juxtaposition by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere....

Is it only me or even you, to whom most of the 'about us' lines by designers/design firms on their website sound like 'You see, the whole country of the system is juxtaposition by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere....'? At least the later entertained us in Amar Akbar Anthony!
Why do we, as designers, try to claim so much? I don't mean we don't do all that work, we do! (yeah 'covering the entire supply chain' and all). But why do we become so desperate that we try to claim all that in one single line, bang on the home page itself? WHY? I go mad when I am forced to read these lines on the landing page of their website itself. Why can't we bring the simplicity we claim in our designs, to the content/text on our websites? Do we really think someone is going to give us a huge project/order after having read these lines successfully till end? Whom do the writers of this kind of content, really target?
I have even started hating some of the very meaningful words because they appear so casually on these 'about us' pages in such a incomprehensible claims! Words like, sustainability, integrate, systems, innovation, yes yes the word 'entire' too!

Came across little too many examples recently, some of them are here for you to enjoy! Please note that all the lines below are work of fiction and any resemblance to any online material is a pure coincidence! The design fraternity is doing really great work (including the work we claim!), its just these lines that irritate me!
;)

"We integrate the cultural, ecological, economic and social tenets of sustainability through collaborative design of holistically sustainable contemporary products."


"We tap the potential of design thought, and design processes, to bring about a transformative change in the business through change in branding strategies and product offerings of the clients"


"...from initial concept to manufacture, exploring the wide variety of alternative paths for Product Development while trying to harmonize the requirements of marketing, production and finance, thus offering 'total design' solutions to our projects."

bhavin mali is now AVAILABLE!

hahahaha...
I mean for freelance.
And I have put that 'besigns' term I coined many years ago, to some better work finally!

www.besigns.in

The name that I used for my portfolio for NID interview loooks like this now with the new punchline. The oldest one was 'Exploring Truth, Beyond Imagination' :)

Past was good, lets hope future is better! :)

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! :)

The Metropolitan

This is first time I am writing about a scooter! I loved this! The Honda Metropolitan, also known as Honda Jazz in Canada. The Vespa inspired, cool, simple, chic and with Honda realiability! I doubt it is an Italian design though. But thats what (apart from price) makes it even better than Vespa, Italian design and Japanese technology! At 49cc it's more like a fashion accessory than a scooter. This is a good example of how you sell an underpowered scooter. Don't just sell it as a scooter. Apart from communicating that its a simple, easy casual commuter, it also gives you a chance to make a statement and to have fun! The simplicity of form makes it easy for a large audience to connect to it at some or the other point of time, in some or the other colour. This is a good example of how something can be elegant as well as fun! A very nice play of form, proportions and colours.

Here it is, the only scooter I loved! Because when I say 'scooter', this is exactly what I imagine. For anything else, better go for a bike! ;)

I am not sure about the front though! A normal head mounted headlight would have been better I guess. It also reminds me of our popular Activa. Ohh, and Honda Activa did something similar to Bajaj here in India. When it was launched, critics said, "Honda has made a better Bajaj!"

These are few pics depicting Vespa way of making a fashion statement.

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!
;)

Love RED Hate RED

Somehow my clothes (especially white) have a special affinity for red stains, though not the type seen above, but from the ones they are soaked with for washing. It's been happening for years! Whenever I feel I have successfully understood the science of staining, I am taught a new lesson! And the tuition fees are quite high sometimes, considering the 'value' of those clothes. The worst thing is, these laundry accidents happen only after I have worn them for some time and received some compliments! Till that time both the stainer and stainee choose to stay away from each other. And then one fine morning, a new discovery is made. Somehow in every such accident there is only one stainer (mostly red) and only one stainee (mostly white!). All the other not-so-important clothes in the bucket just remain spectators, happily swimming and (secretely) leaving their dirt in the brutal red liquid at the crime scene (bucket). And there I sit, heavy-hearted, segregating the criminal, victim and the spectators in the bathroom, thinking again, someone has shown their real colour today!
:(
Ok, can someone tell me why only a particular fabric gets stained and not every fabric? Also as I have observed, stain is received only from the direct contact with stainer (छूने से फैलती है types) and not from the coloured water in bucket. Why so?
And to all my friends in Apparel, textile and fashion industry, isn't it possible to provide a piece of same fabric with every garment you buy, for stain testing at home?
Found this interesting site/blog in this reference. It has some nice pictures too!

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)

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!

The inner voice

The inner voice is always right, at least when it says,
1. boiling milk has already found its way to kitchen sink from the gas stove, run!
2. Now stop reading that news paper and switch off the heating coil, water has become too hot to bathe.
3. finish your bath and look at mobile, you are already late for office.
4. now that you are leaving office on time, you will meet your boss before you reach the gate. (inner voice continues saying something which you don't want to hear! You are anyway going to experience it!)
5. Now that you have decided to call home after dinner, mom will call you within 5 seconds and you will as usual say ' I was about to call you mom!!'
6. Today was probably the last day to pay your vodafone bill. (the voice says this precisely after 6pm if you don't pay online).
7. (after your 500+ km journey has started, it says) may be you have forgotten something important, check your underwears.... in the bag you stupid! Ok forget it, no use now.
8. The last concept, which you made just to increase number of concepts, will be selected!
9. May be the water bottle in your bag is leaking.
10. keep your finger on 'snooze alarm' button, it will start shouting in a second! ok good morning! May be you have kept the phone on table not bed tonight! :)

Absolut Mind

(based on Absolut vodka ad campaign)

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.

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?

It's in your hands!

Came across this nice logo of Fortis healthcare group of hospitals (or healthcare consultants) in India. A very simple but brilliant treatment of negative space to convey the right meaning to the viewer. For those who have not figured it out yet, the logo in the left with a red dot above, has the space between tow hands in the shape of a human (and the red dot is head)! I really liked the way it conveys the right message in such a simple form. Just one shape element with straight lines, one circle, two colours and so much meaning! I think if you want, you can really make things simple!
The 3 letters r, t and i in the logotype connected to each other seem to be saying something, which I didn't get.. but still look interesting, may be like some other script or symbol. If anybody knows please comment.

overGreen

'Green' is in! Literally...Globally... and in abundabce! Everyone is going green, whatever way possible, no matter to what extent, but they make sure they SHOW it!
Being in an eco-friendly transportation industry myself, and because of personal interest I keep searching for new information/updates in eco-friendly or so called green field wherever possible... but mostly internet. What I come across most of the time is webpages fullll of green colour, complete with graphics of leaves and all. I bet people have planted more trees on webpages and other promotional material than in their garden!
Time has come, people going green start availing services of qualified designers instead of those knowing some graphic softwares and executing their client's instructions (mistaken as brief).
Save trees, decorate your websites?
(P.S. there is (hopefully) no website overgreen.org as of now)

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.)

Love is brand.

No it's not a typo, love actually is like a brand.. a good brand which successfully evolves with time! Take any brand e.g. Apple. We know how it has changed/evolved with time. Starting with the rainbow colour logo to colourful i-macs to minimalistic white laptops and white logo to again colourful i-pod shuffles. Apple has changed with time not only visually but also with respect to products it is associated to. But Apple has always remained an Apple, rather THE apple. One may not be able to describe properly what it takes for a product to be Apple, but somehow we all know 'the apple'. Thats brand! What we like about apple is not what it was or what it is today, but the way it has changed, or it will change! The change for which you are ready to pay!

Love... isn't it very similar to a good brand like apple? You may like someone for the way they look, the way they behave, the way they respond, but with time you know it will all change. You somehow anticipate and love the change. You may not know what will change and how it will be, but you somehow know/trust/expect it wil be worth. That is love! And like brand, it's not restricted to that particular person. You appreciate most of the things or even people associated with that person. Love is much more than what you can describe or express or even expect to be. Like there are many intangibles which contribute to brand value, there are even more intangibles and feelings which make you keep loving that particular person in spite of all the expected and unexpected changes over time. You may not be able to visualize those intangibles and changes, but that doesn't mean love is blind! Love is brand.

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.

I dream 1:1 (part 2)

This time, the post is more entertaining, with the following video showing my skills (hahah) in playing with toy cars and using little bit windows movie maker. Watch it and enjoy! :)
(to watch it in better resolution on youtube, click here)

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.