An Inventor Speaks

Taking ideas through to prototype and manufacturing stage is what thrills the inventor in Sanandan Sudhir. As Founder & President of INVENT GROUP, a global product design and development firm, he is very well placed to do just that!

Since form is the function, how does it help to shape the experience of the products you design?

SS: Form has been following function since the Industrial Revolution. It was always what technology could do. At one time, once the size of the motor for a certain amount of power was defined, an industrial designer would look at creating a formal expression for a mixer grinder. Not anymore. More and more miniaturization in technology is enabling us to make products sleek, compact and reliable - allowing designers to focus on the most idealistic formal expression to encompass that technology for a product. Miniaturization has also given designers the freedom to rearrange the structural and functional elements of technology, to ensure that the formal expression appeals to human senses in as natural away as possible. This allows designers to take up their idealistic role - formally define a product - with the freedom to optimize technology in size, proportion and function, focused on bringing surprise and happiness in people’s life.

In a nutshell, experience is everything – we are seeking the ‘most natural experience’ in a technology-driven world. ‘Form’ becomes the key function in an endeavor to create the most holistic, human-like experiences, helping people live a happier, longer and enriched life.

What took you from engineering to industrial design?

SS: I have always been an inventor at heart. Right from my childhood I have been looking at things that are new, different and extraordinary. The ideas around inventing something new, innovation and design literacy have always been on the top of my mind along with an urge to create the future.