Rubina is a design company that surfaces designers and artisans that are working together to make innovative products through blending modern design and traditional craft. Through these unique collaborations, women artisans are afforded a sustainable income and the ability to preserve the traditional crafts that are currently dying out due to a lack of market access and industrial expansion.
The Rubina India Pilot
Currently, Kari Litzmann (founder) is in India working with the first round of designer + artisan teams that will produce the inaugural set of Rubina products to be launched through our e-commerce site this summer. Kari is using this blog to share the story of her process in India and would like to encourage you to send feedback, ask questions, and even buy samples of what our designer + artisan partners are working on and come across as she travels in our current online shop.
We are looking for designers that are currently working with artisans in India to join our project. If you are a designer or know of a designer (or an artisan working with a designer), please drop us a line with a link to your work! We’d love to chat.
People
Kari Litzmann, Founder and Director
Kari is the founder and creative director of Rubina, and is currently based in India where she’s conducting the Pilot Project recruiting designers that are collaborating with traditional artisans around the country, and setting up the first phase of the Rubina online platform. Prior to starting Rubina, Kari spent seven years working as a freelance graphic designer in Brooklyn, focusing the majority of her client base on women’s development and microfinance organizations, such Women’s World Banking and Barnard College, and served on the brand strategy team for Em Polham, a Korean retailer and fashion brand that launched in Korea in 2006. In 2011, she spent time working in India with Kala Raksha, an NGO that empowers artisans through design in Kutch, a well-known region of textile artisans in Gujarat.
Kari graduated from the Pratt Institute Design Management program in 2005 where she conducted thesis research on Design Management in Impoverished Communities that she presented at ERA05, an international design congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. The study took her to Pakistan and resulted in her meeting a woman named Rubina, who is the namesake and inspiration for her company. She received her Bachelors in Environmental Design from Texas A&M University in 2002 and currently serves as the Executive Director of New York Women Social Entrepreneurs.
A few huge thank yous before we start this thing. I couldn’t have gotten here without these totally awesome people that you should all know:
Collin Pisarra, Deb Johnson, Ellen Fish, Ishan Khosla, Jason Clement, Judy Frater, Katherine Allen, Laura Donovan, Mark Hand, Mary Howard, Natalia Oberti Noguera, Niamh Hughes, Oana Radulescu, Pauline Munga, Rachel Signer, Scott Bush, Shaina Shealy, Ryan Brown
Catchafire Volunteers, Idiom Design, NYWSE, Pratt Design Incubator for Social Innovation, Women’s World Banking, The NYC social innovators community
...and mostly, my rockin’ family and friends.