collage AUGUST 2018 | INDIA
You Can't Learn Style Iris Apfel
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Creative Crushes 82
Your Home Kitchen is the Key to Food Waste #TrashTalk
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www.collagemagazine.com 1
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collage AUG 2018
EDITOR'S NOTE
Thoughts From the Designer's Worktable The process of putting together this magazine was immersive. From engaging with the reading material to printing it, it was a learning experience. My first few drafts of the magazine followed the grid system religiously, but breaking out of them was a defining moment. The feedback sessions were quite helpful in this. Referring to other existing magazines also helped me understand the aesthetic i wanted to achieve. What I found most interesting was engaging with the reading material and conveying its essence through the layouts using colour, type and images. After a number of iterations and extensive research (mostly scrolling through Pinterest for hours) its safe to say my understanding of what a layout is has evolved. I now know the power and flexibility of grids, and have learnt to observe the smaller details. I look at a magazine very differently now. I imagine the design process behind it, the creative decisions being taken and how the whole experience would have been. As for me and this magazine, it has been quite exciting.
Vinati Pydikondala Editor
Collage magazine was founded in August 2018, by students of Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology. It is a magazine on fashion, business, design and science. A bit of this and a bit of that to inspire and engage larger audiences.
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CONTENTS 28 COVERSTORY
Interview Questions 34
Death by revenue plan 42
Networking for introverts 49
Startup adventures 51
Why I chose customer-funded growth over taking VC money 53
FASHION
Iris Apfel
8
What all the fuss around the
Burberry redesign tells us about
the state of luxury 14
What Sustainable Fashion means
26
To Fast Fashion or not 28
A Peek into India Fashion Week 30
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BUSINESS
Photoessay by The Goya Journal
underwater? 61
Matters of disbelief 68
Hothouse Earth is merely the beginning of the end
SCIENCE
Could intelligent life evolve
72
Is inequality in our genes 74
In a few days, we’ll launch to a star 6 Creative Crushes 82
A Developer’s Guide to Web Design 84
You can’t Research without context 87
Designing for the Forgotten
DESIGN
79
92
100 Days of Motion Design 97
FEATURE STORY
Most Burning Man Thing Ever
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CONTENTS 5
collage AUG 2018
“Food relates to
“
COVER STORY
pollution. How?
T
he reality is that today’s world faces
about food that is grown. Indeed, ironic in a
dire situations of pollution, climate
country battling hunger and poverty. And the
change, water shortage, poverty, and
onus of stemming this wastage is as much
hunger. And — surprise, surprise — food plays
on those who cook, as it is on those who
a huge roll in all these issues. Food relates to
make policies.
pollution? How? My attitude towards food germinated as According to the United Nations Development
a seed planted by my nana, my maternal
Programme, up to 40% of the food produced
grandfather, who had quite a green thumb.
in India is wasted. About 21 million tonnes of
His house had an extensive kitchen garden
wheat is wasted in India, and 50% of all food
where his grandchildren were encouraged to
across the world meets the same fate, never
plant anything they fancied. This meant that
reaching those who need it. In fact, according
we grew up understanding the effort that
to the Agriculture Ministry, Rs. 50,000 crore
went into growing food — whether it was
worth of food produced is wasted every year
our own, or the farmers’. The reinforcement
in the country. The number of hungry people
of this message, and its supplementation
in India has increased by 65 million — more
happened in my nani’s (maternal
than the entire population of France. According
grandmother) kitchen.
to a survey by Bhook(an organisation working towards reducing hunger) in 2013, 20 crore
Jhai Ji we called her, had seen the deprivation
Indians sleep hungry on any given night. And
of Partition days, and never shied away
close o 70 lakh children died in 2012, from
from sharing stories of how she kept the
hunger or malnutrition.
kitchen fire burning with limited means. And she never made it sound like she was
Food waste utilises vast quantities of precious
doing something special or different; rather,
land, water and human resources; rather than
reiterating that not wasting food is, and can
nourishing people, it feeds landfills, producing
be, a natural part of how we cook and eat. I
methane gasses that poison the environment.
hardly ever saw her throw away peels, stalks
Much of food waste (43%) occurs at the
or any other parts of fruits or vegetables
household level.
considered inedible. So much so, that she ate her safeda mangoes with the peels! (It
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We all see that tonnes of the food produced
was only much later I learnt that most of the
nationally never gets consumed, causing
Vitamin A in mangoes was right under the
substantial economic and environmental harms.
peels, grandfather’s kitchen garden every
And this is not just food that is cooked. It is also
morning.
Your Home Kitchen is the Key to Food Waste collage AUG 2018
FEATURE
Much of food waste occurs in the home kitchen. And food waste in turn contributes to malnutrition, hunger, climate change and pollution. In this edition of #TrashTalk, Aarti Kapur Singh writes about why your garden patch and kitchen are more powerful than you think.
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FEATURE
collage AUG 2018
M 8
y favourite 'best out of waste' recipe
consume fibres that are essential to every
from Jhai Ji's kitchen was danthal —
diet that exists.
cauliflower stalks that are skinned
and seasoned with basic spices, to make for
Danthal is a Multani-Punjabi colloquial for
an amazing side dish. Most Punjabi home are
danda — the stalk. You can either add water
familiar with this dish, but few actually make
to the basic recipe with a little sautĂŠed
it. Full of detoxifying nutrients, the stalks and
tomato in case you like a gravy around the
leaves of a cauliflower (not if they have turned
vegetable, or you can have it dry. It tastes
yellow, though) can be used in the same recipes
great with makki or bajra roti, alongside
as lettuce, kale and other salad greens. Or you
moong ki daal and loads of homemade white
can roast them with mustard oil, garlic and a
butter, freshly churned.
sprinkling of spices. This is also a great way to
collage AUG 2018
COVER STORY
Danthal Sabzi Ingredients 400 grams cauliflower stalks and leaves, washed in salt water several times to get rid of soil or grit 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped fine A small piece of ginger, peeled and chopped fine A small piece of whole turmeric, peeled and chopped fine 1 dried red chilli
1 green chilli, slit 1 tsp coriander powder, toasted and ground 1/2 tsp cumin powder, toasted and ground 1/2 tsp fenugreek powder 1/4 tsp garam masala powder 1/3 tsp amchoor powder 1/3 tsp asafoetida or heeng Salt to taste 4 tbsp mustard oil
Method 1. Cut the stems into even pieces. 2. Remove the hard and stringy outer cover of the central stalk with a paring knife. Cut into the same size as the stems.
3. Soak the vegetable in warm water as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
4. Drain the stalks in a colander, then heat the oil in a kadhai. 5. When the mustard oil comes to smoking point, throw in the cumin, heeng, red chillies, whole turmeric, ginger and garlic.
6. Fry till the mixture turns a little pale in colour. If you want to make a gravy dish, add some tomato puree and let it cook till the oil leaves the sides.
7. Add the drained danthal pieces and cook with a lid on till they turn softer.
8. This will take around 10-15 minutes. Do stir every 5 minutes or so.
9. Add the rest of the spices except the garam masala. 10. Season with salt. 11. Add about a little less than half a cup of water and continue to cook till the stalks are done and the water dries up. I like the stalks to have a bit of crunch to them.
12. Add the garam masala and amchoor powder. Give it a good stir and remove from the flame. Serve hot.
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FEATURE
collage AUG 2018
A silver blanket the size of your average Walmart? Only at Burning Man.
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Behold, The Most Burning Man Thing Ever
collage AUG 2018
“
FEATURE
It’s not just the effigies that burn at Burning Man. Last year, temperatures in the Black Rock desert reached nearly 100 degrees. And so the 70,000 attendees–at least those without posh glamping setups–had to weather the heat with nothing
T
“
more than water and shade.
he artist Alex Shtanuk has
workers an estimated four eight-hour
proposed a fascinating,
shifts to complete.
and beautiful, solution to
the heat. In an Indiegogo campaign,
It’s a job of astounding scale, but
he’s raising money to create a
Shtanuk has some experience
107,000-square-foot “NASA” blanket–a
building mega blankets. At the
blanket made of the thin, vacuumized
Russian land-art festival Archstoyanie,
metal. It has strong, thermal reflective
Shtanuk debuted a 100-foot-by-130-
properties that NASA engineered
foot mylar blanket. ” The blanket
in the 1960s to insulate astronauts
looked absolutely alien among fields
traveling through frigid space.
and trees,” he says. “At the same time,
You’ve probably seen these silvery
the huge silver object affects people in
blankets on TV, because they have
a very specific way: they start smiling,
been appropriated by the sports and
running on it, interacting with it in all
rescue industries to stabilize body
possible ways. Just like children.”
temperatures in times of physical trauma.
Shtanuk believes his latest project will fit right in with the spirit of Burning
The difference in Shtanuk’s blanket
Man, while its thermal properties
is simply that it’s gigantic. With the
could provide some much-needed
footprint of your average Walmart, it
chill out time to festival goers. I can’t
would be a semi-structural, sculptural
help but wonder what it would be
work of unbelievable size with an
like to be caught in the middle of
important purpose: The blanket
such a gigantic roll of mylar when the
would reflect up to 97% of radiant
wind dies down. Or perhaps, more
heat, so people hiding under its
worrisomely, how bad the sunburn
rippling waves would be able to chill
could be if you spent too long playing
in a microclimate that’s a few degrees
on The Blanket during the day. “Sure,
cooler than outside.
it is quite bright and functions as a giant solarium,” Shtanuk says.
To build the blanket, Shtanuk is patchworking together 3,350 NASA
“Anyway, people at the Burning Man
blankets with 24 miles worth of tape.
wear sunglasses and goggles almost
The task will require the rental of
all the time.”
two indoor soccer fields, and take 20
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BUSINESS
collage AUG 2018
1 Tell me
something about yourself that I can’t find out on Google!
If you weren’t getting paid for what you do, would you still be doing it?
When I talk to my friends who run companies or are in hiring positions, I usually ask them for their favorite interview question. Here are some of mine that I collected over the years:
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okay to break the rules?
your secret superpower?
When is the 10 last time you went out of your way to do something nice for someone?
What do you dream of?
5 When is it
6 What’s
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My Favourite Interview Questions
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What’s the shittiest job you’ve ever had?
What are you pretending you don’t know?
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What’s something you’re bad at that you really wish you were good at. 9 What would the title of your autobiography be?
collage AUG 2018
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DESIGN
Creative Crushes Whose Work Will Inspire You
“
Creativity begets creativity. When you witness or consume brilliant work by someone you admire, it’s almost impossible to resist the urge to dive head-first into your own creative pursuits. IDEO designers surround themselves with creative people for exactly this reason—when you’re stuck in a rut, sometimes the best way to dig yourself out is to steep in other people’s genius for a while. Here are 6 people whose work inspires our own. 13
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If Mother Nature is your Muse... When New Yorker art director Rina Kushnir’s not designing layouts,
she can be found painting leaves she collects in her Brooklyn neighborhood. Find out how this
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meticulous project helps her meditate and stay creative.
If Your Podcast Library is Overflowing... Graphic designer, musician, podcaster: Hrishikesh Hirway is a
creative jack of all trades. In this interview, Hrishikesh goes deep on how this versatility helps and hinders his creative process.
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If Coding is your Form of Art… Matt Fargo is on a quest to make Japanese culture more fun for everyone.
Learn how he draws from the coder’s toolkit to build unexpected weirdness into his digital projects.
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collage AUG 2018
DESIGN
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If You’d Rather be at a Museum Right Now… As curator of Architecture + Design for SFMOMA, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher
puts the world of design on display. Find out how she stays inspired by constantly considering the now, questioning the promise of future technology, and looking back on the designs that made history.
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If You’re an Art Enthusiast... Illustrator Cindy Derby creates imaginary worlds for children’s
books, but her unique characters and experimental style capture the imagination of adults just as easily. Get to know Cindy and her madeup worlds in this interview with the artist.
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If You’re a Film Buff… Nomadic filmmaker Brandon Li uses film to express the beautiful madness of urban life.
See how his creative process adapts to whichever city he’s in.
Let’s keep the inspiration flowing! Tell us who’s inspiring you right now using the hashtag #CreativeCrushes on Twitter.
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You can't learn style.
Ms. Apfel, do you need to be fearless to be fashionable?
I never think of things like that, but I guess maybe you do. But why should I
So getting dressed never feels like work to you? Oh, my God, no, if it felt like work, I wouldn’t do it! If it felt like work, I wouldn’t get dressed up! People think maybe I just live to get dressed, which is ridiculous. I normally wear some old jeans and a sweater or something like that where I feel comfortable.
worry? The fashion police are not going to come and put me in jail! I love bright colors, but I never did anything that I did to be a rebel… I just did it because I thought it was fun and it was good for me. And as long as I didn’t offend my mother or my husband, what anybody else thinks is their problem, not mine!
You seem to need a certain amount of spontaneity in your life. Oh, absolutely! My God, I couldn’t live in a rigid world… If I knew what I was going to do every day, I would go nuts! Every day is different. I’m not a planner. You either do the right thing or the wrong thing, but you
Have you always had a passion for color?
do it. I’m experimental, I’m curious, and I try things. And if I like it, I do it again!
I’m not a pastel person! Pastels make me nervous. I could never be like my mother because she never had a hair out of place!
I have trouble picturing you in an old
She got up in the morning and she looked
sweater and a pair of jeans.
like she just stepped out of a Chicago Coin band box. She was perfect Awould turn around to look at her but in a completely different way to me. My mother was much more disciplined in that fashion than I am. I just go with the flow!
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You do?
collage AUG 2018
FASHION
Iris Apfel
I’ve never seen photos of you looking anything but fabulous. Well, most people don’t want to see you looking grungy… I never look grungy, I always look clean! (Laughs) But even when I’m all dressed up, I like to be comfortable. If I’m not comfortable, I don’t want to wear it. I don’t pay attention to trends or anything. I wasA never one to hobble around in shoes because they were fashionable.
Is that a problem in fashion these days? People wear things that are uncomfortable just because it’s in style? Oh no. I think contemporary clothing right now is too comfortable! People take advantage and begin to look sloppy, nobody pays attention to what’s appropriate anymore. Appropriate seems to be a dirty word. Sweatpants are fine in their place but you don’t go to the theater in sweatpants. I think it’s disrespectful to the artistAs on stage! The theater is a kind of worshipping place. You go to worship good wcraftsmanship, good art, good food… If you go to a temple of cuisine, you should dress appropriately. If you come in looking like a pig with flip-flops and a dirty sweatshirt, I think it’s an affront!
What do you think is to blame for this decline? It’s a whole breaking down of society, I’m sure you’ve noticed. The way people behave? The way they talk, the way they dress, the way they look? Everything! The dumbing down of society. Years ago you couldn’t enter a fine restaurant if you didn’t have a jacket! They’d have jackets on the door that they’d put on you. Everybody dressed up when they went to a restaurant. I like when I go to a restaurant and I look over at the next table and the people look attractive; it helps my digestion. When I see a beast with an open shirt and hairy chest hanging out it takes away my appetite! I 18
think it’s just a lack of respect.
“You can’t
collage AUG 2018
Respect for the people around you? Lack of respect for yourself! I think if you go out, you don’t have to dress up all the time. I surely am not an advocate of that. But you have to look clean and neat and, you know, not look offensive. I think some of these people that waddle around Fifth Avenue in the summer, some of these ladies that have a butt from here to Poughkeepsie that wear tights or jeans that are so, so tight… It seems to me the more unattractive some of these people are, and the fatter they are, the less clothes they wear.
Do you miss the fashion scene of old New York? I wouldn’t go into mourning over it, but there used to be an enormous fashion scene, and I don’t think there’s much of one anymore. If you walked down Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue in the fifties and sixties, everybody looked so wonderful. Now, if you’re clean and well-dressed you look like a freak. It was another world.
FASHION
learn style. Style, I think, is in your DNA. It’s something inherent. ”
Because fabric was rationed during the war? Right, it wasn’t until after the war that Dior came with the New Look. He made clothes with voluminous skirts because finally we had a surplus of fabric again. That’s what’s interesting if you really want to study fashion, it’s a photograph of daily life. The political climate, the economic climate, the social behavior—it’s all reflected in fashion.
How so? First of all, the clothes were clothes. They were properly made with beautiful fabrics. There were wonderful designers that knew how to cut and sew and drape. Back then in New York, we had some of the best designers going.
What does today’s fashion say about our daily lives? I think most people don’t know who they really are. They feel secure if they look like other people or if it’s the look that everybody says is in… People agonize about the way they look! It’s unbelievable! They don’t know what to wear or how to do it, and they’re very unhappy. But you can’t
Do you remember things changing, for example, when
learn style. Style, I think, is in your DNA. You can learn
America entered World War II?
how to be more fashionable, you can learn how to be better
Oh, of course they changed. Fashion was not on the
something inherent. You have to know who you are first
forefront. The emphasis was not on making beautiful clothes. Factories changed, they made army clothes and stuff like that, people were in a somber mood. There wasn’t any fashion! Everything was simplified.
dressed, but I don’t think you can learn style. I think that’s and then proceed from there—and that’s a lot of work! Most people don’t want to do it. And if they don’t want to do it, and they feel stressed by doing it, I always say it’s better to be happy than well-dressed. 19
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