What is Design?

What Is Design?

Here is a story – a story celebrating the human spirit creating extraordinary outcomes out of the often mundane circumstances life puts one in. When life took them through troubled waters and when sustainability had become a dire necessity, seven exceptional women from Mumbai took over a loss-making Poppadum/Papad business and began manufacturing them from a terrace of a building.

Least did they expect that a humble venture of Rs. 80 would slowly lead to a turnover of a whooping INR 100 million just on exports. What started with seven women now employs livelihood to more than 40,000 people throughout India forming an enormous network of a co-operative society. This is the story of Lijjat Papad.

And then, there are the likes of Brandon stanton from New York, who is the creator of the exceptional ‘Humans of Newyork’- Street interview & a photo blog platform. And then there are the likes of Mahadeo Havaji Bachche’s Dabbawalas at Mumbai.
The ones who can read between the lines would know that their stories are an exceptional example for design. Design is an idea. Design is empathy. It is a plan for construction and implementation of a system, object or an activity in the form of an idea, prototype, content, product or a process.