Creative Gaga - July/Aug 2012 (Preview)

creative

`200/www.CreativeGaga.com

VOL2/ ISSUE4

Jul/Aug 2012 the enthusiastic creative journal

An insider’s look at web & UI design by industry experts

Stories of the web medium

by DigiVaasi

Satyendra Pakhale

and his human products

C

RespOVER onsi ve by

Raj Raje aram ndra n

Contents

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Organic Typo. A digital illustration for Organic Typo project 2004.

Exhibit

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Thoughtfully designed stuff that you can acquire.

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TechFeed

TrendFeed

Inspiring design with potential to be influential.

NewsFeed

Just concluded design events.

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SpendThrift

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First look at few recently launched tech products.

Podium

Figures

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Minimally Substantial/ Ahmed Hasim

The lesser it is, the more powerful it gets, believes the communication designer.

Unrestricted Invitations/ Deepu Sasi Kumar

The self-trained web designer takes the viewers to a flight of fantasy, into a world of the abstract.

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36 Messi by Shijo Varghese.

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The digital studio explores different facets of the medium to breathe clarity, relevance and novelty in each creative.

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Singular Strokes/ Sheel Damani

Simple solutions address the problem better, when the singularity of message is kept intact, believes the communication designer.

Soulful Distortion/ Shijo Varghese

The caricature artist retains the essence of his subjects while recreating the character.

Human Touch/ Satyendra Pakhalé

The product designer adds the “human” factor to every product to touch the heart of the user.

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Wise Advise/ Web Wisdom

Leading practitioners of the industry discuss the state of web design in the country and what it takes to go global.

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Dynamic Dexterity/ Vijilal

The web designer constantly reinvents himself with the ever-evolving medium and plays with his instincts to create.

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Page Perceptions/ Rajaram Rajendran The web designer believes designing a webpage involves thinking way beyond it.

Unbiased Design/ Abinash Mohanty The web designer believes in creating designs that transcend mediums.

Medium Manoeuvre/ Digivaasi

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Rural Revival/ Kora

42 Kalpa by Satyendra Pakhalé.

Gyaan

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Chaotic Imagination/ Anupam Tomer

The mix media designer blends traditional approaches and experimental techniques to capture the eye of the storm.

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Space Connect/ Nikhil Raj

The communication designer touches the onlookers emotionally through this piece of space design.

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Illuminated Moods/ Omkar Chitnis

Quick tips from the fashion photographer on clicking better fashion frames.

The design initiative helps revive rural skills and resources by giving usable, innovative end products to cater the modern market.

Design Pleasure

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Pebble People/ Sushil Bhasin

Under the pseudonym of Doodlewala, the cartoonist scribbles voices of different characters in stories through pebbles.

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Open Imagination/ Fan Club

Glimpses from our recently launched section, Fan club.

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Fresh Perspectives/ F5

The workshop series brings aspirants and maverick minds of the industry in a conversation to unfold fresh ways of looking at design.

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Exhibit SpendThrift

< Poetry in Wood Grab Bag. Carry the love of traditional artisans from villages of the north.

The enchanting combination of pure raw silk, added to the intrigue of genuine off white leather, gelled with bright shades of turquoise and fuchsia never fails to make heads turn. DotPSD.

SpendThrift

A quick glance of a bunch of products designed to suit creative tastes.

< Retro Quirk Jhola Tote. Neon shades of contrast sequins team up with matching lining to create a retro feel.

DotPSD.

18 ≥ Duet Shoulder cum Backpack. It’s a mix of the smoothness of leather and the oh-so-classic feel of denim. The Denim-Leather Duet shoulder bag turns into a backpack when needed. Whether you go mall hopping or hang out with your gang, this won’t leave your side. DotPSD.

≥ Li’l Deities.You should always keep gods and goddesses around, they say. We heeded. Presenting fun and quirky badges that feature witty avatars of the popular deities. Pin them up and let both smiles and blessings come your way. Manvee Singh.

< Incense Holder.

They turn the ambience of your home and hold it for hours long. Isn’t it apt that they should have a deserving holder too? The hand painted wooden agarbatti stands do exactly that. Keep the sticks safe, organized and with care. Manvee Singh. ≥ Notorious Naga Clutch. Vibrant colours intermingle with traditional Naga design to culminate into a stunning combination. Sophisticated yet understated, the clutch is a perfect calm with a hint of mischief. DotPSD.

Dot PSD The handbags/accessories brand was started by two NIFT Kolkata alumnus, Pragya Gupta and Shivangi Singh. They combine the richness of Indian design and amalgamate it with a healthy serving of the pop culture. www.itshandmade.in

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Manvee Singh The Delhi based fashion designer from NIFT turned independent in 2008, creating customized handmade products. www.manveesingh.com

< Accordion Folder.

For all those titsbits, important tokens of memories which you wish to keep safely, hand crafted accordion folder brings in style and simplicity.

It’s a pocket full of memories that can be carried along, always.

Design Sutras.

≤ Splash Book. They are hand bound bundle of sheets, covered in colours of rainbow, evoking you to speak to yourself through scribbles. Keep them stored safely, or carry them along, your ideas are going to be with you for long.

Design Sutras.

≤ Doodle Book.

On a journey, when there’s nothing except you and your lust for wandering, stories come in handy.

These hand bound doodle book serves for keeping those scribbles with you forever. Design Sutras. ≥ Johnnie Stalker. Johnnie used to walk alone earlier. No one knew the motivation. Finally, someone found it out. Humourous take off from one of the most popular motifs of our times, the design employs simplicity to its best. Bewakoof.

≥ Rajni Inside.

Presenting a tribute to the Man who never needs any introduction. For all you innocent souls who believed in great powers ruling the world, make way for the greatest of them – Sir Rajni. Mind it!

Bewakoof.

Design Sutras Design Sutras is a collection of personalized handbooks, travel journals and remembrance tokens which speak back to you in your own words but in a creative way. www.shopo.in/shop/designsutras

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≥ Ghanta MBA. If you’re an MBA and want to vent it out to the world, here you know how. Why? Because you sleep at 2 and go for a class at 8, have tons of assignments and submissions and so on so forth. So put it on and scream, ghanta! Bewakoof.

Bewakoof It’s a bunch of desperate and illogical people who are trying to bring a smile on everyone’s face by laughing with them or by laughing at them. They come up with funny tees and an online humour magazine. www.bewakoof.com

* Think your products are worth a few square-inches here? Send them to us at Knock@CreativeGaga.com with ‘Spendthrift’ in the subject. creativegaga.com

Figures StudioScope 05 One Meal Can Do Wonders. An interactive video and site to promote

Creating a solution is a balancing act. What comes before creating communication for a brand is understanding it, in and out. Familiarity with a brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core values is crucial for effective communication, for how else will one know its strengths and weaknesses. From here arises the scope of work which opens the gateway for creativity. A fine balance needs to be maintained between creativity and content of the brief. While some brands will give you the freedom to take the creative highway, others insist upon innovating on a given set. When caught in a stalemate, fight it out, with all your might, just the way you create.

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Creative is the opposite of clutter. A creative idea has to survive a host of questions before it takes shape. From its workability to its life span, whether it is noticeable or will it be lost, will it make people stop or think etc. At times the challenge is to communicate just as the brand requires. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why testing an idea is no cake walk. When everything fails, the best way is to look around and see what the popular trend is.

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Akshaya Patra, an NGO that provides free food for children.

06 Horlicks ExamsKool. A virtual school to help kids prepare for exams in a fun way.

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And then hit the road right opposite to it and have fun.

Research always pays, if probed creatively. Sensible enquiry can give a new life to a creative idea. Beginning from learning everything about the product and brand in question, to keeping a constant check on technology, research should always guide an idea and not restrict it. A pair of creative eyes, ears and mind should always be at work, observing and weighing one work against another.

Understanding and interpreting the brief is the next key. Defining the desired user action or behaviour keeps the execution grounded and makes it do just what it is supposed to >

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07 Chalega? Ya Fislega? A quirky little game for

Center Fresh, the chewing that keeps your mouth shut.

08 Rage Against The Machine. A cheeky website protesting against the corporate

machine. For MakeMyTripâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign Offisial Atyachaar.

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Figures GagaGod

Style grows forever. A style that blossoms with time is an accomplishment. There is no greater joy than creating a new phenomenon every time the pencil gets to work. Creations that evolve naturally, liberally and timelessly are the ones that bridge the real world with the virtual. However, the focus should be on getting the subjectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s essence, whichever style you may choose. Strokes, textures, patterns and everything else follows. Spontaneity is a big tool that every caricaturist must employ.

Ideas come in when you are not looking for it.

Making that the trigger point often results in uninhibited, impartial creations.

Know it before distorting it. For every caricaturist, it is very important to have a very good understanding of anatomy and proportions to do good work. We should know the basics before distorting or exaggerating. It is alright to look at subjects with an eye of humour. But ultimately, the job of a caricaturist is to express the characteristic essence of the subject.

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Humour with care. There is a thin line that separates humour from sarcasm. Therefore it is important to honour the former while communicating the core message. Employing free-spirited strokes, ever new shading techniques and an understanding of the subject results >

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04 Harbhajan Singh.

Done for Stumped! a collection of 2011 world cup winning Indian team.

05 Shijo and Tintu.

Personal work.

Caricature of self and wife.

06 Vrooom!.

A collection of Formula One driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; caricatures.

07 Bernie Ecclestone.

Personal work about personalities of F1 2011 in India.

08 Yuvraj Singh.

Done for Stumped!, a collection of 2011 world cup winning Indian team.

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Figures ProductPurpose

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HumanTouch

Industrial designing makes public art accessible to the masses. These products are part of the physical as well as psychological space of everyday life. By giving these products a personality, design can turn them as expressions of a culture and human emotions.

Product designer Satyendra PakhalĂŠ talks about the perceptions and process of creating products that bear this human touch.

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01 04 Kalpa. Ceramic vase and bowl in one design. Made by slip casting several identical white clay pots, glazed white outside and colour inside and glued

together with special synthetic glue mainly used in aerospace industry.

02 Amisa. Mass manufactured interior accessory, it has sensorial form

with a detail that invites user to grip the handle.

03 Good Food. An age-old typology of a cooking utensil.

Inspired from the traditional way of

cooking in Kerala, creating a shape and volume that is good for a dinner with few friends or a family.

Satyendra PakhalĂŠ has been trained at IIT-Bombay and Art Centre College of Design, Switzerland. Since 1998 he has been working worldwide from his Amsterdam-based design studio.

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Industrial design can develop an economy.

A designed product stands as a testimony to the cultural ethos of a society and mankind. A product arises out of the primal needs of human beings. Therefore, it has the opportunity to touch and affect million lives. Using technology and creativity, these designs can contribute to an economy and rise above as cultural symbols.

Hence, an industrial designer needs to come up with product designs that play a part in everyday life and improve living.

Every product speaks a language. The moment a user comes in contact with a product, it ought to take him by surprise â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a joyful one. Products, hence, can be expressions of the basic human needs. Such sensorial language must be created through designs, which communicate emotions without compromising on the utilitarian needs. When these significant and crucial aspects are taken into consideration, the users embrace the products in a way that these gradually become a part of their culture > 04

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Figures IconWatch

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You need to guess your user before designing. A designer has to constantly keep running checks on the design. Because digital-designing is mostly about â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;user experienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, the functionality of the design is most important. Understanding who the site is meant for, what do they come to the site for and what are the access points, helps a lot. That helps you with what to show, what techniques to use and how. Then comes the art direction, colours, typography, layout etc. The nature and the requirements of the project play an important role as well. These parameters decide whether the design needs to be made simple and obvious so that the site is fluid enough for anyone to navigate through. Or if, one can assume intelligence in the end-user and add layers can be added to the design. The designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s job is to do the best with what he or she has to do.

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04 05 Hike Shoes.

HTML+CMS based website. Designed and developed for ease of use on varied devices.

06 EL EL v4. Website design for Eleven Elements Studio.

Showcases technical elements along with creative ones.

07 08 Kath. Design is not just looks but also functionality.

3rd place winner at Wedesign International Festival ‘08, France.

09 1st December v1 Website. Humour is the best way to capture the audience demonstrated by this fun-to-use site to show off portfolio.

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Design is how it works. Understanding who visits the site and for what, comes first. Find out what the problem to begin with. “I need a website” is usually not the problem. But “I need a website that does so and so” might be.

The purpose of the website determines how it will look like. Like the flow for a functional website, say an online payment facility, will be totally different from a cool product show off website. Understand the requirements and design accordingly so that everything falls in a sequence. The web, being a medium utterly technology oriented, striking a balance between technology and creativity is a tricky task. But that’s the challenge. That’s what makes this so different from other mediums of design.

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Reason out every element before using.

It’s better when everything in a digital medium is there for a purpose. An icon, an element, a font, everything should have a reason. Like the 3D and the depth in designs help to create an environment. Always ask ‘why this, why not that?’ But things might not always turn out to be as planned. Sometimes, things can go wrong. Be willing to adapt during the course and not stick to something just because you started off in a particular way. The interactivity that the net generates allows one to use a mix of audio and video as well. Use them to communicate your point >

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