Rahul Mahtani | Designer
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Industrial Design
Me
Life is too important to be taken seriously.
Those are words that I live by. Life is such a crazy thing, and when we get caught up in life, we tend to forget how to live it. I really think that you should live life and love it. I was always told, 'The only way to do great work is to love what you do,' and I truly believe that. I absolutely love what I do. I'm a designer. I usually like to make a few things clear about myself as a designer. To me, being humble is key. We can never forget who we are as people. And as a designer, we are constantly designing for other people, without them there is no designer. We are not and never will be above that. Another thing we should always remember, is that Design is constant. We should always be asking questions about things, 'why is it this way and not that way?' Finally, and most importantly, we need to remember that design has no boundaries. We can infuse design into anything and everything we do whether it is a business, an object, an experience or even a system, design is a part of them all.
Name: Rahul
Last Name: Mahtani
Education: Syracuse University Bachelors of Industrial and Interaction Design
Birth Place: New York City
Research
Branding and other work
Re-Shetler (The One Dog Project)
For as long as I can remember, I've always been in love with dogs. I think they're amazing creatures, and bring so much joy to our lives. When I started volunteering at animal shelters, I was introduced to a world where dogs are seen as a comsumable object. The One Dog Project is my 5th year Industrial Design thesis. At the same time though, it's so much more to me. I have a goal, to rescue as many dogs as possible, to end the problems with the sheltering system, and to facilitate the interactions necessary to improve the adoption process. I plan to use design to do it. This project is a manifestation of those goals.
When you walk into a shelter, you are immediately struck by a few things. Primarily, the shelter is completely uninviting. Everything is cold and gray. The experience is completely undesigned. The grating noise of barking dogs overwhelms you. Some of the dogs are nervous, some shy, some agressive. All of the dogs behavior issues stem from their lack of socialization with other dogs, no toys and minimal outdoor and walking time. So when you go into a shelter to meet a dog, you aren't getting their real personality, you are seeing them react to not being allowed to BE A DOG.
What about interaction?
It's completely disconnected. We should not be picking a dog based on appearance alone. We need to meet the dog, and get to know their personality. We need to experience interacting with them in a natural way. Their way. The cages at the shelter don't allow for these interactions to take place.
During the design process there are those AHA! moments. I had a ton of those throughout my process, but one of the driving forces is realted to the image to the left. I noticed that the interactions that take place at a dog park are completely the inverse of a shelter. You see dog owners communicating and sharing information. You see observers, natural interactions between groups of dogs and dogs and their owner. By bringing these types of interactions into a setting where adoptions will take place, we can solve almost every design problem that the shelter presents. Perspective dog owners can learn from current owners, and most importantly, they can meet and enjoy a dog in their natural setting.
The following video features 2 stories. One is told by a dog named Max. The other is told by a man named Jimmy. Enjoy, and feel free to flip through these pages to learn more about my thesis.
