Jagannath Textile Company Ltd.

Based in Coimbatore and known as Asia's biggest open-end spinning unit, the company churns out 120 tonnes of yarn everyday. Without resorting to retrenchment during lean periods, they gave their employees long holidays. But during the period, the R&D staff worked hard to come up with new business ventures, which included Crusoe and JTC brands.
This is the approach they worked on, while designing the Crusoe brand of innerwear for men.
Made for men who are either living their adventure or who pine for adventure in their living, Who deep down want to dive deep down into the blue ocean or from the blue sky, Who dream of skimming the barrel wave on a surfboard or skiing ahead of an avalanche, Who want to feel the adrenalin rushing through their veins. The range of Premium Innerwear that's specially designed keeping one thing in mind - Innerself.
I found the whole approach very interesting, especially for a B2B company entering the B2C business (retail). I mean isn't it very much required to do something really different (if not appropriate/right) when you are entering an already established market as a newcomer? With Crusoe, JTC seems to be very focused and yet open for criticism, considering existing Indian market and people connecting to adventure sports here.
And why am I writing about all this here?
While going through the Overdrive magazine (June 2010) I found the following print ad and wondered why it was in an automobile magazine? And a close look at the product made it clear.
(click to enlarge if required)

Here is their website.

(all the information from their website)

To fly or not to fly?

This is a part of conversation with my friend Sagar. Please comment with your opinions on this topic.

sagar: i was looking at some jet pack videos, as in a device which one carries on the back and you can fly with it. what do you think wil be the next thing in transporation
me: next as in?
sagar: it will be a matter of a little more time that we will start seeing people flying
me: hmmm, but as a designer i don't find that so real. think bout it and by real i dnt mean technlogy... i mean real people
sagar: ummm why not?
me: it takes a lot of courage, skill and mental acceptance for most of the common people to ride even bikes at speed of 60kmph with both wheels on ground!.... some prefer public transport... some who afford... go for personal cars... so flying... is much challenging for common people
sagar: hmm,thats true
me: what is required and will be preferable is public transport
sagar: its a personal choice..but it still exists
me: i agree, i wil certainly go for flying jet pack, but wrt to personal mobility, there are people who commute because they want to ride and then there are people who ride just because they need to commute.
I commute because I want to ride!
sagar: hmm interersting,but dont you feel after surface and water air could be next medium?
me: it already is
sagar: no for example travelling from my home to a nearby cinema
me: yes.. but I remember when we were doing systems project, we thought best thing is to avoid human transportation for as many tasks as possible..
but yes.. still air could be most preferred medium for some group of people, including me :)
what do u think?
sagar: hmm, yes.. as in its overcoming one of human limitations
why do u think nobody has tried to commercialise the jetpack?
its such an old invention!
me: may be not enough MARKET!!!!!
thats the reason so many vehicle concets go in R&D scrap!!!!
even the normal vehicles I mean.
sagar: why wouldnt anyone want something faster than a bike and somehting which doesnt need roads?
me: faster than bike? which bike? You know 100cc is the largest selling category in two wheelers! I mean people dont want faster bikes too! a large group of people!
so for mass commercialisation... jet pack may not be right thing...
for a small goup of people it may be... those who have enough money and also want to fly.. on their own..how many are they?
sagar: i think its same as the situation when the automobiles were first commercialised.
with more and more of automobiles on roads they felt the need to have signals and there were tarffic jams and we still are fighting with jams
bike is a better vehicle because it doesnt occupy unnecessary space on road anywhere... so if we say we eliminate 4 wheelers and have public tarnsport and bikes it may be good
me: do u know in most countries bike is proved to be the most dangerous mode of transport and they are planning to restrict use of them?
sagar: yes true, so we need an option which is for one person and occupies small space, need not be bike, sometihng which is stable
me: and SAFE
sagar: hmm, flying vehicle is dangerous than a bike
sagar: this is one way of looking at it,
public tarnsport and compact and safe personal vehicles is i think a fair option.. given the man needs to travel and explore .
now if this scenario comes into reality some time.. the next fair and logical extension would safe compact personal flying vehicle, because space on groud is limited
me: see you can sell anything!!!! u just need the right context :)
for commercialisation... u either need to fix a target group ( the profitable one) and design or make something for them.... or if you want to make something...then u see whom you can sell it to.... right?
sagar: hmm right
me: there are people who have designed and made bikes which they sell for more than a crore!!!! but one has just to be clear to himself if he wants to help people do something or to commercialise and sell something!!!
sagar: but we r not trying to sell something unnecessary.. its to satisfy the human spirit of exploration and learning and facilitate his movement because he cant run faster than his physical abilities
me: "its to satisfy the human spirit of exploration and learning "
very true and appropriate.

Design Concerns

Cigarette packaging misleads smokers.

Not just some words like 'light', 'mild', 'silver' etc but some design elements like illustrations or light colours etc need to be eliminated legally from packaging of cigarettes. Some words have been outlawed in more than 50 countries already, but thats not enough.

Read here why.

Rossi's sexy new $1 million toy

Valentino Rossi recently baught a sexy new yatch Pershing 56 for around $1.15 millions. It can take 14 people, has 1,300 hp power and is one of the few very fast luxury yatches. An Italian beauty for the Italian hero! Valentino is 5th on the list of world's top earning athletes. This year he earned $35 millions for riding a Yamaha around few tracks, getting clicked for media and baught a sexy yatch like this! I ride my Yamaha everyday to office to sketch things which I may never be able to buy or even see coming to life! Sometimes I feel I am in wrong profession. ;)

This one is another sexy Yatch Pershing 72.

the child within us....

"The greatest gift you can give yourself is to retain the wonder of childhood and add that to adult experience" Because children have no preconceptions - their minds are blank and they fill them up. And that is a wonderful thing about watching them grow up. They are amazed at everything! And really, as you get older, and you add the discipline of being a designer, you add design skills, you add the skill of analysis, but if you retain that original child-like ability to be absolutely fascinated with new things, then you can maintain your curiosity, and your inventive, creative energy your whole life.

-Syd Mead (the great maestro of concept design world. He is 75 and still delivers his great hand sketches and renders to big manufacturing and entertainment industries))

design v/s reality and form v/s function

Now these are highly objectionable topics actually! But all you (& me) designers, for a while just keep that designer aside and read as a common man (I know how difficult it is!)
I don't remember how it happened exactly, but day before yesterday afternoon I came across this website about new cellphones. It had pictures of new Sony Ericsson radio phone R306i. The name itself was very interesting and the concept even more interesting. They had made a phone which actually looked like a radio with two speakers! A very classic black backelite radio look indeed! It has a brushed aluminium centre display cum control butons placed between the two big speaker nets. I was very impressed by the styling considering the said low price range. Considering Sony's success in walkman series phones range, I expected this to be a good if not the best option for buyers. Two huge speakers on a phone!!! wowwww...
The same evening on my way back home I searched for a nearby sony showroom and straight away asked if that radio phone is launched or not. It was!!! And just the next moment all my imaginations. assumptions broke to open to the reality. He handed me over a phone dummy which just didn't feel like the one I saw on website! It had the same form, but the speaker net and body looked like a cheap plastic FM radio, the centre brushed aluminium panel was actually a very cheap chrome plated one! and to top it all, it had no external display, which I had assumed can be seen only while functioning! This is not all. I knew it was a clamshell phone, but when I opened it it was as good looking as a slim calculator! I have no words to explain.... Radio phone from Sony Ericsson is a very good idea, the pictures of concept I saw on website were also very good, so much that they actually took me that showroom. But the real phone!!!
Photography is an art, advertising is even bigger art and they certainly take the design to a higher desirable level. Its just that reality is stereoscopic.... :)
Ohh and about the second part of the topic, form v/s function! Now I know that every designer tries his best to integrate both in his design. But zoom out of that particular concept a bit, look at what is available in the market, as a common man/buyer. I did this in that sony showroom, on websites... for a lot of time. But I just couldn't end up liking both form and function in one same phone! If I have to buy one, I will have to force myself to choose either of form or function. When I zoom out even more and look at whar people are doing in this regard, they are happy choosing from whats on display. The problem is just with me.. that I am a designer!!!