The Indian Wedding, destination and lifestyle show – Ardhanginni made its grand debut in London in Mid July. The three day event showcased a range of some of India’s bespoke services currently involved in the Indian wedding and lifestyle market.
The exhibition conceptualized by Ms Cicelia Raj and promoted by Sterling Media displayed services available in bridal designs, fashion, home, interiors, tourism, food, astrology and beauty.
It was during this event that I spent some time talking to Ravish Kapoor, owner and creator of innovative invitation company named – Ravish Kapoor.
A prominent name in the card design industry who recently shot to fame after designing wedding cards for both husband and wife Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty. Based in Delhi Kapoor heads the workshop alongside design head John Connolly, with designs showcased in show rooms in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Los Angeles.
‘Each card is unique as inspiration is drawn from the individual’ informed design head Connolly. ‘Each card typically takes a month to design and develop.’
A man who typically avoids doing exhibitions spoke candidly about his six and a half year old company. A company that started with event management only recently started to concentrate on the card industry.
A designer who specializes in designing out-of-the-box invitations, Kapoor’s forte lies in personalized invitations that cover all occasions that are unique. When asked if his cards were now a status symbol in India, Kapoor gave a very honest answer.
“Yes. People feel that if it isn’t designed by Ravish Kapoor then there isn’t anything different about it.”
And the reason Shilpa Shetty selected him to design her wedding card – ‘She wanted a bespoke design that had a feeling of Royalty – and that is what we designed for her and her husband Raj’
The company benefited greatly from the attention generated by the wedding, and it was this wedding that gave him the confidence to design cards that were truly innovative. It was also this wedding that saw an increase in clientele from UK.
‘The clientele from London was always consistent; it is just that the customer base grew in size due to the press coverage surrounding Shilpa Shetty’s wedding.’
Surrounded by exquisite cards I picked a car (wheels and all). A card that I was told had been designed for a friend who was a car fanatic, I looked at him slightly perplexed when he split the car in two revealing the invite inscribed within the car.
‘Nothing is impossible – if you can dream it we can make it’ was his simple comment. I enquired about the design process of a card.
‘As I said, the inspiration for the card comes from the client so no two cards are the same.’
The cards are designed by his four hundred strong design team for him and not the client.
‘Once the card is designed the team ‘sell’ the card to me. If they can sell the card to me, then I can sell it to the client.’
The process was outlined as a continuous process. A fifty percent deposit was placed and then a prototype produced which was later used as a template. This was shown to the client and changes made accordingly.’
And what if the client was based overseas?
‘Images are scanned and sent via email,’ makes sense.
Having designed cards for actor Karisma Kapur, singer Narinder Chanchal and most recently choreographer Ganesh Hedge – I asked my final question, who would be his dream client – ‘Prince Harry. I would love to design a wedding card for him’.
Looking at the cards I was surrounded by – if Prince Harry was looking for the ‘Wow Factor’ then Ravish Kapoor is definitely the designer to ask for.
For further information please go to www.ravishkapoor.com
