr
Zephyr involved studying manipulation of forms.
Like Transformers, Zephyr too involved manipulation of forms, ‘movement’ was introduced as a fourth dimension of form. Zephyr involved studying the first three dimensions and discovering how one dimension “folds” into another leading to creation of credible and innovative forms.
The form in this project was inspired by the wing of a bird and 46 such wings come together to form a rhythmic movement. You can see the video on YouTube – scan the QR code or type ‘Zephyr – A small gust of wind’.
Slent
The Slent is a combination of a sleeping bag and a tent.
There is another project which me and my friend worked on called the Slent and we hope to reach a new bar for this project in our career. It is mainly targeted towards trekkers who like to trek alone and/or people who go for wildlife photography.
The Slent is actually a combination of a sleeping bag and a tent, but for one person. The form of the slent is inspired from ‘armadillo’, an animal found in the wild which transforms itself into a hard shelled ‘ball’ to save itself from predators. Being a photographer and a trekker myself, I could relate it to all the problems and situations faced on an outing and how this ‘Slent’ would solve it.
Cube
The Cube is a small SD card holder, both the parts which create the cube are similar.
The Cube is a small SD card holder for photographers who need to carry many SD cards at a time. This cube can store upto 4 SD cards and 2 MicroSD cards. Looks just like a normal product right? But it ain’t one. Both the parts which create the cube are similar. The second part is the mirror image of the first one. So to manufacture it, you don’t need two different moulds which usually you would. Thus saving money and energy and making it more greener to the environment.
Bumblebee Bag was a part of my third year elective. I had opted for ‘hands on working with the sewing machine’ and I was a person who didn’t even know how to turn it on.
Taking this opportunity, I designed and stitched my own bag. The Transformers merchandise inspired me so much so that I decided to name this creation as the Bumblebee Bag.
Bumblebee Bag
The Bumblebee Bag is a suitable backpack for college students and travellers alike.
Bamboo structures have been a part of our lives for a long long time. Be it a wedding, a reception or an emergency shelter, a bamboo structure always comes to the rescue. But looking at the whole process of erecting one, it’s tiring, consumes lot of time and also needs man power.
So I came up with a special joinery called the Vertex for bamboos, Vertex requires only two people to make a ‘cube’ made of bamboos in less than ten minutes.
Now there are different types of structures which you can build using the same joinery and save time and you won’t even require a helping hand.
Vertex
Vertex is a special joinery for bamboos.
Working solo has evolved me to pursue all my creative endeavours, though talking to people and getting their creative insights has always helped me.
I believe solving problems faced in daily lives and making life more easier to live is what I want to achieve. Technology has evolved so much in the last ten years that there is a very little scope to invent or create something that no one ever did. But you never know. I’m waiting for that day to come where I can contribute something to the world which really matters.
Contact
email: rohit.harip28@gmail.com
web: www.behance.net/RohitHarip
