Seen this? They designed it

Politicians may have gone all out to grab credit for the makeover given to Church Street, but the efforts of a team of youngsters who worked hard towards giving the road its funky cycle stands has gone unnoticed.

The miniature creations that line both sides of Church Street are nothing but cycle stands but not the ordinary kind. The design and idea was conceptualised by a team of youngsters belonging to a Bengaluru-based startup called 'Artand' and this is their first project. The team was given a contract by the government to create cycle stands but the team decided to take it one step ahead by giving it a certain character and identity.

Vishwas Singh, a member of the startup who designed the stands along with his teammate Ranga, explains, "We didn't want to create plain cycle stands but we wanted to do something different. We set out to blend art and design and that's exactly what we have achieved at the end of the process. There are 28 such cycle stands on Church Street and each stand has been given a unique character," says Vishwas.

Talking about the various designs, Vishwas informs that the trinity loop design was inspired from the number six. "It's a design made by joining three 6's and yet serves the purpose as a cycle stand. The best part about the rock–paper–scissor is that the hands in the design were actually cast using my hands as reference. Here, we used a technique called steel casting through which we got a detailed form of the hands," explains Vishwas.

Thought and imagination has not only gone into creating unique designs, but effort has also been made to ensure that the material used in creating these designs is an all-weather proof one. "We have made these designs using steel, knowing very well that it is strong. We got the steel treated well so it doesn't get affected by nature. And to make it better we have powder- coated the stands. This helps prevent rusting and provides durability," Vishwas signs off.

Designs to watch out

*Chess pieces -7 units*Cycle frames- 5 units*Vintage riders- 2 units*Skateboards - 3 units*Rock paper scissors-6 units*Trinity loop-5 units