Session 18 summary
Designing Souvenirs and Memories
Shalinee used to take a lot of photography assignments with her partner to escape from their filmmaking and communication designing work. There were some instances in these assignments which led to the birth of FroggMag. One was, when a Korean group was visiting a monument where Shalinee and her partner were doing an assignment and one of the guy from that group was asking for souvenirs but there were none present. The person was quite annoyed and when meeting and having a chat with them he said that Indians have such great heritage but nothing to offer in terms of what a tourist can take back as souvenirs, this stayed with Shalinee for a long time. The other incident was that some kids were hitting a monument with sticks, when she tried to reason and advise them not to do it, they listened carefully and stopped. This made her realize that there is a need to spread awareness, a need to tell people about the monuments. Also there was the situation of what was already available was lacking in so many ways. Another incident which had a great impact was when a friend who was visiting wanted to carry a bit of the things they had seen and take it back. With this Shalinee and her partner took a plunge and did 3 new products, first one was the fridge magnet with four little magnets and they wanted to take the details of the monument Taj Mahal, the details of the art and the story about the image was attached to the product. The next product was six bits of fridge magnet of Humayun’stomb with details that people would go looking for or have seen it and would like to carry it back. They also started looking at the vibrant palette the country has to offer, like the streets, bazaars, truck-traffic, graffiti, etc. and came up with their third product the magnetic bookmarks. These were not only designs but they were venturing into making new products on all the things this country has to offer. The response to these products were very good and they got the offer to show their products and things broadened from there to puzzles, stationary, etc. As they were growing their range, people started approaching them and suddenly a whole new world of possibilities, as far as India is concerned, opened up and soon their holidays became work and work became their holidays.
The first assignment they got was to make four products for the National Museum, New Delhi. They developed a range of curations of the collection which was displayed. It was a first time for them to get to work with high quality images. The next assignment was the Rashtrapati Bhavan. They were invited to look at the shop and the souvenirs sold there, where they realized that the products were not very well thought of and had no design. These products didn’t do justice to the place which they represented. So Shalinee and her team contacted for taking photographs and make their own range of products using the motifs of the gate, ceilings, floors, etc. Fridge magnets were made using the motifs of the floors, carpets for earrings, pouches and stationary, a whole gift set out of a ceiling piece, etc. All these products started becoming the state gifts. Within the limitations of working with the government and the restrictions that were there, they managed to create something that the people liked. They had an assignment for Nehru Memorial, which had a personality they had to make a product out of. So they took the lighter side of Nehru being an animal lover and made fridge magnets. The whole idea for this assignment was not only to reach out to those who know him( Nehru) but also the younger crowd, so they gave the products a pop color which was something that would attract the younger generation. They also worked with WWF, where the whole approach became different as they were looking at the issues to do with sustainability, so the whole character of the images changes. Their biggest project was working with the Rajasthan Government. The Government wanted the tourists to know/see more of the Rajasthan. So the FroggMag team travelled quite a bit looking for details and they came up with a range of products. They made scarves and lights with the motifs of the architecture of the monuments, party platters were made out of the ceiling motifs, bookmarks of the door pieces and jewelleries of the stained glasses. They also built mobile souvenir kiosks, which are self-sustainable and can be rolled around in the monument. The idea for the kiosks were taken from the Kavad, a traditional mobile story telling product and the kiosks tries to do the same with the products displayed on them.
The next big thing was that they started working with tribal art and artists. Their products already had a heritage and monument aspect, so they also started looking at folk art and artists. Since her children were quite eager to play games, Shalinee wanted to expose them to art through puzzles and games. But nothing was available, so she started exploring and found that the market was amazing and eternally contemporary. They first developed games and puzzles and then proceeded with making stationaries. These were so vibrant that they were very popular. So they moved on to making home products, jewelry and scarves. Recently after the pandemic they realized that just commissioning the artist was not enough because there was hardly any work for them. So they started a range where the artist makes a piece which is made into a product. So for every piece they will be paid for the artwork. They have a very large number of artists who work with them and an Artist Royals Program is also started. FroggMag also did a creative dignity in which TDF partnered with them to sell a few of the artworks of the artist to help them in their difficult time.
About the Speaker
Shalinee Ghosh
Designer & Entrepreneur
Founder, FroggMag
Gurgaon
Shalinee is a Communication Design graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She has specialised in Film and Video and her experimental student film I Sing the Body Electric made it to several International Film Festivals. Her interaction with other experimental filmmakers abroad exposed her to the whole new world of films for New Media. Shalinee is the founder of FroggMag. From stationery, gifts and games through home decor and lifestyle items to jewellery and fashion accessories – FroggMag has a range of more than two hundred products. Each of them are intertwined with the country’s rich heritage whether it’s through history, art, culture. The brand specialises in working with various museums and institutions to customise and create memorabilia.
