Archive for September, 2010
September 26, 2010 at 4:25 pm · Filed under Design Industry, Personal, Photography, Redhu
Going to Landmark, Gurgaon, is like entering a wonderland. Always enough books, magazines and stationery to catch my fancy and be useful at the same time. Some of the posters on their racks are good too.
This particular visit was planned and has been pending for over three months. Since after moving to Noida, our only hope has been Om Book Shop in The Great India Place Mall and that just does not cut the mustard. It is a stop-gap measure at best.
Add to Landmark’s already shining achievement that they were the first Indian bookstore to stock Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of The Fallen, and I’m a lifelong fan and loyal customer. This time around, I was also pleasantly surprised to find racks of Rubberband products in the store and had to pick up some.
You can find Rubberband on the web, @rubberband_kit on Twitter and on Facebook.
Purchased a couple of copies of the October Issue of the @wallpapermag – unfortunately, one issue wasn’t cut properly and I had to manually separate a bunch of pages from the spine. I did not expect that an international magazine of Wallpaper’s caliber would allow such issues to pass, hence did not check the magazine before purchasing. And here I was thinking I’ll have one edition I could add to the collection. The store had only two copies and the other one is for a friend.
A copy of the @creativereview Magazine. An impulse purchase.
I’ve picked up Rubberband products earlier but the binding was quite bad – it was just glue stuck to the spine and the pages clove off as soon as I turned a new leaf. I made sure I checked the binding this time and didn’t just fall for the colors and found that this time, the binding was thread and ran through a full sheaf. No more loose sheets of paper and this is a good substitute to the not-available-in-India and expensive Moleskine [ disclaimer : I love the Moleskine notebooks and have a stash of those as well ].
Also bought a copy of Tom Peters’ 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence. I have a bunch of other Tom Peter books and I love them for the energy they generate. Another book purchased was the Harvard Business Review book on Brand Management.
I’m quite looking forward to the first issue of India’s design magazine : @CreativeGaga I believe India doesn’t have a magazine dedicated to graphic design and creative Gaga’s launch will be something I’m quite excited about.
Popularity: 3% [?]
September 21, 2010 at 1:32 pm · Filed under Article, Artwork, Case Study, Design Industry, India, Logo & Corporate Identity, Redhu
THE TWEETS :
one : TV box with the band name in it = events? Hmmm. Maybe / maybe not. But it’s just sketch one, so I’ll hold judgement.
two : Oooh – how about a radio tower – with the brand name radiating radio waves? #logo #events
three : Ah! Or a ticket-stub in the TV frame and then the brand name written in it! #logo #design #events
four : Space-station! #logo #design #events
THE SKETCHING :
More sketching :
Third sketch for the day :
Conceptually and simplicity-wise, I quite like the last one – this would probably be one of my recommendations – also manages to capture the idea of *connections *growth *flourishing, literal *ticket without being complex. This in the *potential category.
And after another attempt at trying something in Illustrator, being perfectly disgusted with myself & subsequently deleting the file [ yes, it was *that bad ], I had another brain-wave!
Fourth :
It is not a perfect sketch but I like the concept! I can seriously consider wrapping-up for the day. Tomorrow, maybe some more.
So that’s two pages in my Moleskine and about nine sketches. Here’s the full page two :
Feedback Round One
Received feedback from the client. I should have given more details on the brief / thought behind each sketch. The emphasis needs to be on social networking / ticketing / online marketing and one of the sketches, with some modifications, hold potential – in my opinion. Worked in Illustrator to create the following and emailed to the client. Literally, it’s supposed to be people holding / presenting a ticket stub – the center of this activity is the brand that helps ticketing – since the people are all holding the ticket, they are also socially networked.
The client also mentioned that they liked the “third sketch of the day” above, in terms of a visual style, but they were not sure what I was getting at conceptually – have emailed a short description for the same as well. “…the idea was again a ticket stub, from which the letters “e” and “s” are emerging / growing – was to represent that EventStation connects the ticketing world – metaphorically.”
I appreciate it when clients give candid feedback and know how to give feedback – helps the logo design process immensely and ensures a higher probability of a good logo deliverable. Awaiting further feedback.
At the close of the project, due to miscommunication and a misunderstood process-flow, the client and I mutually agreed to leave off where it was. They don’t use the logo I had designed.
Popularity: 3% [?]
September 19, 2010 at 3:56 pm · Filed under Article, Aspire & Inspire, Competition, Design Industry, Logo & Corporate Identity, Personal, Photography, Redhu, Theory
Let me tell you something you already know.
The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!
- Rocky Balboa
The idea is to keep moving forward – each branding / logo design engagement is better than the previous one – so good that a client who got a logo designed from me earlier, now wants me to re-design it for him and pay me for it. THAT good.
I don’t usually bitch about or point fingers to claim that I couldn’t do something because of someone else but I do have some familial influences and I rue the fact that I never really had a mentor / someone who was in the same profession & saw my potential & encouraged me. I need to get over these two thought streams.
The 10,000-hours rule says that if you look at any kind of cognitively complex field, from playing chess to being a neurosurgeon, we see this incredibly consistent pattern that you cannot be good at that unless you practice for 10,000 hours, which is roughly ten years, if you think about four hours a day.
- Malcolm Gladwell
I am also a believer in Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours. Especially because branding design and photography are fairly complex cognitive fields.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
- Coach Carter Quotes
Popularity: 4% [?]
September 7, 2010 at 12:33 am · Filed under Article, ASIA, Aspire & Inspire, Design Industry, India, Personal, Photography, Print, Redhu
I’ve been featured on the Profile column in the September issue of Grazia magazine. Photographs of the article on the pages of the magazine below. The article heading is “The new breed of power networkers” and features two other ladies : Rashmi Vaswani of Rage Chocolatier @rashmivaswani03 on Twitter and Padmini Harchandrani, @paddychop on Twitter.
Many thanks to Mamta Mody for writing a lovely feature – she captured my entire ramble-on-the-phone and boiled it down to it’s essence. And she was very patient with my incessant questions – “What photograph are you going to use? Can I see the article before it’s printed? When’s it getting out?” etc.
And you can read the actual content in the image below :
Apart from the fact that I’m thrilled about this feature – the awesome folks at Grazia also used a photograph that I shot myself – a self-portrait – so in the credits for the photographers, I’m mentioned too! Thanks to @akanksharedhu for letting me use her mirror for the photograph!
Popularity: 3% [?]
