Smitha Zachariah loves to play with textures, colours and light. Space for her is like a canvas. You guessed right – Smitha is an interior designer.
After a course at Shristi School of Design and a Masters in Textiles from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Smitha started SZ Design. However, it wasn’t designing clothes but interior designing that captured her heart.
“A lot of textile and colours do come into my designs,” says Smitha. “In fact, most of my work is textile oriented.”
“It has been three years since I got into interior designing, a decision made out of sheer passion. But, today, I look back and see that I have learnt a lot on the job. All I need is an empty space and my brain starts working. First it’s the natural light that I want to play with.”
Smitha elaborates about how she adapts her designs according to the spaces she works with. “If I am working on an old building then I try to bring in a modern twist to it by using bright colours. I like to experiment with straight lines too; the colours I choose are dependent on space. I choose earthy tones for heritage properties. When it comes to modern properties, I try to create designs with vivacious colours such as hot pink, green or blue.”
About her work in the city Smitha says that the most challenging space for her design was the Bombay Attic, a lifestyle store. “It offered a small space. My challenge was to bring in the ‘wow factor’, for which I again brought it colours and textiles. I am also fascinated with prints on textiles.” The men’s lifestyle store – pudulifestyle is the other project she worked on where she used large black and white pictures against pale walls. Besides this she has also designed residences and corporate offices.
The reason, Smitha says, she is fascinated with design is because “for me it is all about lifestyle. For me style is all about colour. The core point is that I enjoy what I do. Ten years down the line I see the same fire in me for design.”
