Working with our Founder, Nivi Murthy, we at IKKIVI, spend a lot of time together on different themes, ideas and intentions. In the everyday hubbub of our projects, we’d been missing out on some conversations we’ve wanted to have with her for a while - conversations around the heart of her inspirations, experiences over the last couple of years, and the processes she sees entrepreneurs and ethical businesses need to be a part of. We got to meet with her this month and have a heartwarming dialogue about all this and more, and even learn about what she has planned for our newest vertical - ‘The IKKIVI Podcast’.
Questioning deleterious models of production and translating experimental materials into novel wares, the home furnishing brand Mianzi is heralding new ways of understanding design and products, and our relationships to them. At IKKIVI, we had a conversation with its co-founders, Shashank Gautaum and Ananta Varshney, on their journey into the venture, and the conceptual, material and social features that underlie their (sustainable) design initiative.
Having impacted all businesses and commercial undertakings profoundly, the economic deceleration – and in many instances, closure – that has extended with the onset of nationwide lockdowns has had an especially exaggerated effect on small businesses. At IKKIVI Zine, we spoke with a few small business owners from India on the state of commerce, their individual experiences and the business reorganisations apprehended by them.