Designer & Serial Social Entrepreneur
Lakshmi is a designer by profession & a serial social entrepreneur. Her design works range from Interior, Fashion, Jewelry and products to Events & Venues.
SOCIAL VENTURES
• Ammommathiri /Wicksdom, a project designed to provide livelihood for the underprivileged elderly. The project currently supports 30 elderly. In the process of propagating the model to various NGO’s to empower the under privileged elderly in their neighborhood. Supplied 3 lakhs wicks which were inserted in Adhyatma Ramayana published by DC Books.
• Grandmark is a trademark, to identify and promote products made by our elderly; an initiative to bring back our grandparents into the mainstream by engaging them, and utilizing their wisdom to develop fine crafted products
• Introduced water bulbs as non conventional light source in slums of Bhopal
MAJOR WORKS
• Designed & showcased jewelry for New York Fashion Week in 2008
• Designed corporate offices of DC Books in 1999 and the DC Kizhakemuri Museum in 2015
• Helped set up Sargalaya Craft Village for Kerala Tourism Department in Calicut district in 2012
• Featured artist in Artizmo, Art Gallery, San Francisco, USA
• Designed and executed cover design of famous book, Pravasam of M.Mukundan with team of traditional artisans, where 10,000 handmade copies were produced using hay as a medium. This was an attempt to revive the dying hay art. 2008
• Provided Consulting to Kudumbasree, Asia’s largest women’s cooperative
• Founded ‘Pure Living’, a company specializing in upcycling and recycling to produce green products like pens and pencils made out of paper
• Devised a pen rolling equipment to make paper pens (patent pending) and set up a pen rolling unit for women in villages of Varanasi as a joint venture with Reliance and International Institute of Waste Management (IIWM)
• Conceptualized and facilitated ‘Varadakshina Cultural fashion show’ – a tribute to the life & works of Artist Namboodiri with reputed fashion designers. An exclusive collection featuring Namboodiri’s art was also designed with my partner under the brand ‘Anaaya’
• Co-founded Good Karma Foundation – a charitable trust to promote culture, skill development, healthcare and educational related activities
AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
• Kairali TV Woman social entrepreneur of the year, JWALA AWARD-2015 for project Ammommathiri/Wicksdom
• Felicitated by Amitabh Bacchan on Star Plus, produced by BBC World on the show ‘Aaj Ki Raath Hey Zindagi’ to be aired as Diwali Special on Nov 8th 2015
