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Shalini Singh pg 30 | Photographed by Angad Dhindsa Nirmitsu 02 Sasikrishnan 10 The Other Side Café 18 Sayali Bhagali 24 Pallavi Dhyani 44 Illustration Much 48 Jayati Goenka 54

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Editor in Chief | sudhir@indidesign.in

May 2015 | # 59

Sudhir's lecture on Branding at Textile and Engieering Institute, Ichalkaranji POOL 59

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Shalini Singh pg 30

| Photographed by Angad Dhindsa

Nirmitsu 02 Sasikrishnan 10 The Other Side Café 18 Sayali Bhagali 24 Pallavi Dhyani 44 Illustration Much 48 Jayati Goenka 54

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Designindia was founded in 2002. It was started as a platform for interaction for the design community in India and abroad. Over the years it has grown into a forum spread over many social and professional networking domains, linking design professionals into an active, interactive and thought leading community.

http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/designindia International Design Media Network Participant

Brand and Design We know that brand and design are connected. For many years the most successful designers have been creating well known brands. We also know that brands are beyond design. Many believe that all designers can design brands, or that brand companies do design. But many brand consulting companies do not do design at all. This creates a lot of confusion in the business community, particularly amongst entrepreneurs, who obviously want to save money.

If we follow the definitions it would be easy to remove this confusion. A brand is an idea, a plan of expectations that consumers have in their mind. It is an idea that business people need to articulate. The idea mostly tells us how a product or a service is related to its consumers, the more the detail the better.

So it is a plan. There could be many dimensions to this plan.

Design, on the other hand, is all about the user. It is how a product or service will be used by the user. It is all about colors, materials, surfaces, ergonomics, and usability.

Now, a brand (as an idea) can only be made visible by design.

This makes designers very influential for brands. Not all designers however are well versed with the complexities of brands and their working. Those that are will be very much in demand. While the rest do use the word ‘brand’, they don’t really understand the 'plan’ side.

Look deeper into this and you will see why some bad logos are stuck on great businesses, and why some bad businesses have super logos (or products).

Sudhir Endorsed by

Supported by

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craft

EXPLORING CITIES The ‘Benarasi’ range of products by Nirmitsu is a stunning tribute to the City of Ghats, discovers Krity Gera

It is the numerous layers of a city that speak about the culture and the life of a region. A city is one of the true reflections of its inbuilt character. Thus, to understand the intrinsic Indian values it is important to explore the overlapping layers of Indian cities. It is important to immerse in the local flavor of a city and indulge in the non-obvious – be like an explorer!

Product-e-city captures the essence of Indian cities. A series of products conceptualized, designed and made by

Nirmitsu, the concept gets its inspiration from a mixed bag of tangible and intangible experiences that reflect a distinct identity of the city. It aims at representing the spirit of select Indian cities through a panorama of furniture, lighting, home accessories, souvenirs, and above all, a charismatic experience.

Delhi-based designers Amit Sharma and Somya Hastekar form the designer team of Nirmitsu, an emerging design culture set in Indian roots to bring happiness through good design. While both are architects turned product designers, over the past few years Amit has been doing a lot of interesting work for INTACH, and Somya has been involved in user experience design. It was their passion

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artist

UNMASKING THE MIND Inspiration for Sasikrishnan’s art comes from exploring the many layers of the mind, as Aparna Menon discovers

Little did anyone know then that this freak incident within the four mud walls of the village school that initially invoked immense pain and embarrassment would one day lead the boy into the finest spaces of world art.

Muttungal is a nondescript strip of land nestled in the scenic locales of Calicut district in Kerala in South India. Chorode is a tiny obscure village in Muttungal surrounded by magnificent hills.

In the early seventies, the local underprimary school at Chorode witnessed an episode that changed the life of a child forever. A seven-year-old, in an act of protest against his bullying classmate, caricatured the villain on his slate. He was reprimanded and caned for his audacious expression. The third grader was made to hold his slate over his head in a shameful display and paraded along the school corridors. What followed was an upsurge of guilt and shame until a teacher who was struck by the extraordinary talent of the young boy encouraged him with words of comfort.

Holding on to the inspiration received from the teacher, the young boy continued to create marvels of art, utilizing practically anything he could lay his hands on - mud, cow-dung, clay, colored stones and bamboo twigs crushed to function as painting brushes.

The protagonist of this story is Sasikrishnan, who, despite being born into a landscape and social setting cut away from the mindboggling and illusionary world of modern art, is today one of India’s most promising contemporary artists who has gone on to win international acclaim.

He was born in 1966 in Muttungal as the seventh child of Krishnan and Kalyani, a social-worker couple. Sasi admits that he was not born into affluence and recalls that childhood was not about extravagant living but about abundant love, fun and happiness.

"My earliest exposure to art was through my father's activities as a builder of homes in the village and through the sketches of my

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brand story

ONE BRAND IN KASHMIR How a branded café in Srinagar became a success in less than a year

More than a year back this young man from the Kashmir Valley launched his cafe 'The Other Side Cafe' on the second floor of a shopping mall at a very prominent square in Srinagar.

Wanting to get out of the family business, the young man planned to start a cafe which would be modern and offer an alternative space to the youth. He got in touch with Uzma, who had recently graduated from NID Bangalore, and who with Indi Design wanted to offer brand services to the businesses in the Valley. An interior designer who trained as a retail experience designer at NID, Uzma very strongly feels that businesses in the Valley would do much better if they used design and branded themselves better.

The design and branding project was taken up as our pilot project for Indi-Srinagar; the response to

this project would lead the way for Indi-Srinagar.

The team decided to keep the modern theme, but blend in local culture. This obviously meant a lot of discussions on esthetics, materials, finishes, icons, symbology, and colors. The fact that Uzma is a local from Srinagar was a big help. It is always very difficult to see culture when you are immersed in it; you normally do not value the role culture plays in making a space acceptable.

Almost any client in any region is always looking to break free of the culture. This is always a challenge for designers. We understand both sides. When you are immersed in local culture, something very modern and western will make the space stand apart. Perhaps it will be noticed faster and that will mean better for business. This is how all clients think.

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Illustration

PERSONAL VIEWPOINT

Illustrator Sayali Bhagali is looking forward to showcasing her unique style through her own venture one day Journey through JJ I always enjoyed drawing, even as a school kid! I never remember bunking my drawing class, though I used to bunk dance class often! More than me, I think it was my mother who was extremely instrumental in constantly urging me to take up drawing as a career option. I had almost made up my mind to do BA with German language as specialization, because of my love for the language. But she took me to JJ School of Applied Art in Mumbai, and I opted for BFA (Applied Art) as I knew my heart always rested there. Looking back now, I feel it was a very enriching journey for me. It was my first time staying away from home, but it taught me to be independent. JJ taught me to be experimental with my canvas and colors; it taught me to express myself and open up. I changed, becoming more accepting and reasonable with the assignments given. I went on to do M. Des (Visual Communication) at IDC, IIT Bombay. Currently I work as a Visual Designer in the Employee Engagement team of Persistent Systems Limited, Pune

Developing a style Anatomy is the backbone of character designing/ styling. It is very important to have a thorough knowledge of anatomy while creating one’s own style. The style can be experimented with later, different mediums

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cover story

THE ALCHEMY OF DESIGN

For Shalini Singh, Director and Founder of White Ink Design, pursuing design has been a labor of love. What drives her is the potential of good design to change lives.

Trying to invent the wheel Transition has been a constant most of my life. My work has made me move to various places including Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Los Angeles, and now Delhi. In the year 2005, when I moved back to Delhi my entrepreneurial ‘re’calling made me start White Ink Design along with my brother Angad Dhindsa. Prior to White Ink, I was working with Ray and Keshavan design in Bangalore in the capacity of a design director, and before that I had cofounded a design firm in 1999 right after graduating from NID, Ahmedabad. At NID, I did the School Leavers’ Educational Programme Diploma, majoring in Communication Design.

Early breaks came from clients like Cummins India, Provogue, Indian Metals and Ferrous Alloys, and Eli Lilly. My first major project at White Ink was the 360º brand turnaround for SQ Group in 2005. We rechristened them, created their brand,

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Fashion & textile

COMFORT OVER FIT New Delhi-based Pallavi Dhyani designs wearable clothes that defy the age bar

Fashion to me is…

An extension of one’s individual personality...it is the most convenient and comfortable form of expressing oneself as an individual.

Passion for fashion I am a fashion design graduate from Pearl Academy of Fashion (Jaipur). After receiving the award for the ‘Best Practical Collection’ during my final year at Pearl, I worked with p’ero by Aneeth Arora for almost two years before starting my own venture called THREE. I wanted a name with a hint of something I totally relate to. The name ‘THREE’ is inspired by my belief in the trinity. I was an introvert as a child and so the freedom of expression that I got through design, patterns and details made me feel even more deeply about my work. I feel my clothes are often an extension of my inner self and my state of mind. Working on my own venture has thus been less work and more self-expression. I feel what is important for me as a designer is to make what I love, and to add a part of my soul in it.

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young blood

Each of Jayati Goenka’s creations provides a contemporary form for a traditional textile craft

‘Blue Moon’ Picture credit: Tadpole Store

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