Temple of Design

Temple of Design

Divya Thakur tells Sujata Assomull that her designing work is different because she takes the usual and gives it a touch of the hip

Though she is just 29 years old, Divya Thakur has already worked for two advertising companies, art decorated a magazine, designed dozens of corporate logos and launched her own company Design Temple -- a one-stop design shop that handles everything from a logo to planning an event. It all began eight years ago when Divya, fresh out of the J J Institute of Applied Art, approached Trikaya Grey's Alok Nanda for a job. "He suggested I join Preeti Vyas Gianetti rather than an advertising agency." At that time Preeti was working as a consultant to Trikaya, and Divya got a chance to work with her on various big brands like Lakme and Arrow. "You can say that was my first brush with the fashion industry. It was from Preeti that I first learnt about design."

But when Preeti left Trikaya, Divya decided to stay on. "After a while I began to do more than just assist Preeti. I worked with a lot of other senior people." And soon Divya's portfolio grew to include campaigns for Eternia, Premsons and Crush. It was around that time when fashion designer James Ferreira approached her to design the first issue of Oomph!, the fashion magazine he was then editing. "I have been really lucky that both the agencies I worked with were very tolerant and let me pursue other things."

But a month after working on the fashion magazine, Divya decided to quit the ad agency. "I had been at Trikaya for over five years and quite liked the idea of working for myself." As soon as she made that decision projects started to come her way. Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla asked her to work on their book -- which should be released this year. "I have also worked with Arjun Khanna, Pallavi Jaikishen, Krishna Mehta and Ensemble -- designing catalogues and leaflets."

But all this freelance work aside, Divya felt the need to join another agency full-time and Ambience was her choice. "I did think about working on my own but Ambience is such a bright, happy place. I liked the idea of working there." Work included high-profile accounts like Lakme, Garden Vareli and Coke. Simultaneously Divya designed a store for AND (a women's boutique at Crossroads), the logos and menus for Flavours (the coffee shop at the Ambassador) and handled the ELLE Style Awards (held last year). "It all happened through word of mouth. Like, last month I was asked to do the art-fest menus for Indigo. They found out about me from photographer Sheena Sippy."

Finally, after nearly seven years, Divya decided to do it alone. She brought in the new millennium with the Design Temple, her own company. Since January, she has worked on the launch of Sway, a new cruise liner promoted by the Narangs and MTDC, as well as designed the catalogues for the Sheetal Design Studio. She and her staff of three operate from her home in Bandra and Divya is really enjoying the experience. She has one golden rule though: Never on a Sunday. "I can work all through the night during the week but Sunday is my day off."

With all the projects she has on hand, working late is something she has gotten used to. "Abroad you have to specialise in advertising or design but here you get to do both, which is great as I love both. Though mine is primarily a design shop, not an advertising agency, I get a variety of work. Which means I have corporate, fashion and food clients." Her value she believes is to add "a hipness quotient". "The idea is to take something and make it different. It should have an edge and grab everyone's eye. It should be hip."