Road Trip

Can design change the world?

Can design change the world? Is there an ideal country to design in? Are the problems of a boutique design firm different from a global agency? These are questions designer Cagri Cankaya would find answers to, when he embarked on his project Designer On The Road.

Twenty-eight-year-old Cankaya, a successful art director in Turkey, wanted to prove that he could work, design and live anywhere. On July 11, 2011, he set off on a world tour, travelling to India, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Ukraine, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Argentina, using his design skills to live in those countries for brief periods.

He gave up the luxury of space and the comfort of language, and culture to work in different locales, from game development studios, global advertising agencies, digital advertising companies, to start-ups and boutique design companies. While his freelancing assignments takes care of the air tickets, his accommodation and salary are paid by the host firm.

His connect with India happened through Sudhir Sharma, the head of a Pune-based design firm, whom he met at the Istanbul Design Week, more than a year ago. Sharma was the first to know about the project and invited him to work at his firm. For Cankaya, it was time to quit his job and get on the road.

Mumbai was his first halt, where he worked at Design FlyOver, a boutique design company. His first assignment was designing T-shirts and nightwear for a Jaipur-based organic textile company.

In Pune, he worked on several projects from designing showrooms to creating posters at INDI Design. He also made a brochure which lists 17 design laws. So what are the laws? "Law 17 reads Survival: Forget all other laws in order to survive," he says, cheekily.

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