Vikram Goyal on bringing Indian craftsmanship to the worldwide stage
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Previously few years, Vikram Goyal has been on the forefront of India‘s emergence onto the worldwide design scene. His eponymous New Delhi studio, famend for its limited-edition steel repoussé work – now discovered at Nilufar in Milan, The Future Good within the USA, and Curio and Abask within the UK – has been showcasing the potential of Indian craft to the world. However Goyal is the primary to level out that he’s neither an artisan nor a designer, however slightly somebody who operates in a ‘third house’ – shaping concepts, supplies, and craftsmanship into one thing totally new.
His journey started removed from the world of craft and interiors. Skilled as an engineer, Goyal initially pursued a profession in improvement economics, finding out at Princeton earlier than working as an economist at Morgan Stanley. His early years in finance took him from New York to Hong Kong and Morocco. But, regardless of his success, he felt unfulfilled. The company world provided little room for his deep-seated appreciation of aesthetics, heritage, and materials tradition – passions that, he says, had at all times lingered within the background of his life.
Mesa Trio console by Vikram Goyal which will likely be debuted at Nilufar Depot throughout Milan Design Week 2025
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
In 2000, amid the dot-com growth, he made a daring transfer again to India, initially exploring alternatives within the rising digital sector. However it was his enduring fascination with indigenous craft and design that finally outlined his path. As co-founder of Kama Ayurveda, he helped translate centuries-old wellness traditions into a up to date holistic skincare model. Nevertheless, it was via his eponymous metalwork studio arrange in 2002 – and its sister model, VIYA, a extra accessible life-style model launched final 12 months – that he totally embraced his position as a cultural interpreter, bridging the hole between conventional Indian craftsmanship and international up to date design.
This brass cupboard for Nilufar, known as Shaded Graphite, showcases the studio’s ‘hole joinery’ method
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
Your studio is understood for its repoussé metalwork and craftsmanship. Are you able to inform us about the way it operates and what units it aside?
The important thing factor about our work is that we work in steel. I began this about 23 years in the past, and whereas most within the discipline use solid steel—pouring wax into moulds—we work with sheet steel. It is available in rolls, that are then handled and formed into three-dimensional kinds.
I’m neither an artisan nor a designer; my position is to drive the workshop mannequin ahead. We now have about 200 individuals – artisans, engineers, and designers – who come collectively to create our work. As a result of now we have our personal workshop, we will push the boundaries in methods others cannot. If you happen to go to a foundry and ask them to make one thing, they received’t experiment a lot. However for us, every part occurs in our personal yard, permitting us to push the boundaries.
For us, every part occurs in our personal yard, permitting us to push the boundaries
Vikram Goyal
Considered one of our largest improvements is on the planet of repoussé. The method begins with an paintings, which is positioned onto a steel sheet, then flipped onto a mattress of wax. It’s then heated and chiseled from the again. Since you’re making use of strain from behind, the ultimate consequence isn’t seen till the very finish. Solely as soon as the piece is completed do you decide it up and see what you’ve truly created.
Goyal’s studio is understood for its pioneering use of the repoussé method, the place steel sheets are meticulously hand-shaped from the reverse facet to create intricate, three-dimensional kinds
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
Your work attracts from conventional Indian craftsmanship however reinterprets it in up to date methods. How do you steadiness custom and innovation?
Conventional sheet metalwork was used to create floor ornament for ceilings, temple doorways, and ritual vessels. We’ve taken that to a completely new dimension. Even inside repoussé, we’ve explored every part from chinoiserie to extra summary and minimal designs. Our work spans repoussé, brutalism, and what we name “hole joinery.”
The Circulate wall sconce options an intricate flowing water motif, crafted in brass repoussé
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
You have lately expanded past steel into different crafts via your new homeware model VIYA. What has that course of been like?
It has been exhilarating. And I maintain having to inform myself to cease working so arduous, as a result of I simply get so excited. Discovering cane was incredible – somebody got here to our studio and sat on the ground and began weaving. Six months later we have been supplying cane trolleys to Cabana journal. Then we began working with rope. India has a practice of rope beds [called charpais], so we began making tremendous up to date rope chairs. From there, we explored embroideries, block printing and completely different sorts of Kashmiri embroidery (an intricate craft, celebrated for its wealthy colors and detailed scenic motifs). I’ve a staff of designers engaged on the studio. I’ve groups of designers devoted to completely different supplies – steel, cane, smooth furnishings – and we simply began working with carpets. So it is an ongoing strategy of discovery.
A craftsperson in Goyal’s New Delhi studio works on a hole joinery piece
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
India’s design scene is getting extra worldwide consideration. How do you see the nation’s position within the international design panorama evolving?
It is unbelievable how so many issues have occurred : Dior doing its style present right here with the deal with the craft and on the embroideries (On March 30, 2023, beneath the inventive path of Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior introduced its Fall 2023 assortment on the historic Gateway of India in Mumbai which coincided with a trio of exhibitions within the metropolis); the opening of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, and now the arrival of Nilaya Anthology (the place Goyal’s studio has a devoted house). I see a rising sense of satisfaction amongst Indians in their very own heritage.
After I began, my thought was to maneuver past the ‘low-cost and cheerful’ notion of Indian design and assist restore its historic place as a worldwide chief in creativity, craft, and innovation. Now, the world is waking up.
For years, our studio was banging the drum for contemporary Indian design whereas customers have been nonetheless shopping for Italian. Now, I see they’re nonetheless shopping for Italian—however in addition they need a piece of contemporary India. There’s a rising sense of satisfaction, and that’s shifting demand. On the provision facet, too, extra designers are doing fascinating work. Yearly on the design festivals, I uncover unbelievable new Indian designers who’re pushing boundaries. It’s taking place on each ends – a gradual integration of Indian design sensibility into the worldwide panorama.
India has at all times been a producing powerhouse for international manufacturers, producing every part from style to carpets to brass. After I began, my thought was to maneuver past the ‘low-cost and cheerful’ notion of Indian design and assist restore its historic place as a worldwide chief in creativity, craft, and innovation. Now, the world is waking up.
A part of Goyal’s Circulate collection, this facet desk is crafted utilizing a mix of repoussé and hole joinery strategies
(Picture credit score: Vikram Goyal)
What’s subsequent for you and your studio?
Our merchandise are largely India-agnostic. By way of materiality, they’ve an inherently Indian high quality—the tones, the colors—however the design itself isn’t historically Indian. My objective is to construct a worldwide model that showcases the depth and breadth of Indian craftsmanship. On the identical time, every design is rooted in an Indian narrative—whether or not it attracts from a fable, fable, architectural type, or panorama. Each piece has a reputation and a narrative behind it.
In 2024, Goyal launched VIYA, a extra accessible life-style model with a set of items made out of steel, cane and textiles
(Picture credit score: VIYA)
