For the uninitiated:
Frets:(courtesy Wiki)
A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern westerninstruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard. Frets divide the neck into fixed segments at intervals related to a musical framework. On instruments such as guitars, each fret represents one semitone in the standard western system where one octave is divided into twelve semitones.”To fret” is often used as a verb, meaning simply “to press down the string behind a fret.”
Joy:
Means happiness, gaiety, can also be someone’s name like a pet name for Joyce or Joydeep or Joy______.
Well so much for the literal sense of the seemingly innocous name of the movie. It was my first movie making project and I wanted to do full justice to it. Wanted to take this chance to share a story. I have been constantly engaged over the past six months in learning the guitar. It was a childhood dream which took off a bit late ( I am not even a teenager anymore) but once I got off to a start I realised that it had its own share of bliss as well as struggle. And I was so inspired by this struggle that I wished to portray it. And so was born “Frets of Joy”.
Frets of Joy is the story of Joy and his obsession with the guitar. Joy lives alone but his two guitars whom he lovingly calls Paul and Zakk are more than mere possessions. They are his companions. The sound of the moaning electric guitar always fills his head. He tries very hard to emulate his Rock idols but like all human beings he has his own limitations. A chance jamming session with one of his friend’s band ex-poses his shortcomings and his sheer mediocrity. Sometimes inspite of impassioned pursuits and great efforts we still fall short of our own expectations. Does it mean that we stop trying? We wonder why is he an ordinary guitarist inspite of his passion for the instrument. Why does he falter? And then we realise that sometimes it may take three years for a person with just three fingers in his left hand to change the “F-chord”.
This was also the first time yours truly “composed” music for a film. With the help of Rajroop (who is a more seasoned guitarist than me )and a beautiful Apple software called Soundtrack Pro I managed to get the soundscape in place. After endless sessions of editing when the finishing touches were left and nothing could go wrong the source footage was accidentally deleted from the hard disk of the “INR 4 lac IMac “. What remained was an average 2gb print I had exported the day before. Thats all the evidence I had of making a film. Check it out. Its far from perfect. In fact everytime I watch it I see a new flaw. But all the same it was my first film and will always be special.
Watch the movie here 
…And so the four of us opened our own Design firm called PurpleLeaf Design to take client projects.
Client 1: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Job: Do the entire branding and publicity design for their cultfest Chaos which they wanted to revamp.
What followed was no less than a saga of pure exhilaration and also repeated stumbles along the way. No issues. It was worth it. Getting out of our comfort zones, working in an unfamiliar environment and learning hands-on – if that was not enough then maybe it was also the kick that we got from the fact that we were “semi-professional designers” now and all ready to take on the “big bad world” by its horns.
Besides other things I was mostly responsible for delivering a promotional video that should ideally be a feeler of the actual event, generate a good amount of curiosity and lead viewers to the website which is actually the main portal for information.
The theme of the festival this year is “70 mm” i.e the world of cinema. That was actually an important aspect that needed a good interpretation and representation. There were quite a few competing concepts that surfaced from the brain-typhooning (storm is an understatement) sessions we had and what all of us felt to be feasible was to have a very iconic object as the central theme of the video which would stay in the viewer’s mind for a good time. That object was a “television”- one of those retro types belly-bulging colourful ones. The television would be the portal which led the viewer to the world where Chaos’10 would be revealed . Seemed feasible . But then started the real challenge where we had to visualise this concept and actually make it into a video using Adobe AfterEffects. So my work was this…Learn Aftereffects –> Make a Promo. And this was the time I had the most fun. Fun in getting royally screwed by the intricacies of software issues, feeling handicapped at thinking something wacky and not being able to do the same thing in the software, my laptop begging for mercy from the nightlong rendering sessions and panic attacks from the looming deadlines. The music was another bugging issue. No track gave the feel we wanted . After the end of a weeklong futile search for songs on the net ,one evening we found a track called “Sungrazers” – probably never heard by anyone , sitting in some nondescript music folder of my friend’s laptop and it worked decently well. And so after a fortnight of slogging and “shutdowns-caused-by overheating-of-laptop”, the video was ready to go.
My 5th semester in design was very rewarding in terms of the knowledge I gained or the diverse new experiences that I went through. We had two courses under Avinash Shende – Form Studies and Product Modelling & Simulation. The first aimed at making us more intimate with forms, develop a sensitivity towards them and learn to appreciate the emtions that forms convey.
I chose to work around the form of corals and used filled balloons with plaster of paris to generate organic forms which could then be finished by hand.
The finished forms before painting looked like this
Now to give it the really sleek and finished look, I used high gloss paint on it and this how the baby looked after the paint job.
So over with form studies. Well not really because I carried my experience of corals further into the other course dealing with product modelling and simulation. Here I chose to model and simulate a webcam. Initially I went for just a simple webcam and its detailed modelling because that is what the purpose of the course was.
Initial Attempt
But then Shende Sir pushed me to go for a completely different approach. He asked me to make the webcam not just a deadspace product but more pro-active, more like a character. Thats when I started explorations and taking inspiration from the coral form. The aim was to make the product a point of conversation- much like Starck’s juicy salif
I finalized my concept called “Budi”. I even attempted to make a physical prototype with silicone but due to limitations in availability of materials and moulding facilities the attempt did not succeed.
But anyways I gave an effort in coming up with CAD models and renderings which were realistic enough to provide the viewer a feel of how the finished product would look. This product was designed keeping in mind the dimensions of standard webcams, weight distribution and housing for internal components. The neck portion houses a flexiwire to make the neck flexible.
So that is the story of Budi. For a person who is shown the final few images he will never be able to guess that this product was born when its designer got too engrossed with corals . Infact even I did not have the slightest hint that I would end up doing this. But every time I look back I feel, it was one awesome experience.
Recently we had a workshop on branding and packaging design conducted by the eminent designer couple from Israel Prof.Iko Avital and Noni Avital. The project was focussed on the brand identity and packaging aspects for the premium Indian spices market. The students who attended the workshop was a mix of B.Des 3rd year and M.Des 1st and 2nd year students from both Product Design and Visual Communication interests. The initial few sessions were basically a hands on approach on learning creative techniques which were as varied as blowing bubbles,swaying to the rhythm of Chinese music and doodling with bamboo brushes using our left hand. It was quite an atmosphere in the studio. For my part , I enjoyed every bit of it.
So moving from the casual to the serious stuff, the first bit of learning was understanding how ICTF (Image, Colour, Type, Format ) influences graphic design. Based on that the first assignment was to design a series of posters with the text “India Spices” varying the aforementioned attributes. The result was this:
initial poster concepts
I think this was the time me and my team mates Aditya and Jagriti did things more hands on than on the computer screen.We infact did a lot of experimental things like making our own fonts using spices and brushes.
Spiced Strokes
From the initial concepts four concepts were shortlisted and refined. In the process we also tried to learn some of the nuances attached with typography. As Iko says” Type is like dance. It should be elegant and fluid. Its about learning to be sensitive to every millimetre.” We also unlearnt the notion of using stock images in posters to creating our own personalised photo-shoots to get the perfect image we had in our minds.
Selected four
So that was about the first part of the workshop. The second part was about coming up with a logo for a fictitious brand of spices for a client who would use it in everything from store to package branding. The clients infact were the group of students under Prof. Noni Avital who were simultaneously having a workshop on Point of Sale and Retail Design. The client catered to single young rich people who loved cooking but had less time . So the concept was to have spices compressed with a binding agent into standardised sticks. We had to come up with a name and identity for the brand.
After rigorous brainstorming and quite a few rejections the name that the client liked was HAUTE. This is actually a word in french meaning exclusive or hign class as in haute couture (high dressing) or haute cuisine(elaborate food). This seemed quite apt for the targeted premium market segment. Also closely following the name we came up with a very different concept for the logo. The idea was that ” Emotions are like the spices in our lives” . Sometimes subtle sometimes intense but it adds character to it like spices do with food. Also many emotions are followed with the exclamation sign (!) like wow! and aah! or aargh!. So we used the exclamation as the base for our logo.
doodles
Next was playing with the form of the exclamation sign. The client wanted a very fluid organic shape which denoted the subtlety of exotic spices.
Form Iterations
With the one selected we made a colour pallete for use in the six kind of spice packages which the client had
font & palette
colour coding of products
We also designed what would be the content of each face of the box. Along with the logo and graphics all relevant information had to be elegantly presesnted. In short we had to deliver a ready design which could just be printed, the spices put inside and sold off the shelf tomorrow.
package graphics
We also went a step further in visualising how the paskage would look in 3D and also when displayed on a shelf in a super market. This gave us an idea of how it would compare to its competitors. Although in the brief it was mentioned that this brand would be sold from exclusive stores dedicated to HAUTE, we were keen to see how it looked among its other cousins in colourful packets having images of food. We also got a prototype printed
turmeric stack
on the shelf with competitors
Although the deadlines were tight we did manage to complete in the nick of time thanks to our dedicated nightouts. The presentation was well received by the audience especially Iko and Noni who felt that this project was quite professionally done. They were very happy at the overall outcome of the workshop. Infact this workshop did start a bit lethargically thanks to a previous one we had just the week before. But as they say “All’s well that ends well!” Hoping for many such learning opportunities in DoD in the near future.
a part of the team
the ones who survived with Iko and Noni (Bandi clicked the pic)
Well, they say that a pencil is the designer’s best friend. I agree completely. A pencil, a shard of paper and a creative mind is all that is needed to translate thoughts into tangible forms. This act of doodling is akin to purging your mind of ideas and getting them to flow on paper. Its a fact that doodling is very different from sketching. Sketches are the final 2D visual representations of a design. While doodles only communicate the concept. So doodles need not be refined or beautiful. The above image illustrates some of my ‘doodly-sketches’( thumbnail sketches with some quick colouring). These are all concepts for an educational toy. I feel its important to cover different views and also highlight the context. All of these were shabby looking pencil sketches once but I felt they deserved better so I went in for some quick marker/pastel rendering and a bit of photoshop brushes.I personally like Carl Liu’s style very much. I feel that doodling should be like a storyboarding exercise . The product and its behaviour under different scenarios should be brought forward.
Also just a piece of trivia : Philip Starck’s juicy salif ( that all about emotional design notion that prompted Don Norman to actually write a book “Emotional Design”) started its life on a paper napkin while Starck was bored and started doodling while in a restaurant. Thats the power of doodles!
Form Studies is a really interesting part of studying design. Although pretty new to it, I have been kind of bitten by the form bug. Form not only brings excitement and expression to a product but also is sometimes critical to function. So a few days back while doodling I came up with a form that seemed pretty exciting to me. It excited me enough to go for a better visualization. So I modelled and rendered this particular form using Rhino. 
Well I was always good at maths till I came to college (although it still excites me a lot!) and I felt that mathematical funtions could give rise to stunningly complex and intricate forms. In fact one could devote an entire lifetime studying fractal forms and still fall short of time. So I decided to start simpler. The form that I generated seemed familiar to a Mobius Strip. I feel that the challenge now lies in finding innovative uses for this form in the form of useful objects.
Visually when we view this form from different angles we see a transition from symmetry to asymmetry, from harmony to chaos. Sometimes we may feel that all the six are different forms altogether.That seemed very interesting to me. Maybe this form could be a curious sculpture, maybe it could be used for a more functional object like a roller-coaster track or maybe a combination of such units could give rise to interesting objects. I am currently exploring possibilities . Even you are welcome to do so.[:)]
I love to call these cubelets. These are actually concepts for a toy which can be manufactured under a rupee and given free with FMCG’s like Chips, biscuits,toothpastes et al. So what is the story behind this particular design? Well its a childhood fascination with lego bricks and magnets. I wanted something that was simple, addictive,collectible and could be used in more than one ways. One inspiration was the tazos that used to come free with Lays chips a few years back. As these 1cmx1cm blocks are magnetic they stick with each other and also to most metallic surfaces.I tried to build up a few scenarios for this product. There could be many more . Maybe one just clicked in your mind just now! Do share it with me.
parke chair
Well the story goes like this. I was in Bangalore this summer. I had to travel about 20km every day to office. So one day while going past the many highrise buildings I saw the occupants standing on the balconies overlooking the road. And in their eyes I saw only reflections of concrete and asphalt. So thats when a flurry of images came to my mind which would ultimately become the mood board for this particular product. Each one of us deserves to experience the simple pleasure of walking or plain standing on grass wet with the early morning dew. Nothing can be more refreshing. So thats how the product evolved. It is also an exploration in retro-modernism. Old-school looks with a touch of modernity in terms of materials and construction. The lower tray has 2 inches of soil with Australian grass planted on it mainly because it gives the best tactile experience among all species of grass. The tray which appears to be integrated with the form is actually detachable. So that at times it becomes just a normal chair
Let me begin with a quote
A designer can mull over complicated designs for months. Then suddenly the simple elegant beautiful solution occurs to him.When it happens to you,it feels as if God is talking!And maybe He is.
Leo Frankowski
Well those are beautiful and profound words. So true. I have been in design for only one year now but I can feel the truth in those words because I have experienced similar emotions. To me design is about simplicity. Simple solutions are the most difficult to arrive at and also the most beautiful.Learned people say good design is all about flawless functionality. Very true. But I feel great design is about flawless functionality and a great cognitive dialogue between the product and user. And to design such a product you have to become one with the product. Feel the same pulse. That is the ultimate challenge. Thats what I want to learn.
I have already come across hundreds of definitions of the word ‘design’. None of them are wrong. For me the endeavour is to define design in my own terms. There’s still a lot to learn. A long road to traverse. But the journey has already started.
