Rajesh Kjriwal - Kyoorius Exchange

We met Rajesh at his offices over looking the railway workers’ playground in Mumbai. One of the rare green spaces in Mumbai, dedicated for railway workers and their families.

Since we’ve been in India, we have met entrepreneurs and communications practitioners, Rajesh however, is a paper distributer. Back in 1999, he took on the contract for selling conqueror paper in India. It was by doing this that he realised how important design was to paper, and paper to design – how certain inks respond to different papers, colour reactions, foil inlays and embossing. As a media planner, this is something I have never considered.

Seeing the burgeoning Indian graphic design industry unfurl in front of his eyes, Rajesh realised there was not a single organisation that could get designers together for networking and sharing, so in 2006 he launched Kyoorius Exchange. A combination of the Indian word Kyoo, meaning ‘why’ and ‘curious’ in English; the platform launched to create a community of Indian designers.

http://www.kyoorius.com/

As a marketing tool for Rajesh, this has been fantastic – his name is now synonymous with the foremost design network in India, opening doors for conversations about paper. Genius! It’s not all about marketing though. He takes the profit from his paper business and funds Kyoorius himself which runs as a not-for profit organisation. He publishes a trade magazine Kyoorius Design Mgazine, runs exhibitions, awards and networking events, sponsoring students to come to conferences around the country to exhibit and network.

There’s definitely something in this as a responsible marketing strategy for his business, but he is also obviously passionate about graphic design and has a lot of fun working in the design industry, as well as the financial benefits of distributing paper.