A major in photography, Jolynn Carneiro adopted life skills to design quirky products and wholesome content.
Nonsense Curry by Jolynn Carneiro is a four-year-old independent brand that creates and curates a range of quirky merchandise like neckpieces, lamps, pillows, badges, khadi purses and a lot more.
A graduate from Goa College of Art, Jolynn is armed with a bachelor’s degree in art and has majored in photography. She put her creativity to use to go beyond photography and is a lifestyle designer. Passionate about a lot of hands-on stuff, Jolynn designs her life around activities that fill up her day, right up from cartooning to designing khadi merchandise to practicing sustainability, engaging herself in therapeutic activities like zen flower arrangements and strumming songs on her ukulele as well as decorating spaces in a budget friendly manner.
Jolynn goes on to speak about Nonsense Curry and the inspiration behind it all. “It took me a while before I got to Nonsense Curry, since it’s only with time and expertise you can unfold and evolve into something bigger. I started off making lampshades soon after college because I have a fascination for lighting and also because Giggle pops (as I affectionately call my dad) runs a lamp shade shop, which worked as a good base and platform to sell my work on.”
She then progressively shifted to different crafts but it always bothered her that her personality wasn’t reflecting in her work at that time, even though it was her work and designs. “One day it occurred to me to draw the peculiar things I used to state and one of the things flying around at the time was “you’re such a brinjal’ a connotation of sorts to tell you that ‘you are stupid’ or the highest degree an epitome of lunacy. I then decided to draw out a sketch that justified this phrase which is how the spitting aubergine emerged, which I then mounted on a khadi pillow because I have a deep yearning towards khadi, a material we now use as our core ingredient of Nonsense Curry. This is the point where I discovered Nonsense Curry and where it took off from ever since into what it has developed today. Nonsense is how I perceive life in a ludicrous manner, whilst curry is my Goan origin and roots.”
Nonsense Curry is a concept brand that encompasses her quirky personality as a designer and artist under one roof that comprises of three different dimensions which is design, aesthetic and Skin Curry. Jolynn elaborates on all the three. “Design is when I cartoon in my own stylized manner and mount artworks on in-house as well as custom merchandise. Aesthetic is where I give you tips and tricks on how to decorate your space in a budget friendly manner through blog-style photographic content and videos as well as practicing sustainability by showing you how to refurbish items to maximize the shelf life on it. Skin Curry is a segment that I have recently introduced to our brand. It is the ideology of wearing your own skin aura and persona as opposed to following current trends and emulating personalities. Under this segment I speak about encouraging women to uplift each other, self love and self awareness, express my personal opinions, and talk about practicing slow fashion.”
Jolynn speaks about her range of products “We specialize in customization, that is creating personalized gifts and merchandise to befit your space and aura, using khadi as our core ingredient, our in-house merchandise consists of khadi books, quirky pins, magnets, stickers, khadi pillows, khadi granny purses, khadi bags, khadi scrolls, terracotta lamp stands and felt shades we call shady holders, head wraps we call rambo wraps, neckpieces we call cowbells to a new range of products that we will be launching very soon.” The custom merchandise at Nonsense Curry all depends on the client’s requirements and most of the time it is custom made gifts for partners, friends and people that the clients hold a close relationship with.
“So far we’ve created khadi aprons with quirky artworks mounted on it, to coasters, travel pillows, quad set pillows, wall tapestry etc. We have our in-house tailors that I work alongside with to make unique products with a clean finish.”
Jolynn has curated artwork for the well acclaimed eatery in Baga, called Fat Fish and speaks on the same. “One of the partners dropped by my father’s store to buy some lampshades for herself which is how she stumbled upon my merchandise and decided to meet me one day and work something out for Fat Fish Goa. We immediately sparked the same ideas and were constantly on the same wave length, so we shook on it and I have been ideating merchandise for them ever since. The creative that I came up with was a voluptuous Sonsy star-fish being a tease, and meets eyes with Mr fatty fishy, whom she cat calls and ogles away in his hammock smacking his lips, pulling his shades down thanking the Gods for the gift of sight. I mounted this artwork on khadi pillows, and custom made books, pouches, coasters.”
Most of Jolynn’s clients are located in metropolitan places and globally, right up from Goa, Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Pune to Dubai, UK, and Australia. Jolynn feels and agrees along with a lot
of online designers that the lockdown didn’t hamper the business and created more sales since they operate digitally.
She mentions the roadblocks encountered by her in her line of work. “At Nonsense Curry we stand our ground of morale and principles, that being said, a lot of fast fashion brands have approached us to endorse things we don’t necessarily stand by, which means saying no to easy money. Secondly sourcing was a bit of a road block here in Goa because not everything is easily available to manufacture a product, which drove me to learn and outsource from out of Goa and through networking.” As a parting shot, Jolynn concludes with a message to aspiring entrepreneurs and artistes. “Stay consistent with what you take up, you will be surprised at yourself with what pops up while you do it. You develop your niche with time, so patience is key with every venture. You don’t necessarily have to rely on our educational system to pursue your dreams and goals, but studying what you’re passionate about does help you discipline your craft and allows you some direction. Also be aware and knowledgeable about your field of work by doing as much research and connect with brands that keep you inspired, to learn and understand the ground work and what it takes if you ever want to pursue the same”
