108% Indian Creativity Deck is a visioning and thinking tool based on Indian Cultural elements. These facets are drawn from across India – through a combination of abstract illustrations, text and thought-provoking questions, which will power your imagination as you engage with Indian concepts.
Apart from its creative edge, the deck is an ensemble and celebrates Indian-ness in a way that tells us much more about the layers of history, art, architecture, traditions and what we stand for. It has proved to be a unique cultural gift, a souvenir for anyone who is interested in knowing more about India. People who are new to India, curious about India, want to know more – can take a “pack of India” back with them and harness a wee bit of India’s culture.
Made By
Neelakantan (Neel) – a typical engineer- MBA wedded to a corporate career until he discovered his calling- creative problem-solving. Along the way, he discovered creating games as a passion. He applies this to Indian culture ad heritage which he feels is ripe for a rich reinterpretation in order to make it relevant in the current context. It is with this drive that he co-founded Coolture Designs along with like-minded partners Charusmitha Rao. Currently, they have a game based on Antakshri (Playback) and an Indian creativity toolkit – 108% Indian, apart from culture-based products like ‘Temple Trails’ postcards series and ‘Bengaluru in a dabbi’. In the works are a few more prototypes which he hopes will see the light of day soon.
Tapan Mittal-Deshpande – Conservation Architect by profession, decided to expand her horizons from ruins to living traditions and cultures. Through her experience in historic indigenous settlements and live community-based design projects, she leads her passions through Thotpot, a collective for like-minded individuals. Co-founded with her partner and way-finder, Niket Deshpande, currently, they have programs for alternate livelihoods working with the hand-made and sustainability. Thotpot studio is an incubation space driving any idea from its imagination to its reality and is popularly known to make things happen.
The Journey
3 odd years ago, Neel was working with a client on a Design Thinking project. One of the phases of design thinking is ideation. And in one of the first workshops that were held, they realised that people found it difficult to “ideate” beyond obvious and adjacent themes. The client then asked him to create a brainstorming tool. Before doing so, he looked to see if there were creativity tools in the market – and realised that the only tools available were American and European. That led him to think, why not create an Indian creativity tool, After all, there is so much richness in Indian thoughts, approaches and culture, why not tap into it?
At that time all he had was an xl sheet with this idea and a set of sketches created as a concept. That’s when he metTapan and Niket, who through their involvement in the largest Art Program in the country at Mumbai International Airport were in the process of creating a portal of 108 unique elements of India. Serendipity brought them together into a happy collision and thus began a collaboration between Coolture & Thotpot.
Harsh Pandya then got on board – who as you will see in the cards is a fantastic illustrator and brought another divergent viewpoint to each card. So, this has been a very “Indian” collaborative approach with each person putting in their work into this passion that, 108% Indian. And this is a collaboration that will continue.
Customer –
Go for it…
Amazingly cool cards. Very simple yet insightful – should apply to any team, nature of business, etc. Surprisingly my son was curious and he too was able to make cool inferences that relate to him. Definitely worth a buy.
Himani –
A unique set of cards.
Liked the visual representation and the metaphors and similes used in the card set. Highly recommended for everyday problem-solving.
Sujit –
100% Indian- Made in India
Excellent product for bringing out creativity and for brainstorming with an Indian cultural touch.