Rubberband
A design brand making products for the modern world

Ajay Shah is an industrial/furniture designer based in Mumbai, India. After graduating from the National Insitute of Design in Ahmedabad, he started ASDS (Ajay Shah Design Studio) in 1991 and now serves as the principal designer. As a passion project, he started Rubberband in 2008 with the view of creating functional yet fun products that closely follow his design ideologies. Besides his own product developments, he finds stimulation while collaborating with international designers. He considers himself lucky to have his design heroes come on board to design special collections for Rubberband.

The first Rubberband product was made in 2008. Since then, its team has continued to fire the desire to create products that express a design sensibility that they enjoy. They have always been drawn to making objects that are light-hearted. This is evident in their use of colour, which serves to remove any suggestion of material and expresses the form of the product in a direct way. Their collaborations with international artists and designers have opened up stimulating design possibilities and they welcome this fresh wave of new ideas – it’s what excites them the most and paves the way for some interesting adventures.

Rubberband‘s design ideology is constantly seeking the ‘appropriate’ rather than the ‘excess’. This design restraint is not intended to achieve a minimal look for the products, nor is it about creating a style. The products seek a reasoning and balance by defining function, clarifying use, creating delight and proposing a new concept of living which is fresh. Rubberband offers paper products, stationery, desktop objects and carry cases for daily living and working. The company also believes that a pivotal force that enables an evolution in its way of thinking is brought about by its collaborations with artists and designers from around the world. The creative stimulus and fresh ideas that come about from these collaborations is what constantly drives Rubberband to do what they do.

Rubberband has been featured in publications like the Wallpaper Magazine UK, Disegno UK, The Wall Street Journal USA, Domus India to name a few. Their furniture products like “The Table That Almost Wasn’t”, the “Toy chair” and the “Grid seat” find a permanent place in the Manchester Art Gallery, UK. They work out of a studio that’s based in an old art deco movie theatre built in the 1930s. Yes, seriously.

more. www.rubberbandproducts.com