{"id":13272,"date":"2026-08-04T11:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/?p=13272"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:55:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:55:59","slug":"no-mad-97-india-building-a-brand-by-looking-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/no-mad-97-india-building-a-brand-by-looking-elsewhere\/","title":{"rendered":"No-Mad 97% India: Building a Brand by Looking Elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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India is captivating.Everyone projects something onto it. Designers from all over the world arrive with open hands, ready to draw inspiration. Its colors, its embroideries, its ancient textiles \u2013 all of this has always nourished the collections of Western houses. India is a source. Generous, inexhaustible, sometimes unappreciated.
I arrive there. And I look elsewhere. <\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A Carte Blanche, a Paradox<\/h2>

In 2009, Anuj Kothari entrusted me with the artistic direction<\/a> of No-Mad. The mission was simple to state, yet dizzying to uphold: to create an Indian lifestyle brand, for Indians. To conceive the products, build the visual identity, select the objects, formulate the narrative. A complete carte blanche. <\/p>

He trusted a Belgian for this. And that is precisely where the project became interesting. <\/p>

The brand is called No-Mad. It defines itself: 97% Indian. The remaining 3% is me \u2013 my background, my eye trained elsewhere, my freedom not to know what one is supposed to see. This external perspective is not a limitation. It is the tool. <\/p>

I do not come to India to seek inspiration. I settle there, and I look for inspiration everywhere except where it is expected. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Tania Panova<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Viewing India from Elsewhere<\/h2>

No-Mad’s first reversal is geographical.<\/p>

For the printed fabric collection, my inspiration came from Fez. Moroccan embroidery, with its dense geometries and repeated rhythms, became the source of a line of table linen \u2013 reinterpreted, Indianized, but nourished by a savoir-faire from the Maghreb. For other prints, African waxes inspired me. These fabrics carry African visual codes, but I adapt them with motifs specific to Indian culture \u2013 a transfer, a hybridization. <\/p>

Moroccan Berber rugs inspired geometric patterns that found their place on cushions made in Mumbai. Jain cosmology \u2013 with its circular vision of time, its rejection of straight lines \u2013 became the foundation of an entire collection. <\/p>

This movement \u2013 looking outward to better see inward \u2013 is at the heart of the No-Mad method. We are far from decorative cross-cultural blending. It is a question posed: what can India absorb, reinterpret, make its own? The answer, each time, is surprising. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Tania Panova - Sameer Tawde<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Looking Down at What No One Looks at Anymore<\/h2>

The second reversal is more discreet. But perhaps more radical. <\/p>

In Indian streets, there are objects everywhere. Objects so present, so commonplace, that no one sees them anymore. The familiar gaze no longer even registers them. My foreign gaze, however, stops. <\/p>

Aluminum containers, for example. Humble, popular tableware \u2013 the tableware of the poor, they say. No one makes candle holders out of them. I do. They become the containers for No-Mad candles: simple, graphic, carrying a social history that people recognize without being able to fully explain why it resonates with them. <\/p>

The muddah, an iconic straw stool of the chaiwallas \u2013 these tea vendors found on every street corner in Mumbai or Delhi \u2013 is revisited in metal and rope. Same shape, new material, new lifespan. The Charpoy, this wooden and string bed present for centuries in courtyards and on sidewalks, becomes a daybed. The round and generous thali plates are repurposed as table accessories. The accountant’s notebooks, with their tight lines and rough paper, enter the collection. <\/p>

And then there is the rakhi. This friendship bracelet, tied each year during the Raksha Bandhan festival, exchanged between siblings as a protective bond. A thread, tassels, a promise. I design one for No-Mad<\/a> \u2013 discreet, precise, imbued with what Indians know by heart. <\/p>

This work on the everyday neither idealizes nor is nostalgic. It simply asks a question: Can the mundane be reborn in a new aesthetic? The answer is always yes. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A Single Sign Suffices<\/h2>

Building No-Mad’s visual identity means establishing a single sign and adhering to it consistently.<\/p>

Red. Everywhere, without hesitation. Red as joy in India. Red as fertility, good omen, circulating energy. Red is in the packaging, on the hand-stitched fabric tags, on the packaging, on the cotton pouches. There is no nuance, no hesitation \u2013 red is red, and it is given without subtlety. <\/p>

And then there is Nandi. The sacred bull, present in all temples, crossing the streets without anyone being surprised. I chose him as the brand’s icon \u2013 his effigy drawn, sometimes bare, sometimes adorned with motifs illustrating No-Mad’s DNA. Simple, raw, powerful. An animal that Indians have known since childhood and no longer truly see. <\/p>

It is also the bindi \u2013 that red dot on the forehead, a code of Indian life \u2013 that No-Mad integrates into its graphic play, always with respect, always with a touch of humor.<\/p>

Strong. Simple. Timeless. 97% Indian. The press understood it immediately. From its launch, No-Mad was recognized as a brand \u2013 not as a project. There is a radicality in this identity that leaves no one indifferent. When a sign is right, there is no need to explain it. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Tania Panova - Sameer Tawde<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From Screen to Street<\/h2>

No-Mad began online. For several years, the brand existed only on a screen \u2013 which, in India, for an object design brand in 2013, was already a choice in itself. <\/p>

In 2015, the first exhibition: Design ID in New Delhi. A necessary step \u2013 to showcase the objects, allow people to touch them, and observe reactions live. In 2017, No-Mad set up its own caf\u00e9 at Design ID. A space designed as a home, not a stand. People entered, sat down, lived with the objects. <\/p>

In 2018, the first boutique opened. In the labyrinth of Mumbai’s grand bazaar, in the heart of the Mangaldas fabric market \u2013 No-Mad was the first brand to establish itself there. This choice of location was not insignificant: a contemporary design boutique in the heart of where artisans come to buy their raw materials. A physical, deliberate return to roots. <\/p>

Each step positioned the brand further within Indian reality. It is not a brand that speaks of India from the outside. It exists within. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 Tania Panova<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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What This Adventure Leaves Behind<\/h2>

In 2020, it’s time to let the brand move forward without me.<\/em><\/p>

No-Mad had grown, developed its boutique, expanded its ranges. The codes were there \u2013 some of them, at least. But something had shifted. <\/p>

What gave No-Mad its energy was not the red or Nandi. It was the question that gave birth to them. That gaze which refused to look where everyone else was looking. That dual movement \u2013 outward to find, downward to reveal. When the question disappears, the signs remain but they no longer speak in the same way. <\/p>

What this adventure left me is more enduring than the brand itself: the conviction that a brand identity is not a style. It is a way of seeing. <\/p>

My adventure with No-Mad lasted seven years. Seven years building something from a paradoxical position \u2013 foreign yet inside, informed yet free. <\/p>

What guided me throughout was less a vision than a well-placed doubt. The doubt of one who does not yet know what she will find, but who knows exactly how to search. <\/p>

A brand does not begin with an answer. It begins with a question no one else thought to ask. <\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India is captivating.Everyone projects something onto it. Designers from all over the world arrive with open hands, ready to draw inspiration. Its colors, its embroideries, its ancient textiles \u2013 all of this has always nourished the collections of Western houses. India is a source. Generous, inexhaustible, sometimes unappreciated. I arrive there. And I look elsewhere. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[229],"tags":[510,508,511,509,512],"class_list":["post-13272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dna-and-archives","tag-branding-artisanat-indien","tag-creation-de-marque-artisanale-inde","tag-design-objet-inde","tag-identite-de-marque-artisanale","tag-valerie-barkowski-inde"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/no-mad-inde-marque-black-collection-banner.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13272"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15257,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions\/15257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valeriebarkowski.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}