To Work or Not to Work

Towards the end of 2016, my dad quit his job and decided to start his own woodworking firm - Maneys Creations in Wood. It was very heart-warming to see him speak with joy and excitement about his work, he was loving what he did. His clientele involved Chennai's cycling communities, his friends from all the places he had lived in and relatives in the family.

Cycling is a growing activity in India and many cities have warmed up to the it well. Cities have cycling groups filled with enthusiastic members who engage in various events for sport and recreation. And these events like Time Trial, Cyclothons, Randonneuring and leisure rides often distribute medals or prizes to the participants and winners. Typically these medals are struck by a die like a coin or are die cast in a mould. But dad had pitched making wooden medals and mementos for such events. They were a hit and Maneys was a regular partner involved in many cycling events in Chennai. The products are usually made from plywood, MDF (medium density fibreboard) and solid wood planks or boards.

Since most of the products required external form design as well as communication design, my dad turned up to the only designer in the house - me. I was in-charge for designing most of the medals and mementos through Maneys Creations in Wood. Initally I wasn't keen on working on these projects because I felt it wasn't a "product design" work (quite stupid of me, I must admit). But I didn't stand up for myself and communicate how I felt about the work I was doing. This greatly affected my happiness and confidence. My dad still loved all the work I was coming up with. I only saw the products on WhatsApp and Facebook as I worked on most of the products while in college, away from home.

Here are a few products I had worked on -

Medal for a challenge-based cycling event, made from MDF, an engineered wood that requires little investment but has a smooth surface finish.

Medal from plywood and finished with Touchwood, a synthetic finishing paint that gives a smooth, glossy coat over the wood surface.

Memento presented to the participants of a cycle rally across India, with the main graphic being the route taken by the riders.

An attempt at communicating as much information as possible through space constraints - the client wanted the names of all temples visited during the trip, as well as a graphic of the temple and other details of the ride. This was presented to all the participants of the ride.

Sometimes, a silly metaphor can work pretty well - the client liked this exploration so much they decided to use this design for the event medal.

Exploring graphic compositions that had to include the mandatory image in the background required me to go back to the basics of my design courses and work my way through

A fridge magnet made for a banker-turned-entreprenuer involved in organic, traditional and sustainable farming practices.

Nameboards made for a sound mixing and recording studio in Chennai.

The constraints in this workflow of wood and laser cutting were ensuring adequete contrast, black and white visuals - the surface is either engraved or spared by the laser to create the visuals. Also, the size limits for the medals and mementos are often imposed by cost constraints by the clients. That requires care to ensure the engraving and cutting costs come within the budget.

After coming back home in November of 2019, I was able to see the entire journey of the product from raw material, laser cutting and finishing to create the final products. This, along with first hand accounts of customer feedback gave me more confidence in my work. Dad showed the customers' feedback that was usually a WhatsApp message or voice note, which was positive most of the time. I changed myself to look at work as a means to provide more value through my skills, rather than do just "product design" related work. Now, I feel happy and proud of my contribution to Maneys Creations in Wood.

P.S. Here's the link for Maneys Creations in Wood - https://www.maneys.org/