Monsters, creepy crawlies, squiggly curves and human types make up the new assortment of hand-tufted rugs at Neytt, a luxurious dwelling furnishings model primarily based in Cherthala. The vary of rugs for kids, in shiny colors, had been designed by Neel and Uday, the kids of designer and visible artist Vanessa Meister.
Rugs for kids by kids
The spark of the concept got here from an off-the-cuff dialog Vanessa had with the Neytt workforce. “Why not do something for children by children? When adults design for children, they may tend to go for the usual tropes, superheroes et al, when children draw, they have no commercial agenda or the compulsive need to be perfect,” says the Swiss designer who works as a artistic marketing consultant in Kochi.
The dragon her elder son Neel drew, for occasion, was skinny and lengthy and never so proportionate. But Vanessa left it as is, with little or no interference.
Neel and Uday on the rug
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Special Arrangement
She approached the course of systematically, giving nine-year-old Neel, and seven-year-old Uday, sketch books and asking them to do sketches from their creativeness. “I told them to think of the characters they would want to talk about; not images they have seen on TV,” she says.
Uday’s design
She sorted by dozens of drawings the kids had made, picked the finest ones, scaled them up and adjusted some colors earlier than presenting it to Neytt. “We wanted the rugs to look as close to the original drawings as possible — we didn’t want to fine tune them or make them look cuter,” says Vanessa.
Neel’s design
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Special Arrangment
When the kids noticed the last samples, they had been delighted to say the least. “It was an opportunity for them to see the journey of an idea to its completion — how it takes form in the mind, develops on paper and makes it to a physical object they can touch and feel,” she says. And the sketches that emerged had been brimming with childlike innocence, a way of curiosity and with a splash of the fantastical.
While Neel’s e-book was largely full of dragons and snakes, Uday drew monsters. And most of those monsters had elaborate backstories too, says Vanessa. “He’d tell me in detail about each of his monster — Dancy, a monster who likes dancing, Joker Anniyan, “who is like a joker monster, but can live in space for 22 years without a helmet” or the Gecko Blueberry, who’s a “nice one, who can go to places where there are snakes and not get dead [stet]”.
Neel and Uday making the sketches
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Special Arrangement
Vanessa hopes to organise a little bit presentation in faculties about the course of, in order that kids could really feel inspired to work with their creativity. “Especially in this age of AI, it is important to understand and bring out our own unique method of self-expression,” she says.
Premium vary
The premium vary of rugs, titled Creatures, has 5 designs in hand-tufted wool. Snake and Fly, Monster Madness, Snakes, Fire-Breathing Frilled Lizard and Dragon. The spherical rugs are 6 toes in diameter and the rectangular ones are 5-ft by 8-ft. These assertion items could be wall mounted, too.
Neel and Uday engaged on their sketches
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Special Arrangement
The assortment was launched at the ID Design honest in Delhi in February. The rugs would even be showcased at the Little Big Festival for kids in Kochi in April.
Available on www.neytt.com
Published – March 07, 2025 11:20 pm IST
