Semester (3) Document by Vivek Menon

a documentation of

Semester 3

Vivek ug graphic design Menon National Institute of Design â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;14 1

acknowledgement This document is a result of all the skills and knowledge I have developed and gained in the past three semesters at NID. This third semester in particular has been an exciting one, getting introduced to the Graphic Design discipline and building up a visual vocabulary, as I thoroughly involved myself in every course we had. I would like to thank all my faculty, namely Ani Sinha, Tarundeep Girdhar, Tridha Gajjar, Siddartha Tripathi, Shiho Kito, Jon Pinhorn, Madusudan, Tanishka and Amit Kharsani. I would also like to thank my batchmates and seniors for their critical feedback and appreciation, while always being an inspiration; and for making the journey more enjoyable. And lastly I am forever grateful to my parents for their constant support and motivation in helping me achieve my dreams of being a Graphic Designer. 2

a documentation of

Semester 3

Vivek ug graphic design Menon National Institute of Design â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;14

06 14 22 34 42 46 54 4

COLOUR 1 SLA 3 DRAWING & ILLUSTRATION HISTORY OF ART & DESIGN DEPARTMENT ELECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY CALLIGRAPHY WORKSHOP TYPOGRAPHY

Colour 1 _________________ Duration: 3 Weeks Course Faculty: Anil Sinha 7

recappingColour Our first course was simply called Colour-1, which lasted for three weeks. We started off the first week recapping all that we had already learnt last year in Foundation. Terms like Hue, value and Saturation will never be forgotten after spending many precious hours last year making colour wheels and value and intensity scales. We went over words like After image, additive and subtractive colours, degrees of chroma, cool colours, warm colours, high key and low key, aggressive and depressive colours.

We were each to select one color of our choice and then in groups, come up with as many examples of that particular colour being see in the vibrant Indian cultural context. It was definitely engaging to hear each group present all the different applications of various colours and the cultural origins of their names in different Indian languages. Therefore it was established that colour has a lot of cultural associations and significances that people immediately connect with, especially in India.

Cultural Context

Colour is always perceived in relation to other colours, once again as we learnt last year when we explored colour interactions. However the way we perceive it depends on the form as well; and if the form does not play a role, then the colour is perceived with respect to the emotion the viewer is experiencing at the time.

Colours convey different meanings in different intensities and saturations, in different cultural contexts and in different tints and shades. For example, while dark green shows maturity, light green shows tenderness. Colours also emit different levels of energy, which can influence our emotions.

Our next major assignment was to list down various public sectors, shortlist a few and finally select one to be working on for the next two weeks. By a process of chit picking, my group got the Healthcare sector, which meant that we were to visit as many hospitals in Ahmedabad as possible and study the various colour schemes used, the mood and environment of each location with respect to the space, the activities and the people of that particular hospital.. The first thing we did as a group was to identify the different colours of things we should observe in each hospital that we went to; which included things such as: -Exteriors -Logos, Slogans, Sign Boards, Branding -Interiors, Furniture, Walls, Floors, -Uniforms -Curtains, Bedding, Ward items -Reciepts/ Prescriptions -Clothes of Patients/ Visitors etc -Medical and Pharmaceuticals -Packaging

FieldWork

Next was to make a list of Hospitals to visit. We needed just an overall generalised sense of understanding of colour in hospitals, and so we tried to locate specific zones in Ahmedabad which had many hospitals in the same area.. Next was to make a list of Hospitals to visit. We needed just an overall generalised sense of understanding of colour in hospitals, and so we tried to locate specific zones in Ahmedabad which had many hospitals in the same area.. We visited many hospitals and clinics in and around the Paldi area itself, Vadilal Sarabhai near Ellis Bridge; a whole lot of hospitals in the Navrangpura area, near Stadium Circle, including Shrey, Nidhi and Saviour Hospital; and many smaller clinics on the way. While Government hospitals like VS Hospital didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t not care much for our visit, Private hospitals like Saviour either gave us a guided tour, or sent us away sceptically like HCG hospital.

We soon realised that hospitals itself was a vast topic and so we decided to not explore Pharmaceuticals and Medical shops, and only stick to Hospitals. Government hospitals did not seem to have a forced colour scheme, however I soon realised that we were observing not colour schemes, but the environment. Using all the Photographs we had taken, and getting some from the websites of the hospitals, we created this moodboard which can be seen on the right. From the mood board, I divided pictures related to the space, the activities and the people and created three different collages out of them; which I then pixellated to end up with the following colour palettes, to depict the space, the activity and the people respectively.

Moodboard &Colour Palettes

Key Inte word Cle racti s: Di Wh an, S ve, B sciplin Har olesopecia right, ed, dw me lize Hyg ork , H d, ien ing ealt ic, , Re h, C spe ha cte otic d , 10

Now that I had my colour palettes, I needed a form to effectively communicate the environment and mood of hospitals in Ahmedabad.. I listed down a few key words which I derived from my hospital visits, and used those to create the forms.

FormPalette My first round of forms all ended up looking like logos with some symbolic meaning to it. So I started drawing forms with more layers. However this time the elements within the layers looked too isolated and did not seem like one unit.

I improved upon some of the previous forms and made some new ones as well. I tried to bring in the essence of the space, combining the three basic shapes- the circle, square and triangle. However I wanted to use only smooth-edged shapes to depict the possibly safe, accessible, careful and protected environment of a hospital.

These were the two final forms I created. I tried to use the layers to depict the space, activities and people respectively. I composed the trapeziums in such a way that ones eye is drawn to the centre of the image. The increase in size of rectangle bars and ellipses are also suggestive of an increase in quality of health. I wanted to depict the bright white lights of hospitals, and so I visualized the kind of spots one sees when you stare at bright light for a long time and then close your eyes. This idea inspired me to create the flower shape on the top of both forms, which as a flower, also strongly depicts the cleanliness and antiseptic smell of hospitals; as well as an indication of freshness, in terms of good health. The form was to essentially be created using our compositional skills, out of the three basic shapes, the square, triangle and circle, as all forms in the world are loosely derived from these three basic shapes. However since the triangle was directional in nature, it was not to be used irresponsibly since we had to display the totality of the area and the activities. The colour palette was then applied on to the form in all possible exhaustive, exploratory manners, without any restrictions, using our colour knowledge to create colour harmony, which was the best part of the assignment. It was fundamentally understood how the expressive and applicative nature of colour, as a Graphic Designers tool, makes for effective means of communication.

Some Of The Final Coloured Explorations

science&liberal arts 3 _________________ Duration: 1 Week Course Faculty: Madhusudan Mukherjee 15

Each SLA deals with a different topic, and this sem we studied about Semiotics (however ended up learning about a lot of other philosophical and human-pschy related issues as well). It happens to be one of the most interesting things Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever studied.

semiOTICS Semiotics is the study of signs. It comes from the Greek word Semeiotikos. A sign has various definitions, the most interesting to me being, A signifier of things, which offers itself to the senses, and conveys something other to the intellect. The curious thing about signs is that we are constantly mediating through it; including this very minute as I write this essay. Signs are divided into two types- Natural and conventional, based on their occurrence. The Epicurans and Stoics also interpreted Signs as being Aposteriori or Apriori respectively. The Epicurans and Stoics also interpreted Signs as being Aposteriori or Apriori respectively. Aposteriori, based to empirical considerations, it is an assumption made based on past expereiences, after the event has actually occurred. For example, a wet ground would be a sign to indicate that it may have rained, and we assume this without actually seeing the rain itself. Apriori, is a formal, rational, type of sign based on pre-made connections, the quintessential sign being a medical symptom, before the actual event has occurred. For example, seeing grey clouds in the sky tells us that it is going to rain, again without actually seeing the rain itself. The father of American Semiotics, Charles Peirce gave his triad theory of Semiosis, which gives us the definitions of the Interpretant, the Representamen and the object; and their ever-changing positions in the triad. We also learnt about the 3 categories and stages of each of these respectively. At this point, a kind of skill was developed which helped classify all signs into where they belonged in the triad system. Ideally, a well designed sign would have to be iconic, indexical as well as symbolic.

Things got far more interesting when we moved onto Saussure, who was a Swiss linguist. We understood that since language is also a sign, it links a concept(a signified) and an acoustic image(a signifier); rather than a name and an object. So when you hear the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;tigerâ&#x20AC;?, the word that you hear is the signified, while the immediate image of some tiger that you imagine in your head, is the signifer. And everyone has a different image or signifier for the same signified. Multiple languages prevail due to the existence of many signifieds for the same signifiers.

signifiers & signifieds A debate about names and naming, concluded with us establishing that the act of naming something or someone, is an act of power. The one common thing between all parents when they name their children, is simply that they and nobody else have the power to do so. In some Indian families where the Grandparents name babies, we see that the grandparents have greater power over the parents. Names are always given by another, and not by self. When the British renamed various Indian cities, they indirectly reestablished their power in the Empire. Hence, if we want to completely chase out the British, we must get rid of the names they left behind, their remaining mark of power. Names also may be a numbing source of your psychy, since one spends his whole life trying to live up to the image of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name (the signifier).

The connections made between signifiers and signifieds are all arbitrary, random and forced, and no one can force a change of signification at any point of time, because of their arbitrary, erratic nature.

We understood the concept of the Parole and the Langue, where parole is a single complete speech unit and Langue is the underlying system of rules that make a parole, or the syntax. For example, any complete sentence in any language is a parole; and the language itself is the langue. Wearing clothes is a parole, and all the rules that determine this act of wearing clothes is the langue. The langue happens to be something that we are unconsciously aware of, but we become consciously aware of the fact that we know it, only when the code or visual langue is broken. We know that pants are supposed to be worn on oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legs only when we see somebody wearing pants on their head, and thereby we become consciously aware of the fact that we know the rules, and here the rules are being broken.

TheParole& lANGUE

Also, the parole operates syntagmatically which means that the understanding of a parole works at a single level manifestation. A paradigm refers to, for example in language, all the words that a certain word is related to either by similarity or by contrast. It the choices that you did not make; the words that you would have chosen to use in a parallel universe; all the things that were not said. Metaphors are an example of working paradigmatically, since they do not work on a single level manifestation, but are based on a hidden meaning within the parole. Now when Saussure studied language synchronically, he discovered that we, as a society, create structures ubiquitously and we impose it everywhere, in order to make meanings of things. The meaning of anything is also established only through contrast, because our mind works like a system of reverse-alibi. The choice of words we use, appears only through rejection of all the other words. All decisions are based on rejection and not assertion. Therefore meaning can only be established through difference, and meaning/ identity is clearest when the differences are binary. For example, it is easier to differentiate between Black and white, as opposed to Black and Grey; because when differences are binary, meanings are clearest.

This was further understood when we watched Night Shyamalanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movie Unbreakable, in which the villain needed to find or create his other, the superhero of sorts, in order to stabilize his own identity and give meaning to himself. Many examples of this concept were given, thereby helping us to understand that we create these binary oppositions and structures in the world, which are all arbitrary, in order to make meaning of things. For instance, the idea of male helps us understand female; and vice versa. Anything which doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fit our idea of either of these two binary oppositions ends up seeming unnatural and weird. We create these binary oppositions in all structures: Night and Day, Sun and Moon, Mother and Father, Sperm and Egg, Interior and Exterior, Hero and Villain. We are only aware that the sun is the sun, because it is not the moon, and the moon is the moon because it is not the sun. Joker and Batman, Sherlock and Moriarty all give meaning to each other. Therefore, all binary oppositions are sliding signifiers, since we jump to the other to understand one of them. All such structures follow the same properties- wholeness, transformation and self regulation.

BINARY oPPOSITIONS This concept of the other, intrigued me the most. We were provided with so many examples of such binary oppositions being created; for instance the divide and rule policy of the British was simply about creating others among the Indians itself; or how in arranged marriage, the other is created in the form of the spouse itself, but in love marriages the other is perceived to be society, which gives meaning to the couple(self) , but only temporarily.

We studied about Claude Levy Strauss and Jacques Derrida- which led us to deconstruction. Every such structure could be deconstructed now that we were aware of the fact that binary oppositions, like the signifiers and signifieds are all just arbitrary random connections made in our heads. However, these binary oppositions are what give meaning to a structure (For eg. the policeman and criminal give meaning to the structure of law and order, and without them there would be no concept of law; mother and father give meaning to the structure of family). Deconstruction was hence an important tool to understand that all such arbitrary structures could be broken down in our heads, and it is essential to become comfortable with futility. Life and death, the two fundamental binary oppositions were both arbitrary and meaningless as well, and we glorify them in our heads. There is no such thing as right and wrong either, since they are both arbitrary, random connections weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve made. The world simply works by maintaining a balance between the two. The truth is that every structure is meaningless, because every structure is made up of a pair of binary oppositions, and neither of the two have meaning without the other. Therefore the structure dissolves into nothingness; because binary oppositions are arbitrary and forced and meaningless connections made in our heads, then they can only be broken down in our heads! If they were physically broken down, we would have anarchies!

deconstruction 20

thebourgeoislifestyle The bourgeois refer to the wealthy middle class society, who create personas of nonexistent wealth and luxury. They make stuff appear as if it is about everyone, and the mainstream media is constantly seen publicising this kind of lifestyle with the promotion of unnecessary products and services that supposedly everyone needs. Unconsciously we evade explanation by repetition, we quantify quality and we state facts as if they apply to everyone, in the form of bourgeois proverbs and aphorisms. We tend to imitate the West, and the poor imitate us, the bourgeoisie. This bourgeoisie setup exists only because we live in a capitalist world, where the upper class stays wealthy, and the poor remain poor; where money remains in the hands of a few; where there is no evolving technology to replace CEOs and managers, but only to replace the labour class; where we convince ourselves that we are part of world where the power of the dominant group is both natural and legitimate; where one is rewarded for efficiency, an idea of efficiency based on machines.

The media, known for promoting the bourgeois lifestyle, is also seen to take subcultures from certain regions and sell it to the world, to consumers who know nothing about the subcultures origination, thereby making it hollow. For example, the punk movement, or the hippie movement. And we convince ourselves that it is so normal, because everybody is “seemingly” doing it. We evade explanation by repetition of the fact that that’s just the way things are, and nobody questions it. By looking at specific adverts and news articles, we understood how the media uses certain techniques to sell this bourgeois lifestyle to the world, and as designers it is necessary for us to be able to identify them. We are constantly expected to be somebody, and to work hard and achieve this unattainable bourgeois concept of success! We are born into this capitalist setup where we work like machines and it is absolutely unacceptable to not have ambitions. We were reminded by the end of the week that we were, after all just wired with basic animal instincts, and we were nothing more than a bunch of highly evolved monkeys complicating the world for ourselves by trying to understand it.

drawing&illustration _________________ Duration: 5 Weeks Course Faculty: TarunDeep Girdhar & Siddartha Tripathi 23

This happened to be my favourite course this semester, as there was so much to learn about different illustration styles and techniques, various media and the overal visual effect they produced; how images are all about telling stories, and communicating; and how while Photography depicts reality, illustration techniques are used to create fantastical images that Photographs cannot produce.

the selfportrait The course kicked off with drawing our own self portrait. The portait was to include two objects that would somehow represent or reflect our personality. I decided to include my camera, to show my love for Photography; and my passport, to depict my love for travelling and the fact that I am an NRI, and that this legal document has somehow come to define and shape my personality drastically. After several attempts at this task, i learned that it was important that every single element included in the illustration, contributed to whatever the overall illustration was trying to commnicate.. Unnecessary elements were to be avoided. The line quality, and overall style of the illustration was also highly important for effective communication.

When we started dealing with objects, we learned three methods of observing and drawing them- drawing the negative space instead of the actual object; drawing the volume and structure of the object; and thirdly, to draw the contour of the object, by allowing our eyes to follow the path of the objects ooutline. We then did a detailed object study of one object, with all its grooves and knobs accurate in correct proportions, as can be seen below.

object drawing

Next we had to draw a portrait of one our other batchmates, while the person sat in front of us. This assignment taught me how to accurately use certain features as references to draw other features.

thefriends portrait

And once this live drawing had been done, we had to illustrate the person such that the style and composition of the illustration reflected the persons personality. After much planning, I decided to compose it such that she was placed, figuratively inside a bubble, much like her personalityalways in her own bubble; while her resting hand nicely framed the image. I also used quick and wispy strokes of oil pastels to bring out her quick paced speech, and frisky personality.

in Studying the still life, we drew the composition three times- the first time, visualising each object to be seethrough., the second time drawing a pencil outline of the entire composition and the third time, completely rendering every object to depict its material and feel. Attention was paid to tonal values and general proportions.

thestill-life study

studyingamrutapatils style

Through a process of chitpicking, we each recieved an illustrator, whose work and style we had to study; and then illustrate the same still life in the artists style.

I had to s t u d y Amrutra Patil, an I n d i a n author and illustrator whose distinctive style includes: working on newspaper; using mixed media; collage work as backgrounds; and fearless blue unrefined outlines over which colours are filled in.

I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment and being exposed to Amruta Patils style of work taught me to be a lot more bold and fearless. I also loved her my t h o l o g i c a l l y themed books.

Now it was time to go out and explore the city of Ahmedabad, and try and discover what gives the city its quirkiness. The assignment was to illustrate a postcard, depicting some quirky element of the city. From a multiple set of sketches, I shortisted the one of Dalvada, and a cup of chai; a typical aspect of Ahmedabad, evoking smells and tastes as well. With much refinement and a drastic decision to change the Dalvada to some Gujarathi Fafda instead, I ended up exploring a plethora of media and styles to depict this everyday scene.

theamdavad assignment Unfortunately, the illustration simply lacked any story and many real factors seemed missing, as I changed the viewpoint of the hand to a more accurate one; and I decided to play with the background to stimulate this classic experience.

Finally my faculty made me just go buy a parcel of fafda and come back to class. I then made someone go through the whole process of opening the parcel while I recorded each and every step. Automatically, the entire process told its own story and the illustration became stronger and more authentic in its communication; as the packet of yellow chutney oozed all over the place creating a mess, and the thread used to tie the parcel hung across the lap of the person, and beautiful little crumbs of fafda fell out of the newspaper. Miniscule elements that I would have never imagined until I was driven to actually get out there and experience the act myself, in order to appreciate the quirkiness of it all. I used pen with an even line quality, and watercolours to illustrate it, and for the background, I decided to print out an image and stick it in order to produce a unique effect,

Our next assignment was to illustrate a process, as opposed to a single image, in order to effectively communicate. Once again by a process of chitpicking, I had to illustrate a recipe of Gujarati Dalvada.

illustrating aprocess

After much research and field work, visiiting many Dalvada stalls and making sketches, I was finally able to decipher and breakdown the recipe, and illustrate the entire process. I decided to depict the whole system from a tabletop view. And once again, the tiny details made all the difference and gave the illustration some character. Attention was also plaid to oomposition and layout. Pen of various line qualities, and watercolour was used for the illustration.

Theillustrated picturebook

Our final ultimate task was to sequentially illustrate a picture book, based on our own rendition of a story given to us. I was given the story of the foolish lion & the clever rabbit, and decided to change the characters and setting. I wrote my story in the form of a poem, which meant that the illustration style also now demanded to be more poetic and flowy. I illustarted seven spreads using pen, watercolour, pstels, colour pencils, poster paint and paper cutouts. Concious decisions were made to draw the Emperor fatter with each frame and I thoroughly enjoyed the process of developing this character.

historyofart&design _________________ Duration: 1 Week Course Faculty: Tanishka Kachru 35

As a designer, it is necessary to be aware of all the nuances that come with the profession. In order to enrich our design education, I think this course was absolutely vital. For a course that lasted only a week, there was almost an overload of knowledge that came with it, but I enjoyed it immensely.

The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION We began with the International Industrial Revolution that took place in the 18th and 19th century, where human labour was replaced by machines, there was an era of mass production; and society gets organised in a different way with the rise of socialism. Key inventions like the Steam Engine and Lightning Steam press, Electric Telegraph, the locomotive, and the Steamboats; all advanced the development of communication and transport systems. The invention of the cotton gin and Flying shuttle also help lead to the mechanization of the Textile industry, in India as well because of the British East India Company. The three class system rose with the shift in Agrarian to Factory based work. The British considered it their “burden” to civilise the masses, through the spread of Christianity or teaching them English; thus leading to the development of the superiority of the West. Meanwhile in England, living condition were pitiful during this era. With artists like Turner, John Constable, Monet and Van Gogh, there was a drastic shift in the subjects and general style of paintings. Fantasy and Religion were no longer painted, and with the advent of Photography , there was a purposeful change in the idea of what art is. The great Exhibition of 1851 was a very significant event of the Victorian Era; which took place in the Crystal Palace built by Joseph Paxton, the world’s first prefabricated glass building. Glass came to be associated with showcases and exhibitions henceforth, and the idea of an atrium also came from this exhibition. It was additionally, an idea that leisure and consumption go together, which we see emulated in today’s malls. The exhibition was a British government initiative to display their colonial power; and give designers and industrialists a platform to market and make accessible, these new machine made products that needed to be consumed. Thus the role of a designer was born, someone with a good aesthetic sense, and so began the advent of advertising and print based media. The Exposition Universelle in Paris also accelerated development and led to the evolution of the Art Nouveau movement. The Eiffel Tower, the invention of the Escalator, Campbell tinned soup were all prominently associated developments of the event. 36

The rising middle class was now the style and trend setters of the time, it was no longer the kings or rulers. Simultaneously, a critique of Industrialism took place, with the rise of an Arts and crafts movement and designers like William Morris. Art Nouveau was the style trend of the time and found usage in Architecture. Artists now wanted to be a part of the development of “Machine Asthetics”, and functionality and aesthetics comes to be intertwined with the simplification of form and material usage, led by Wiener Werkstatte and Christopher Dresser.

Writing systems evolved in four stages, their primary purpose being to communicate. Cave paintings were the first ever form of visual communication; before Pictograms, which are images used to directly represent an object; seen in the Mesopotamian civilization where clay tablets were used to inscribe pictograms on. Ideograms came about when mankind felt the need to communicate not just literal objects but ideas. Literal representations now became abstract symbols. These writing systems were being developed among scribes; and the sacred Hieroglyphics, deciphered with the help of the Rosetta Stone, is an example of an Ideographic script. Logograms, seen in Chinese language, are linguistic units which are written as symbols but read out as words, without expressing its pronunciation. They arose when pictograms ceased to represent the objects they illustrated, and acquired linguistic values. For example: numbers, &, @, %, $

The Greeks derived the modern English alphabet from the 22 Phoenician letters, from which other phonetic languages like Latin, modern Arabic, and Greek were also derived using symbols to express its pronunciation and sound. Illuminated Manuscripts were highly ornamented religious documents, made by monks, especially in Paris, which was the centre of Illumination in the early 15th century. Roman Typefaces were developed after the invention of Gutenberg’s Printing Press, which was now used for mass produced manufacturing of printing matter. Type was no longer for religious purposes alone but also for science. Serifs are introduced, thus breaking away from the calligraphy style of writing.

The history ofwriting 37

modernism

The De Stijl movement develops in Amsterdam, which only used Straight, directional lines and primary colours, as a new utopian idea of expressionism.

Modernism stood for a large collection of ideas; a rejection of history and applied ornamentation and a preference for abstraction, as an aftermath of Dadaism began as a revolt against the the world war at the turn of the 20th bourgeoisie Capitalists who they believed century. Communication is suddenly led to the World Wars. Dada aimed to more instantaneous, with the increase in offend our aesthetic sensibilities rather than technology and rise of the middle class. appeal to it, a rejection against the rapid There is also a rise of imperialism and industrialism, as art was now becoming a feminism, with women winning the right commodity. to vote. Sigmund Freudâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theories deeply Various Art Movements arose such as influence the different modern movements Cubism, led by Picasso and Braque who as well. broke up subject matter and reassembled Artists like Egon Schiele and Kandinsky them in forms and layers. Surrealism, focused more on depicting harsh realities started out as a literary movement, a and deformities through abstraction. Lines method of unveiling the unconscious, and colours were used to express emotions. deeply influenced by Freudâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dream studies. Materials such Glass, Steel and Concrete Dali and Magritte further pioneered this as an art movement. are considered Modern. 38

During 1900 to 1930, there is a need to destroy the hierarchy that exists among artists, which leads to a restructuring of the curriculum at the Bauhaus Art school, in Germany. Art and Technology was to be unified, and there is a move toward utilitarianism and functionality. A new modern technological aesthetic is discovered where design elements were rethought and materials were pushed to their limits. Dozens of examples of breakthroughs by designers were provided to us such as Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Eileen Grey, Gerritt Rietveld etc. Since Concrete and steel bars were now supporting structures, walls could be replaced by glass.

A new mass market modernism movement arises characterised by the use of glass, parallel lines, chrome, shiny, streamline style, modern sanserif typefaces and facade of shops. In order to make people feel part of this modernity, long distance travel is now possible and marketed. It was now fashionable to be modern and so even the rich endorse it. Art Deco develops as a style, embracive of technology, representing luxury, glamour, exuberance and technological progress. Meanwhile, the Rashtrapathi Bhavan is built in India, with primarily classical architecture style, a European Dome, Rajasthani Chattris, Mughal Gardens and a chajja for practical protection. 39

post modernism What arose, as an aftermath of Modernism, was Postmodernism; an eclectic mix of historic styles, a rejection of modernism, the movement that still continues to exist today. As opposed to the destruction of the natural world that the Modernists practised, the Postmodernists believe in a Utopian ideal to dwell along with nature. A new Graphic Design arose with the rise of bulletin publications and the transition from letterpress to offset printing. Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were at the forefront of the Pop Art movement, fed up with the consumerist society, in an age of mechanical reproduction. Warhol took references from consumerism as in his painting of the Campbell soup tins. However he signed and sold his paintings, thereby commodifying his own art. Lichtenstein took inspiration from popular underground comics of the time. 40

The hippie movement also began as a rejection of the modernist society, as a method of finding meaning beyond this consumerist world. They took inspiration from reputable social rejects like Van Gogh and Paul Gogain. They were also inspired by Mother Goddess and Buddha. The female figure was seen as a symbol of fertility. Psychedelic Art was art that was created on the effect of drug- induced hallucinations, before drugs were known to have harmful effects. It is a method of releasing the consciousness through drugs, deeply influenced by Freudâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theories. As the 21st century began, the digital revolution that took over was heralded as the rave movement. Digitalism was the new LSD, since expressing psychedelic colours, fractals etc. was much easier.

By the end of the 20th century, the social purposes of design were being questioned. The recyclability and life cycles of objects were taken into consideration. Apple was at the forefront in adding value to its products, where designers added functionality to electronics. Stefan Sagmeister is an iconic Graphic Designer, whose work has popularised the Grunge counter-culture. A trend is seen in food packaging where hyper-realistic images are used to market foods. Handwritten type is suddenly more popular, to break away from the rules or social norms. Onkar Singh Kular designed deformed cutlery, to comment on the “use and throw culture” of society. Meanwhile in India, the British East India Company trains Indians to use Watercolour and Oil paint. Ravi Varma emerges as a brand name, whose paintings are very Western Punk, Neodada or Neoexpressionism was in style and composition. Lithographic the next movement that arose in London, prints of his work were replicated and sold deeply associated with the Punk music everywhere, and continue to be sold today. scene; a resurgence of the 16th century anti-design, anti-establishment movement, By the early 20th century, a nationalist to offend peoples aesthetic sensibilities, reform sweeps the country, influenced by and to comment on the degradation of Tagore in Bengal, and Gandhi in Gujarat. society. Vivienne Westwood, the pioneer Swadeshi is expressed through Art. The of Punk Fashion, whose shop was called Gujarat Vidyapeeth is set up by Gandhi, “Sex”, popularised the ripped jagged look similar to Tagore’s Shantiniketan, to and other socially unacceptable forms of provide an alternative Indian education system. Newspapers like “Navjivan” dressing. and “Young India” were instrumental in Soon technological advances made life contributing to the freedom movement. easier as type became more accessible; After independance, Le Corbusier planned analogous became digital, and push button the city of Chandigarh. phones were invented. MTV becomes very much a part of the 80’s postmodernist movement with its iconic logo transitions. Designers were now seeing themselves as artists, as they not only designed for mass consumption, but also for self expression. By the 90’s, Plastics were seen as cheap and tacky, so designers began exploring the material for other purposes.

In 1961, NID is established; the result of an epic series of events, and the platform for a commendable body of accomplishments to come. This course made me feel inspired to be part of such a revolutionary journey, as NID continues to fulfil the purpose it started out wth, and we continue to live in this absolute, exciting postmodern culture. 41

department elective gift packaging through sequential narrative _________________ Duration: 1 Week Course Faculty: Tridha Gajjar 43

whattopackage The brief was to choose an object that we could package to be sold as a gift, and thereby design the packaging in order to add more market value to the product. The packaging should also, by itself tell a story in the form of a sequential narrative. I chose to package a shaving set that a father or father figure would gift his son, as a present to encapsulate the bonding moment between a father and a son during such an activity like his first shave. My initial concept was to actually package the idea of adulthood through the shaving set which would consist of four basic items: a razor, shaving cream, shaving brush and aftershave. It would be a gift that a teenage boy would recieve at the time of his first act of â&#x20AC;&#x153;becoming an adultâ&#x20AC;?, on the onset of puberty.

the Structure I decided to keep the form as simple as a box because the cube was able to subtly hint the idea of masculinity without being too direct. The sharp edges of the cube reflect the sharpness of the shaving tools. I also wanted the packagae to be easy to manufacture and carry, especially during travel.

surface graphics I illustrated two teenage boys on either side of the box, but intended for the illustration style to reflect the awkward, uncomfortable and gawky stages of being a teenager. I also created the cover such that when one takes it off, the facial hair is not present anymore on the illustration.

the beginners ultimate shaving set

photography _________________ Duration: 2 Weeks Course Faculty: Shiho Kito & Rishi Singhal 47

Photography is something that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve always loved and had a passion for; but I was first formally introduced to its technicalities only last year in Foundation, when we had a week long Street Photography Workshop. The following summer, I bought my first DSLR. Our first major assignment was to divide ourselves in groups of four, and shoot Portraits. However we given Black & White SLR film cameras for the task, which meant that we could only push the shutter button 35 times and hope that we would get some good results out of it. My group frantically spent the day trying to actualize our farfetched ideas.

theSLR filmcamera

Next, we were given colour films and asked to shoot pictures to exhibit the colours of Ahmedabad. The challenge was to find places that were not clichĂŠd and once again we were limited by the number of photos we could take. It was interesting for me to use cameras other than a DSLR, and learn to appreciate each photo we took, under these limitations of not being able to view the image until it was printed, as well as the simplicity of the adjustment panels etc.

The whole process taught me to plan out each and every shot before taking it, rather than clicking a subject many number of times and getting one good shot out of it by chance. Our faculty also decided to take us to the Photography printing lab in the Gandhinagar campus, in order to show us the dark room and demonstrate the process of getting photos printed. It was such a satisfying task to actually take out the film from the cameras, see the negatives being developed with the help of chemicals, in front of our eyes, and then get the negatives washed and dry for scanning.

When we finally got to see the photographs on screen, to our pleasant surprise, our Black & White film had already been exposed by our faculty in Japan, which meant that all our images were overlapped with other previously taken images. However, we did end up with some unique, almost purposeful pictures.

Now that we had started getting into the habit of planning each shot, it was finally time to move onto DSLRs. Our assignment was to document 24 hours of our daily life in the form of ten images, capturing mundane activities but making them interesting in the photographs. I chose to do this assignment from my own point of view, and thereby incorporate my left hand in every image in order to depict my involvement in the scene. I simply went about experiencing the day as it went, but carried around my camera with me.

documenting 24hours 50

We were briefly introduced to other cameras such the Twin lens reflex camera and the Large format camera; as well as the Photography studio and all its equipment.

The highlight moment of this Photography course was our 48 hour trip to Udaipur; the pinnacle moment of the semester and the bonding process we went through as a batch during the trip was uncalled for. The outcome consisted of some beautiful filmy photographs, each one telling its own story, and I was successfully able to improve my night photography skills, unable to resist clicking images of the captivatingly lit streets and City Palace. The course helped me develop my visual judgement, and understand and appreciate the image making process that goes hand in hand with Graphic Design.

travelling toudaipur

calligraphyworkshop _________________ Duration: 1 Week Course Faculty: Amit Kharsani 55

This little Calligraphy course that we had for a week, was a precursor to the Typography course that was to follow. We understood the basics of letterform and explored several different tools and mediums. We started the course by making our own reed and bamboo pens, by shaping the tip of reed and bamboo sticks. Through the week, we filled hundreds of pages with fluid strokes of ink and colour; we learned the classical alphabet in calligraphy, followed by the Gothic style, and even the Roman style of writing serif script.

learning calligraphy styles

Since I can read and write Arabic, I tried my hand at some Arabic Calligraphy, and for this I simply used a wood piece with the tip sharpened at an angle. We explored a vast array of tools during this course including crowquill; bowpen; broad-nibbed dip pens; special ones for devanagri; flat brushes; ink stones and ink sticks used for East Asian Calligraphy, bleaching techniques etc. I learned that Calligraphy differed from Typography because Calligraphy is more of an art form, while the primary essence of typography is legibility. Calligraphy calls for the wrist to remain fixed as the arm moves, while Typography is carried out with the movement of the wrist. Characters are more fluid and spontaneous, and improvised at the moment of writing; and once completed cannot by refined again on the paper.

exploring tools&media

typography-letterform _________________ Duration: 3 Weeks Course Faculty: Jon Pinhorn & Satya Rajpurohit 61

letterform &contrast

Typography is a key element of Graphic Design, it’s fundamental characteristic being legibility; good typography is one of the pillars of visual communication, along with form and colour. The choice of typeface is essential for appropriate contextual communication. While our typography course was very different from what I imagined it to be, we ended up dealing more with aspects such as letterform, spacing, contrast, running text for paragraghs, understanding of type from a macro to micro perspective, and the hands-on process of digital development of typefaces. Our faculty got us into the skill of making rough developmental sketches on paper first. We wrote words like ‘adhesion’ and ‘minimum’, while trying to create and maintain a uniform style with each character. We also paid attention to the uniformity of spacing and thickness, while understanding how the negative space generates the letterform. We then moved onto non-latin typefaces. I chose to work with Malayalam, as we were given a phrase in the Indian language of our choice, to create our own styling of. I chose to draw the type with thick horizontal and thin vertical stems. We then filled in the characters with black, got the sketches photocopied and reduced in size. What was suddenly visible were the flaws in spacing, differences in contrast, and just how legible the type would be for running text. Automatically I realised that I needed to reduce the contrast, and make the counters more visible or rather blacken them out.

readability We again understood the macro to micro relation when we had to make a signboard, comprising of a short phrase in latin and a non-latin script, while using a common style in both the scripts and maintaining the stye. However keeping in mind that the sign was to be viewed from a distance, once again it was understood how viewing the type on a visually micro level changed its effect.

nonlatin typeface The major and final assignment for the rest of the course was to essentially create and develop a non-latin typeface in an Indian language of our choice. However, the font had to replicate the style of a Latin typeface that was developed in the past five years. I wanted to stick to my mother-tongue Malayalam, which I cannot read or write; because I thought I could learn to recognise characters while doing this assignment. The latin typeface I chose to use is called Serge, developed by Cyrus Highsmith, a senior designer at Font Bureau; and Graphic Design Faculty at Rhode Island School of Design. He is also extremely famous for some of his other typefaces. I decided to pick this particular typeface because I thought replicating its angular nature and varying thicknesses would be a challenge to do, especially in Malayalam, which consists of primarily rounded characters.

In some of my initial development sketches, in which I tried to replicate the style of the Latin typeface, in the Malayalam text. I observed charateristics of the Latin typeface which I tried to replicate, such as: triangular counters; varying thickness in horizontal and vertical lines; least weight of the characters at the curves etc. It definately was a challenge to create the curves in the Malayalam typeface, when the Latin typeface lacked pronounced rounded forms. In an attempt to simultaneously learn two new softwares, the digitization process was done almost overnight. and completed after much refinement. It was again a challenge to create this wide array of consonants, vowels, matras and conjuncts, which were all so similar in form, and yet so different. I learnt to appreciate the letterform through this 64

കേട്ടപ്പോള്‍ ആദ്യം ഒരു കൗതുകം തോന്നി പിന്നീടൊരാവേശമായി മാറി നടത്തുവാനുള്ള ആവേശം അതെ പാരാഗ്ലൈഡിങ് നടത്തുന്ന സുഹൃത്തുക്കളാണ് എന്ന അര്‍ഥത്തില്‍ ഈ ന എന്ന പേര് നല്‍കിയിരിക്കുന്നത് ഒന്നര ലക്ഷം രൂപയ്ക്ക് മുകളിലാണ് ഒരു പാരാഗ്ലൈഡിന്റെ വില ഈയൊരു ഗ്ലൈഡറില്‍ പറന്നുയരാന്‍ പക്ഷെ കാശുണ്ടായാല്‍ മാത്രം പോര കാറ്റും കൂടെ കനിയണം ഓരോസ്ഥലവും നമ്മില്‍ കൗതുകമുണര്‍ത്തുക ഓരോ കാരണങ്ങളാലാണ് കളിപ്പാട്ടനഗരമെന്ന സ്വാഗതബോര്‍ഡാണ്

ഒരു പൂ ചോദിച്ചു ചെന്നാല്‍ പൂക്കാലം തന്നെ കിട്ടുമെന്നോണമാണ് ഇവിടെ പാതക്കിരുവശവും തൊട്ടുതൊട്ടു നില്‍ക്കുന്ന കടകളില്‍ എവിടെ തിരഞ്ഞാലും പലതരത്തില്‍ പലനിറത്തില്‍ പലവലിപ്പത്തിലുള്ള കളിപ്പാട്ടങ്ങള്‍ മാത്രം എത്ര തടഞ്ഞാലും പക്വതയുടെ പുറന്തോടു പൊട്ടിച്ച് നമ്മുടെയുള്ളിലെ കുട്ടി പുറത്തേക്കു കുതിക്കും നിരത്തി വെച്ചിരിക്കുന്ന പമ്പരവും ആനയും ആള്‍രൂപങ്ങളും വണ്ടിയും പൂക്കുടയുമെല്ലാം നിര്‍മ്മാണത്തികവു കൊണ്ട് അത്ര വിസ്മയിപ്പിക്കും

On the left are two bodies of the nonlatin text, in 14pt and 18pt respectively; with the Latin typeface on the right.

malayalam serge 65