Brand Strategy, Design Inspiration Story for Sutratman Identity

Sutratman (a Sanskrit word meaning ‘Thread Souls’) is a brand that works with rural women and weavers in Rajasthan to create bags. The brand employs and empowers women and uses traditional thread work techniques. Every bag is made by hand, is handwoven, uses handmade cotton, and has a unique story behind it. We worked with the founder, to find the story of Sutratman and to reflect the same in the brand identity.

Through a series of stakeholder audits and brand personification exercises we were able to identify some core values and distinct aspects of this brand. We identified the following as the very core of this brand: Depth - this is a brand that has depth, which is more about doing than talking. It tries to revive the dying arts of handwork, it supports the weavers, and it provides employment to rural women; Rootedness - the brand is truly proud of its roots (of Rajasthan, of India, of traditional threadwork); Mystique - lastly the brand has an inherent sense of mystique, embracing the stories of the land and paying tribute to the thread souls. Thus we have ‘Deep. Rooted. Mystique’.

The design story for Sutratman takes inspiration from ‘the traditional Rajasthani Women Artisan’s Hands’. At the core of Sutratman, are the traditional women artisans from rural Rajasthan (Barmer and Gharsana, to be specific). The products are all handmade, using a traditional technique, using handwoven cotton - thus ‘Handmade’ is also a key aspect of the brand. The brand name adds some mystique - being a Sanskrit word that alludes to the thread souls. Keeping all this in mind, we chose the hands of the traditional Rajasthani women who do the threadwork as the starting point for Sutratman’s identity. Hands that are adorned with ivory bangles - usually 17 on the upper am and 9 on the lower arm.