Raseel Gujral Ansal is doing a dozen things at once. Make that two dozen. She’s experimenting with crockery, wallpaper and fabrics, launching another store at Emporio in Delhi, opening a pop-up store at One Style Mile, and giving a new visual dimension to Olive Bar & Kitchen. Quiz her on how she balances it all and she laughs, “I don’t sleep.”
Famed for her exquisite sense of style, Raseel was born into a family of artists. “It was a given that I would end up in one of the creative fields. I started out specialising in interior architecture and then moved into furniture and graphic design. It has been a natural progression over the past 32 years. It’s been a difficult journey, but I would not have it any other way.” She credits her husband and business-partner, Navin Ansal, for pushing her on to experiment and go beyond her comfort zone. “His role in my professional life has been pivotal,” she says.
The designer’s latest venture is with Delhi’s Olive Bar & Kitchen where she has revved up Olive Qutub with her nature-inspired series of wall art, huge paper lanterns and table décor. The project is an extension of the Casa Paradox pop-up that opened at the One Style Mile earlier this year. Lifestyle lovers and design addicts can find not just an eclectic array of Casa Paradox home and fashion collectibles at this well-spread pop-up, but also seek in-person consultancies with the designer/architect herself.
Raseel has conceptualised this design project as an extension of her belief that design can breathe fresh energy into any space. “I see every space through an imaginary lens. Fashion, art, life—everything is a stimulus. I look forward to such hospitality projects as they embark one on a memorable experiential journey,” she smiles.
Raseel’s designs and powerful graphics provide a new visual dimension to Olive Qutub and Serai. She blends her Sunderban Mahal wallpaper with the luscious brushes of frescoes that already graced the arched walls of Serai; green palms becoming the leitmotif of this space. In the splendid courtyard outside, the designer brightens the white canvas with generous inclusions of blue through her Urban Jungle series. Even as congratulatory messages pour in, the designer says humbly, “I have a great team. I believe that you are only 30 percent as good as what you can be if you don’t have a good team.”
The fact that Raseel grew up in a household that was inclined towards art—her father is the legendary artist Satish Gujral, her mother Kiran is also an artist, her siblings took to designing in some form or the other—helped her in her endeavour. “Whatever environment you grow up in, it makes you who you are. It is all part of your DNA. My family background groomed me to make the choices I made throughout my career. It was something I was naturally inclined and wired to do,” she says.
A spirited colourist, her house, office and work are testimony to her love for hues. Merged with opulence and drama, the eccentric designs are all about flamboyance. Amid this entire maddening professional pace, she was conferred with a doctorate in architecture from Ansal University. Carrying forward the mammoth legacy of her acclaimed father is no mean task, but Raseel with her burning and restless quest to explore every medium of creative application and evolving newer visual accents, is definitely on the right path.