ASI 56 "New Product" Viviva, Watercolor that is Creative, Mess Free & Travel Friendly

Jeff
0:00
Hi and welcome back to art supply insiders. My name is Jeff Morrow. And today we've got a very special company that we're going to be talking to we're going to be talking to a company called Viviva. And viviva is relatively new in our industry, I think. And we're going to be talking to Rutuja and Rohita. Rutuja is the director of retail and Rohita is the general manager. Did I butcher your your guys's names at all?
0:35
Your fine, I think you did a good job.

Jeff
0:39
Well, thank you. And Rutuja, you are coming to us from the UK. Right.
0:47
That's right. I'm joining straight from London.

Jeff
0:50
And you said you had a snow storm this morning?
0:52
We did. Yes. Stay warm.

Jeff
0:56
And Rohitha You're coming to us from India. Right?
1:00
Yes, India. Well, this

Jeff
1:02
is great work to where literally got the entire world covered. So tell us a little bit about the story of Viviva. How do you get started? Why are you doing it?

Speaker 2
1:13
Yes. So first of all, Jeff, thanks for not butchering our names. You've got that. And I'm really thrilled. Both of us are very thrilled to be on this wonderful podcast of yours. Yeah, I'm super happy that we're also doing this on we recording this podcast on Women's Day. So I think it's an opportune moment to to actually be a part of this podcast today. Yeah. Yeah. But coming to the story of vigor. I'm always super pumped to talk about, you know, what we'll revise all about. So it's a portable art supplies brand, right? The whole motto of the company is to, to actually spread the joy of art to more and more people, and really build a community, you know, a strong community of artists and non artists who will just get the Joy of Painting through Viviva. That's our that's our mission, to be honest. And we realize actually a small family run business and I'm very proud to say that we have recently completed a milestone year we've completed five years of our brand. Oh, wow. Yes. So Rohitha, I can tell you a little bit more about the, you know, interesting story of how we started in a little bit. But another interesting thing I would like to highlight about Viviva is that none of us from the core team is really an artist by profession. Rohan who started the company with added to one is a doctor, the other is an engineer, Rohitha is an engineer as well, and I'm an economist. It's all wide. It's you can see the breadth of, of the careers here, but none of us is an artist and perhaps I think that's one thing, which, you know, helps us run the company a little differently from, you know, a traditional art supplies band, I guess. So, maybe Rohitha, I can tell you a little bit about our interesting story of how we started. Yeah, please

Jeff
3:04
tell us.

Speaker 3
3:06
Sure, thanks. To add to this, I mean, I would like to say one thing as a matter of fact, that the Viviva was never started as a business. So I in fact, completed just three years, exactly three years with, with this day. But yeah, something that fascinated me to join this company, was that I would like to openly share about is that it was never, you know, thought as a business but, you know, co founders you know, Rohan and and take in most of our often we say that we are in the business of spreading joy through art. And that was really fascinating for me. So, yes, that is the idea behind Viviva as just so it was more like a weekend project for Aditya and Roman as they keep saying, and not like, you know, a business idea. Still to have art supplies carry around. So it becomes really, really, you know, inconvenient. And especially being in the med school. It was impossible to manage with all the studies and the lights, you know, all you know, how hectic would be. So I always wanted to have a simple, super simple solution for it. And once he was just experimenting in something in lab, dying, you know, dying something and then he realized watercolors is something that he could get into. And after a couple of years of experimentation, color sheets were born like this is a flagship product and this is that your product, basically watercolors in the form of people unimaginable that this is true. This is what it is. Once we made the product, yes and what's the Meet the product. They thought why not, you know, this launch on crowdfunding and let's see how it happens. And with just few samples in hand, they got 15,000 orders and within like a span of 24 to 48 hours, and that was to deal with. Yes.

Jeff
5:19
So let me jump in real quick, you said something you said you're putting watercolor on paper when I first heard this, I went, what? And I went to your website, and I watched a number of the videos and literally you take pigment, put it on paper, and then you take a brush and you touch it with water and you utilize that as if it were a pan or coming out of a tube. Is that right?

Speaker 3
5:50
Yes, that's true. And just a correction. You just take a little really little amount of pain and that's just like, you know, aha moment like, Oh, my so much of pain from just a little amount of swats that you're taking up. But yeah, it's highly pigmented and very saturated. So yes, a little amount of pain is totally enough to cover image.

Jeff
6:13
So right up front, I want to tell our audience, as you are hearing this, you really need to go to their website. If you really want to understand this. Go to their website. Can you give us what your website address is?

Speaker 3
6:29
It is Viviva. Spell it out. Vi VI, VA, colors.com.

Jeff
6:39
Okay, so that was V i V i V A, C O L O R S.com. So, how did you come up with this name? For viviva?

Speaker 2
6:54
It's an interesting question. Actually, you know, we get asked this question very often and I'm super happy to you know, usually tell the story, it's very interesting. So Viviva out of viviva, as you all know, means lively, right, as our colors are. But there's also a special reference in the name Viviva it. V Viviva are the initials of Rohan and Aditya is grandmother are two brothers who started the company and she was a huge inspiration for them since their childhood, you know, of coming up with something on their own trying to solve a problem that they think they can, you know, so they're like, one day just sort of thinking of ideas as to what to name the brand. And this just felt right. So we law is her initials actually,

Jeff
7:39
really? Oh, my goodness, that, isn't that cool to keep it close to home so that everybody has a sense of family every time you say the name?

Speaker 2
7:50
Exactly, it just means lively and her name. So it just kind of felt right for us. We had that aha moment, you know.

Jeff
7:59
That's great. So, so do you guys, where do you manufacture the product.

Speaker 2
8:06
So the colors are made back in a small town called Nasik, which is very close to Mumbai, okay, in India. So that's where the colors are manufactured. And it's interesting of how the colors are really made. So I would like to give you a little bit about how the colors are made asleep. So as we know, the color sheets are basically pigmented watercolors on sheets of paper. So these are actually made out of food dyes. So that doesn't mean that you can eat them. They're not edible.

Jeff
8:41
Right? Exactly. But

Speaker 2
8:43
if it kind of stains your hands a little bit, nothing to worry about. They're super safe for even kids to use. And one of the reasons why we you know, keep saying that it's meant for all age groups, right? Like for kids all the way to people who are like 6070 Plus, it's for everyone. So these colors are made out of food dyes, and we mix it with a little bit of water and a couple of other things and get the right consistency. And we actually paint these food dyes on top of our special paper. And then these are sunbaked India has a you know, we are very rich in that resource. Right? So we have enough of sun, and these are nicely sunbaked for for a day or two. And that's yeah, that's how the paper really takes on to the color.

Jeff
9:30
So sunbaked you literally take it outside and let it dry that way. Is that is that did I get that right?

Speaker 2
9:38
Absolutely. We give it like a multiple, we give it like three or four coats. And after every coat we kind of let it dry under the sun. And so that you know there's enough of quantity of the watercolors onto the paper.

Jeff
9:52
Now these are really as I understand it when I'd went to your website these are highly pigmented colors swatch Is it so to speak? Right? It's not doesn't have that much or doesn't have any filler in it at all?

Speaker 2
10:06
Very, very good question, Jeff. Actually, the thing is that many this is one factor that where we differentiate ourselves from the rest of the art products that we have very little fillers, it's actually I would say, Good 70 to 80% has actual color dyes, which is why like Rohitha has said, you know, you just need a little bit, too, you just need to give it a little bit of scratch. And that's all you need to get like the AHA color, you know, when you put it on paper?

Jeff
10:32
What now you recommend this product for beginners and professional artists alike?
10:42
That's actually an interesting question, Rohitha that would you like to take that up?

Speaker 3
10:47
Sure. So we are, you know, our colors are mostly recommended to all the age groups, and especially for men? Because I mean, that's always been like that. Yeah. If you come to the coming to the professional use of it, so artists, to amateurs, everyone can use it and everyone are using it. In our current customer base, if you see all A we have seen artists using it, we have seen amateur we have seen a hobbyist using it, everyone using it. So yes, it is recommended for all of them. I mean, we make it for all of them. And there is no such limitation that any artists can find. So I would just like to add a point here. Yeah. Although we are not. So the professional artists don't use it for the professional paintings that they make. We haven't taken that, you know that angle that tangent yet? But yes, we, they do use it for their practice sessions and all of it, but not for their professional paintings.

Jeff
11:56
Yeah, why wouldn't a professional artist use it for their finished painting, as opposed to just using it for sketching?

Speaker 3
12:07
So I think not I think basically, from what reviews and feedbacks, we are in contact with professional artists, to improve our product standards and improve the quality. And somewhere down the line, it's the artist feel, you know, the artists actually have this feeling of, you know, painting through the traditional materials. And they have that feel and touch the experience of making a painting. That is what they get from the traditional the conventional art supplies. It has nothing to do with the quality, which is what we've heard from the artists themselves. But it's more about portability. So it's like if they're traveling somewhere, they want to make a miniature mod or they want to do something different and you know, experiment with something the traveling all these things. Yes, Viviva is a yes for them. But when it comes when it comes to, you know, making their own art piece, the professional piece that I'm working on, that I think they think to have this feel of making the painting just is you know, they get it from the traditional art videos. So that's the reason that we've heard. And I will just

Speaker 2
13:13
add to what Rohitha said, you know, an interesting thing that we keep telling our audience is that, yes, you can make a more dallisa kind of a masterpiece using viviva, why not right? But what you also insist on is Viviva is more meant for people who want to just capture the moment. In a flight, for example, you've got yoga colors in your bag, just pull it out and just paint the clouds for example, right? So the whole idea is that use it to kind of not create that one masterpiece that you'd probably make once in your lifetime. But every other day when you when inspiration strikes. That's how,

Jeff
13:49
okay, I am beginning to understand what now one of the reasons I think it's important for our audience to go to your website is I know watercolor is generally when they paint from tubes, or when they paint from the pans. They'll fill the brush up with water and they'll dump it in the pan and they'll put water all over the place. And then they'll take and they'll paint with the Viviva color. You guys don't recommend that you guys kind of recommend that you start in just with a little bit of water in a little tiny part of the paint square. Is that right?

Speaker 2
14:25
Absolutely. That's That's correct. In fact, I would like to kind of take a step back and you know, talk about what gave birth to the color sheets, right? Yeah, please. You know, if you look at for example, the banking sector for example, right how we make payments. So back in the day, we used to make payments with cheques and then came the card payments, which we felt really cool about and very recently postcode, you're making transactions using contactless form of payments. So you can see that how there has been a change in terms of adopting technology in the field of finance or banking. Unfortunately for the last 200 or 300 years, we haven't seen seen any major changes in the way art supplies are, you know, are, you know, available in the markets, right? That's what we were like. Let's try and you know, not use technology. But let's bring about a change in the way art supplies are available in the market. So with that we kind of thought of, you know, coming up with a more easy, convenient, portable form of carrying around watercolors. And the whole idea is to let you know very often we tend to defer that that sit down session with paints because you're like, hey, I don't have three hours on me, I just have 15 minutes of time, right? To run to catch my bus, for example. So it's meant for that 15 minutes of time that you have on you. Just pull out your color sheets and start painting because it's really mystery. And you don't need like you rightly said, you don't need a half pan set, or a mug and a jar of water and cloth. All you need is a color sheets and an airbrush to be able to paint.

Jeff
15:58
Gotcha. This is good for the plein air painters that are going out there. You know, in painting on on scene, I actually watched a video of a lovely, lovely young lady who was painting a fountain in some place in France. And she did a sketch and then she painted it in using the Viviva color sheets. And it was so fascinating that you have a lot of that kind of information on your website, right?

Speaker 2
16:27
Absolutely, we do that. And just to highlight that apart from the color sheets, we also have you mentioned some time back, whether it's for your asking us whether it's for artists or for amateurs, I would say that there's something that video has to offer to everybody. Because apart from the color sheets, we also have the traditional half pan sets that we made, just that these are made out of cork out of quarks. They're super eco friendly. And they have very, very little wastage attached to them. Okay,

Jeff
16:55
wait a minute. Wait a minute, you just I talked right over you and I apologize. But you just said it's made out of cork. Every every pan set that I've ever seen his has been a plastic tray. And now it's the the paint is made out of cork or the tray itself is made out of cork tray is

Speaker 3
17:17
made out of cork. The pallet itself is a cork pallet we've repurposed the so Nashik is our divine city of India, we make wines that a lot of points. So there are that. So you must be aware of the the wine bottle covers the caps the makeup, so we repurposed the cork into the corporate palate, which is an organic or other environmental your choice that you make here. And we put the color blocks on top of it. So you have an eco friendly choice of a court palette instead of a plastic ones. And light fast colors. Because light fast was something we couldn't get to get into color sheets, but through pants, yes, we are bringing the lightfast color. So that's the difference here.

Jeff
18:07
So it sounds to me like the company has a very sustainable mentality to it. Is that correct?

Speaker 3
18:17
Yes, absolutely sustainable and socially empowered. Because as Richard has already mentioned, we handcraft each and every product that we make, and moreover that is that we have trained local the men in the community there and we have skilled them to make the paints and now they have dignified jobs. Yeah, socially, you know, creating an impact and we are a sustainable choice when it comes to art supplies. So yeah.

Jeff
18:50
Wow, you know, your guys's story is so
18:54
actually basically I feel really

Jeff
18:57
what was that?

Speaker 3
18:58
Yes, I'm saying I'm actually feeling really proud while I'm actually narrating the same lines because we kind of know these things but when we say these things out loud you feel very proud and that is the moment that's a proud moment for me for us that okay, we are you know making some difference here.

Jeff
19:17
You guys should be immensely proud of what you're doing and it's not like you're coming out with a me too product like most manufacturers do. You've taken a very, very fresh and new approach that I'm not sure anybody else has thought of. But

Speaker 3
19:38
I think that's where vendors at the gym mentioned earlier like we are not from the artist background everyone is from different backgrounds, with different brands but that is what I think is making us think like this something

Jeff
19:54
Wow. Well congratulations on that. So if our audience wants to purchase any of the Viviva product now obviously, I'm in the United States. So we have a lot of audience from the United States. But we're also heard in a little under 70 countries around the world. So where would they go to buy the product?

Speaker 3
20:19
So any product you can buy from our website we deliver worldwide. And so yeah, it's available worldwide, you can just go on jump on our website, or anything you want. And we'll deliver it to you to place. We do have some distributors and some art supply stores across pretty cross United States, we have 100 plus stores in United States, a lot of them. That information is also available on our website. And we have some special, you know, Viviva exclusive pop up stores that I would I think Ruth Bucha would be able to talk about she handles them all so routed out to you.

Speaker 2
21:03
Yeah, so we recently like my partner, Rohan, and I recently relocated to London. And we thought, you know, like for the last four years or more, we've been an online only brand. But recently, when we moved to London, we decided to start our own brick and mortar store out here. So we have two stores in London, one at the Covent Garden and the other at old Spitalfields market. But we are like Rohitha rightly said, you know, we have a lot of mom and pop stores where they are present across the world, and the website will be the best place to take a look at that as well.

Jeff
21:40
Wow. So where do you guys see yourself taking this? Where do you? What are you? What's your vision for the future?

Speaker 2
21:50
Right. So yes, I mean enough, talking about what you've done so far, and always like to look forward in terms of what you would like to do here. So, like I mentioned in the beginning, Jeff, that our mission has always been, you know, money making is one part of it. But the other thing is to bring joy of art to as many people as we can and touch the eyes of as many people as we can. So far already, I would like to kind of give you an example that there are so many cases in where there have been people who've been struggling through depression and whoever has been the source of light for them. And, you know, many, many examples like that, where we've has really, you know, added ray of hope and positivity to their lives. And people have been using the color sheets to distance themselves, which is actually super interesting, because that's how other theand Rohan got into, you know, making them. Studies got the better of them. And they really wanted to have some time to kind of do something therapeutic. And that's what gave birth to the colors. The new product that we're actually having in our pipeline that will be launched soon, will be merited with art. Because so far, the biggest USP of the brand has been portability that you can carry around the watercolors anywhere, paint anywhere, right? The next thing that people can now do with Viviva is to be able to meditate with art. So it's going to be an art therapy product. And it's going to engage all your senses, right. And it will be like a very soulful experience. And we are super thrilled to announce that we'll be launching that soon. And this is the first platform that we are mentioning that so

Jeff
23:29
thank you do you have an approximate timeframe that like second quarter, third quarter of this year that you might be launching it?

Speaker 2
23:40
We are planning a soft launch here in London next month, but hopefully it should be available across the world sometime in September this year.

Jeff
23:50
That sounds incredibly therapeutic. I know. A lot of people use art not to be professionals but to use it as as therapy as a way to get away and get into those creative spaces with their minds.

Speaker 2
24:08
Absolutely. So yeah, watch out for Viviva has a new product soon.

Jeff
24:13
I love that now in addition to the color sheets, you you also guys you also offer kits, you offer sketchbooks, you offer those brushes, you can put water in for portability and stuff. Can you talk just a little bit about that?
24:31
Absolutely. So we've

Speaker 2
24:32
spoken a lot about the color sheets already and I'm sure people are going to jump on the website and take a look at that. We also spoke a while ago about the bands which are made out of cork so that's another offering of Viviva. And I would say that's meant more for you know traditional artists who who want to stick to their you know half pan sense but with the difference. The other product like you rightly said are the travel sets so the travel sets are available. in two sizes, it's a six the mini version. And we also have a slightly bigger version and a five. And that you also get, you know, really good quality ivory paper color sheets, along with the, you know, a nice sketchbook with it, and you also get some to, you know, schedule it. So a fine line marker. So that's like a, what is a complete set that you can carry around with you. It's not only for the color sheets. And we're also now moving towards experimenting with new things. So with that in mind, we have launched our acrylic markers. So traditionally, acrylics are known to come in tubes. Yeah, so you simply have launched the acrylic marker pens, so you can literally draw with accurate acrylics. That's the idea.

Jeff
25:47
Really, that is very cool. I didn't even know that existed. Yeah,

Speaker 2
25:52
recently recently launched, it's still a soft launch, I would say. But we'd be happy to know, get feedback from people after they tried.

Jeff
26:01
Oh, I love that. Now going back to some of these sets that you so let's say one of our, our audiences are kind of getting into watercolors, and they just like to try out your guyses a product, what would you suggest they start out with, if they're just what a see what it's all about?

Speaker 2
26:22
I think it will hands down for me would be the original color sheets. Okay, when I say original color sheets, I say that because we have a bunch of variety. In that we have the original color sheets, which is more of a balanced set, you get like one color of every family, you have the beans, the blues, the reds, the yellows, so you've got you've got like some of the warm colors and some of the cool colors as well. So I also call it the balance set. If not for that we also have the metallic set, which is basically shiny colors, the moment they dry out, you get a little bit of shine and sparkle in those. And we also have a spring and autumn set, which is more of you know, warm colors and cool colors respectively. But I always, you know, strongly urge people to start with the original color sheets, which is a balanced set.

Jeff
27:12
Now, one thing that kind of threw me when I went to your website, I was looking at the individual color sheets, and I saw the names underneath it. But when I looked at the little color swatch itself, it didn't seem to match the same color, as the name was until I saw them, put a little bit of water to it and then spread it out. So is that a little bit different about the color sheets?

Speaker 2
27:39
Actually, Jeff, I'm super impressed that you asked this question. It's a very astute observation, because something like that is not sort of very clear. When you look at the website, it's more clear when you see that in person. So wonderful. Yeah, I mean, the reason why that happens is because the colors are deeply saturated. So for example, if you have a lot of red, if you throw one on top of the other, it often appears to be black in color, because you have like very saturated red. So that's the reason why the colors appear to be slightly different than what they are because they're deeply pigmented on the piece of paper. So the best thing is to always read the label that's mentioned under the color. And it's going to throw you off because you're like, Oh, this looks like a dirty brown, for example. A much, much vibrant color there.

Jeff
28:25
What I saw on the website, one of the videos was they actually put a tiny little bit of water in the color. And then they just spread that color over top of the name. And it kind of showed what the color was that matched that name. It was really kind of it was really kind of brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. So is there anything that I've forgotten to ask you guys, we're coming towards the end here. And is there anything that we've missed?

Speaker 2
28:54
Not really, I think I would also urge people to have a look at our Instagram page. Because while the website gives you an idea of what all products we have in our offering, Instagram is one place to understand what you do with those color sheets, right? When you let's say you buy, you know, a pack of color sheets. You often are looking for inspiration, hey, what do you do with this? Right? Like, do I draw a floor? Also do I draw some animals for example. So Instagram is like a ready album that you can refer to in terms of you know, getting inspiration as to what you what you could potentially do with those colors.

Jeff
29:28
And you're also on YouTube, right?
29:32
Yes, we are.

Jeff
29:33
And can you also on Facebook with people utilize Facebook?

Speaker 3
29:39
Yeah, Instagram and Facebook are linked. So yes, whatever we post on Instagram goes on Facebook as well.

Jeff
29:46
Awesome. Well, I can't thank you both enough for taking the time to talk with our audience. Especially I know over in India Rohitha. He thought that it's nighttime and and Rutuja, it's day, it's the middle of the afternoon, right in the middle of your work day. Thank you both so very, very much for being a part of our podcast.