As Love That Design completes its second year, we take a moment to reflect on our achievements, struggles, highs and lows. And vote our favourite projects! (One for each month of 2018).
Co-founders Ben D’Souza and Siddharth Peters created this dynamic platform from the ground up – it has been their baby from the get go. And since its birth, Love That Design has grown exponentially and is wildly increasing in popularity within the interior design industry. Long may that continue…
“Love That Design is my passion,” says Siddharth. “I feel for its growth and its challenges, and I do believe the team around us feel the same way.”
“Our team grew from five to thirteen this year,” adds Ben, “and while I am proud of what we have achieved so far, I am excited about the projects we are now working on, as I believe they can really change the way the design industry works.”
This year, we have been a lot more social – questioning, filming, photographing and quoting. The engagements have been intimate, exciting and very rewarding. “On occasion, we’ve even been called out for weak content,” says Siddharth, “and annoying as that is, we still love it, as it means our audience is equally passionate and expect a certain quality from us. On the same merit, they are just as appreciative of what we are doing for the industry.”
“We love asking questions. We are keen on knowing where things started, the basis of inspiration, passion and emotion. Our brand screams it and I believe our audience recognises it too.”
– Siddharth Peters, Co-founder
Dynamic and Intriguing Content
On LoveThatDesign.com, we feature four design projects a week (that’s over 200 a year!), carefully whetted for quality by the inhouse content team. We also publish unique stories that are fresh, ground breaking, and quite often, gossip worthy! Our interviews, product reviews, event coverage and opinion pieces do become the talk of the regional design world. And let’s not forget our global readership who is keeping a keen eye on the design activity in the Middle East and Africa region, thanks to our design beat.
“Our product reviews are something very new to this industry,” says Ben, “and it’s good to get an unbiased view. It allows us to really dig deep into the mechanisms and workings of a product, and gives us an appreciation of the work that goes into its creation. It’s good to be able to have that insight and to share it with everybody else.”
We have also been blessed with the opportunity to meet and talk with design greats. However, equally exciting for us is stumbling upon individual, possibly undiscovered talent, in furniture or product design, who we have been able to help with a boost through our platform and many social media channels. It is awe inspiring to see what wonderful design thinking lies tucked away in our own home space.
“We love asking questions,” says Siddharth. “We are keen on knowing where things started, the basis of inspiration, passion and emotion. Our brand screams it and I believe our audience recognises it too.”
“Also, our manufacturing partners and the relationship we have with them is very special, as they place a lot of trust in us,” Ben adds. “For them to put their faith in our platform and allow us to tell their story makes us proud.”
“Our manufacturing partners and the relationship we have with them is very special, as they place a lot of trust in us. For them to put their faith in our platform and allow us to tell their story makes us proud.”
– Ben D’Souza, Co-founder
Giving Back
This year, once again we teamed up with the fantastic people at Surge, and were honoured to be given a chance to tell their story. “We are continually humbled by their efforts, and to see what they are able to achieve is super inspiring,” says Ben. “They are doing so much more than just providing clean water. They are changing people’s lives by teaching them how to solve their own problems, and thereby creating opportunities in the process. They form an infrastructure around a solution, in this way mobilising the whole village.”
In our effort to promote biophilic design, sustainability and general well being, we were pleasantly surprised to interact with and discover how active the design community has been in this field. So much has been written about and said on these topics in the last year, and in our own little way, we hope that we have added to the ever increasing levels of awareness in the region.
There is a lot more to be done, but baby steps… (Watch out for roundtables on these scintillating subjects in 2019, where we host some of the greatest thinkers, talking about sustainable design and positive living spaces.)
Changes in 2019
“We are excited about going global, and seeing how great design looks in other regions too,” says Ben. “Bigger team, bigger possibilities… I’m loving the journey!” says Siddharth. “Our partners want us to do more, so they can do more. We are going to be hosting our first partner event early next year, because well… being grateful never gets old!”
