Space Invaders
If you have visited some of the capital’s cool new restaurants —Farzi Café, Townhouse Café and Zai—and have come away enchanted—and we don’t mean by the food—you can thank Saheba Singh of This Is It Designs. “My former partner Neha Sabharwal and I got together one day and were talking about how we are lucky that we are able to pursue a career we always dreamt of but how it was strange that we were not having a lot of fun. There was a moment when she said ‘this is it, we have to change that’. So we pooled in our resources and ‘This Is It Designs’ was formed. We borrowed my mother’s old dining table, an old CPU and set up a studio in a 150 sq ft room on my floor in my parent’s house. Our combined capital at the time was about Rs 25,000. Some of the best days of my life are from that phase,” recalls Singh, who is now the sole proprietor of her design firm.
Singh completed a four-year degree, specialising in interior design from Apeejay Institute. After graduating in 2003, she apprenticed for a while before venturing out on her own. Eventually, she found a niche in hospitality design. “Today, we create F&B spaces that are going to be frequented by people from all walks of life. So to create a space that conforms to different aesthetic sensibilities is a huge challenge,” she says, adding, the idea is to engage everyone onto a common abiding force—which often means making sure ‘somethings’ marry well together.
Today, the company is a mid-size firm with eight people on board. Singh admits that 2014 was a crowning glory, when it comes to the summation of her work. “We did some of our best work last year. We worked on Farzi Café in CyberHub Gurgaon, which seems to set a new benchmark of sorts; Townhouse Café in Connaught Place that is grand and larger-than-life in design; and Zai in GK II that shows off a warm, old school design sensibility,” she says. Later this month, the company will help in opening a new bar in GK I that is designed like a drawing room. “At the moment, we are working on a few outdoor spaces for the Hilton Hotel in Gurgaon.” There is a terrace restaurant and a garden restaurant. Both are still being conceptualised. While one has a machan-like concept, the other will be like a quaint little trattoria. Besides this, the studio is working on the Playboy Café in Gurgaon and Pune. “They are also rolling out the brand in different F&B formats which we are taking further for them. There is also the Made in Punjab restaurant in Noida for which the construction will start soon,” says Singh.
But how did the company get into specialising hospitality interiors? “It was always fascinating to see how just walking into a space can help transform someone’s frame of mind. And the fact that your design can do that, well that’s a pretty trippy feeling. That’s when I knew that I wanted to be a part of it. Sometimes at the end of a long day, I just visit one of the spaces I’ve created and watch people have a blast there. Watching their expressions change the minute they walk in and feeling the experience I envisioned, it’s the best feeling in the world. This was the dream,” says Singh.
The key to a successful space, according to her, is that the “design is only as good as the concept”. She says the best designs are always for clients who give us a crisp brief on the concept. That’s where the magic starts. “Research on design for relevant eras, genres, cities, people, materials come together in presentations and mood boards and the final thought is sketched to come together for one space and become a viable F&B operation,” Singh adds.
For more information on the company’s work, log on to: www.thisisit.net.in