About

Quicksand is an interdisciplinary consultancy. We facilitate the creation of meaningful experiences through design research and innovation.

Our practice builds on inspiration and insights from the 'experiential reality' of people - whether they be users, stakeholders or clients. We are investigators - exploring the marvellous complexities of human systems. We are instigators - pushing a collaborative agenda for a vibrant articulation of the same.

Click here for our publication exploring "A Dozen Ways to Look at Innovation"

Process

PHILOSOPHY

Quicksand has always presented a key perspective on the practice of a contemporary Indian studio- within a culture that embraces plurality, changemakers should act in equally plural ways.

This idea, in turn, manifests itself in myriad ways within our studio, while retaining a continuous state of exploration. On this journey, we have made the following observations that will help you know us better -

  • People are the heart of our practice and we build creative partnerships with them as friends, colleagues, partners, clients, and stakeholders.
  • We value craftsmanship and the role it plays in establishing coherent, desirable manifests for strategic design thinking.
  • We build a spirit of interconnectedness within our studio; acknowledging the inherent tensions of an interdisciplinary group composed of highly creative, autonomous individuals.
  • Positioned as a hybrid between design studio and business consultancy, our group has unique competencies in mediating the dialogue between people and organizations.
  • We champion the role of design strategies in non-traditional settings; shaping new expectations and responsibilities that are incumbent on a progressive studio.

PROFESSIONAL AGENDA

Quicksand is globally recognized for it's expertise in user-centered innovations for emerging markets. Our work supports organizations in envisioning programs, products and services that are future facing, disruptive, and yet rooted in principles of user centered design.

Our agenda for expanding the scope for design thinking has embedded us in varied sectors as finance, water and sanitation, consumer goods, education, new media and technology. Through our successes in seemingly disparate paradigms, we have demonstrated the transformative power of design thinking.

We have been commissioned by organizations in North America, Europe (UK, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland) and Asia (Singapore, India, South Korea, Japan, Cambodia), while our research studies have been located in emerging markets throughout the Global South.


Our work, process and culture are authentic, local expressions that shape global design consciousness.

PILLARS OF OUR PRACTICE

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  • DESIGN RESEARCH

    Our journey starts with people and their contexts - an appropriate starting point to create relevant and meaningful experiences. We create ethnography-inspired enquiries that investigate behaviours, aspirations and motivations of people.

    INSIGHT SYNTHESIS

    We bring intellect, and imagination, to the process of synthesising insights from research, while creating knowledge assets that provide various teams a shared foundation to develop a project on.

  • CRAFTSMANSHIP

    We value craftsmanship and the role it plays in shaping memorable experiences. Our skills and experience in creative design are applied to the creation of knowledge assets and end deliverables.

    DESIGN-BUSINESS

    Positioned as a hybrid between a design studio and business consultancy; we are able to optimally mediate the dialogue between organizations and its patrons, driving innovation that is focused on experiences, relevance & sustainability for both groups.

  • COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS

    In addition to a core team that is multi-disciplinary, Quicksand also has access to an extremely broad network of professionals through our annual international festival UnBox.

    Quicksand is a member of REACH, a global consortium of research firms, all sharing a deep understanding of human-centred design. Member firms in this consortium come from China, Japan, UK, Netherlands, France and Brazil amongst other countries, while Quicksand solely represents the Indian subcontinent.

Manifesto →

We have articulated this over time to share with you, our core ideologies and to convey a sense of the atmosphere that we want and are constantly striving towards at Quicksand.

Team

Quicksand partners with passionate people who are ready to take charge of their individuality within a collective dream. Without the politics of interaction, life at Quicksand is akin to a game with a team of highly skilled & motivated individuals. While everyone belongs to largely different domains of creative work, what ties us together is a love for all the good things life provides – great food, camaraderie, aesthetics, travel, and an unshakeable trust in serendipity.