AgTalk | Honouring creative work: Kyoorius' Rajesh Kejriwal

Since 2006, Kyoorius has galvanized the design community in India by creating and curating one of the world’s biggest and best annual conferences on design. More so Kyoorius has been on the forefront of connecting the creative world, within India and with the rest of the world, through various design activities, including the annual Kyoorius Designyatra and regular publications such as Kyoorius Design Showcase and Kyoorius Magazine. Kyoorius is a not for profit initiative by Transasia Fine Papers Pvt Ltd.

A word about the two reputed partners will not be out of place here. The D&AD Yellow Pencil is recognised world over as the most prestigious amongst creative awards. D&AD is a membership organisation, awards programme and educational charity representing the global design and advertising community. On the other hand The International Advertising Association is the world's only globally — focused integrated advertising trade association with membership representing advertising agencies and the media. The IAA comprises of 56 chapters with individual members and young professionals from 76 countries.

Coming back to the Kyoorius awards, with nine categories spanning print, packaging, digital, retail and design for good, they will not only recognize professionals but give real focus to young talent with the student awards. A jury comprising of some of the best creative minds from across the world has been carefully selected by D&AD together with Kyoorius. The Kyoorius Awards ceremony will be held at the 9th Annual Kyoorius Designyatra in Goa on 29th August, 2013.

In the words of Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder CEO, Kyoorius, “we are working everyday to ensure that talent is nurtured and fresh ideas see the light of day. Kyoorius Awards aim to
recognize and honour outstanding creative work in India. We are thankful to our esteemed partners D&AD and IAA (India Chapter) for coming on board to support this initiative.”

To find out more, Adgully caught up with Rajesh Kejriwal. Aptly termed a design evangelist, Kejriwal founded ‘Kyoorius’ as a platform for design community that is helping fuel design movement. He is the chief architect and driver behind Kyoorius Design Yatra– India’s largest and world’s second largest annual design conference, and is the chief editor and publisher of Kyoorius Design Magazine and Kyoorius Design Showcase book. the Kyoorius group of companies with over eighteen offices in India, Singapore, Malaysia, London, Madrid, New York, Vienna, etc. Kejriwal is also Director & Partner of Saffron Brand Consultants– a Strategic brand consultancy firm headed by Wally Olins with offices in Mumbai, Madrid, London and New York. He has been a jury at the Dutch Design Awards, British Council Young Entrepreneurs Awards and Association of Business Communicators Awards.

Following are the excerpt of the conversation.

Adgully (AG): How has been your journey so far and about the early years of Kyoorius. Are you satisfied with your journey?

Rajesh Kejriwal (RK):  I am a first generation entrepreneur and we used to earlier trade in the tea business. I had a lot of friends who were into paper business and that’s how with my partners I established a paper business. We approached JK group and they were coming out with first of its kind branded paper. We are today also one of the great partners of JK papers. Then going forward down the line in 1997 we realized that we should have something more in our kitty. So we spoke to other players like Arjo Wiggins Fine Paper etc in the market who have their own branded products so as to expand our hands. With them we introduced creative fine papers, the first of its kind in India. That’s how we entered the world of branded papers and design mixed together.

After realizing that competition has increased and the need for something different, we launched Kyoorius Designyatra which is our first CSR initiative to make our presence felt. In order to build Kyoorius as a platform we turned it into a non-profit organisition and planned to do many initiatives under that umbrella that will act as a platform for the designers.

We have come a long way and reached the position that we are in today. I am satisfied with the journey so far, it has been very exciting.

AG: After turning it into a non-profit organization what were the goals that you had in mind?

RK: Our goal is establish Kyoorius design movement in India and to galvanize it to bring in a lot of exposure and learning into this space. The main vision was to make the corporate use designer as a strategic tool and not an aesthetical tool. So we wanted to make the professionals understand that it is not only about logo but it is about creating a logo that portrays the DNA of the company.

AG: Well, when you entered in this domain it was quite niche. So wasn’t it a challenge to tap the untouched space?

RK: Yes of course it was challenging. But the response we were getting from the designers for our events and initiatives motivate us a lot. It took a lot of time to convince the designers about the branded movement we wanted to establish in India. The two large challenges include:  first, the acceptability & need of the industry that need such a platform like ours and making the designers feel that this platform would give them recognition in the industry. Secondly, the design education in India was close to unknown and was lacking behind. So, to make the students realize that they in the interesting field was also a challenge.

AG: How did the entire concept of design and branded design grown in stature and how has been the evolvement in the last couple of years?

RK: Well, of course the concept faced initial problems in gaining acceptance. However this is at good time as people have now realized the fact that it involves a lot of understanding and research while designing. The concept developed slowly and steadily but if we see the last few years the graph has been only going up.

AG: Going further down the line how does the roadmap look like?

RK: Though the organization is a non-profit one and would want to make it a non-for-loss one too, we do not have a fixed plan. But yes, our aim and immediate plan is to build a platform for the designers. So what we were doing is establishing small and meaning full goals for the designers. We have small agenda: one is to give exposure to the designers, second is to bridge the gap between the students: the trainers and the trainees so for this we sponsor faculty members; thirdly we want to fill in the gaps with something innovative like The Showcase Book we did. 

AG: Name some people who have influenced & impressed you always?

RK: One is my friend and co-founder Kay Khoo who has been one of the most knowledgeable individual that I have ever met. Then I have been always mentored by some of the best speakers like Wally Olines of O&M and many more who have left a strong imprint.

AG: Give us a sense of the entire awards initiative and how your association with IAA falls into place?

RK: Well, we wanted to establish an award property that is real, with complete integrity. It takes a long time for the organizers to get credibility about an award show. It involves a lot of learning and to get into the league it takes time. So we decided that though we are not experts why not partner with expert. So we decided to partner with IAA which is an established body of advertising. We want best entries rather large number of entries. We do not have any Gold, Silver or Bronze award. We believe that if under a particular category, Jury feels there should be three awards then we will have three winners. So the entire process will depend on the quality of work we will get and the entire idea is actually to celebrate the quality talent. The best work will win. With IAA and D&AD on board we are quite satisfied since they have all senior level people in the team.

AG: If you wouldn’t have been in this profession then what?

RK: To be very honest, it would have been really tough and I really do not know what I would have been. But today if you see I have worn many hats, we have paper business, we are still in the tea business and much more so I have always learnt from what I have done and that has been the best philosophy ever.