The Ingenious Quirk of being "That" Creativepreneur

Diamonds in the rough?

Nope! Better call them Diamonds in the tough - read this interview as The Quirk Box unfolds its successful treaty of being entrepreneurs.

Quirk Box: I founded Quirk Box in 2011 as an Art-based Lifestyle label. The aesthetic was playful, vibrant, and energetic. The ideology of my work, as an artist, resonated with the name. It seemed to have a good ring to it and it stuck!

We went through a barrage of options until this sounded just about right. Quirk Box Design was the natural transition into the branding studio in 2017.

Quirk Box: What excites us is watching our work translate into different mediums; watching it is creating on or create an artwork or an illustration or a visual that finds itself as a fabric print and transforms into a fashion garment, or textile that wraps itself around as an upholstery on a sofa, or artwork on the packaging and so forth. The application is what is exciting.

The ability to put the art onto different mediums and keep pushing that further onto diverse products and product categories.

Quirk Box: We have grown organically. We continue to create a strong visual brand language and translate that to the brands that we work for. We strive to keep doing this and get recognised for it.

We love working with startups because it also allows us to be involved in design mentorntors to brands that are often more open-minded than larger brands that are fixated on their corporate guidelines.

In the future I see myself working as a digital nomad, not being bound by coming!

Quirk Box: I am formally educated in Communication Design, which instinctively allows me to think from a branding, brand-building perspective. But I am also inherently an artist. The combination of both, Quirk Box - the apparel brand, and Quirk Box Design Studio - the Branding Agency, act as mediums to showcase a common aesthetic.

However, The Design Studio is more adaptive to consumer understanding and brand needs. While the apparel brand allows us more freedom to play without any guidelines or rules. They are both equally challenging and exciting.

Quirk Box: It is absolutely right to say that we are living in the golden era of packaging aesthetics. The freedom, innovation, and visual storytelling that clients are open to have never been this forthright.

"Perfect", in a creative context, is subjective. However, I can state that a good packaging design should create a brand story. In order for it to be an effective packaging, the design must take into account its consumers, their emotions, and the cultural aspects of design.

It must be attractive and intriguing; it must have the ability to stay distinct in a competitive market.

I have had the pleasure and distinction of working on a few projects that allowed us abundant freedom to explore and be creative in the visual language, and with these kinds of projects, we have created quite remarkable work.

In the recent past, we have been fortunate to pick a bunch of awards and accolades for some of these projects in the Beauty, FMCG, and Tech industries.

Quirk Box: I believe the struggle is permanent. Being a creativepreneur is essentially showing up to work each day to firefight a new challenge. When you first start your challenge is to find clients, find recognition, and have a voice.

But, as you scale forward, your ambitions grow with them, both as a studio and as an individual, and you find yourself in a newer challenge, some of which you bring upon yourself.

We are never truly content, unfortunately, and we keep striving for more, so, perhaps some of those challenges are self-inflicted.

Quirk Box: Mood boarding is highly important. A lot of clients may not always have visualisation skills or might have a very different initial approach to a project. As a hired creative, it is the responsibility of the designer to lead, to be coercive, and to channel the client into what is right for the brand even if it may not agree with them.

Mood boarding, as a reference, works as a communication bridge between the client and the designer.

Each studio has a peculiar aesthetic and style. When a client reaches out to you, it is because they were driven by your strength, and perhaps, in the hindsight, they expect you not to stray too far from your style. Technically, the safe approach would be to do exactly that.

(dropping the truth bomb, casually) Safe is not what we do though!

Quirk Box: Flat Vector Style 2D Illustration. There are very few designers in the Indian space that are doing this type of illustration right!

Quirk Box: I am personally not a fan or advocate of minimalism in design. Minimalism seemed radical for a hot second. But, now, in a highly saturated space, many, if not all products, are lost to and because of minimalism.

Quirk Box: There is plenty of work for all generations. What the 'veterans' bring is experience, insight, intuition, and a proven record of building brands, while the Gen-z has a radical or fresh perspective on the outlook.

It is important for us, as a studio, to come in with the experience and expertise but, always stay fresh with our design approach.

Quirk Box: Resilience and Patience; the ability to trust your craft, your strengths as an artist, your ability to build brands for your clients and the confidence on your perception, intuition and decision when building brands for clients.

It is a constant evolution which, for most part, moves forward each year.

Quirk Box: Iccon was a big project and we were on it since its inception. The story was about mass outreach through a unique visual language. It was to cater to Tier II and III cities through a more Tier I aesthetic - to create a highly aspirational brand for a highly affordable product. 

Strong ideation of a multitude of personalities, potential consumers, and the audience was taken into account and factored into the brand story through illustrations, character illustrations building brand personalities, and yet find a very refreshing Design in a crowded tech accessory space.

Quirk Box: Creativity, always.

Quirk Box: A lot of the designs are instinctive. This might not sound idealistic and cannot be taught, but I do work with instincts.

I believe I have a strong understanding of visualization and brand strategy, and when you have an artist and Illustrator as good as Priyanka on your team who can visualise and translate instincts into context, Brainstorming becomes a lot easier.

These are inherent traits and strengths that work seamlessly together.

Quirk Box: JC Desevre, Studio Muti, Markus Magnusson are of the Illustrators whose works I love.

As a Fine Artist, I am obsessed with Picasso and Dali.

Quirk Box: The year started slowly in terms of the number of projects we usually indulge in, but we finished solid without having to decline opportunities because we were overbooked.

We bagged two IBDAs this year and have a project that we started working on in 2022 that should release early this year that we are very excited about.

It has been a strong year in terms of the variety of work we produced and the quality and consistency with which we're able to adapt to each project.

Quirk Box: "Space Cadet" The 2020 Resort Wear Collection that we designed to be showcased at Fashion Week, which got undone due to the pandemic, was definitely one of our most passionate endeavours that we were confident of both creatively and technically.

Quirk Box: We are in the middle of an exciting project that is likely to be plastered all across the country. We are currently working on it, but it should see the light of day soon.

We are also in the midst of a few international projects and collaborations with artists and designers; unfortunately, we can not name names just yet.

We are also trying to figure out a way to incorporate the digital nomad lifestyle into the studio, encouraging travel and new experience with a whole new perspective on work and conducting our lives.