No better happiness than to work for yourself

ANABELLE VIEGAS AND THINK HAPPY EVERYDAY

Architect, urban designer and installation artist Anabelle Viegas works mainly around creating experiential and interactive urban art, visualising big data and bringing it to public as art experiences. She runs one of India’s foremost makerspace in Bengaluru, THE Workshop as its managing director. Her passion lies in creating experiences, whether it is building homes for clients, running events for toddlers, young adults and other curious lot, teaching design at architecture schools or having a picnic with the family comprising husband Craig, 18-month-old Arianna and the 24-month-old Shih-tzu, Lico. To know how Anabelle turned into an entrepreneur, read on…

Business idea
In 2013, I won a scholarship to complete my masters in Computational Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. There I was introduced to hands-on iterative models of design and design practice. I was working for almost 80% of my time there at the institute of making – a Makerspace and the university workshop which was one of the best equipped spaces I’ve been to. It ignited my love for tools and tooling. This essentially got me thinking about the process of design and how important it is to be able to physically understand the nuances of construction. It got me thinking about my five years of experience and work outputs during my bachelor’s back home in India and I felt I could maybe have done so much differently if I had access to a space like this. So filling this lack of experimental and experiential design practice seemed something needed to be addressed back home.

Why this?
India was and is swiftly moving from being a backend work hub to promoting design and working at the cusp of education and industry was always where I felt I could make a mark and evolve, thus, having a Makerspace brought together my love and interest in tooling, design and building a community.

Key driving force
My father. He always said there is no better happiness than to work for yourself. While I didn’t understand it then, I think taking up that challenge and following in his footsteps was the force.

Christening the brand
I’m married to a copywriter with advertising in his being. After the first day at the institute of making, I came back home and told him about my realisation about how differently I felt about the methods of design practice in London vs back home. I simply told him my plan of action when we moved back to India, I will open a workshop that allowed people to come and experience the same. He was very excited about how he could help brand this and asked me what I think we should call it and I said well, it has to be WORKSHOP. At this point in time, we already an ideology had in place with which we intended to run our business – Think Happy Everyday, in short THE and so THE Workshop was born.

Raising funds
We are bootstrapped and started with literally putting in all our savings, wedding gifts and help from my family.

Building a strong customer base
For the business we are in, word for mouth is important. It is the most powerful tool to build a customer base. Hence I think the recipe is to continually innovate, stay relevant and provide a consistently good service.

Marketing business
We rely on social media to do the heavy lifting for THE Workshop. My other work as Think Happy Everyday – design thinktank draws its clients mainly from word-of-mouth.

Handling adversities
Both are inevitable when in business. I’m inherently a calm person and my decisions are driven by excitement. So when in doubt I take it up as a challenge that needs me and the team to buckle up and innovate.

Mistakes I could have avoided
In the beginning, I think I was more excited about starting the business and dived head first into it and didn’t really start with a robust plan of action of how to build a community, so I think we lost some time in developing business.

Learnings from experiences
We are still young in the market and hence I can’t really say that we have faced failures. We have faced hurdles, the pandemic being a big one, but all I can say is that I’ve learnt to be strong and not give up on the larger idea and the cause.

Motivational factor
Being able to provide my little girl with the opportunity to access great thinking and be able to live in a world that you don’t just make do with things but Make and Do things that matter is the driving force at the moment.

Formula to be a successful entrepreneur
Believe in your product because if you don’t, no one else will be. This is the most important ingredient to being a successful entrepreneur. Also, having an ideology and sticking to your beliefs is very important.

Greatest inspiration
I’ve been a lucky to have the men that I have in my life. My father Eddie and my husband Craig have been my inspiration, support, and greatest cheerleaders. While I’m inspired by the works of many I don’t think any of my achievements so far would be possible without these two men.

Family life and entrepreneurship
It has given family life a whole new meaning. While it’s lovely that you can define your work patterns I think it’s added pressure on everyone and your first team is your family members. The lines between office and home are quite blurred for me and my family.

Future plans
As a company, I think THE Workshop has now proved that it can stand the test of time and need. I intend to push the need for hands on learning and skill development into mainstream education, we intend to start working with government schools and also the upper crest of educational institutions engaging young minds, apart from this we have plans on diversifying into developing our own product lines which should hit the market soon.

As told to  Saurabh Tankha