frustration sketches

This is an old concept we had in first few days of NID. I don't remember who named it so, but when we used to get frustrated while trying something worth showing someone, we used to do thes frustration sketches. The idea was to take your frustration out on paper, sketch (if you could call it that) with all the possible negative energy (!) and thinking of pencil as sword most of the time! The joy of showing the outcome (or merely of having finished the pencil or torn the paper etc) could help to get over the frustration! At least it was supposed to work like this :)Talked about this to poorva yesterday and today I felt I needed to do that for myself. The quality of these sketches is not so much enjoyable, may be because of 'not enough level of frustration' or may be because they look unnecessarily clean because of the 'hardware' (wacom tablet) used! :)nice exercise though! :)

TOUCH sensitive

when was the last time?

you dipped your fingers in a bottle of paint,

and left an almost alive trail on the white paper,

slowly feeling the dryness of paper

or may be of your finger!!

when was the last time?

you felt like biting into the chocolate-soft brick of clay you just made.

or almost licked the remains on your fingers!

and kept re-touching that still-wet vase infinitely,
just because you liked that touch so much!

when was the last time?

you tried cleaning that old antique brass bowl

with some dry coarse powder,

till it turned into a glossy yellow surface!

and smelled fascinating new!

when was the last time?

you made a bunglow of brand new playing cards,

with utmost careful breathing and your gentle hands,

or tried picking up the the glass jar broken into pieces

and learnt what 'careful' actually means!

when was the last time?

your touch gave some life to the material,

and brought a smile on your face,

and realised that sensitivity of your touch,

can do much more than the rectangle on your laptop!

Both images from 'Preschool Crafts' website

Superman in I Hate Luv Stories

I had some minimal expectations from this movie called 'I hate Luv Stories'. Even they were not fulfilled by movie (and even Sonam Kapoor). The peppy title track! Mannnn they had to keep shaking the camera so much because none of the 'actors' could move considerably beyond their normal erect posture, even to this energetic dance number!
Anyways, so I think I should talk about some better thing in the movie. And that is the 'Forget Superman Try Me' tee shirt designed by our own Neil Dantas. :) I liked many of the tee shirts Imran modelled for (Ok he acted also), and it was nice to notice this particular one. It will be better if you spent more time visiting his own website here, instead of reading this post! His work is simple and different. I like it. He deserves some publicity. Enjoy.

P.S. the movie is not so bad, some say. Sonam Kapoor may keep you watching (movie) for most of the time!
;)

apple i-Think

"Dear apple, you had the power to do something really good for the generations to come, but this is what you have done so far, probably in an irreversible manner"

'Good is not good enough when the best is expected', I had read somewhere sometime ago. And in context of this article, this does not refer to the apple products, but what they could/should have done with the way they design them!
I always liked the way apple designed their desktop computers (i-mac) and laptops, for their simple, clean, neat and 'different' design. Visually this translated into compositions of nice rounded rectangles mostly! This smart design sense certainly helped them earn a clearly distinguishing identity for the apple branded products as well as its consumer group. To some extent, this design language can be spotted in many other products of various brands, making apple the trendsetter in today's consumer electronics design.
This is certainly good for apple, but lets have a look at a little bigger picture. Look closely at the tiny icons seen on the big screen of i-phone.

Even if you couldn't read most of them, you still can figure out what they stand for. Great, isn't it? But Give it a thought. Why could you understand them? Why do you think the green icon in bottom is for 'PHONE' ? Why the second icon means 'MAIL' or 'messages'? Why does the youtube icon or the CLOCK icon looks 'normal' or familiar to you and me? Because we have associated these different shapes/visual identities to some specific objects for a lot of part of our life so far. Look at the 3 pictures below viz. TV, wall clock and telephone. Quite familiar right?

At some point of time in past, we have used or at least seen these vicually clearly different objects and we already know what they used to do for us. And that is why we can recognise the icons on i-phone's screen!

Now have a look at the following few pictures.

Yes, these are images of some phones, digital camera, waching machine and TV. These products (i am tempted to call them blobjects) exist in the same era as that of apple i-phone. But can you imagine apple or anyone else using these 'forms' to make icons for the products we discussed at the start of this article? Do you think our next generation kids born in this world full of soft-touch rectangular objects will have some distinct visual identities associated to them (and their icons)? The worst part is, Aplle won't be able to use even the icons discussed in the beginning which we could very easily identify. These kids wouldn't have seen the products which made these icons! All they will get to see is a nice rounded rectangle!

It's time we pause for a while, think about what we, as designers are doing, for the world yet to come, to think if form is still following function? or just the technology born yesterday? or just some other form?

I fear, one day we will all have some rectangular screens looking just the same and we will wait till the device starts and shows its 'visual interface' to know what that product does... or even worse, we will have to download 'apps' to actually be doing something with that nice rounded rectangle!

Windows IR

When will Indian Railways have windows which will actually close and remain closed for the intended period, mostly during night when its cold outside and you don't want to keep smelling all the villages, towns, cities churning out some or the other chemicals?
And the ones which will not keep falling when you want them open?
According to this webpage, there's no privacy in sleeper class, and it's noisy, crowded and dirty. But trust me, you get an option (or rather variety) of listening to families discussing personal matter for all compartment to listen, or adult friends who keep you guessing if they are fighting or joking, or the loud mothers of innocent (and loud) kids playing.... throughout the night.

P.S. I hope, that (wherever possible) round bank employee was actually interested in listening to my late night interactive lecture about 'what Industrial Design is and how design makes 'THE DIFFERENCE' in human life etc etc etc.' Anyway we designers have to spread design awareness among common people, good for designers atleast!

make NEW mistakes

I am sure I have made many many mistakes, but these are the ones I remember clearly because they have changed me as a person.

1994, 8th standard, the oldest (so called) mistake I remember. We shifted to Kalyan, and my new school headmaster offered me entry to scholar's division, so that I could opt for Sanskrit increasing my chances to be in merit list!! But I had to mug up a lot... nooo wayyy. I went for C division, Hindi and the headmaster thought I am making a mistake. But I made some nice friends who made me realise there is much more to school than studying!!! That's the place where I started enjoying, understanding sketching and drawing ... :)

1997, 11th std. almost similar situation again, another so called mistake!

1999, This time my parents said I am making a mistake, I left my MBBS admission and went for mechanical engineering! But I enjoyed. :)

2003, finished B.E., One more mistake and decided to take a break at the very beginning of my career! I had to do something more to be part of research and development. Came to know about Product design, NID, IDC. Wanted to go to IISc. Failed, did quality control for 1 year at Godrej. Ohh! and I also tried being salesman in a Maruti Suzuki showroom for some time. Left it telling myself I will come back as a designer. But that was the last time I felt so!!! :)

2005, Got admission to IISc, almost free! Mr. krishnan tried his best to convince me not to go for NID, but I went!!! To some extent he was right, I spent more time studying, still not finished with loan.... but I enjoyed, learnt a lot about relationships, life, people and design too!

2007, Went to Reva for a project and realised that I love 2 wheels not 4!, Mosh (B) almost torn me apart for not attending any automobile (or otherwise) company interview in campus, but I wanted to go for electric 2 wheelers! What to do?

2008, Finally I got it, but some experienced people there still told me I made a mistake! I decided to make it a good mistake... to some extent I did! Learnt a lot about many new things, though not all the expected ones! Came to know so much about myself!!! Somehow I am actually happy for that mistake now!

2008, Ohh I made one more mistake... still suffering, still happy! :)

2010, Long time... so much has accumulated... time to make a new mistake! May be the biggest so far, may be not!
:)

beautiFiction

It's quite difficult to formulate some conclusion and understanding of this film, almost as difficult as the understanding of 'beauty' itself. It's a very well made and different film which keeps you indulged in its own flow. Even after already having a basic idea of the story, I felt it is much more than a story or even direction or cinematography or many other things, which makes it worth experiencing. May be it's the essence (perfume!) of the story, the urge to understand fundamentals of the concept called 'beauty'. We all have our own individual but basically similar ways of perceiving and reacting to beauty, very naturally. And this is where the movie tries to imply the more acceptable and human way of acknowledging beauty, by revolving around a character having almost supernatural powers, that of perceiving beauty (or lack of it) in the form (?) of smell. Yes true, that smell is part of beauty, but what if for someone beauty is only good smell? And in case of Jean Baptiste Grenouille, it seems quite possible, because he himself doesn't have any smell of his own. In the world of smells he just doesn't exist! His way of perceiving and reacting to beauty is only limited to smell! He is a person who cannot love someone or be loved... may be because he doesn't understand beauty in a natural way, like everyone else around him.
And then there are common people around him, who may not be able to analyse and formulate the essence of beauty in some tangible way, but they sure know how to acknowledge it in a more comprehensible manner. To some extent they can even identify and acknowledge it in the form of the magical perfume developed by Grenouille, the one he made using skin of beautiful women! In the scene of his day of execution he magically and literally rules the crowd using his magical perfume, but himself remains uaffected by its divine power. For you need to have some wholistic understanding of love, beauty to experience it. The word 'beautification' has some meaning only for those who have and understand beauty in its little more generic form. For other it's more of beautiFiction! So what happens when Grenouille almost empties his magical perfume bottle on himself is not very much a mystery. The perfume and the perfumer remain merely the transporters of beauty and love, and being a transporter of something implies there is a lack of that 'something' in the transporter.
I am sure all this sounds very complex and confusing, but if you think, thats how it is.... like the concept of beauty.

Human, really?

'IIM-A grad launches subzi mandi on laptop. Your daily aloo, baigan and bhindi will soon be just a click away. No more finding your way through the filth at your neighbourhood subzi bazaar and haggling for prices with rude vegetable vendors. The website will create an online mandi where one can “see” the fresh vegetables, check prices and place orders. Apart from purchasing daily vegetables, one can "gift" fruits using the web service.' from Times Of India, 30 Oct 2009.
wowwww... so nice no???? we will be able to SEE vegetables on screen!!! even if thats means we won't be able to touch, smell, choose the best ones, bargain (verbally) with the (real) subzi wala bhaiya, accidentally meet our acquaintances in the (real) subzi mandi, may be subsequently fall in love with one of them, know that there is 50% sale in the silk emporium near the subzi mandi, get reminded that your distant relatives daughter is getting married next month, know that the (so called rude) old apple (fruit) wala at the entry of subzi mandi baught a Tata nano and so many other things which make and keep you social and/or human (if not tech savvy)... BUT you will be able to place orders looking at the pictures on your laptop screen!!! So great!!!....
The best thing is you can even GIFT fruits to your beloved ones using the web service! So what if you haven't even touched them with your hands? The receiver will be more interested in fruits and nutritions they will give... not in the feeling of receiving them from you... So nice!!! Yesterday someone bought me a handcrafted fabric elephant, and while giving she mentioned that she chose this particular because the mirrorwork, and overall pattern is placed more appropriately on it! This is what matters... right? that the one who is giving actually took time and care to see that you get the best possible! Whether it is an elephant or a cow comes second for me and probably for anybody.
The 'subzi-mandi on laptop' news today just triggered the thoughts and served as an example, but the basic issue can be seen in many such 'human (?) advances'. Good (read: effective) marketing can sell anything you have as the 'best new thing/way'... but is that what we have been educated for?
4-5 years down the line, kids will surf internet to learn that 'touch' means 'way of operating mobile and computing devices'. You can try searching 'touch' on google images even now.
Are we really working for the betterment of HUMANS?

Return of Fido Dido

I really don't remember who gave me this name some 4 years ago, bu it must be either Divya or Abhishek in my product design class. I remember it was not just because of my structure (or whatever you call it), but my hair style at that time too! Or if it was given to me by Snehal, then it must be because of the way I used to look in the morning, standing in the passage of our NID hostel trying to wake up (or sleep there), with all my long and crazy hair trying to jump out of my head in all the possible directions, and I remember I had shorts similar to Fido Dido then. Snehal used to lol at me every morning while saying 'good morning bhaviiiinnnn...' :)
Ohh, and how can I forget the fido dido sketched by mosh on front cover of my first sketchbook in NID? It was a lot of fun then... teasing, fighting enjoying, forgetting we were there for post graduation and not for primary schooling!!!
I had actually forgotten all this. and may be even those who named me Fidi Dido too might have forgotten. But I was wrong. Today my brother Nikhil contributed to my collection of keychains, by gifting me this white Fido Dido keychain!!!
Small things matter... so much!
:)

Cut/Copy PAST

I don't know why I am posting this (now) old video today, may be because of lack of material to share on the blog!

The footage was shot in Jan-feb 2006 mostly in the product design studio in National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and this video was compiled in Nov 2006 for my part of 'saturday activity' at Elephant Strategy + Design, pune. The founders of Elephant, Ashish, Ashwini Deshpande, Sudhir Sharma who are ex-NIDians, were very happy and overwhelmed to watch it then. Today (not literally), I know why. It goes beyond making me nostalgic, to make me think... don't know exactly about what, the past or the future? It's quite interesting to watch where life takes us with time... even without taking to places!

Enjoy this all smiles video named 'missing u all'. Interestingly I had named it so when I was still part of NID and had almost an year to spend with 'all'. And today?... hahahahah...

(It may take a little long to load this video.)

(un)dressed to kill...

It takes a lot of talent to make a naked streetfighter bike look presentable! To make it look seductive requires even lot more efforts and understanding of proportions. And proportion does not necessarily mean golden proportion! Because as Francis Bacon Sr. says, "There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion". This is the Deus Ex machina SR542, based on Yamaha SR500.

pre and pro

What you learn in a design school:

1. Design for usability

2. Deisgn for safety

3. Design for manufacturing

4. Design for sustainability

5. Design for special needs

6. Design for emotional needs

and

7. Design for learning!!!! :)

What you learn in professional life :

1. Design for organisational needs (the one which is paying you!)

2. Design for client

3. Design for deadline.

4. Design for competition

5. Design for management (nothing to do with 'design management')

6. Design for promotional needs (brand promotion dumbo... not yours)

and

7. Design for EARNING!!!....

;)

one of the nights at NID

2 O' clock in night. I received an sms. I was not really surprised by that, neither I was fast asleep. It was from my best friend saying "come to girls' hostel gate". I got a little worried about her. I couldn't guess what it can be so that she had to call me there instead of just calling me on phone! Anyway, i started walking towards girls' hostel still trying to guess what it can be.
And I saw her standing there, with a travelling bag beside her. Is she planning to run away? She smiled at me puzzling me even more! Am I also supposed to run away or what? But she had a boyfriend, and people generally run away from home, not hostel! Or is it that she just wanted to say bye to me before leaving! And why was she carrying such a small bag then? Am I supposed to take care of her other stuff while she settles down somewhere? But where? I was just few steps away from her and my every step made her smile wider and me more puzzled.
"this is worth 1500 no bhavin?" pointing towards the bag she asked me.Ohhhhh!!!! Now I got it!!! So all this was just for me to confirm that the money she spent today is justified and so she could sleep peacefully!!! I looked at bag, it was quite good looking and nice quality, but much smaller than I got for lesser price (as we already had discussed in the day! I just talked about all the positive things and confirmed that it was actualy worth 1500.
I am sure all that gave her a sound sleep that night, but I just couldn't sleep!!! I was laughing whole night... It was for a bag!!! I don't know why it got recalled today after more than one year, but I am still laughing...
:)

but we won’t be there….

whenever I happen to be here again, at late hours
I will sit behind that pillar’s shadow at middle gate,
waiting for you to come and ask me why
even though I know you won’t be there.

or while sitting in the bmw, in absolute dark
trying to identify people near main gate
and expecting one of them to be you,
though I know it can’t be…. you are simply not there!

I had stopped expecting someone to come for coffee with me long ago,
but I don’t know why, there is no coffee without your thoughts.
I will still feel like calling you for coffee,
only to realize how far you are…miles away from me.

and when you happen to be here again, in the morning
on your way to the institute,
you will feel like shouting my name looking at my room in A hostel,
no one will reply, no one will come out, cause I won’t be there!...

don’t get shocked if you find me working in workshop
struggling with rods, sheet metal and a hammer,
it must be one of those lookalikes of mine in gdpd
just laugh at yourself and go… how can I be there?

there will be lawn, there will be backfield,
there will be bbc, there will be old canteen
and pointless fights will continue throughout our life
but ‘WE’ won’t be there!…..

I will be there sometime,
you will be there sometime….
and there will be this empty space talking about us…
and ‘we’ won’t be there!.....
- bhavin