Interview with D'Art Pvt Ltd

Besides passion, we love the course of designing the thought into a reality that’s the most difficult job, we think. Imagination doesn’t have limitations but to apply the same fundamentals in the practical world, that’s the challenge we accept and thrive for.

Definitely by choice

Our design range covers a wide space of deliverables including 10,000+ stores, schools, pubs, experiential stores, 20,000+ fuel courts, bars, restaurants, and villas. As D’Art we amalgamate Design+Manufacturing+Deployment in our multi-disciplinary design studio.

It all comes from practice and consistency. Be in the game, stay in the game, and you’ll succeed against all odds. Like we know - success takes it all, so be ready for everything coming your way and bounce back in a hard manner.

At D’ART the first few pointers that we follow religiously to ensure great design output:
1. Client's skin is Designer skin so that we can feel the same pain.
2. Empathy is the biggest asset” without which we can’t design anything for clients
3. Rationale between the heart and brain defines the final and correct mix of the project.

A good design is one that creates a benchmark, fulfills the client’s expectations. We achieve it by keeping transparency with the client as we firmly stand on our belief that a design is a co-creation process.

We curate a design with an engineering perspective in order to drive desired (output) value. The desires are equivalent to the expectations which ultimately results in satisfaction. Also, the value of a design is simultaneously increased with the fulfillment of expectations. Investing in a good design not only creates the value for that design but also the appreciation for the brain behind it.

At D'ART our core passion is to give a real and tangible contribution. There we would like to adopt a small village and transform that village into a better experience for all the villagers. Hence by working with sustainable materials and creating new models and materials with local resources around the place and people. We would like to set up a "Bench Mark Village" that could sustain more affectively. With the virtue of this project, we end up innovating or discovering something today our earth and people need the most.

Water Park and Amusements Park

We are not into flexing (mostly) but consider our passion and dedication to be the secret ingredient behind our successful designs. We go by the pedigree, from ‘WHY’ to ‘WHERE’. Analyzing the gaps with reference to the current scenario.

We believe form, shape, and colors are too narrow definitions to arrive at favorite designs. We like concepts of “Fluidic Design” by Late Zaha Hadid truly an inspirational legendary designer. What I love the most in her thought ideology is that she was “CONFLICT” any things normal is normal but what is the change, that we bring in design with our wisdom is what matters the most to us.

We believe form, shapes, and colors are too narrow definitions to arrive at favorite designs. We like concepts of “Fluidic Design” by Late Zaha Hadid truly an inspirational legendary designer. What I love the most in her thought ideology that she was “CONFLICT” any things normal is normal but what is the change, that we bring in design with our wisdom is what matters the most to us.

So Far be believe Studds is our greatest design which has made us Won A'Design Awards Project Uniqueness – As D’ART we always believe the design is a vision of the believers. We designed STUDDS to capture masses and classes under one roof. This store offers a complete phygital connect right from VR for an immersive product experience, Touch displays to maximize SKU’s and minimize inventory cost. Legendary and geometric design to ensure maximum eyeballs are captured to increase the probability of sales. Project Striking Feature in today’s context of COVID19 – Sameer always believes in keeping hygiene and sanitization in every piece that he creates. In the research, we found that people in India come to helmet stores by wearing sweaty helmets because of the climate, which may cause infection. Therefore, a new STUDDS store has a “Helmet Sanitization Machine “by the time you shop from STUDDS new stores you can keep your used helmet on the sanitization machine to ensure hygiene with a nice fragrance. Also, the fresh pieces after every trial get sanitized to keep the customer safe from COVID19 or any contagious infection.

Similar to our tagline ‘Designing the Change’, we constantly evolve ourselves with ‘Change’ as it is the key to survival. We treat every project as a new challenge posed to overcome.

Photographer for sure

D’ART believes that design is an expression and the vision of all believers to allow sketching a beautiful story that is liked by brand, channel partners, and end-user. Finally, a soothing translation of the expression into the experience is the heart of design for us.

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." D’ART is the story of three very simple friends yet highly aggressive. Sameer Khosla – Creative Director, Syed Shahnawaz Zaidi – Marketing & Retail Strategy Director & Deepak Kumar – Operations Director. Ours headquarter is in New Delhi, India. Our studio consists of many designers who are in the quest to create something new yet simple. In a very short journey of four years, serving 8 countries, significant share in blue-chip clients in national & international markets. We have a vision of expanding D’ART in more than 200 countries with our global alliances by 2030.

Shifting from job to business was a very risky decision.

Research and Design, Research and Prototyping, Research and Rollout, Research and Performance Audit, Research & Improvise, Research, and Final Design.

Our Next project is how to help humans on earth to "MIGRATE TO EV'S" to save this world where we live and our future generations flourish. Therefore, this is our major agenda now. We are creating an experience center where will have every technology that you can think of like AI, Data Science, AR, VR & much more. This will help us to deal with future customers at three stages.

A. Educate the customer - So that he or she can take "INFORMED DECISION" without any external influence.

B. Engage with Customer - Age, location, behavior, Situation, and financials, etc. define our tools and models to deal & arrive on engaging with customers to trigger, aspire & influence them towards purchase decisions.

C. Best ways in which we can capture & "CONVERT" the customer to give a "TRY MODEL”. Hence these models will help us to create larger milestones

Our thirst is quenched for perfection when we bring the latter to the table for the client. And after that our goal is to design for the laid purpose to benefit the society we live in.

People can expect expertise, benchmark, and award-winning designs (that are capable to drive ROI), eco-friendly design to deployment, the legacy of our influencers, and the connection to our roots.

A design helps in engaging and connecting to the world, navigates us through both ‘PHYSICAL’ and ‘DIGITAL’ spaces. It acts as a medium of communication to influence behavior and understand demographics. Also, the visual appeal of a design has the power to persuade the decision-making process.

There are loads of interesting projects we are working on -
1. Live fish farming experiential farm for B2B and B2C audience
2. Pet Clinic + playground + pet feed and toy store
3. Live Digital Store - Replica of the physical store and operates digitally to drive better numbers.
4. Helping Mall to SURVIVE - Developing Future of Retail Formats in the malls - Modular stores which can change each day in the week and pay rentals for that day only. Hence the same retail shop will be operated by 3 brands simultaneously in a week.
5. And many more are in the pipeline.

To work and develop a "BLIND SCHOOL" was always a "Dream Project". and contributing to the ones who need you the most always creates a feeling par everything. Therefore, this project offers everyone a great sense of satisfaction and (heartfelt) happiness.

Designing something that never existed before has been our take for a long time. We work according to our three-point map -
•Invite Future customers - Needs & wants are changing every day. pandemic on top has changed our interface with this world.
•Mind Mapping Digi Tools - Perception Drivers, Influencers, Data Science, AI, AR, VR, and much more to ensure we get to drive the customer to every stage which is a pre-defined journey.
•Development of 360-degree Integrated Ecosystem where B2B and B2C have complete freedom to operate without any "PUSH" but a huge "PULL".

The design field is moving towards newer technologies like AI, VR, and AR at a very fast pace. We are also in the same run, as it helps us to create tens of thousands of variations and increase our productivity. Though we are capable but visual storytelling with these technologies would be an effective way to tell.

Depends on projects – 24hours to 1 year or more even

As per the client’s needs either HO or sub-location.

All designers in today's world are emerging as "WARRIORS TO SAVE HUMANS & EARTH" and the role as a designer in society is getting much more serious and sincerer at the same time. Therefore, from a basic Covid-19 PPE Kit design or Elon Musk's reusable spaceship, everything must be translated to "SAVE NATURAL RESOURCES", "ZERO CARBON FOOTPRINT", "GREEN MATERIALS" and much more.

The design of course. Extravagant designs become popular, because of their acceptance by the people. Therefore, acceptance becomes the trend but the trend-ious design is only possible when it has the power to create a change in society.

Technology plays the most important role in our design process. Though we sketch it out initially. But without the design software, it is not possible to make it a real thing. Further, technologies like AI are used in creative ways to achieve the trendsetter design.

The software we use are SketchUp, Revit, 3D Studio Max, AutoCAD, V-Ray, Photoshop, InDesign, etc. and the equipment is VR {virtual reality} platform that dramatically transforms design collaboration and communication experience.

Color is one of the visual elements that have a powerful role in any design. A good design will always feature a good color combination/contrast. And our take on materials is always ‘Green Materials’ primarily, though we use traditional materials extensively the former one is our first choice. All the visual elements amalgamated with materials create an ambiance needed for the design and hence the story is narrated in a way to feel it.

We appreciate people's opinions as they help us to improve and communicate in a much better way. The most important question we would like to be asked about our designs is -
Did the design intervention improve "HUMAN LIFE ON EARTH" or not?

WOW, how they thought about this idea.

All the Directors of D’Art - Syed Shahnawaz Zaidi (Global Director Marketing), Sameer Khosla (Global Director Design), Deepak Kumar (Global Director Operations) play their part while we are finalizing any of our designs. Great teamwork is another key to thriving in the industry and we all back each other in times. Yes, of course, we believe in co-design and we welcome great opportunities.

Researchers Insights and End Users

We don’t read as much, More of Ted talk shows, AV of real project case studies, etc.

Through the practice of years has enabled our skills to get polished. Also, the new challenges posed help us to nurture our expertise even more. Industrial competition is the third key we always make our designs stand out.

God, Family, Friends and Me time

We are truly humbled and honored on receiving the A' Design Award which is World’s largest, most prestigious, and influential design accolade. After god & family blessings, we thank our clients and people who work for D’ART because of whom we have reached here on a short journey of 4 years. As a retail design agency, you always cherish winning such a global award. "Make In India" and "Making India Proud" is a different feeling altogether. Keep tuned for some thrilling future projects in the pipeline to witness the next level “CHANGE”

White color, India, all types of food as long as the taste is amazing, winters is what we like the most, the brand I like is Apple.

In our struggling day's people don’t pay us and we end up creating a free portfolio. This is funny and painful too.

New Challenging work motivates us as a company.

Not really, I need to check this from my parents.

Alvin Toffler said the world will witness the last wave before the end “THE THIRD WAVE” – “IDEA WAVE”.
1. We all are in this stage design idea comes like a bubble, makes money, and bursts. Future designs will be.
2.Phygital – Right Mix of Online and Offline
3.Design Adaptability – Space/Climate/People/Culture
4. Multi-Utility – One utility will be a dead design
5.Flexible & Scalable – Diverse yet cost-friendly
6.The notion of tech in it will be built-in.
7.The design will try to build all 5 senses in every piece of product.

Our second consecutive A’Design Award win has made our follower base stronger. Catching the eyes and feelings at the same time is an emotion par anything. Though we vision many great opportunities in the future, we still want the people to know our journey to the top, and that’s the course.

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

D’ART is a story of three very simple yet highly aggressive friends, Sameer Khosla – Creative Director, Syed Shahnawaz Zaidi – Marketing & Retail Strategy Director & Deepak Kumar – Operations Director, who started the journey four years back and Currently serving 8 countries, a significant share in blue-chip clients in national & international markets. Our global headquarter is based in New Delhi the capital city of India. All our studios consist of a bunch of crazy designers who are always in the quest of creating something new yet simple masterpiece. We have a vision of expanding D’ART in more than 200 countries with our global alliances by 2030.

We believe that design is an expression and the vision of all believers to allow sketching a beautiful story that is liked by brand, channel partners and end-user. Finally, a soothing translation of the expression into the experience is the heart of design for us.

Right from 8-inch product display to 10,000 Stores/ Restaurants / Schools / Villas / Bar / Pubs / Exhibitions and much more in one year. Yes, we enjoy multi-disciplinary design projects. We have tremendous expertise to deliver Design + Manufacturing + Deployment.

We believe form, shape and colors are too narrow definitions to arrive on favorite design. We like concepts of “Fluidic Design” by Late Zaha Hadid truly an inspirational legendary designer. What I love the most in her thought ideology that she was “CONFLICT” any things normal is normal but what is the change, that we bring in design with our wisdom is what matters the most to us.

Our first project was to design the retail identity of Indian Phillipe Morris - A legendary brand “MARLBORO”. After the Switzerland team of Marlboro, we were the only agency globally who had designed every single inch of Marlboro.

We like to play more with the fusion of various materials. Our first preference is always green materials as a responsible design studio we owe a lot from this environment and it’s our turn to give it back. Hence most of our designs are metal, fabric media etc. D’ART believes any platform or technology becomes affordable only if you can drive volumes. Therefore as D’ART, we are very lucky that we are blessed with clients who have volumes in abundance.

Most of the times the way most of the design agencies get the brief from clients is not a justified document. When we get a detailed brief from the client that rejuvenates our excitement for work and yes that is the time where we feel ourselves most creative.

The first few questions that we ask and that turns out as our design research before that we don’t initiate any design project within our design studio.
Q1 – Why are we designing this?
Q2 – What is the purpose or objective of this design?
Q3 – The purpose or objective of design is built for which kind of end-user?
Q4- Where are the present gaps and how our designers can fix it?

As D’ART the first few feel that we take is as follows
1. Client skin is my skin so that I can feel the same pain.
2.“Empathy is the biggest asset feel” without which we can’t design anything for clients
3.Rational between the heart and brain defines the final and correct feel of the project.

We are never in the race of creating the WOW designs. The only intent that we work with is to solve the problem of the client in the most simplistic way possible.

A design is engineering to drive the desired output. We always check this equation (Drive “X” output) again and again in our design projects. Therefore mostly we find the success rate of our design projects climbing up.

D’ART always believes that the design is a co-creation process. We never keep our clients out of that process of designing. Therefore at every single macro and micro stage, both client and us judge the project together to ensure that the final result becomes “Turning dreams into reality”

We owe a lot from this environment which is already disturbed and polluted. We as a design studio is highly fortunate to sit on the position where what we design becomes a mandate of production on a massive scale. Hence at D’ART ensure to maximum play with green material and also ensure the process that consumes less energy and creates maximum output. This is how we try to contribute to the environment.

As Alvin Toffler said the world will witness the last wave before the end “THE THIRD WAVE” – “IDEA WAVE”. We all are in this stage design idea comes like a bubble, makes money and burst. Future designs will be.
1.Phygital – Right Mix of Online and Offline
2.Design Adaptability – Space/Climate/People/Culture
3.Multi- Utility – One utility will be a dead design
4.Flexible & Scalable – Diverse yet cost-friendly
5.The notion of tech in it will be built-in.
6.The design will try to build all 5 senses in every piece of product.

Auto Expo – Automobile Biggest Show In India – Client UM Global. We are looking forward to doing an exhibition in the UAE market soon.

Design inspiration comes from brand ideology and market research on consumer taste. More brief and diverse exposure to national and international clients portfolio feeds creativity in us. TED talk shows are the true inspiration for us.

Our style is “Less is More”. The more we have tried to keep things simple and functional have majorly resulted in a win-win situation, which truly drives & justifies the common objective of all related stake owners of the project.

We live in New Delhi, India. India is extremely rich in its cultural heritage that allows us to weave a few patches where ever possible in our design projects. There are practically not many pros and cons because of the age and era that we are living in is the same – The Digital Age, the challenges for every individual is almost the same.

Master Retail Agency – 1 to 4 years contractual basis.

The designer needs to have empathy and if one has empathy then soon after the client brief the reaction from his or her side will define whether you proceed further or not.

Research And Design, Research and Prototyping, Research and Rollout, Research and Performance Audit, Research & Improvise, Research and Final Design.

Laptop, Phone, Gaming Room, Vertical garden, Kitchen

My day consists of 14 to 16 hours of working, catching up flights almost every alternate day. It so happens that I meet my kids after week. Life is super busy but regrets “I love my work because the design is my passion”

The world has changed so fast in the last 5 to 10 years. Whatever we learned in the past does not apply today. Try to unlearn and try forecast & somewhere in the middle of both lies the real answer.

The clients look at you with a very narrow perspective of design only. The only way out is to show yourself as 360 service provider to gain that respect, trust, faith for your self.

Don’t try to design, try to understand the problem and help to solve it.

Empathy with your client

The software we use are SketchUp, Revit, 3D Studio Max, Autocad, V-Ray, Photoshop, InDesign etc and the equipment is VR {virtual reality} platform that dramatically transforms design collaboration and communication experience

Blesses with an excellent design team, yes the fun of working is in only real tight deadlines.

It depends on projects – 24hours to 1 year or more even.

How can you make us look different, unique & attractive in the market

Designing the school for blind people.

Adidas, Exxon Mobil, Marlboro, BlueStar, Hitachi, Cargill, Castrol, Studds, Mithashi, TVS, Singer, Godrej, Shell, Polaris, Red Chief and many more

B2C format where we get to study consumer behavior and that becomes the most entertaining part of the project. Design for humans and drive their behavior to do something, that is very interesting to watch.

In a very short journey of four years, serving 8 countries, significant share in blue-chip clients in national & international markets. We have a vision of expanding D’ART in more than 200 countries with our global alliances by 2030.

Definitely as a team.

House Of Red Chief is the upcoming project that will change the way people look at footwear and apparel retail stores.

Email at info@dartdesign.in or call on +91 9818817555

Our View on Market looking at COVID19
We have crossed the threshold of 2020 with the euphoria of strength & have all the necessary resources to deal with these crises. We are blessed to be with the industry which has weapons to combat COVID19. Innovation, diverse adaptable yet digitally integrated teams. The burning need of the hour is to change this notion of negative perspective towards this situation. This is an era to evolve, expand, resize finance, deep thinking on planning. Lastly, people who don’t agree with us “At times Taking a Step Back is as Necessary as Moving Forward”