GoMaads, a Delhi-based designer label has organized a meet and greet “concrete tales” in which they exhibited their raw, minimal, functional, and concrete products. The term Gomaads is derived from the founders’ first initials. Gopendra Singh, an architect, and product designer, Malavika Singh, an interior designer. GoMaads has a range of lifestyle products in concrete — clocks, organizers, lights, platters, paperweights, ashtrays, etc, and has expanded to lights and is working on furniture ideas as well.
Their ever-expanding line of accessories, dinnerware, planters, and wall art illustrates the triumphant reward of their hard work in various moods. The redressing of concrete in this new avatar surely contributes to an edgier and broader vision. Their range of work has expanded to include the idea of explicating the practical aesthetic for wall claddings, sinks, and light fixtures, and will transition to furniture pieces born of an interplay with other materials such as wood and metal as they progress.
Malavika Singh, co-founder said, “When we think about cement the first image that comes to our mind is of a dark, drab, industrial material that’s used to construct buildings and bridges, because of its unique organic characteristics, it can be cast into any shape. Cement has a timeless beauty, that can never go out of trend. And the textures – from the same bag of cement, you can create two very different surfaces, thanks to the air bubbles and lines. We used to worry about this earlier, thinking of it as a limitation. But it is the strength of cement — no two pieces are the same.”
Concrete’s versatility is delightful and astonishing, and the GOMAADS’ folio reinforces the magical layered upshot of the chemistry and labour. Their work proceeds from a hands-on ethic: from the choice of the appropriate mix to the quality of moulds. The effect is made much more dramatic in light of the fragility of a particular encounter and the inherent beauty of concrete. Their works are abstracted from real forms, adding substance to a play of material and rendering images to all commonplace actualities.
