Glue designs to stick

A design solution firm gives even the most boring of products a zany facelift, discovers Abhilasha Ojha

N iladri Mukherjee, CEO of Glue, a 360° design solution company, shares with us his one valuable mantra: “I like keeping my mouth shut and let my work do all the talking.” Quietly, but surely, Glue has been growing steadily in design circles. From designing retail spaces to creating exhibition venues to creating furniture and product design, Glue is fast emerging as one of the leaders in design. “I think what has kept us in good stead is the fact that we didn’t say no to anything and took up challenges,” says Mukherjee.

 

We’re discussing the design ethos of the company and Mukherjee’s comment certainly embodies the mantra of Glue’s success. It has, apart from designing water bottles for Nestle, also created mobile communication devices and other consumer electronic and durables. Bus seating design, flashlight torches, dashboard design for DCM Toyota cars, bike design for Hero Motors and even oil mixing units for HP, name any category of products and — in all probability —Glue may have just designed them. While product design, packaging and even zany furniture designs is what Glue has been intrinsically involved with, the company is also involved in creating retail space for a fairly diverse section of clients. Take the retail space of Apollo tyres, where Glue “transformed a boring space for selling tyres into an innovative retail outlet”.

If retail space and product design is Glue’s forte, exhibition space is fast emerging as another challenging area. Last year, in fact, Glue did the unthinkable and created, for one of HCL’s exhibitions, a compelling space spread over 30,000 sq ft in a stadium in Florida. While stretch fabric became faux walls, Madhubani prints were scanned, digitised and plastered too. The furniture was created by recycled newspapers and because of all the reused content, the carbon footprint was minimal.

While Glue’s design ethos, according to Mukherjee, is to produce design for the masses, the first major step in that direction has been Glue’s most recent innovations, Tich Pitch and Unitile. The idea stemmed from the multitude kirana stores in India which fail in paying attention to any design details. “‘Why is it so difficult to sell design to the masses?’ That was a running thought that we at Glue had,” says Mukherjee, who says that it took close to six months to finally come up with a “simple design philosophy for the many kirana stores”. The product solution, Titch Pitch, is a revolutionary joint-based system made from engineering plastics that can attach itself to shelves made from any material including wood, glass and even metal sheets. It really is a bit of Velcro, some thin plastic planks and corners which when held together create a neat space for products and shelves.

Along with Titch Pitch, Quik Tile, adds Mukherjee, was engineered along the designs of Lego blocks. Perfect for displaying products at retail outlets, we think it could be great in residences too. Why? The steel tiles are modular in nature and easily adjust to any size of room or wall. The DIY mechanism gives it a fun element and the bright colours make it an out-and-out success.

And you thought design was simple?