Aakash Kedia and Kevat Padh are not your usual collegians. These final year visual communication students at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, came up with Dukaan, a Bangalore based lifestyle and home décor studio.
According to Aakash, “We decided on the name Dukaan back in our first year — following the basic concept of the shop around the corner, where you can find everything.”
Ask them what gives Dukaan its edge and the co-founder explains: “Our simple aesthetics, product quality and value for money differentiate us from other stores. Our aim is to bring simple minimal design in the general Indian market on products of everyday use.”
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At Dukaan, one can buy everything from notebooks to cushion covers, backpacks, tote bags and laptop sleeves, among other products. The duo currently operates through their Facebook business page (facebook.com/thedukaan) and via email. With the focus on ‘value for money’, these products fall in the price range of Rs. 150 to Rs. 1500. Dukaan has a physical presence at flea markets across Bangalore every now and then and has also been part of other festivals like Litmus ’14 and Construkt ’14.
“It’s been a journey where we enjoy what we are doing with its own peaks and troughs,” Kevat says. “As a start up there is always a challenge of working with limited resources. And on a personal front, it’s about maintaining a right balance between college hours and Dukaan. Besides living away from home and on our own, it was also quite a challenge to cough up enough capital through freelance work to start something like this.”
Future plans include “creating a fully functional web store, and making our products available across lifestyle stores in Bangalore and other metros,” Aakash informs.
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This column features those who choose to veer off the beaten track