my design journey
building metercube
Established in 1976, Sobha Group is a prominent real estate organization in India and the Middle East. Metercube, a forward-thinking venture by Sobha Limited, emphasizes furniture and home decor, acknowledging the significance of our living spaces. As the lead designer from inception, I brought my multidisciplinary capabilities to the table, closely collaborating with the founder and making substantial contributions to its development.
Year 2017-21
Team Design team and other respective stakeholders
Experience Store Launch Dec 2018
First Flagship Store Launch Apr 2021
Team Design team and other respective stakeholders
Experience Store Launch Dec 2018
First Flagship Store Launch Apr 2021
Contributions/Learnings
Strategy/Process
As a lead designer manager in a new business domain, I played a key role in launching the product portfolio and establishing processes with the design team. Working closely with the owner and management, I turned ideas into reality and recognized the designer’s crucial role in new organizations’ development.
Product/Packaging
Embracing furniture design as a learning opportunity, I aimed to create flatpack furniture and designs aligning with Indian consumer preferences. This experience highlighted the need for intuitive packaging and clear communication, broadening my role to encompass these aspects alongside product creation.
Creating Experience
After stabilizing product development, I enhanced brand perception through a cohesive brand language and design guidelines, shaping the business and its image. I then took charge of developing the brand in-house, covering graphics, communication, and website UX. This journey has been a major learning curve, driving ongoing growth and evolution.
Lean development process
Since many aspects of the brand were made from scratch, a lean development process was often adopted for producing a workable outcome as soon as possible. This process being iterative, the concerned team continued to update and make revisions to the products/processes by gathering user and stakeholder feedback till it’s refined.
Understanding business opportunities
Understanding the business objectives from the owner and other stakeholders, as well as defining operational territories, is crucial for any new venture to ensure clarity. I was involved in stakeholder discussions, driving the design thinking process, competitor analysis, and portfolio strategy. This work culminated in the development of value propositions and a brand mirror document.
Product design
As the design team grew, it was important to include my signature products in the portfolio, such as sofas, coffee tables, and accent chairs. Mastering furniture design, especially cushioned products, was a significant challenge. Through repeated trials and experiments, I mastered the science of soft materials like foam, upholstery, and springs to create ergonomic seating. Concurrently, I was in charge of reviewing the product portfolio and conducting market studies, including sourced items.
Establishing process documentation
There were no rules to follow; rather, they need to be set for the first time for everyone to follow. When the new product development started taking shape, error-free documentation of the process and their approvals were needed to be recorded. User-friendly forms, documents were initially designed to execute the process systematically. Later worked with engineers to make a digital portal designed to manage processes online involving all stakeholders.
Branding and guidelines
When introducing a new brand to the world, it’s always good to go with a wordmark logo to build brand recognition. Being associated with a state in India, the regional language version is a norm to have.
Later I made a logo icon to support extended usage for branding. Making it look like a cube in one’s imagination but still not depicting it directly was the challenge. Next was to make usage guidelines for it.
Graphics & Communication
When the brand is new in the market, it is very important to take care of the visuals presented to the external audience. These are the elements of first impression which includes images, typefaces on online/offline banners, catalogues, emailer and other print media. I have been leading graphic designers to follow as set style guides and also worked with content writers to get wordings as per our brand ethos.
Packaging & Labeling
Packaging and specifications are important for product safety and also to get the communication right. I have worked on sorting SKU number logics and the factory packaging methods right for in-house production. Later worked on setting up label design/guidelines for all categories including sourced products. Fixed a basic DBMS system with bartender software initially, preparing data for SAP implementation later.
Product photography
I was always keen on photography and learning lighting techniques. As an obvious choice, I was assigned to set up a basic studio floor from scratch and build up a team to handle regular photoshoots for our e-commerce. I have set guidelines to adhere to our image requirements. The space evolved, and I continued to manage the team to get the images right to the web, sometimes being on the floor for new experiments. These are a few of my hands-on works.
Designing digital experience: UX/UI, Guidelines
I have been always working on making websites for my own sites and for the company, but implementation is being done via engineers.
To increase our first store’s business reach post its launch, we started developing a basic in-house e-commerce website MVP. Understanding the product ecosystem, I was involved in designing UX/UI for the same and implement them with coding engineers. It took a lean design approach, and the same is in evolution.
Designing physical experience: CX, Branding
Worked on various design requirements for the store operations. This includes brand related communications like front elevation signages, communication for kitchen displays, digital screen content design/guidelines, screen marketing possibilities etc.
Designed an enclosure for the POS machines to cover the wiring details and improve the billing staff’s work ergonomics.
© All design rights belong to Metercube. Visit metercube.com for more information.
© All design rights belong to Metercube.
Visit metercube.com for more information.
