The Chequered Pad
Without a formal education in design I have relied on the chequered pad for bringing every dream of mine to reality. Furniture. Room. Building. Craft. Textile. Object. The same size of paper given different scales by me enabled me to establish my concept on paper, verify its proportions and explain it to an artisan or engineer. My work has come out of me always in one shot. I never sketched anything as I had to convince myself that what I was conceptualising was simultaneously verified as possible.
In these confining times, I wonder how little I need to fantasize or work!
Pinakin Patel
Pinakin Patel is a self-taught multi disciplinarian designer. His innovative and energized approach to learning has enabled him to practice architecture, landscape, interior, furniture and even fashion design.
As early as 1999, he ‘socially distanced’ himself from Mumbai’s chaotic urban life to experience a commune with nature. This ‘now visionary’ move has been celebrated in national and international print and television media, painting him as the ‘discoverer of Alibag’.
With a career spanning nearly five decades, Pinakin is considered as a legend of the ‘India Modern’ aesthetic. He has led several causes related to Art Craft and Design with NGOs and Public Institutions related to Art Craft and Design. In the year 2010, Pinakin established the Dashrath Patel Museum in Alibag, that houses his guru Padma Bhushan Dashrath Patel’s Art and Design legacies. In 2018, he visualized the Kolkata Centre for Creativity, of which he is now the Creative Director.
