Mrs. Devika Banerjee started an interior design practice after her return to India in 1998.

To assist her, she recruited a few talented youngsters including architects, designers and engineers.

The Sole Proprietorship got off to a brisk start with Price Waterhouse, Larsen & Toubro and Pal-Peugeot among the first customers.

The originality of her designs and the integrity of its execution soon attracted the mainstream print media of the time. Their coverage of her work led to more and more corporates getting interested. The client list kept growing with the likes of Glaxo, Nestle, Novartis, Mitsubishi, to name just a few, getting their Kolkata offices designed and built by her. Along with it grew the name recognition, trust and goodwill of Designers Guild and its Proprietor Devika Banerjee

Her mantra was to deliver “something different” to each client, at a reasonable price, on time. This is the motto she taught and insisted that her team follow.

Devika was approaching her late seventies when Covid brought almost everything to a stand still. It was during that enforced calm that she realized and decided that she could no longer carry the entire burden of Designers Guild on her ageing shoulders. She needed others to pitch in. Since profit had never been her motive, she had accumulated no assets to speak of. Nor was there much money in the bank. All she had was a pile of goodwill, great client list and a loyal, dedicated team, several of whom had been with her for many years.

 

Over the next 2/3 years, she selected two of her most trusted lieutenants to form a LLP along with her as a minority partner.

For a start, Designers Guild and the LLP were operating in tandem from the same office with the same set of people. It took a year and more to persuade existing customers to switch their new orders to the LLP. After all, the people were exactly the same, delivering the same standards, for which they trained. It happened during 2024 and 2025. Designers Guild wound down. The LLP shifted to a higher gear. By 2026 Designers Guild had stopped taking new orders. The LLP took them on board.

The LLP is gradually spreading its wings, taking on assignments all over India, acquiring its own new clients even as it continues to serve DG’s older clients like Hindustan Unilever, Diageo and the Tatas. Its early days yet but the start is promising.

An experienced DG alumnus has returned to Designers Guild recently as a senior partner to add heft to the Team. And Devika Banerjee is always available for advice and counsel.   

                           

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