Design, research & editorial Practice · Pune
Building India’s Design Literacy
Kaagazi Labs is an independent design practice looking at how India can use design for innovation through research, publication and educational initiatives
Three Pillars, one integrated practice.
Design capability already exists across India. We work on connecting the pieces together.
Essays & papers
Research
Long-form essays and conference papers on how design capability is distributed — including work presented at RSD15.
Weekly
Editorial
Design Futures India — a weekly signal scan tracking design and innovation across Indian policy, technology, and culture.
Advisory & teaching
Practice
Advisory and teaching — helping institutions, educators, and teams build design literacy into how they work.
कागज़ी
kaagazi — of paper; the thing written down.
The mark is a puzzle piece.
Design capability already lives across India — in craft, in code, in everyday choices. The pieces just rarely connect.
Kaagazi works on the joins.
This week in Design Futures India
A weekly scan of India’s design future.
Every Friday, five signals from Indian policy, technology, and culture — read for what they mean for design. Free to read, always.
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About
“Design is a connector, not a silo.”
Kavya Agarwal is an independent researcher, editor, and educator based in Pune — trained at NID Ahmedabad, with a master’s from IIT Hyderabad. She writes Design Futures India and studies how design reaches everyday India.
Selected work
Publications
Conference paper · 2026
Design Literacy as a Missing Layer
Agarwal, K. (2026). Design Literacy as a Missing Layer: On the distribution of design capability in India. Proceedings of RSD15, Relating Systems Thinking and Design.
Essay · 2026
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Agarwal, K. (2026). Full citation — authors, year, title, venue or journal.
Editorial · 2025–
Design Futures India
A weekly signal scan on design, policy, and technology in India · 18+ issues.
Work with Kaagazi
Have a project, a class, or a signal to share?
Research collaborations, talks and teaching, or a signal worth scanning — I’d love to hear from you.