Gothalicious. What does the color blackmean for modern India?
BRIEF
In 2023, black is being reembraced not for rebellion, but for its glamour and emotional depth. The revival of the goth aesthetic challenges traditional associations of black with darkness or negativity, instead celebrating it as a symbol of mood, elegance, and introspection.
Black is often loaded with symbolism power, elegance, rebellion, and even taboo. This project set out to decode what black means to modern India, aiming to understand how this color translates across different design disciplines and how its perception is shifting with evolving cultural narratives.
We began by mapping black’s presence across three key verticals:
- Fashion: Streetwear, runway, and cultural attire
- Architecture & Interiors: Urban spaces, minimal luxury, heritage blends
- Everyday India: Automotive, cinema, decor, spiritual contexts
To bring deeper meaning, we built an associative framework around the color black.We mapped it across four sensory-emotional axes:
- Direction: grounded, inward, dense
- Emotion: bold, silent, mysterious
- Texture: matte, rugged, polished
- Materiality: stone, fabric, leather, charred wood
With insights in place, we curated and documented a material library focused on black tones:
- Exploring the diversity of black in textiles, surfaces, and natural elements
- Observing how materials react to light, layering, and context
- Studying finishes from matte ash to glossy obsidian to raw char
We curated a tactile material palette capturing the spectrum of black in modern India.This included:
- Charcoal-dyed fabrics
- Burnt wood textures
- Volcanic stone
- Matte leathers
- Natural blacks in clay and wool
The study concluded with a rich material palette and contextual framework that redefined black as a meaningful design tool. These insights can guide future explorations in fashion, interiors, and product design offering a lens through which black becomes not just a color, but a cultural and emotional medium.
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