Branding Project Otenga as a multimodal cafe

BRANDING PROJECT OTENGA AS A MULTIMODAL CAFE

GRADUATION PROJECT BY LEENA JAIN FASHION COMMUNICATION (2014 - 18), NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY, GANDHINAGAR

GRADUATION PROJECT BY LEENA JAIN FASHION COMMUNICATION - SEMESTER 8 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY, GANDHINAGAR

INDUSTRY MENTOR CERTIFICATE

FACULTY MENTOR CERTIFICATE This is to certify that Ms. Leena Jain (BD/14/348) of National Institute of Fashion Technology, Gandhinagar pursuing bachelors in Fashion Communication has completed the graduation project and internship titled ‘Branding Project Otenga as a multimodal cafe’ satisfactorily.

Signature of Faculty mentor : Place : Date : Name, Designation, Organization & Location :

DECLARATION I , Ms. Leena Jain declare that the Graduation Project entitled ‘Branding Project Otenga as a multimodal cafe’ is the result of purely original work done by me from 8th January, 2018 to 28th April, 2018.

No part of the work has been partially or fully copied from elsewhere, and wherever required, citations are provided for any references taken.

Signature

Name of Student : Date: Place:

JURY CERTIFICATE This is to certify that Ms. Leena Jain of National Insitute of Fashion Technology, Gandhinagar has succesfully presented her Graduation Project completed between 8th January, 2018 to 28th April, 2018.

Name & Signature : ________________ ________________ ________________ ________________ ________________ ________________

Time, Date and Place : ________________

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Graduation Project is a semester long engagement which is all about solving real - life design problems that impact an organization.

These sixteen - eighteen weeks of constant hustle have been deeply enriching professionally and personally towards contributing to the mankind, the institutions of design and academia, and articulating for a transforming organization. This journey was shaped from the past four years of the Fashion Communication degree at the National Insitute of Fashion Technology, Gandhinagar and I would like to deeply thank Prof. Ravi Joshi and Dr. Hir Vyas as the course coordinators who mentored me throughout these years from developing an eye for design to articulating problems and solving them in the best possible way.

Secondly, I would like to thank my mentors at Project Otenga cafe, Ms. Kabyashree Borgohain and Mr. Dayananda Meitei for believing in my potential and helping me to develop my craft and my skills in the realm of Design Thinking, Articulation and Holistic output by guiding me to think more flexibly and with multi-dimensionality.

My deepest gratitude to Ms. Jalpa Vaniker as my institutional mentor, who helped me to keep working towards my goals on a daily-weeklymonthly basis, and kept giving me inputs for improving the little details in different parts of the project.

1. INTRODUCTION

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2. ABOUT PROJECT OTENGA

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3. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

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4. INITIAL IDEAS

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5. DEFINING THE PROJECT BRIEF

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6. EXPERIENTIAL BRANDING

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1. KHET TO PLATE

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1. Experience Curations 2. Promotions

2. SPATIAL DETOX

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1. Research 2. System Design 3. Promotions 4. Week 1 : Revisiting the self 5. Week 2 : Rekindling with interests and memories 6. Week 3 : Repurposing new meanings

3. FRUITION

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1. Collateral copywriting 2. Documentation

4. SIX STRINGS AND A MOUTHFUL

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1. Research | Documentations 2. Promotions 3. Collateral Design

5. STORIES AND TASTE OF MASI MAGAM THIRUVIZHA

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1. Curation & Promotion 2. Collateral Design

6. BEYOND LOVE AND ROMANCE

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7. WHAT IS IT TO BE HUMAN?

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8. HAVE WE LOST TOUCH WITH OUR OWN SELVES?

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7. ARTICULATING THE BRAND 1. BRANDING THE SPACE

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1. Initial developments 2. Information Kit 3. Touch points analysis 4. Visual Language development 5. Kitchen Garden 6. Ingredients and tea 7. Restrooms 8. Mascot / Character development 9. Space branding Copy 10. Menu Redesign

2. WEBSITE

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1. Identifying sections 2. Website imagery and layout 3. Branding copy articulation 4. Visual Language development 5. Articulating experiences

3. CORPORATE STATIONARY

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1. Visiting cards 2. Letterhead

4. SOCIAL MEDIA BRANDING

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1. Images 2. Hashtags & Captions 3. Other Images

8. IMPACT & CONCLUSIONS

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CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION The Graduation Project is about contributing to a real-life problem using our skills of visual and verbal articulation.

Project Otenga cafe is an experimental space for multidisciplinary collaborations, gastronomical experiences, mindful living and promoting traditional practices.

With my interests in Experiential Design, System Thinking, Strategic Communications and Research, the organization seemed like a great place to build my skills and contribute.

Strategizing the branding and marketing of Project Otenga cafe, there was quite a lot to think in how can we project the space as one that focuses on academia, collaboration and human relations at the core, and food lies as a bonding factor. The answer was in looking at non-conventional practices to market, brand and promote the space.

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ABOUT PROJECT OTENGA Project Otenga Cafe initiated as Kabyashree Borgohain’s thesis project for her degree in Strategic Design Management at NID, Gandhinagar. The prototype model was in a bungalow in the Reliance circle area, Gandhinagar, in proximity to NID, NIFT, DA IICT and many other institutions.

Post the testing phase, the idea was pitched to Ahmedabad University, which was looking for a team to build a culture around a space inside the premises. The small house cafe was then scaled up to a full-fledged cafe at the heart of Ahmedabad University at Commerce Six roads, Navrangpura.

Project Otenga cafe is a kitchen, a design studio and an in-beta mode, human lab. The experimental space talks about mindful living and a compassionate lifestyle at the core. The prototype model was to validate the idea of a non-judgemental space for students and working professionals staying away from home and walking into a new one, by introducing the concept of ‘host’ and ‘guest’, homemade food and the use of traditional Indian methods.

The new space however, has more people coming in from different walks of life. A lot of the patrons are professors from prestigious institutions like NID, IIM, Ahmedabad University, IIT Gandhinagar, NIFT, CEPT and many more.

Apart from these, there are also young entreprenuers, working professionals and students who make up the patron network.

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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Otenga Initiatives Private Limited is the parent company to Project Otenga Cafe. The organization was co-founded by Dayananda Meitei and Kabyashree Borgohain and Project Otenga Cafe is the first venture.

DAYANANDA MEITEI

KABYASHREE BORGOHAIN

A scribe and a communications professional, Meitei has a wide exposure in the area of higher education during his time at the Times of India, the DNA and at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar.

Meitei believes in the slow and organic design approach while his deep interest in nature and plants is partly reflected in his collection of succulents and other greens. He has an intellectual and interactive approach towards different issues of the world which he articulates in an engaging way. Meitei is a native of Manipur.

A Design strategist, a gastronomical food researcher and chef, Kabyashree is an alumnus of the prestigious National Institute of Design, Gandhinagar - Strategic Design Management (M.Des’14) and the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Chennai - Fashion and Lifestyle Accessories (B.Des’09). With a thorough experience in Design and Design Education over the years, Kabyashree began Project Otenga with a passion for food, experience and design as a part of her Graduation Project Thesis at NID which evolved from a house café in Gandhinagar to a full-fledged space in Ahmedabad University campus, Ahmedabad.

She belongs to Assam, natively.

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INITIAL IDEAS The initial project brief was to start with thinking about branding ideas for Project Otenga through non-conventional ways. Facebook was the only active medium where they updated their patrons of what was going on. A couple of talks, performances, gastronomical experiences and events had been going on as well.

The first and the second week were more towards thinking of innovative ideas that could help brand Project Otenga as an academia - oriented, multimodal cafe with a core in mindful living and compassionate practices.

Creating some ideas and further developing them, these were some initial plans, content calendars and interesting days that I referenced, ideated and put forward, to re-define the brief for a more substantial design solution.

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BI - MONTHLY MAGAZINE With my skills in writing, research and publication design and Project Otenga’s vision of branding itself as an academia based space, a bi-monthly magazine on multidisciplinary themes was one initial idea. A great way to seek target audience attention, while we can also engage patrons through interviews, request for opinions or articles as a part of Otenga’s magazine.

The idea further went on to become a reportaire plus informative magazine that would take one major theme for every issue and all the constant themes of the magazine

Bi – Monthly/Monthly Magazine (Cross-disciplinary collaborations) Focused on people from Ahmedabad but with different origins - many collaborations that can happen, north – eastern undertones.

Conversations, Art, Culture, Psychology, Food, Design, Architecture, Human Rights and Events would be the broader themes

It can have interviews of various people, who can be invited to the café – this could also go into the VLOG!

We could have sections about certain themes written by instructors in AU, NID, NIFT, CEPT and internally from the team.

Capturing some interesting conversations and people who come to visit and making that a story in the zine.

Photo-story sections on any interesting field trips we take, events through the two months or documenting an upcoming designers’ work.

CONVERSATIONS AT PROJECT OTENGA

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DINE & ZINE WITH PROJECT OTENGA

Strokes and comprehensions | Art, Artists and perspectives, reviews, upcoming art Fresh from the farm | Food, Organic farming, Gastrophysics, rare ingredients Mindful Living | Hyyge, Yoga, Meditation, Crafts, Colouring books, Zero waste, Sustainability Literary Compositions | Poetry, Fiction, Reviews, Literature Project Otenga Conversations | Interviewing people coming up with interesting work Travelling Offbeat | New places, spots, experiences Playwright’s delight | Theatre, Films, Writing for the screen (what are we communicating?)

The world is a playground | Design oriented section with how design is influencing sectors What’s cooking | Events and stories Living the North-eastern way | Stories from the origin of Otenga.

Perspectives Beyond Stereotype | New Ideas, historical analysis, Gender, identities, alternative lifestyles

Magazine Constants.

Broad Themes Editor’s Note | About the edition Fresh from the farm | Urban Farming, Gardening, Seeds Mindful Zone | Hyyge, Yoga, Meditation, Mindful practices, Good habits Literary Compositions | Book reviews, Suggestions, Author Interviews Stroked Realities | Art, Architecture, Interviews, Stories, Exhibition reviews Travelling Offbeat | Stories, Interviews, Documenting Places The Performer’s delight | Performing Arts, Theatre, Media Platforms Meaningfully Designed | The future of Design, Interviews, Design Jams, Feature Designers Cover Story | Depending on overall Issue theme What’s been cooking? | Events at Project Otenga Preserved traditions | Traditions, Heritage preservation Perspectives Beyond Stereotype | New ideas, ground-breaking stories The Gastronomist’s section | Food Stories, Food Maps, Recipes From the lab | Research Papers, Any new research update Culture Contrasts | Other cultures, diversity Crafted Identities | Discovering new crafts, and stories of crafts people Pure healing | Medicine and Health section Minding the brain | Cognitive Sciences and psychology section

The Conscious Edition The Performer’s delight | Performing Arts, Theatre, Media Platforms Story Leads – Film as a medium to start a dialogue How YouTube / Vlogging is adding to the zero-waste mindful lifestyle dialogue

Editor’s Note | What is it being conscious? And why it is the theme.

Fresh from the farm | Urban Farming, Gardening, Seeds Story Leads – 5 foods to grow from your ‘Amdavadi’ balcony 4 ways to grow fresh in your own apartment Meaningfully Designed | The future of Design, Interviews, Design Jams, Feature How urban farming is helping us to be food conscious Responsible Packaging Seed by seed, Step by step – Urban Farming – Creating your own balcony gardenFeaturing brands that use waste, or have a philosophy of consciousness, How to compost in your house? sustainability, zero waste (ASAL, Doodlage, Kalamkhush, Buna clothing etcetera) Interview a garden designer – Ms. Kajaria (Neha’s boyfriend’s mother) 5 designers creating a sustainable future Mindful Zone | Hyyge, Yoga, Meditation, Mindful practices, Good habits Story Leads – Infographic on how to go zero waste - Zero waste with zero efforts How Zero waste can improve your Karma?

How zero waste lifestyle help you be more positive Infographic on increasing the life of wastes Clutter free workspaces How the mind can be impacted by living with zero waste

Theme Story | Depending on overall Issue theme Story Leads – Living the zero waste life Conscious brands in India What’s been cooking? | Events at Project Otenga Story Leads – De-clutter workshop documentation Harvest festival event documentation Book readings

Literary Compositions | Book reviews, Suggestions, Author Interviews Story Leads – Haiku and writing concisely How publishing is going zero waste?

Japanese writer (Zero clutter) Behind the beautiful forevers (Katherine Boo)

Preserved traditions | Traditions, Heritage preservation Story Leads – North-eastern sustainability story A story related to traditional practices relevant in the modern world

Stroked Realities | Art, Architecture, Interviews, Stories, Exhibition reviews Story Leads – Art from waste Organic Art Art about zero waste / sustainability Comic strip on working clutter-free Sustainable Architecture

Perspectives Beyond Stereotype | New ideas, ground-breaking stories The Gastronomist’s section | Food Stories, Food Maps, Recipes From the lab | Research Papers, Any new research update Culture Contrasts | Other cultures, diversity

Travel Offbeat| Stories, Interviews, Documenting Places Story Leads – Visual Moodboards Women Solo Backpackers Eco – village, Sundarbans – photo-documentation Documenting Assam’s offbeat spots Documenting Ahmedabad’s offbeat spots 5 offbeat experiences at Abu

Crafted Identities | Discovering new crafts, and stories of crafts people Pure healing | Medicine and Health section Minding the brain | Cognitive Sciences and psychology section

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Research & Leads– Travel Offbeat Tell me about yourself I’m Neha, I moved to India last July, lived here for almost a year and a half. I am originally from Tennessee, and I moved to Ahmedabad to work on a project related to ground water harvesting.

And I also love to travel, especially going solo!

How many solo trips have you had? What does travel really mean to you?

Quite a few, about ten trips or so. Travel for me isn’t really about the sight-seeing or visiting museums, it is really understanding the place for what it is. That includes a lot of things, the people who live there, the food, which is a very big aspect, the spaces, that also involves going to museums, but not how a tourist would go.

So tell me about where have you been?

My first solo trip was around Italy and France. I did organic farming in Italy, on two different farms. And France, I backpacked from the South of France to Paris, visiting the places on the way. After that I’ve been to Rwanda, Ethiopia, Germany, and quite a few places in India.

So why did you pick the North East this time?

The North East, if I had to be completely honest, logistically for the months that I was planning to travel it seemed like the best place, and as I narrowed down further, the more I explored, it seemed like it was this unexplored, uncharted part of India that had an amalgamation of different cultures and different countries. It seemed like a very interesting place for me to go.

This trip was quite unexpected as you’d mentioned earlier, you ended up meeting Kabya out of nowhere and ended up staying at her home. What were your initial plans and what happened next?

So, my initial plan was to go to Meghalaya and not Assam. I had spoken to some friends and they really recommended to go to Cherrapunji, Shillong and other places. I narrowed down my itinerary to Meghalaya, and meanwhile a friend recommended to visit Otenga, and I had an idea that Kabya is from the North East but I wasn’t sure which part. So I decided to go and get her opinion on where to go and what to visit! So we met here in the afternoon, and over the course of two hours, my entire trip transformed. She suggested me for places to visit, and she really understood what I was looking for, to experience something unadultered, a non-commercialised view of people and the place. So she suggested me to go to Assam and I went with her ideas, and majority of my trip was at Assam and only two days at Meghalaya of ten days.

So in your trip, what was your best food memory?

I was at Kaziranga National park, where there was this orchid park. You can see various types of orchids and there is a station where you can know more about the Assamese culture. I highly recommend it, but apart from that, for food they were offering this North Eastern Assamese thali, I’ve had a Gujarati thali, a south Indian thali, but I’ve never eaten so much food. There were about 18 different sabzis, it was massive! It was so different from other Indian food as they have so much exposure, and you can taste those, but here I was eating vegetables and fruits I’ve never known of or tasted earlier.

The popular idea of the North East is that the options for vegetarians are limited, what was your experience as a vegetarian?

I didn’t find it difficult at all. I am a vegetarian, but I eat eggs. Now the first place I stayed at was a bed and breakfast run by a Marwari family, which was completely vegetarian. After which I moved to Kabya’s house, and her mother knew I was a vegetarian. Although meat is an important part of their diet, most important parts seemed to be dal, vegetables and rice.

What about the culture, what is your take away from Assamese culture and people?

I found it to be very different from other parts of India that I’ve been to, partially because this was the first time I got to experience first-hand authentic view of the culture. I wouldn’t say Assamese culture, but probably I can speak of the culture at Kabya’s family and the culture of the town she lives in. It is a very peaceful place, and I found it to be, culturally diverse. Despite social ranks, economic status, there

Interviewed Neha Joshi, a backpacker who recently travelled to the North East, who shared her experiences.

was a lot of cohesion which I haven’t seen in other parts of India. It was refreshing to see this friendliness, hospitality and intellect – the poetry, music, dance and the food. It is very culturally rich to so speak.

Talking about culture, is there a specific memory you have with the time you spent with people there?

I would say, I have quite a few memories with people. With Kabya’s family we drove to Bashigat, which was very memorable, beautiful landscapes, the sunlight and everything was perfect. On the way, her mom and her aunt were singing folk songs the whole time, and Kabya’s mom has a beautiful voice which really made a perfect moment.

The second memory is of Meghalaya. I went to a village close to Cherrapunji and it is famous for living root bridges. It was solo and when I got to the first bridge, I met this British lady there and I thought she was with the tour guide. We helped each other with images and then I ran into her again on the second bridge. We started speaking and got to know that we were staying in the same city and would have to go back to Shillong. So we decided to travel back together and share the transportation. But her plans were to go even further and walk through the mountains to a waterfall, an uncharted waterfall that was known only to the locals. We hiked an additional two hours, really good conversation, beautiful landscapes and a very tiring hike. On the way back, it was already dark, and it was pitch dark and we were travelling in the forest with cellphone lights. Then there was this another woman that seemed like she was with her two young daughters. We started helping her in joined forces. The tour guide then realised he was closely related to this woman with the two children. They started speaking. We went ahead and reached the top, and then we realised that two children weren’t her children but just kids from the village, then we drove to her relatives’ small kirana store, and we warmed up near the charcoal fire, and had really delicious omelettes and bamboo pickle. The whole travel was great, spontaneous and impulsive.

Things a traveller shouldn’t miss in the North East, or specifically Assam / Meghalaya.

Majuli – It is the world’s largest river island, under the Brahmaputra. It is really beautiful, old and has a lot of religious significance. It is less travelled and mesmerizing.

Drive through villages – Rent a car and just drive through the villages to just look at the landscapes, tremendously beautiful where you get see so many different variations. I took a lot of public transport, buses, ferries and more.

I was travelling to Dhemaji and the trip involved a bus ride, a sumo ride and a ferry, and the ferry ride was tremendously beautiful and it was my first encounter with the Brahmaputra River and it was magnificent. You can see the outline of mountains from Arunachal Pradesh and it is really un-commercialised so it is large stretches of water which were great to look at. This really gives you an authentic glimpse of the place.

On my last day in Dhemaji, I went to a Mishing village. It coincidentally happened to be the day when a family was celebrating the harvesting of their rice. It was filled with a lot of prayer and a food inside a traditional Mishing house, which is propped up on stilts so prevent during flooding. So there was a lot of food, and prayer and if it is possible for anyone to experience a tradition or a festival, it would be great.

Some Rapid fires Beach or the hills? The hills, as I find peace there and not a great fan of the sands.

Hotels or guest stays? Guest stays Greens or the desert? Greens Wheels, wings or the sea? Wings, used to have patient to do buses, and everything, but as I get older, I prefer wings.

So, if you had a time travel option, which place would you like to go, and whether it would be the past or the present?

I would really like to visit Mumbai or Goa in the 1950s or the 1960s. Whenever I travel to Bombay, there are so many interesting areas that have been developed by immigrants, like the Parsi community or the Portuguese settlers, so I would like to see when these places are just getting built, it would be really interesting to see all that.

Have you ever been homesick on a trip, and what part of it?

So, recently on this trip, when I was in the buses, the temperature and the landscapes, which really looked similar and felt similar to my home. Certain spaces that remind me of the home, that’s when I feel homesick, even looking at Kabya’s home reminds me of my grandmother or my mom.

Have you ever felt unsafe in India while travelling in any place in India as a woman?

Frankly, no. North East has been a friendly, open trip, in fact Meghalaya has a matriarchal cultures. The instances I felt unsafe, were actually quite commercial places elsewhere. It is always good to ask people and do a little survey before travelling to a place though!

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Nutritious plates, greener apartments!

Approaches to growing fresh produce indoors

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Have you ever wondered where your food comes from? The leafy greens to the pulses, they travel for long miles before they finally land up in our plates. From the growing, the harvest to the transit, much is injected to keep them appear fresh, but on the inside, they might not be as nutritious as we’d hope. While we’re moving to consuming more greens, pulses and produce in our meals, we’ve constantly realised that the greens from the grocery might not be as nutritious as they appear! Don’t be completely disheartened, there are ways your plate reeks of nutritious wholesome fresh produce, how? Grow your own produce, in your apartment.

Whether you choose to spread your plants in the area horizontally or want to use a wall full of pots, mason jars, plant containers, it is doable, not only do you get nutritious produce – you also have a greener apartment to flaunt.

An open space with ample light and fresh air, the balcony is a great place for starting your own little farm with fresh produce. If your balcony isn’t the ideal space, another spot is as good – whether it is right next to your dining table, you just need to make some arrangements, and it will be all be just fine!

What do you need?

Light containers like pots, waste plastic containers, mason jars, ceramic pots, jars etc.

A vertical rack or shelves on the wall.

LED Diode strip in the magenta and blue shades or a full spectrum light – you could also go for high intensity light tubes for instance, the Lumibar LED from LumiGrow, Philips green power LEDs or more available in the market, or make one on your own using stripes available at a hardware store near you.

Visual Infographic How do you start?

Step 1 – Set up the rack, make it using reclaimed wood or use an old one from your storage.

Step 2 – On each layer of the rack stick an LED Strip, such that it faces your plantations at each level. Make sure there is a way to increase or decrease the intensity of light in the system.

Step 3 – Choose what you want to plant. The most viable edible produce that grows well for the climate of Ahmedabad includes potatoes, eggplants, tomato, garlic and onions. You can further grow coriander, spinach, tulsi and ajwain. The next two steps depend from plant to plant.

Step 4 – Choose the right size of containers so that there is good water circulation with the soil and the plant, depending what you’re growing.

Arrange your containers on the rack according to the light source.

Step 5 – Grab some earthy soils from a nursery or from your backyard. The soil needs to be then prepared by checking the right pH levels using litmus paper strips by mixing your soil to distilled water, lowering it using lime when it is too acidic and increasing it using organic waste when it is too basic. There are organic pot mixes and fertilizers available at many platforms like Greenobazaar, theOrganicLife and even your closest nursery. Meanwhile compost your organic waste in a pot as well, so you can use it as manure later in the farm.

Step 1 your st

Step 2 plantat intensi

Step 3 grows tomato ajwain

Step 4 circula Arrang

Step 5 needs strips b acidic a organi Greeno compo in the f

VIDEO BLOGS A video blog is quite an intriguing way of transmitting information and Project Otenga intends to become a knowledge platform. Thinking of which we ideated of creating a video blog that would talk of traditional Indian methods, North eastern way of life, interviews in the magazine and any events that we do can be documented further.

Mini Meals and Curated Meal Preparations and Presentation are filmed daily but compiled weekly.

Interviews that we do in the café for the magazine go as a VLOG.

Events in the café, specifically performing arts, music and food based.

5 days series by Lucie B Fink Refinery 29 or Food Channel’s Snapchat series on facts about food, ingredients can be an inspiration.

Documenting Social Experiments, Personal Experiments and putting them out with an analysis.

VLOG + Research Paper – How does clutter and organization affect productivity?

Challenge based event and the responses recorded as a discussion research paper.

VLOG+ Research Paper – How food affects productivity?

How do people work, perceive, feel, see after eating food?

Fast Food Vs Slow Food

VLOG – Trying to live by zero waste for 3 days

Event + Research Paper – ‘Mansplaining’ Reversed

A vlog journey where one of us tries to stay without creating new waste and discovering new ways of storing things, reusing packaging, old stuff in more productive ways. This can become a series.

Women have been subjected to mansplaining for years, what happens when men are subjected to the same in daily situations – women in the workplace event.

At the end, we planned a series of video blogs under categories of 1. Life at Project Otenga - which would cover various events/experiences 2. Philosophy and Story - one time playlist that would be about the core 3. Travelogue - Travel stories to new places and authentic cuisines 4. Traditional remedies - Ayurvedic remedies and more 5. North Eastern recipes - Cooking and promoting North Eastern food.

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CURATING EXPERIENCES To make the cafe a public interface and have constant interactions and engagements with the existing patrons, and involving newer ones to make the platform a knowledge exchange, multidisciplinary collaborative platform, we needed to create events, experiences that would bring like-minded people together. These experiences could vary from design thinking oriented experiences to gastronomical experiences. At this stage, we experimented and spontaneously brewed ideas, and collaborating with new people.

Gauging Audience Interests Relevant to the people who visit the café on a regular basis – understanding the audience, interests, intellectual pieces.

Researching on these interests Generating ideas and making a content library and creating context.

Documenting relevant content Writing, Illustrating, System Plan in different ways – coffee table books, posters, events, the magazine, social media and blog.

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Traditional Knowledge | Indian Crafts, Innovations, Creators Feminist Theory | Illustrators, Papers, Books, Communities (LGBTQ+, Women) Placing development in context to people | What is sustainable development and Human Rights Art and Design | For instance match box art, and other themes, new artists Sustainable Living and Zero Waste in the Indian Context | The use of Daatoon, local herbs, ASAL Experiencing Food | Gastrophysics, Neurological Response to food, Slow food Workplace Efficiency | Productivity, Music, Workplace timings Mental Health | At work, As a student, culture shock, depression

Invite Colour, food and sound design researchers, psychologists

Therapy Music & Food Psychology

Cooking moods & Open Kitchens

Opening paints and letting people sway brushes to the tunes and doing the same after a curated meal.

Invite food (cooking) enthusiasts from around the city to cook a dish with curated ingredients.

Invite a Publication designer or a graphic designer to lead for instance, India Type Foundry or from a publication house

TYPOGRAPHY WORKSHOP & HANDWRITING ANALYSIS

Also a psychologist who works with handwriting analysis.

Handwriting day – Jan 23rd.

Food enthusiasts and food bloggers to document the event – also becomes a part of the VLOG, Magazine.

GARDENING WORKSHOP– Seed Swap Day Jan 27th

Community sowing seeds together with interesting incentives and informative booklets about gardening.

Invite a Design dignitary/organization for the workshop.

For instance, Invite Anuj Sharma from Button Masala for a workshop

DESIGN INNOVATION WORKSHOPS

How zero waste is integral to the historical lifestyles of the rural in India which is now getting to western countries. (examples – daatoon vs bamboo toothbrushes) ASAL Shripal Shah

Invite renowned Professors on these themes to hold a discussion or a talk.

DISCUSSION EVENTS ON THEMES Feminism, Political view, Pop Culture, Feminist Art (1970s)

Invite people with upcoming work in these fields.

TALK

DESIGN JAM

Themes of Sustainability, Zero Waste, Traditional Knowledge and Lifestyles.

How would Indian Crafts lead the fashion scenario as an alternative to fast fashion

Good Earth Bandhej Fab India Okhai

OTHER BRANDING MEDIUMS INSTAGRAM

Daily Documentation of food in flat-lays, plants, scenes

Series about urban farming, how to grow certain plants and how with illustrations.

Social Experiments and personal experiments (for instance, eating only vegan food for a week, using only one spice for two days etc. ) with photographs on the same.

Event posters, updates, who came to the café, interesting conversations and research Web for paperCopywriting calls.

Web Copywriting for Project Otenga – Philosophy, Vision & Mission, Initiatives, For Bookings, Team, Contact

Project Otenga – Philosophy, Vision & Mission, Initiatives, For Bookings, Team, Contact

Waiting time booklets in the café as quick reads(coffee table books) about psychology, food, gastro physics and the art of cooking – research and publication design

Mindful Food Experience maps creatively designed with research, illustrations and typography

BLOG AS A PART OF THE WEBSITE Weekly posts (curated and new) about food, gastronomy, culture, Waiting time booklets in the events, café as quickacademia, reads(coffee table design North East. books) aboutand psychology, food, gastro physics and the art of cooking – research and publication design

Mindful Food Experience maps creatively designed with research, illustrations and typography

Digital Press Kit, Brand Presentation and Physical Press Kit with a souvenir 27(for whenever we invite a

Digital Press Kit, Brand Presentation and Physical Press Kit with a souvenir (for whenever we invite a blogger/journalist)

RESTRUCTURING THE IDEAS

References to the kind of image Project Otenga wants to create interpreted to the context of the city, people and the core of the organization.

Restructuring the Grad Project

Curating Experiences

• Social Experiments • Research experiments – human behaviour • Communication Strategy

Documentation

• Coffee Table Book/website that talks about the analysis, research and other aspects of the experiences • Video blogs wherever applicable

Experiences will be based on the keywords discussed for the magazine.

This way the process of research and materialization will be more streamlined and relevant.

Was the magazine the most viable branding solution, was reporting required to brand Project Otenga at this stage, when we have a lot of content about Project Otenga that hasn’t been shared ? There were many questions that ran across my mind while finalizing what should be the course of action for the grad project and what it would culminate into. We further decided to let the culmination be decided on the type of curations we did. While we earlier planned that the curations would happen by the keywords in the magazine, they took place rather organically as we met new people and patrons who wanted to collaborate and we thought of our own ideas further.

The form of documentation was to be decided later, which would either be a magazine or the website, however it suited the content. The next stage was to create content.

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5 DEFINING THE PROJECT BRIEF

Branding Project Otenga Cafe as a multimodal space in intangible and tangible ways by curating experiences, system design, collateral design, content strategy and identity development.

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EXPERIENTIAL BRANDING Curating and designing experiences that are experimentative, spontaneously planned yet strategically placed was how we started thinking of various experiences to curate, design and plan.

Ideas emerged from the content calendar that jotted down interesting days across the world, or someone interesting we met as a patron in the cafe or as a spontaneous idea from our thoughts.

Starting from cookout events to design thinking and gastronomical experiences to the many talks and discussions that happened, there were many roles I played, a researcher, a designer, a promoter, a facilitator and a spectator.

These were experiments that would build guidelines into what kind of experiences shall Project Otenga curate, collaborate for and host in the coming days and how do we create a base for these?

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1

‘Khet’ to Plate

CURATION | PROMOTION With Bihu coming by, and the North Eastern roots of the cafe, we thought of creating an experience that would bring together the North Eastern community and brethren in Ahmedabad who are staying away from home. I further added, since Project Otenga is a home for all, it should be a festive celebration for people of different origins as a cookout of various cuisines across India. This was taken forward, and we announced the experience two days prior to Bihu.

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SOCIAL MEDIA | DOCUMENTATION

Some stills captured as Instagram stories, with guests from the North Eastern diaspora, we had guests from other cultures too. One guest was an exchange student from Taiwan who was pursuing a degree from the prestigious IIM. He came over to observe festivities of the Harvest season in India.

I also compiled a short video synced with harmonious mood music that goes with the festive tones of the harvest season, highliging the different activities throughout the event.

Here are some stills from the video!

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Spatial Detox

RESEARCH Neurological Psychological Disorder

Hoarding Disorder

Anterior cingulate cortex and the insula – conflict and pain Difficulty parting with belongings

Living in Clutter

Messy environment, Messy Mind

Forming habits through collective social incentive

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Organizing clutter

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Why – There is research about how visual clutter can disturb productivity, and also about how mess can be inspiring and a way of self expression.

What – Creating spaces that help our productivity and mental health the most – whether it is an organized mess or non-threat posing clutter.

Where – Participant spaces & Project Otenga for meet-ups

When – 2nd week of February

Who – Self – initiated participants who are interested in creating their living and working spaces more happy and productive.

How – A habit building experience in a span of 3 weeks that has incentives and feedback on a daily basis and a collective social meet every week to discuss progress.

Independently living students

The capacity of the visual system to process information about multiple objects at any given moment in time is limited.

Those who suffer from a hoarding disorder feel a neurological pain while parting from belongings.

Others are just either busy/not motivated to declutter their surroundings.

For those suffering from hoarding disorder it is more important to deal with them in an understanding way – throwing out, cleaning isn’t going For those suffering from it isthe more important to help.

The approach hashoarding to be ondisorder organizing clutter insteadtoofdeal with themitinout animmediately. understanding way – throwing out, cleaning isn’t going throwing to help. The approach has to be on organizing the clutter instead of throwing it out immediately.

One category is of those who are naysayers on the organizational part of the decluttering process, those who say they’re most productive while One category is of those who are naysayers on the organizational part in clutter. of the decluttering process, those who say they’re most productive while in clutter.

For procrastinators, the approach is more towards motivating them to start decluttering step by step. Lastly, there are those who would have For procrastinators, thebut approach is more to towards motivating them to started doing their bit, are struggling maintain their spaces and start decluttering stepthe byapproach step. Lastly, there thosecultivating who woulda have find them in clutter, would be are towards habit started doing their bit, but are struggling to maintain their spaces and and a schedule. find them in clutter, the approach would be towards cultivating a habit and a schedule.

Broa Clut hoar diso

There has been a lot of neurological and psychological research on hoarding, clutter, declutter and how these practices impact our brain, emotional intelligence and abilities of decision making.

While it has been proven that multiple and excessive visual stimuli take away our attention and disturb our ability to focus and work productively – this work could also define whether our clutter helps us to stay productive or takes our time in organization or neatness. There is research to state that clutter can possibly be someone’s story or the way someone functions, it is often self-expression.

There isn’t necessarily a way to say what is cluttered and what isn’t. Organized Mess is also a popular term to work around. Having said that, there is subjectivity attached to clutter, mess, organization and disorganization. We’re all wired in different ways, that’s why the way to deal with someone’s clutter has to be their own unique way. The clutter isn’t limited to just physical spaces, there is emotional baggage, social media clutter, digital clutter – a lot of it doesn’t get organized because it goes unnoticed or procrastination takes over. It’s all about cultivating habits, habits which help us keep our lives on track, giving meaning to how someone wants to function. That could possibly mean organizing your life the way you function and understand, posing no physical and psychological threat to people surrounding us.

The boundary is crossed with those who have a serious hoarding disorder, while for them decluttering isn’t about just clearing mess, it is a psychologically painful process to get rid of anything. Those who suffer from hoarding disorders are known to be attached to their belongings in an unhealthy manner which often puts people around them in threats. There are examples where rooms are flooded with personal belongings that cannot be used for their purpose, cases where people have hoarded body waste and more. People who have hoarded clothes cluttering their closets and rooms, or piles of magazines. Most of what hoarding entails is to do with secrecy, perfectionism and problems with decision making. When dealing with these, there has to be a cognitive behavioural therapy – the one in a group scenario has also worked well, much better in some cases.

However, in this experience what we would do would be more about creating personal spaces, not clearing them. Of course ‘de-cluttering’ will be an underlying theme, it would be more to do with giving your space a make-over in your own individual way depending on your choices, professional genre and life experiences.

CONTENT ANALYSIS (IN RELEVANCE) 41

Creating your own ‘individual’ space to work

Tasks for every day Organize your desk, closet, bookshelf etc.

Small tasks to bigger ones – from desk to living room.

Difference between compulsive hoarding and collecting as a hobby

Cleaning Schedule – Adjusting Cleaning to the schedule

A box of miscellaneous objects no more in use

Sorting into recyclable, reusable and repurpose-able.

Give-away, Donations

What to discard and what to keep

Repurposing workshop

Personality driven de-cluttering and make-over

Helping people form habits through small incentives

We’re trying to incorporate some aspects of the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as a part of the experience but through collective social incentivization.

What are the neurological ways through which habits can be developed?

Is there an underlying hoarding disorder among those who are naysayers and believe that they are most productive in cluttered environments?

What kinds of data should we collect after the end of each incentive. Quantitative and Qualitative?

Design Brief AIM To find out if collective social incentive can help form habits of better productivity and mental health through decluttering.

OBJECTIVES Study the neurological, psychological and psychiatric impact of clutter on the human brain.

Design an experiment that helps people form a habit of intuitively decluttering their environments in a collective social incentive form.

Analyse if the incentives and the collective social answerable format is forming a habit for the participants.

METHODOLOGY

TARGET AND SCOPE Urban millennials who have been withholding clutter even as a floating populace, later the experience can be designed for empty nesters and corporate houses.

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Broad research on hoarding disorder, clutter and the impact of clutter on human brain.

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Specific research on human psychology and the attitude towards decluttering.

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Content Analysis to help plan the scope, target and what is the bigger goal.

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Experience design & Collateral design based on all insights and detail of what each day would entail.

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Designing the social experiment

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Promotions through posters, social media and personal engagement

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Conducting the experience & data collection of the daily experience of participants.

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Analysis of the experiment.

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Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

• Living room • Bedroom • Closet • Workspaces • Bathroom • Kitchen • Storage Room

• Creating Space for your interests • Vision Boards • Personalizing different spaces • Digital Clutter

• Maintaining the spaces • Adding new elements • Repurposed products

DESIGN GOAL DESIGN GOAL

Design an experiment Designthat an helps experiment t people form a habit of intuitively of intuitively creating th creating their spaces Organizedit throu in a |intiativizing Mess’ in a intiativizing it through answerability. a collective social answerability.

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Hands on experience Speaker session | Spatial Design Generic Kit Clutter segregation checklist Instagram/Facebook layout Inspiration material ‘Non-reusable clutter’ bag.

Revisiting the self

Talk on collecting vs hoarding - Motivational spaces - Digital Clutter - Personalized Kit Inspiration boards Tips and Tricks

Rekindling with old memories

Repurpose Workshop - Kit Maintaining spaces Tricks for repurposing 1 – minute rule

Give it a new meaning

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Flea Market Designed Product (from our side) Conclusion and Karma Jar

The act of giving

PROMOTIONS

Initial Illustrations for Questionnaire/Posters

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Safai Abhiyaan Swacch (Enter Name) Abhiyaan Engage. Retrospect. Sustain Space Redesign Want to increase productivity?

Space Goals, and how to achieve them!

SPATIAL DETOX Coined the term with Spatial - pertaining to space, and the word ‘detox’ takes towards an anticipation.

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Creating a sense of curiousity in the potential participants!

Engagement with participants in the form of a questionnaire.

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Ice – breaking session

Film Screening – Minimalism, a documentary

Presentation about Clutter

Meet – up 1

Hands on space building activity

Kit Distribution

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Stickers as incentives for participants to work towards the goals put forward in the weekly experience.

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One of the participants posted as she completed the tasks for the first week using the sticker incentive.

Engagement posters and announcement posters in the same visual language to keep the social media engagement and add more participants as we move ahead with the experience.

Musical Meditation

Vision Board Presentation

Vision Board Activity

Meet – up 2

Musical Meditation and abstract painting, going back to memories of the past, and towards the aspirations of the future!

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Hands on space building activity

Past Present Future Exercise

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Recap of what we’ve been doing

Discussion on belongings

Space building worksheet

Repurposing Idea brainstorm

Meet – up 3

Post Experience Questionnaire

DOCUMENTATION COPY There’s a lot going on in our volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, we’re either perpetually busy or perpetually procrastinating. There’s a lot of baggage we’re carrying with us, both, physical and emotional. From old expired medicines in one random drawer of the cupboard to a box full of crumpled letters from the ex-lovers, to the clothes that no more fit and the empty shampoo bottles- the list could go on, but we understand that there’s a lot we all need to release to let our spaces breathe and be their fullest in the memories that we need, motivational cues and visual stimulus that inspire.

We at Project Otenga have always valued the importance of spatial moods, our space is one that has motivated, inspired and relaxed our patrons for a long time. Keeping that in perspective, we designed a collective 18 – day social experience to facilitate our patrons in detoxing their own living, working and mental spaces.

From getting rid of unusable things, revisiting good old memories to recreating spaces that express a sense of identity, contentment, and motivation, the experience is one way to build a productive social group! Spatial Detox created a peer group that instills habits of detoxifying individual minds and spaces collectively.

We facilitated the building of a constructive social group that would inspire each other to help cleanse their physical or emotional spaces.

MEET UP 1 (10TH FEBRUARY) | REVISITING THE SELF ​ The first week was about detoxifying physical and mental spaces by releasing the negativities. This was to identify various cluttering habits – procrastinating or an obsessive hoarding disorder/syndrome. Participants were given incentives in form of a kit, designed to motivate them towards discarding unnecessary objects from their lives. The kit consisted of a booklet that guided spaces and how physical spaces impact our emotional spaces as well. A checklist and reading material were also a part of the booklet. Apart from that, a sticker was given that signified progress and another to inspire someone else for releasing their spaces of negativities further.

Along with these incentives, we also screened a short documentary on Minimalist living to initiate a discussion on what people thought of living only with what they really needed, or more to investigate on what they thought of their spaces. Further, we had a small presentation on the subjectivity of clutter, spaces and how releasing unusable things can help them let their spaces breathe.

We also encouraged participants to segregate things as ‘sentimental memorabilia’, ‘discardables’ and ‘reusables’.

MEET UP 2 (17TH FEBRUARY) | REKINDLING WITH INTERESTS The second meet – up was to do with how memorabilia or sentimental things that create value for people and help them get inspired to be more productive in their lives or to just have positive vibes around them. A space that reminds them of their interests, memories and the good things in life. First, we began with a music-oriented, visual meditation using the act of painting by asking the participants to think of their past, present and futures stimulated with the instrumental music played to help them abstract out their thoughts in form of paintings.

After this, we asked the participants to make a keywords list of themselves, about their past, present and future, and what they think of themselves, what their self-image is. We further facilitated them in creating vision boards that can be put up in their spaces, the law of attraction as they say. The vision boards are also motivators to help people work towards their goals on a daily basis, whether it is to learn how to cook or rekindle with their old interests in the arts.

Our participants were quite intrigued by the vision board activity. One of them even remarked in the next meet up that her week was positive because she had the vision board near her that kept her positive and motivated towards her goals, although things went wrong in the week. Whenever she came back to her room or her space, she would feel revitalized to move forward.

MEET UP 3 (25TH FEBRUARY) | REPURPOSING NEW MEANINGS The third meet-up was a workshop on repurposing things that can be purposed in a different way to be used further. Another facilitation, this evolved as a discussion when people started giving each other suggestions and we went on to discuss what associations people draw from objects and how objects are given emotional attributes. There were discussions on what is the reason why someone can’t get rid of their belongings, what is the core of the attachment, is it simply the need to keep something as it had a monetary value, or is it a deeper ‘sentimental’ value or even if it is just out of procrastination or priority shift.

With this experience, we not only facilitated participants to derive some meanings out of their physical and emotional spaces but also grabbed quite a few insights on how people think of objects and how they relate to the objects around them and what makes an object important to them.

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Fruition

COLLATERAL COPY Fruition, in association with Chef Dilda White was a nine course Kumaoni visual - gastronomic experience. Dilda white is a masked artist, an alter ego of a renowned fashion designer based out of Ahmedabad.

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DOCUMENTATION & COPY

Project Otenga collaborated with Chef Dilda White for a visual gustatory nine-course dining experience. With a sensorial attempt to bring the winters of Kumaon closer to our patrons, we raised an appetite for form and taste by putting together a hearty, nine course participatory experience. With the olfactory and tasteful appeal of food to the visual appeal of the art works by Chef Dilda White. The art works were representations of indigenous vegetables, fruits and ingredients native to the Kumaon, rendered beautifully on handmade hemp paper. There was also an opportunity for release of expression for the participants who would doodle or write as they experienced the cosy evening.

We began with a short read about the Sah community of Kumaon and shared cultural anecdotes, along with savouring the indigenous Jambu tea. A performative dining experience, there was a mindful pause and rhythm with gastronomical vibes of Badeel, Aloo Gutka, Palak Badi or the Seh Cake.

Dilda white is a concept of art, the masked alter ego is an artist, a performer and a chef who creates experiences by overlapping various mediums and always talks of the stark reality.

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Six strings and a mouthful

RESEARCH | CURATION Six Strings and a Mouthful is a collaborative five course audio gastro participatory experiential meal inspired by the art movement of Romanticism. Collaborating with guitarist Aditya Gandhi, a renowned musician who a graduate of Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Bachelors of Music), and Chicago College of Performing Arts (Masters of Music) under world-renowned guitarist Denis Azabagic.

The gastronomical experience was ideated and researched for as a part of the design studio and were then materialized by Kabyashree in the Kitchen.

Romanticism, the movement is about going against the conventions and breaking social order. It is also about being humane instead of mechanized. The art movement appreciated intuition over logic and emotion over rationality.

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MOODBOARDS AND RESEARCH, EXPERIENTIAL ANALYSIS

FORM EXPLORATION AND IDEAS

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SOME REFERENCES FOR FOOD FORMS AND EXPRESSION 1. Atum_dessert 2. Gravetye 3. The art of plating 4.Tresind

FORM EXPLORATION AND IDEAS

COURSES

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PROMOTIONS Romanticism : Gastro | Audio Experience Live the life of Philosophers Spontaneous Engagements

Mouthful synchrony

Surreal Liberty

Spontaneously Spontaneous

Impulse

Dining with Philosophy The Litterati Dining

Welcome to the time when Ideas were born

The classical guitar has six strings, and that’s the reason for the name, Six Strings and a mouthful.

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COLLATERAL DESIGN Apart from the artwork and the posters, for the experiential dinner, we were also to give the guests a menu collateral which could also be a souvenir and work as a short term branding collateral or touch point for a potential patron.

The copy focuses on the philosophy of Romanticism and how we’re connecting it with music and food. The readible also questions perceptions about art and its presentation.

The second part is the menu written in a poetic form to keep the participants engaged and intrigued about what’s coming next!

The third part of the give - away is a poetry written by me in retrospect to the movement of Romanticism, taking the perspective of an old book to the world of today and the hypocrisy.

There were many forms we thought of putting these collaterals through, in form of playing cards for every course, a disguised course menu where each one needs to be revealed after every meal, or a single menu!

Finally, for the promotional video, Kabyashree’s lines were also written by me that speak about how food is a multi-sensorial experience - which also feature in the give-away copy.

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The stories and taste of Masi Magam Thiruvizha

CURATION | PROMOTION The festival of Masi Magam Thiruvizha falls in the Tamil Month of Masi (February – March). Magam is among the twenty-seven stars in the astrological system. Falling on the full moon day, it is considered auspicious across South India, especially in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry (Pondicherry) and Kerala. Collaborating with Vidya, an NID Alumnus, who with her mother, curated the menu, the kollam making workshop and the thoran making workshop!

The poster uses the Mango leaf thoran with haldi and kumkum dots as per tradition along with motifs of the Kollam and a brown on white aesthetic to further show the traditional roots, grounded-ness and the essense of white rice powder sprinkled on the brown mud floor.

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COLLATERAL | DOCUMENTATION

The event was a fruitful experience where we connected with many individuals from different cultures, walks of life and ages. From six year olds to sixty year olds, from working professionals to retired home makers, everyone enjoying the traditional rituals of Masi Magam Thiruvizha.

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6

Love and romance beyond stereotype

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What does it mean to be human?

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Have we lost touch from our own selves?

As technology increasingly blurs the boundaries between the human and the machine resulting in the cyborg, what does future hold for humanity? What would it mean to be human in a world that fuses nature, the body and culture in one single seamless engagement? Would our notions of thinking and feeling ‘like a human’ undergo a radical shift? Join us for a collective discussion that would revolve around the themes of Blade Runner, a 1982-American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott.

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ARTICULATING THE BRAND While curating these experiences, and interacting with the brand constantly, I kept understanding and constantly articulating Project Otenga’s philosophy and identity. With constant experimentation and articulation, I analysed the many touchpoints of Project Otenga, whether it is through the space, through the social media or to be created in the form of a website to talk of the space and document all the branding experiences.

Since this, the tangible branding started with preparing a curated meal questionnaire and an information kit for Project Otenga, that kept developing with the tranforming idea of the space for me. Finally integrating into a touchpoint analysis, development of a mascot character, various signages, visual language exploration and tagging, articulating the brand identity through copy and visuals.

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1

Branding the space

INITIAL DEVELOPMENTS To begin with, I was suggested that the kitchen garden could do with some cute little labels along with a questionnaire for the curated meals. I began to brainstorm a good visual way to work on the same, along with good copy to go with the questionnaire. With felt tip pens being the medium of many of my illustrations, with flat lines to form a shape, I used that technique, which also signifies the various lines and connections, similar to how Project Otenga is a space that connects.

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CORIANDER

SPINACH

INFORMATION KIT Starting to understand Project Otenga and the major kind of questions asked to us by most people who interact for the first time, I thought of creating a digital kit that could be easily sent across as an email whenever asked for by an organization, agency or a platform. The information kit can also be later used as an attachment on the website.

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This is a draft to which later, there were enhancement from copy to imagery to the typefaces used. The initial developments were necessary to build on further and develop various visual styles to finally identify with one identity.

As a transforming space, and one that embraces all, Project Otenga has been known for embracing unique artistic styles, and that was encouraged in their branding development, for me to experiment and develop different collaterals in my own varied ‘styles’ of visual language.

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ENTRANCE Entering a mindful zone

PLANTS AND FARM Urban farm placards

DESK TO REQUEST Menu Request form Questionnaire

WALK - IN KITCHEN Labelled spices with information Coffee machine Water self service

BOOKS AND PROPS What’s been cooking?

FOOD SERVICE Request info, Tissues

WORKING SPACES / TABLES Letter to the guest

PLATES RETURNING AREA Signage

BILLING Self analysis

WEBSITE About, Philosophy Work Culture, Contact Projects, Events

HOSTS Visiting Cards

TOUCHPOINT ANALYSIS

Perceptions are keywords picked up from comments from social media outlets as pointed by people and identity keywords are those that are Project Otenga’s core values that we identify with.

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VISUAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

From water colour to crayans, felt tip pens and using different types of paper, pressure, tonality to create a varied looks and styles of illustration, all intuitively leading towards one direction. Now, implementing different styles in different collaterals and testing them in space to see which one identifies the most.

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KITCHEN GARDEN The most important aim of the kitchen garden was to inspire people and make them think about growing their own fruits and vegetables.

The style of water colour wash over which felt tip markers or black pen was used to create a form for various placards for different plants in the garden.

The copy talks about the benefits of the fruit/ vegetable and also on how to grow them in urban set-ups.

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INGREDIENTS People visiting Project Otenga are often curious about the North Eastern ingredients being used in the kitchen. Which is also a reason why the cafe has a walk-in kitchen where anyone could come in and cook, ask the host about the ingredients or know the them more. To facilitate that behaviour further I thought of tagging the jars with interesting graphic readables to intrigue and impact the patrons who walk - in regularly, and moreover this could also be represented as a small A6 square booklet on the tables.

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These were put on all the jars in the kitchen and were printed on two types of papers, one a sticker print and another on off - white cartridge which gave a very raw and authentic appeal. The size was decided as 8.5*8.5 cm as per the jars.

The illustration style is first forming the shape with layers and different shades of water color and then highlights with bold black pen to give an impact.

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TEAS Since most teas at Project Otenga are homegrown, people are often curious about what goes into them, what is the flavour about, and the containers are placed right at the front of the counter, so labelling the teas was a good idea to engage the patrons, and give them a good glimpse, memory, touchpoint of Project Otenga to remember!

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THE ROSELLE TEA Roselle being a key ingredient from the North East, the tea is an innovation that Project Otenga has created. Usually used to infuse in dal, and make jams, the ingredient can be used in many different ways and is being explored at the cafe in various ways.

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BRANDING SIGNAGES There were quite a few places in the space where we wanted to courteously remind people to be mindful and conscious and feel free from any kind of judgements. Project Otenga’s core values had to be reinforced, earlier we thought of the restrooms, desks, other areas in the cafe where we could do so. Starting with the restroom through with a typographic letter, I began to explore in this direction. Earlier the restroom was meant to be unisex, however it was later decided to keep it by the conventional way.

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MASCOT / CHARACTER With the kind of branding messages required, there was a need for a third person, the onus of ‘behaviour’ shouldn’t fall upon any of the hosts, since they are human too. I thought, my illustration style is like those of doodles, what if there is an interesting character that could be the voice of Project Otenga. I started with going through the old illustrations of Otenga, the fruit, and further tried to work on those lines, going from hand illustrated to digital illustration, finally finding a form, and using it ahead. I also tried to first understand what type of facial expressions would suit the character, with my mentor’s suggestion of ‘Buddha eyes’, even that got cleared and I went on exploring.

Explorations

Progressing from the hand illustrated felt tip line rendered sketch of the Otenga, we moved ahead to a more definate form, drawing the outlines on Illustrator, moving on to a yellowbrown-green scheme where the yellows are the highlights.

Digital illustration

After having written the copy to the mascots, the yellows seemed a little too bright for the fruit and the mascot, and another look to the fruit, there was a brown highlight, and the skin was now coloured with the right shade making it a more interesting character, almost a cartoon.

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Entrance

Food Service

Slow Down. Pause. Breathe. Walk in.

Tissue

Brewing mindfulness from 11 AM to 11 PM

Take a deep breath.

Cooking compassion from 11 AM to 11 PM

Pause.

Creating a culture constantly, cooking your moods from 11 AM to 11 PM

Did we cook your mood?

Pouring compassion from 11 AM to 11 PM Open | Reserved for building new experiences | Closed

Request counter Drop by a request, and we shall be happy to cook your mood!

Request your food fancies here!

Here’s your chance to request a meal cooked by your mood.

Looking for something? Want to drop a request?

What’s your food mood? Drop down your request!

Savour each bite mindfully.

Mindful eating | Take a mouthful. Close your eyes.

Feel the flavours. Chew. Gulp.

Toilet Uni-mindful (Please be mindful for those who use the toilet after you) For him | for her Women sit on the toilet seat. Please maintain hygiene for them to use the toilet after you.

Billing You are your best judge, feel free to fill these and drop them off in the ballot!

Walk-in Kitchen Interested in knowing what goes inside the kitchen?

Walk in to see where the magic happens!

Want to explore spices from the North East? Walk in our kitchen to know more Amateur cook? Food enthusiast? Culture enthusiast?

Walk in our kitchen to see the magical spices of the North East!

Coffee Machine Want a caffeine kick?

Let’s brew your caffeine kick!

Make your own caffeine kick!

Books & Props Read, don’t clutter!

Some created by us, some sourced from across the world! Books are the soul of Project Otenga, do maintain the sequence of arrangement.

Mindfully curated pieces from the North East and some from local artisans.

BRANDING COPY

These could be used as standee notes for the patrons who walk in the cafe to reinforce the core philosophy of Project Otenga. One more interesting thing to look at is how the hand and leg gestures are put together, with treating the whole layered fruit as the body, the internal layer as the face, the hands are just a lined layer and the fingers are drawn in different gestures to show a different messages/signages!

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Entrance Request counter

Walk in kitchen trigger

Self - evaluation branding

Plates self service

Books

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Mascot prototypes in the space.

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MENU RE-DESIGN The menu at the cafe at present was not resonant with Project Otenga’s perception with people. The menu also graphically had a few issues, where the sections were not segregated well and there would be confusion in choosing the right items. Moreover, many more items had to be added to the menu, because of which there needed to be a new layout altogether. This also will establish a synchrony in the many styles used across different collaterals.

Project Otenga Lets cook your mood 11 AM-11 PM

Explore!!!

INNER GARDEN / SALADS

250 (served wi

Mouthful Whisper

(pasta salad with suprises from traditionally prepared mustard paste) Some “Wasabi” #organicsadarpatelfarm

Humbly Yours Have you heard of edible bamboo shoots ?

Try it out at Otenga!!! Veggies and bamboo shoots, friends since eternity....

Openminded Egg and potato salad with aromatic herbs

FEEL AT HOME Mini meals (chef’s pick of the day) 350 Food platter Kindly request your host to consult you for details ** GST Charges (5%) not included

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NIBBLERS 150

enga

our mood

AM-11 PM WRAP ME AROUND/ SANDWICHES

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(served with chips) Under the Umbrella (prepared with shiitake mushrooms sourced from Manipur)

Explore!!!

Equanimity

INNER GARDEN / SALADS

250 (served with sides)

Mouthful Whisper

(egg plant/ brinjal and mustard)

Blended

(Cheesy green delight) (pasta salad with suprises from traditionally prepared mustard paste) Something akin to “Wasabi” Peaceful Romance #organicsadarpatelfarm (Capsicum & egg mate)

Humbly Yours

MAGIC POTION/SOUP

250

Have you heard of edible bamboo shoots ?

Try it out at Otenga!!! Veggies and bamboo shoots, friends since eternity....

(served with sides)

Openminded

-Resourceful (greencream and rice) -Unconditional love (Roselle leaf and potato) -Nourishment (egg & tomatoes and greens) -Healthy Twist (a spicy sweet and sour amla) -Rejuvenation (Bamboo shoots, veggies and noodles)

Egg and potato salad with aromatic herbs

FEEL AT HOME Mini meals (chef’s pick of the day) 350 Food platter Kindly request your host to consult you for details ** GST Charges (5%) not included

Breathe in Peace Breathe out love For mindful eating and compassionate practices

RE-DESIGN INSIGHTS - Since, all the other collateral are heavily based on illustration and mainly water colour based, it would be a good idea to use them on the menu which would add a bit of the fun element missing.

- The sections need to be segregated well, with the interesting titles on one side and the clear description on the other, for better understanding of the menu.

- A sense of heirarchy to be maintained in the categories, as missing on the previous menu.

- Some copy can be rewritten as required, and new copy to be written to accomodate new entries.

- A seperate menu for drinks, food and other services to communicate different ideas. without losing out.

- Each menu can feature a different tagline that I ideated from the copy, for instance, ‘brewing mindfulness’ or ‘constantly cultivating a culture’, ‘cultivating compasison’ and more.

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The food menu in folds.

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Website

IDENTIFYING SECTIONS The website is about articulation of Project Otenga’s philosophy, story and a portfolio of the work done by the studio, reservations to be taken by the cafe, and an entire communication of how things work.

The first idea was to divide the landing pages into cafe and studio, another was to use the organic form of Otenga in different layers and use it to show the cafe, studio and the human lab, as they are interconnected.

Then the decision was left on different types of layouts that needed to be tried out.

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Using the organic structure of Otenga and the quirkness, I thought of using this as the home page interface, however, it didn’t align with the overall feel of the space!

About

About

Contact

RESERVATIONS

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WHAT'S BEEN COOKING ?

MENU & PHILOSOPHY

Contact

Refining the ideas further, I started working on a different type of a loyout with an image slider at the home, and a whole vertical scroll for the entire website.

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A basic layout to start with, there are a few insights for starting out on the final content articulation.

1. The images on the website need to articulate Project Otenga’s core message of ‘Home for all’.

2. The complete idea is to ‘humanize’ it as much as possible, from the content to the images, it should speak to the patron.

3. There has to be a play with interactivity and more visual appeal.

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PROCESS CHOOSING THE APPROPRIATE IMAGES The images for the home page, portfolio documentations, food platings, events and everyday life at Project Otenga. Also, editing them to a common tonality.

TOPIC WISE VISUAL CONTENT AND WRITTEN COPY CREATION Creating a visual language using illustrations, typefaces and keeping it in synchrony with the copy that will be written topic wise.

LAYING OUT AS DESIGNED ON WIX FOR TESTING INTERACTIVE ELEMENTS Laying out the elements on Wix to work out interactive elements and get an idea of how the dynamic layout works. This can eventually become the website or a base for a coder to understand.

ITERATIVE CHANGES AS THE PROCESS MOVES FORWARD

Initial home page layout and imagery, with tagline copy about home.

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PHILOSOPHY & STORY THE MULTIMODAL WHOLE

FUTURE

The fruit of Otenga, widely popular in Assam, unlike other fruits, is formed by the petals of the flower. They wrap around each other and become stronger to become the fruit. Using this powerful metaphor, Project Otenga is a multimodal space for multidisciplinary collaboration and learning beyond confined classrooms. We are working towards propagating a culture of mindfulness, constructive collaborations, and collective learning. For more of what’s going on, click here.

A transformational space, we’re now growing towards new possibilities by collaborating with like minded individuals, whether it is the human lab, or creating our own courses in the cafe!

THE UNIFYING LAYER As a cafe, we relish the factor of food as a bonding element by creating gastronomical experiences through North Eastern cuisine and using traditional Indian practices.​The café is a space for collaborators, creators, thinkers, and people from all areas of life to connect and talk about new ideas, creating a knowledge economy. For more on food, here.

NOW We grew towards our direction of bringing holistic thinking in Design closer to the masses, and started our own studio, that curates and experiments disruptive and new ideas!

TRANSITIONED SPACE With a space in the heart of Ahmedabad University, we re-created our small house cafe into a full-fledged walk - in cafe in the institute. Creating a culture of disruptive thinking and reflective practices, we’re committed towards transforming the space with insights from our patrons and our own transitional journey!

BLOOM OF CREATIVITY

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

The studio is our mental space where we brew beautiful ideas. We curate various experiences that speak to holistic viewpoints and also collaborate with like-minded individuals on constructive ideas for empowering and engaging mankind in meaningful ways. For viewing our work, click here.

We started as a small house cafe near NID Gandhinagar Campus as a part of Kabyashree Borgohain’s Graduation Project, with ideas of bringing people together through food, facilitating thoughtful conversations and providing a comfortable non-judgmental space like home!

TRANSFORMING IDENTITY Project Otenga is a transformative experimental space.

Being at the heart of Ahmedabad University, we keep building academic directions beyond the classroom, now towards creating a public lab. What would it be and how it will work is what we’re experimenting in our physical space!

We’re always looking forward to insights from our patrons!

Here’s what we’re doing!

THE MINDFUL CORE Gandhi always said, that there’s more than life to increasing its speed, and at Project Otenga, we firmly believe in the slow approach towards life. We like to pause, think and reflect instead of mindlessly moving faster. Our core stays strong with mindful habits and compassionate practices as we grow! To know more, contact us here.

The copy for About and Story pages. The metaphor of Otenga the fruit used to convey the philosophy of Project Otenga is apt, each layer has been cut open illustratively to depict different parts of the space.

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The cactus is used as the ‘growing’ metaphor for the transforming space and how the cafe has grown over from a thesis project to a full fledged experimental space.

The founders to be described as in the information kit developed.

Reservations form based on initial visual language.

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The different services of the cafe (food based) and the menu which can be swiped on.

EXPERIENTIAL EVENTS As a multimodal cafe and a studio, we like to curate and collaborate on various gastronomical experiences as events and we post about these on our social media pages, do check out our posts. ​​For reserving a spot for an upcoming event, click here.

WALK - IN We are happy to cook pleasing gastronomical experiences with a North Eastern touch. When you place a request, we’re happy to cook your mood. Project Otenga is a home for all, a culture where people eat, bond and collaborate, do reserve for a great experience!

INDULGE A meal isn’t just the ingredient and the taste, it is an experience that starts with the senses and goes on to be enhanced by the way it is prepared, served, consumed and celebrated. However in today’s times, these are casually swept over the carpet of hurried pace. Let us pause for a moment, to join in the Otenga experience of appreciating the finesse of food at a thoughtful pace. Our four course meal is carefully curated from an array of North Eastern cuisines to take you through a mystical yet meaningful journey. Let new thoughts and conversations flow over the table with myriad while romancing the food. Reserve a curated four course meal, here!

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FURTHER ENHANCEMENTS The website layout is still in the initial phases, it needs to iterate into something seamless that truly goes with Project Otenga’s identity, here are further insights on what can be done, as suggested by a few Interaction designers who are valuable patrons of Project Otenga.

1. Limit the use of the number of fonts on one page.

2. Create a vertical scroll website, with probably the header with the menu and the logo in green.

3. Limit the number of menu items, club them into definate parts.

4.Let the user journey be defined by giving snapshots of everything on the home page and then have ‘Call - to - actions’ on each part for them to further assess what they need.

5. Keep the minimalist style used on the labels, tags, placards and menu, space of the cafe - let it reflect on the website.

A vertical scroll with snapshots of all the pages inside the website, and call to actions with interesting copywrittten taglines to let the user peek through the website.

The sections have been reduced to About which includes Philosophy and Story, Cafe which includes Relish (Menu) and Reservations, Studio and Contact us which would include contact details and a pinboard calendar of events.

The other parts have illustrated snapshots to identify to the visual language used for Otenga for previous collaterals.

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Studio page with human faces, interactions, images of the different curations, with interesting Call to Actions!

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Branding Stationary

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I’ve tried to personalize the visiting cards with how founders describe, talk and feel about Project Otenga and the initiative.

Visiting Cards

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Mock up of the stationery

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Before

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Enhancing Social Media

By adding and standardizing the #tags that can be used by Project Otenga and further giving a whole format to the Instagram page, the followers increased about a double.

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Let’s sit and talk, surrounded by the pure breeze and greens all around, in this pleasant weather, when it isn’t too hot, nor too cold – it is soothing and healing to the mind and the body.

Project Otenga gives you the space to fall into deep intellectual conversations without the lurk of judgement. #slowcafe #slowfood #sustainability #urbanfarming #organic #ahmedabad #cafe #consciousliving #mindful #mindfulpractices #freshfromthefarm #northeasterncuisine #garden #housecafe #homeforall #projectotenga #food #sustainablefood #goodpractices #goodhabits #slowdesign #conversations #evenings #pleasant #weather #nature

EXAMPLE OF A CAPTION & HASTAGS

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Other images that went around on social media/website or other outlets that added to the branding

More Images

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IMPACT AND CONCLUSIONS The various ways of Branding, whether it was through experiences, space or the website, Project Otenga’s image was impacted by people enquiring and engaging with the platform. The Spatial Detox experience led an interesting conversation on Space Design and the studio has been enquired for a multi-scale space design project, apart from that, there were instances where we met our next collaborator at an experience we curated last, or people met each other at a certain event and collaborated on something truly interesting. Hoping that this branding initiative helps set Project Otenga in the experimental spaces of the city and help it shape its transforming identity even further.

For me, this was an exciting, interesting and a challenging project for playing the roles of a designer, writer, copywriter, facilitator, researcher and often at the service desk, I was constantly multi-tasking and iteratively articulating what is Project Otenga and how can I define it.

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