A very interesting article at Design Observer about design thinking in India. Everyday items such as saris, hand-painted signs and bicycle seats are made with remarkable ingenuity and embellished with great attention to detail.

From the essay: “Design might be thought of as a two-stage process, the functional and the elaborated. First, the functional requirement is fulfilled — a chair, a cup, a lamp, a sari. The process could end with the simple, usable object, but this lowest-common-denominator problem-solving is often not enough for both makers and users, who long for something more profound — an aesthetic ‘adjustment,’ a deliberate attempt to make the functional object beautiful.”

Read more: The Subtle Technology of Indian Artisanship