WHAT LIES BEYOND

Vivek Raju

Senior Experience Designer at Designit

Having worked for companies like Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies, Vivek Raju is currently a senior experience designer at Designit. He initiated his career designing watches, laptops, and speakers, eventually starting on a path of creating stories for seminars, training, and entertainment. Here’s him taking us through a journey of dimensions in and beyond design.

Arran slowly opened his eyes. “Happy Birthday!” he said to himself. The day that he’d been waiting for has finally come. Like everyone else in the kingdom, on his 17th birthday, he too will get to choose his ‘life craft’. He could be anything he wanted - mud moulder, ore shaper, lockmaster, myco-wizard, mathmagician...but he knew exactly what he wanted to be - a torch bearer. Unlike other crafts, the torchbearers showcased their creativity by building the most exquisite torches. Arran knew he was creative and believed that the purpose of his life was to pursue the craft of torch-bearing and to create the most ingenious torch in the world.

After a grand welcome ceremony at the gates of the castle of crafts, he slowly walked into the torchbearers’ tower along with a few others. As he stepped inside the archway, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The hallways gleamed brightly. He observed a hefty red-headed man craft tiny torches that fit into a man’s palm but emitted photons that could light up a street, and a druid construct an amber flame torch that discerns the souls of those the light falls upon.

Arran, without wasting a minute excitedly walked towards his station. He had two weeks to put his soul into the project and survive in the castle. He dove into his toolbox and worked day and night to build the most innovative torch, his idea revolved around a combination that no one had thought of. After watching and learning from the other torchbearers, he carefully combined the hydra generator with a photon flamer. “Water and fire, what an unusual combination!” Arran thought to himself.

The mere absurdity of this idea pushed him to try harder and find a way to make them coexist. But every time he brought the water molecules close to the fire, they either evaporated, or the fire fizzled out. He accidentally added some plasma to the mixture the day before the final test. Suddenly, the two opposing elects began to coexist. His torch was finally ready!

His ingenious creation that illuminated water molecules around it won a lot of praise, and Arran finally felt accomplished. He stayed at the castle to improve and adapt his magical creation. Somehow, Arran was not as excited as he thought he would be. As time passed, he worried about his future in the tower. He got gloomier and slowly started losing interest in everything.

Shirool was one of the senior torchbearers’ who stayed in the castle. He would go on long-eventful adventures and return to the castle to enlighten everyone on what he had learned along the journey. Shirool noticed Arran in agony and he decided to help him. He thought Arran needed a change of environment. Shirool informed Arran that, his close friend, a biome engineer, was facing trouble with his flora plantation and needed help. Though not immediately, Arran complied to help.

Upon arriving at the plantation, he noticed that the plants in one part of the plantation were dying mysteriously despite getting ample sunlight and manure. The only possible problem Arran could think of was a blockage in one of the hydro channels. “If only we could gauge how much water was reaching the plantation without disrupting the lush vegetation”, he thought. That’s when he realized that his Hydraphoton torch could be used to check the water flow. Upon flashing it on the plants he could see the block that was causing the death of the plants. He never thought that the torch he invented could have such a use.

Having resolved the problem at hand, he started to notice things in a different light. He noticed the iron beam torch bearer helping the lockmaster clean up the deficiencies in their locks. The blood flame torch bearer was helping the medicalibrator treat the sick.

The epiphany caused Arran to rush to Shirool and enquired, “Why are all the torchbearers helping other craft folks?” Shirool replied, “What if I told you that making the torch was never the end goal?” that’s when it hit him - it is not the torch but it is about how you can use it to the best of its capacities. “So, you mean to say, making a torch is only the beginning! The real journey is to figure out how I can use it?” Shirool smiled wisely. ***

I entered the world of design just because I dreamt of designing beautiful watches, laptops, and speakers. Even cars. I started with the intention of learning “how to create beautiful things”. It took me a while to shift my quest to “how to create beautiful things”. As my focus shifted to the “how”, I realized that I could apply my learnings anywhere. Most designers I know created unique design frameworks and used them to create magical outcomes in varied and unexpected domains. Domains like agriculture, healthcare, space exploration, child psychology, and many more. If you’ve reached this far into this article, you might have guessed what I design.

I design Stories. Stories for education, fun, work, workshops, presentations, events, and everything else! On the theme of ‘Beyond Dimensions’, I was tasked to write about fields/industries that fall outside the “design bubble”. Want to know my thoughts? — No field can fall beyond the reach of design. To me, design is a set of steps you follow to ensure the best possible outcome. Anywhere!

I wanted to convey this message by designing the story above. Design is like the torch in the story, as you build one for yourself, you can choose where you want to shine it. If you ever feel there is still something beyond the reach of its light, remember, you can always go back and build a floodlight and simply call it a big torch.

Beyond is just where the light hasn’t reached. Yet!