The Journey

Often incredible stories lie behind the products we use every day. We realised this while working on Journey, the corporate museum of the Dharampal Satyapal Group. The DS Group had approached us with a desire to build a museum, but when we dug deeper into the company’s history we discovered an epic story that we could bring to life.

We proposed a narrative storytelling museum. We found the heart and soul of the corporate group in its family history, in the people who built it and drive it today. Our work was to recreate the effort and sacrifice that went into the company, into the pursuit of quality and creating products. Like a film, this story would be emotive, dramatic and direct. Fragrance was a defining theme in the company’s journey. As such, the museum began with a forest of fragrances, an installation of a jungle that responsively emitted smells as visitors walk through it. This was followed by a set that recreated Chandni Chowk in the 1920s, where Dharampal, the founder of the group, had arrived to start a business. It told the story of his hardship, success, and the innovation of the fragrant Baba chewing tobacco.

In the next section, the exhibition continued on to the corporate story of DS Group, told in the form of a 360-degree experience. The details of the Group’s manufacturing and distribution systems were communicated through an entertaining and heartfelt song of aspirations, of dreams coming true. The final section of the exhibition displayed all the products DS Group makes today in an installation resembling a market street. The museum was not only successful in telling a corporate story, it also touched a chord with the family that continues to helm DS Group. It shows how the stories of corporates can be told in an inspiring and educational way.