POOL issue #01

Thank you POOL was possible because of a few people who supported this idea right from the beginning.

I would like to dedicate this whole initiative to two men: Architect Christopher Benninger and Ramprasad Naidu

They offered me space at India House and unflinching support in every possible way to see that INDI stood on its feet.

The name POOL was also inspired by the swimming pool at India House.

Everybody at POOL agrees that such a mammoth undertaking couldn’t have been possible without the peace and tranquility that India House provides.

I am grateful to Sonalee Tomar who joined me as a business development manager, but quickly settled into the steering role for the magazine. I am amazed at her almost supernatural sense of looking ahead and discovering trends, websites and people before they happen.

Preethi joined the team as the design coordinator from research.

Gina took up the role of the editor very enthusiastically, though she is now based in Bangkok. Her joining in was a big confidence boost for us.

Gina Krishnan

Tarang Jain

Sonalee Tomar

Naushad Forbes

Preethi Bayya

Ashish Chhajed

I am very thankful to all the POOL advisors, who will be playing multiple roles – as POOL’s ambassadors and as the magazine’s conscience.

An effort like this gets even more exciting when people from Industry decide to support it.

Tarang Jain, MD of Varroc Group, Naushad Forbes of Forbes Marshal, and Ashish Chhajed of Elkay have supported the effort without any doubt or question in their minds.

Sagar Java of CH Java and Company, Mumbai, agreed to sponsor paper for all 12 issues. Sagar and I chatted over facebook and his support came in less than half an hour.

Ashwini Deshpande at Vinayak Arts has taken up the printing mandate for POOL. I feel POOL is blessed with such support, and I hope we as a team stand up to the expectations that we have promoted.

Sagar Java

Sudhir Sharma

Editor in Chief Sudhir Sharma Executive Editor Gina Krishnan Copy Editor Ashvina Vakil Editorial Coordinator Sonalee Tomar sonalee@poolmagazine.in Research & Design Coordinator Preethi Bayya Layout & Production Pradeep Arora Subscription & Logistics Seema Sharma subscriptions@poolmagazine.in Finance K Kuldeep Harit Art Department Sachin Shende, Shraddha Trivedi Design Department Prashant Agashe, Pradeep Goswami Illustrator Santosh Waragade Project Management Aakanksha Malpani, Anupam Khare Assistants Anil Burte, Yamanappa Dodamani Publisher INDI Design Pvt Ltd Address India C/o India House, 53, Sopan Baug, Balewadi, Pune - 411045, India Vietnam C/o Haki Advertising Ltd, 142 Le Duan Street, Hanoi, Vietnam www.haki.vn Icograda International Design Media Network Participant http://www.icograda.org/media/IDMN.htm

Designindia was founded in 2002. It was started as a platform for interaction for the design community in India and abroad. Over ten years it has grown into a forum spread over many social and professional networking domains, and linking almost 6000 professionals into an active, interactive and thought leading community. http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/designindia/

Everything starts with a question. And to me that was the beginning of POOL. This magazine has been born out of the many questions regarding design and the design community. A community, which refuses to be drawn into strict domains and a community which invents and reinvents the categories and sections. A community of thinkers, intellectuals, designers, creatives, engineers, artists, writers and doers.

When I chose to do design way back in 1982, the question being asked was: What is Design?

Much has changed in the last 25 years, “What” is no more a question; in fact now you wonder what isn’t design?? There is some semblance of understanding of this and the role that it plays in life but there is much more that we need to know and discuss and tell the world.

POOL as an idea has always been in my mind. I have discussed it at various conferences and forums and with many individuals. We have had discussions about this on Designindia. I have always wondered what this magazine would be and despite the fact that everybody is excited about a magazine devoted to design, innovation and creativity - there were questions. And more questions.

And that is very exciting for the whole team. Questions that inspire - that is what POOL will ask. The spirit of enquiry. The spirit which has led to countless innovations which have changed the world. The spirit of questioning everything. POOL is a dip in inspiration, a pit stop to interact and discuss. The essence of design is to ask questions and to treat every answer as a possibility. The essence of POOL is the same, to treat every input as a source of inspiration. It is a magazine about People, those who have shaped and are shaping the design community in India. Designindia networked us into a community that has more questions than answers; that is the essence of POOL. In my mind there are countless questions: Will you accept Pool? Is the format we are going with correct? Are we touching the articles you want to read and react to?

Whatever your reaction to POOL, I am sure we will be able to make you think, inspire, create, innovate, reflect and ask more questions.

Paper sponsered by Zanders, Medley White Pure.

Sudhir Sharma Editor in Chief

www.poolmagazine.in 1

Letter from the Editor

POOL magazine is the manifestation of an idea which Sudhir has been nurturing for a while now. He started Designindia, an online forum for the Indian design community that took to it with great enthusiasm. And this was much before social networking sites became the rage. Clearly Designindia was an idea before its time and it was accepted by the bright, vibrant design community with alacrity.

In my career as a journalist, I have had the privilege of meeting interesting people with great ideas, but not many of us have the courage, conviction and the will to make an idea real. Few will put their money where there mouth is. Sudhir has done it many times. I joined POOL because of Sudhir. I have also joined POOL because I have always felt that the design industry is a separate force. It has a distinct and different identity.

Therefore it needs a different voice. POOL will attempt to be the voice of the design industry in India.

In the first issue, we bring to you Abhijit Bansod. Abhijit, our cover person, embodies what we want to say. We are here and we are here to say. And we will impact the world of design. In this issue we pay our respects to C K Prahalad, the management guru who understood the significance of design. Amit Krishn Gulati’s Obituary to CKP is his own personal experience with him during his work on Ginger Hotels. Read an interview with our POOL Blogger, M P Ranjan, the brilliant designer, thinker and prolific writer.

We are young, we are proud to be Indian, and we will impact the international design scene. The first issue is dedicated to all of you, the young, the forceful and the confident young designers who will give India a new design identity, and hopefully, as many dream, its own design vocabulary.

Gina Krishnan Editor

POOL is your space for your ideas and suggestions so bring them on and enjoy the first issue.

We believe creative people have a huge potential to inspire one another. You too can contribute to pool in the following ways: Reviewed (Reviews): We welcome your first hand experiences of new technologies, products, design studios, new outlooks and new projects.

Headlines (News): Alliances & Events - upcoming or already held workshops, awards and most importantly, the awardees.

Mind maps: We would love to carry your mind map on the back cover along with a title and writeup, your logo and address. Please don’t forget to accredit your client.

Featured (Update your status): Tell us what you are working on or what you are looking to work on in 150 words! Designers, Design Companies, and Brands can make statements about happenings, moods, feelings, situations, etc. End your status with your name, company, brand, email or phone number.

Mail us: info@Poolmagazine.in

Pool is available on yearly subscription basis only. 12 issues cost Rs. 2400 INR or US D 55 + Postage. We are working out an online payment option.

On the cover Abhijit Bansod, the Red Dot award winner 2010, for designing a unique product for a unique situation, the Halo!

Meanwhile, please mail us on subscribe@poolmagazine.in

Designindia Design is basically managing complex stakeholders to agree on one directions.

2 Pool | 7.10 | #1

Hand Held Kindle

Christopher Charles Benninger The Amazon Kindle came to me as a fascinating gift a few days before my departure for Europe.

It allowed me to read the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times as they ‘came on the streets’, long before my

friends in New York City and Europe could read the headlines. I was excited when I discovered that I could browse through Wikipedia, Google and other windows to information. The machine is lightweight, durable, small enough to carry, and easy to navigate.

Special features that I use include searching through entire newspaper editions by entering key words like ‘Architecture’ and being given a list of all articles that use the word. I do use the article archiving, and cut and save features. In theory the Kindle’s wi-fi worldwide free connection works anywhere in most countries. That is true for Australia, Malaysia and Europe, but not so in Eastern India. The ‘Experimental’ features like Google Search do not

function in India. But these are frills and not the purpose of a Kindle! The Kindle is the future of reading! It is easier to carry than one book, let alone the entire library one might want to carry. It is easier to hold and read in a plane than a magazine or a newspaper. At present the Kindle is an aspirational product; however competitive products and mass production will bring it within the reach of a wider market. Its keyboard and web search capability already make it a smaller wannabe notebook.

The design is durable and easy to understand. Yet uninspired.

1. Aesthetics 3 2. Compatibility 3 3. Usability 5 4. Handling 4 5. Performance 4 6. Strength: Portability; access to reading material on a mass scale; early bird menus; archiving capabilities; easy to read 7. Needs an external lamp at night and Wi Fi Whispernet coverage is limited in India 8. User/Handling 5 9. Comparison: Too soon to say!

10. Buy It √

The Goldilocks Design Principle

Ram Prakash Through all the good products and not-so-good products in the last decade, technology has really come a long way. We find it tough to keep up with the constant change it brings about even though some of us personally drive this growth. Understanding that we are lost in this sea of useful and useless things, it becomes important to look for tools that make our lives easy and interesting. Quite recently I read an article on the Goldilocks Principle around the same time Apple launched

Reviewed

the iPad. It states, “Something must fall within certain margins, as opposed to reaching extremes.” [Wikipedia definition] I couldn’t help but wonder if the iPad was just another product born out of sheer business needs, as most gadgets that roll out today are alternatives to existing ones in the market. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the device a few weeks after its launch, and found it absolutely stunning. At first glance, it wasn’t something entirely new, as I had used an iPhone before. It was a little smaller and heavier than I had expected, but the user experience of the large multi-touch screen was a jaw dropper.

Funnily, the features and quality of the device did not take me by surprise; nor did the form. It was browsing the web that did. The Internet in one’s hand, at any orientation, and interaction through touch, is simply the easiest and by far the best web experience that I’ve seen till now. I think it’s “just right”, as the principle states. I haven’t seen this on a touch phone and I’m guessing that’s because of the small screen. In a country like India, the need for technology to be widely available to the masses is increasing by the day, and devices have to become affordable so that people can start utilizing them. Finding such an obvious aspect of a device and designing it to give an experience that’s “just right” is probably what Indian design firms need to concentrate on.

Send Reviews to: content@poolmagazine.in

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Headlines

Updates technology professionals. Both firms are internationally recognized for their work in print design, and that will continue to be a centerpiece of this alliance.

Exhibition: Throughout his career as an art director, photographer, textile, product and interior designer, Subrata Bhowmick has tried to highlight images that are quintessentially Indian and in the process put Indian design on the world stage.

His recently held solo show of calendars and posters in Brno, the Czech Republic, from April 9 to May 20 was a testimony to this fact as it was the first solo show by an Indian graphic designer on an international dais.

Pool Magazine congratulates Satya Rajpurohit.

Satya Rajpurohit Co-founder of The Indian Type Foundry (ITF) in Ahmedabad, for winning the first SOTA Catalyst Award.

The award was created to recognize a person 30 years of age or younger who has shown both achievement and future promise in the field of typography.

Satya’s work was selected by the committee as representing the outstanding quality required by the award. He will speak at Typecon in LA.

Garcia Media recently announced a strategic alliance with Apparatus Media Lab, the Bangalore-based team of communication design and

The Bajaj FinServ brand, designed

by Indi Design, was unveiled to the TV and print media on May 5 in Mumbai and received nationwide coverage.

Shrikant Nivasarkar invited to join Governing Council of NID Shrikant Nivasarkar, Alumni of NID, Past

president of IFI, Past President of IIID, member of India Design Council, also a member of Designindia and Advisor to POOL Magazine has been invited to join the Governing Council of NID.

India Design Council Signs MoU with Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization

The India Design Council recently entered into a Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) with the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (JIDPO) for collaboration, education and development of design skills in both countries.

The MoU was signed by Anand Mahindra, Chairman, India Design Council, Pradyumna Vyas, Member Secretary, India Design Council; and Asaka Takeshi, Executive Manager, JIDPO. It will help the India Design Council evolve a design evaluation and recommendation system for the India Design Mark, as well as facilitate mutual cooperation and training.

HAKI group of Vietnam organising the Second “Design Across Asia” in Hanoi.

Haki is a leading communication group in Vietnam and is increasingly spearheading brand conciousness in the country. Haki had earlier organised “Branding Across Asia” in 2004, where speakers from 10 Asian countries presented case studies to various Government and Industry decision makers. The event is seen as a turning point in the history of Brand awareness in Vietnam. Haki is now making this an annual event with “Branding Across Asia 2” being held in Hanoi on July 7, 2010. The event will also be held in Hochimin City in Vietnam in August.

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Rising Stars Two friends, Rajat Tuli and Rahul Anand, graduated from the MICA, Ahmedabad, and co-founded ‘Happily Unmarried’ a Goa-based design company with a quirky and fun range of products. He was awarded the British Council’s award for Young Creative Entrepreneur 2009 for designers. Besides much more, in an exclusive interview with POOL, Tuli shares the genesis of Happily Unmarried and his views on design.

POOL: How and when was Happily Unmarried conceived?

Tuli: Happily Unmarried started as a one stop shop for young people living on their own. Based on our own experiences we discovered that in this family oriented country of ours no one was targeting the young. We wanted to provide everything from basic services like property to fun gifts. Of course we had no money, no clue on how to go about it, and it was the time of the dot com bust.

POOL: How did you come up with ‘Happily Unmarried’?

Tuli: I was out for a run with Rahul.

We had an idea about what we wanted to do but we did not have a compelling enough name. Being from advertising we knew the importance of a good brand name. Happily Unmarried seemed like a fun name and clearly spells who we are targeting. The Happily Unmarried phase of life is the most fun; you have just started earning and have your own money to spend to live the way you want to. We wanted to capture that spirit of fun, and the minute we thought of the name we fell in love with it.

Who would not want to buy a product which says Happily Unmarried! Rahul loved it and we abandoned our run and went to a cyber cafe to register the domain name. The rest, as they say, is Chemistry.

POOL: How did you land your first major design project/product idea?

Tuli: The first few years were really tough because we had no reference for fun products in the Indian context; there was also no money - just enthusiasm.

National Geographic channel called us to do Diwali gifts for them - they had liked the mails we were circulating and the posters we had made.

POOL: How did you attract the initial employees to your enterprise?

Tuli: The designers liked the idea. It gave them an outlet to do less serious work. Till the time we came along 90%

of design work was being done for the export market and it involved doing products which would sell in Europe and the US. POOL: What kind of projects did Happily Unmarried start with?

Tuli: We did everything which did not involve too much money! We had even tied up with brokers to provide accommodation to single people looking for a place (each and every experience was a nightmare). We would buy Zippo lighters and interesting lamps and sell them to friends just to keep ourselves occupied.

Akshata Malhotra, Arun Baghel, Vrinda, Sagar Jain

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Rising Stars POOL: How is Happily Unmarried different?

Tuli: We are not ‘designer’ but well designed. While conventionally designer products target the top end of the market and are uppity we decided to be more fun and Indian. Every pack has a story. And we have a serious amount of fun. We are taking good design to the masses.

POOL: What, in your opinion, makes a good designer?

Tuli: A good designer can figure what people need. Good design always uncomplicates a product.

POOL: How have you grown as an entrepreneur?

Tuli: Hugely. If you had given us 10 crore when we started ten years ago it would have gone into fancy offices, advertising, the works. Now we would spend a pittance on any of these. We have had a hard and winding road to success so we know it’s not as easy as coming up with an idea. It needs commitment and tenacity, the ability to hang in till your idea succeeds.

POOL: What was your first collection?

Tuli: We never thought of it as a collection. We would sit and try to come up with ideas for things like lamps, ashtrays, openers - the stuff we thought we wanted to use or gift. Mukul Goyal did our first few products - these were an ashtray which looked like a dhobi’s press, lamps made out of old wine bottles, an opener shaped like a lady’s leg, and board pins in the shape of little men. We would pack all these and run to offices of our friends to sell them. Sometimes we would force ourselves inside offices on some other pretext and try to push our stuff.

We even got chucked out of a few places because we would end up setting up a stall in the middle and everyone would abandon their work and come to us. It was a lot of fun.

POOL: How significant is ‘Designing for Sustainability’ in your work?

Tuli: While we are not aggressively pursuing sustainability we try to work with as many local crafts people and artisans.

We are trying to modify their existing skill sets. None of our products are imported.

Although we have enough volumes now

to import we still prefer giving business to local manufacturing hubs in India.

POOL: What was your brief for Happily Unmarried’s products?

Tuli: It’s the same now as it was then - the product should be functional, it should be fun, preferably have an Indian connect, and the packaging should make you laugh.

POOL: Which projects are you working on currently?

Tuli: We are working on the first Happily Unmarried Bar & Kitchen. It’s going to be the coolest pub ever!

POOL: What is your business model like at the moment?

Tuli: We have three of our own stores, and we supply to over 70 stores across all major metros. We are looking at franchising. We see ourselves in the business of selling fun so we want to be involved in whatever is fun, which is why we feel the pub is a natural extension of what we do. And there is more to come.

POOL: Which segments within the design industry do you think are the fastest growing?

Tuli: Product Design is the fastest growing and the biggest opportunity because more and more Indian manufacturers have started realizing the power of original design.

POOL: Where do you see the design industry going in the next five years?

Tuli: I see huge growth in categories like Automobiles. Mobile Phone designers who can create desi mobiles for rural markets will write their own salary checks. Desi mobile does not mean just vernacular language features but a host of other locally relevant features.

POOL: Which industries are the most design-friendly and which industries are resistant to design solutions?

Tuli: I don’t think you can classify it like that; most industries that have been affected by the entry of the foreign players have had no choice but to invest in design. Also the Internet and stricter intellectual property laws will make it tougher to copy ideas so investing in design would be the rule rather than the exception.

POOL: Does the business of outsourced design management look promising to you?

Tuli: Not so much right now because we have not established India as a leader in design like Italy has; we need to show some good results for the world to notice us.

POOL: How can the design industry help make Indian SMEs world-class?

Tuli: SMEs can only beat the big players through innovation; they would not have the marketing muscle or the distribution strength of large players. Design is the foundation of innovation.

POOL: Is it time to have a ‘design budget’ akin to a ‘marketing budget’?

Tuli: You can still choose not to have a marketing budget, but a design budget will decide your survival.

POOL: How can we further strengthen the ‘industry status’ of design in India?

Tuli: By increasing scale so the government has no choice but to give it an industry status.

POOL: Which key differentiators will set the Indian design industry apart from others?

Tuli: Our word – Jugaad. We can make do with whatever constraints that we have and still produce magic. Which probably explains why our kids with such patchy educational infrastructure beat the pants out of other students when they go to study abroad.

POOL: How can Indian design solutions begin to be more popular within the global marketplace?

Tuli: By doing work which makes the world sit up and notice. There really is no other way.

POOL: In your opinion, can design in India be as successful as the IT outsourcing industry?

Tuli: We can’t compare apples and oranges. Bulk of the IT work that we do is clerical and back office. Let’s not try to get work because we are cheaper - let’s get it because we are the best. www.happilyunmarried.com

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Tejas ModaK

Private-eye Anonymous

As a student Tejas Modak always wondered why students had to study six periods of math and only two of art a week. He studied Applied Art at Pune’s Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya and after graduating, very quickly decided to work on his graphic novels. At the moment, he is working on the second draft of the sequel to his first book ‘Private-eye Anonymous’ while a collaborative graphic book of short stories awaits release. He is part of the concept team at Phoebus Creations - a Pune-based animation company. Besides graphic novel ideas, he also has a few film concepts on the burner to keep him happily occupied. This 27-year-old writer-artist lives in Pune, India POOL: What prompted you to create your first graphic novel? Is the central character someone you associate with?

MODAK: I was always a huge comic book freak and making one of my own was a very natural thing to do. I also enjoy pulp fiction very much and ‘Private-eye Anonymous’ was just the sort of concept that would let me merge both my interests into one book. The central character is – in one line – an amalgamation of my juvenile fantasies of being a hard-boiled privateeye and the adult realizations of what a bumbling detective I would’ve made. So yes I do associate with him a lot.

POOL: Before you put your work ‘out there’, did you have it critiqued

by someone, or did you just go with your heart?

MODAK: Just went with my heart.

But looking back there are a lot of things I would’ve liked to do differently so perhaps it might’ve made more sense sounding things off to someone. That’s something I consciously do now. It’s a kick doing stuff on your own steam but at times you can work yourself into a corner and it’s easier for a third person to point that out to you.

POOL: How important is it to learn basic human anatomy as compared to having a figure/caricature style of one’s own?

MODAK: It’s very, very important.

You have to have your basic anatomy

in place to be able to tweak it effectively later.

POOL: Do you think the skill of visualizing stories can be taught or does it only come naturally?

MODAK: Probably a bit of both. To start with I think visualizing stories is quite instinctive. But there is a grammar to it that you can learn from the way really good artists and illustrators have visualized their stories. It’s important to take a look around. Find out the good stuff there is and study what makes it good. Once you’ve learnt the grammar you can make your own poetry. You’re then in a better position to effectively give form to what comes naturally to you.

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Maestros

Tejas Modak’s work from the private eye anonymous

POOL: When did you make the transition from the sketchbook to the computer?

Modak: I started using a computer from the first year of college, 2001, but not to draw or paint. All my artwork is hand drawn and then scanned. Only the layout and color adjustments happen online.

POOL: How many revisions / reworks do you typically take to get to a place where you’re happy with the result?

MODAK: That depends. Sometimes the first rough sketch itself is the thing I wanted and I go on and make the final drawing on that. Sometimes it takes a frustratingly long time to arrive at something even passably nice.

POOL: How has your work changed from when you started?

MODAK: It’s evolved quite a bit and continues to do so. Over the years you tend to try out new stuff,

experiment, learn new things and try and incorporate all of it in your work.

I consciously attempt stuff I’ve never done before and work in as many styles as possible. I think I enjoy my work a lot more today than when I started out because initially I think there’s always a little anxiety about whether you’re on the right track. Once you’ve convinced yourself of that, things become freer and the fun starts!

POOL: What do you think is the biggest hurdle in your style of work?

MODAK: I work in several styles and the only hurdle I can imagine is trying to fit something into a style that is not suited to the subject.

POOL: Do you have ideas floating about that you can use if a client comes around?

MODAK: Usually I do have a lot of ideas floating about. Often they start popping up as soon as the client

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8 Pool | 7.10 | #1

has introduced the subject. If it’s a commissioned assignment, I prefer working on something that’s not completely and unalterably fleshed out, so that I get a chance to interpret the basic concept and contribute to its eventual outcome. I think concept and design feed off each other and should evolve simultaneously to an extent.

POOL: Are there other areas of art you want to branch into?

MODAK: I get inspired by different forms and styles of art all the time. And as I mentioned earlier, I keep trying out new stuff. I think that’s important for an artist’s growth, besides being loads of fun!

POOL: Who are your inspirations in real life?

MODAK: That’s going to be some list!

Firstly, my parents are people who believe a person should do only what he really wants to in life. I simply follow their example. Professionally

speaking, even mentioning Bill Watterson’s name in passing, would be a cliché. The other usual suspects like Goscinny-Uderzo, Jack Davis, Sergio Aragones, Joann Sfar, etc. are all on my list. I get inspired at the drop of a hat really… a good song, a nice lyric, a brilliant scene, a close game of cricket…

As a result, there are a dozen inspirers every week.

POOL: What do you do apart from this?

MODAK: I have trained as a Commercial Artist. That’s what I’ve never done incidentally. I write fiction and poetry; I paint; make gag cartoons; draw comics; freelance artwork when it comes… I also work for an animation company and conceptualize and write scripts for them. It’s easier balancing things when you love doing all of them.

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Cover Story

Made in India:

Halo

Abhijit Bansod, Studio ABD

It could be the beginning of Indian products making a mark on the international stage

The announcement of the Red Dot Awards 2010 was significant. For the first time a product from India, the studylite, Halo, a LED light from BPL designed by Abhijit Bansod, was a winner in the Lighting category. The international design competition, which has 4,000 participants from 57 countries, is amongst the most respected awards in its category.

‘Red Dot and all ijj well’. A much used adage in 2010 thanks to ‘3 Idiots’ but oh so significant to the design industry today. Aspirations now know no bounds and the design industry as a whole is excited. Bansod is amongst the young crop of designers who are changing the face of industrial design in India. They are the young guns who are teaming up with hungry companies looking for growth and expansion. They make up the creative force that is adding sparkle to old products, giving them an edge and a leg up in the competitive world of products and marketing. Bansod, 34, a National Institute of Design (NID) Alumni who worked with Titan for ten years as well as nurtured his design consultancy, Studio ABD, was understandably exultant after winning this award.

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Product : LED Lamp Client: BPL Technovision Size: 150x150x430 mm Finish: Glossy Colors: Red, White, Black, Orange, Blue Material: ABS, PVC, SS, Acrylic Packaging: Paper Power input: 230 V Battery Backup: NIRH batteries, rechargeable Recharging: 230V, Solar Panel compatible Lighting: 24 LEDs (white and warm)

www.poolmagazine.in 11

Cover Story What does Red Dot Award mean? > Obviously I am very excited and happy and I feel our work is getting international recognition. It is a very big and prestigious award. 4000+ entries from 57 countries and our product made the cut and is recognized as being one amongst the best. While it is gratifying to get the award and I accept it as recognition of my work, it also means that expectations are much higher and we will have to come out with better and better designs. It’s a sort of benchmark for us now.

What does it mean for the design industry in India? > It is a step forward - not only can we design world class products but we can also manufacture them in India. The product is ready to be exported all over the world now. People relate Red Dot Awards to high quality of design. We in India can do it and we have shown it through this product.

Can you tell us a little about the project and how it proceeded? > Two years ago BPL invited me to create a product. The brief was to create a study

lamp for students which would work in the event of power outage. I was given complete freedom to design the product.

We worked with students in the age group of 8-12 and 12-16. So the focus was the user. At the same time we also took advice from an ophthalmologist so that we could get the technical specifications scientifically correct.

It is a good example of co-creation (design+marketing firm+brand+ ophthalmologist+BPL new product development team) bringing various minds together to deliver the best and most relevant solution for the end user.

I was given autonomy to design the product. The price band was discussed, the user requirements were specified.

Nine months and over 200 samples later, you see the Halo.

The product is completely designed and manufactured in India. It is defining a new segment, a product which is world class and it also gives recognition for the designer. The (planned) first year sales were 60,000 and we hope to keep the sales momentum going. The product is priced at about $33. So the price point will also lead to further democratization of the

Initial ideation sketch of Halo

product. That is what we dream of, a design which is pleasing as well as utilitarian.

What kind of credit do you give the company? > I give complete credit to the company for the free hand they gave me. There was no interference and complete support from Mr. Ajit Nambiar and Mr. S Ghosh, In fact manufacturing had to follow design.

There was no compromise.

They also supported me when I wanted to send in the product for the awards. And now each piece is sold with a little story of the creation of Halo.

That shows commitment to design and to the product.

Who would you choose to be as a designer? A designer for the masses or a designer known for exclusivity? > Well we can’t deny the significance of either. Exclusivity shows possibilities.

It may not reach many people but it shows capability of the designer. We want to do both. As an organization, we are dependent on projects which are driven by the manufacturers. They have the capability for manufacturing in large numbers as well as a large marketing reach. As an individual designer, I bring in the creativity and the intellectual input which differentiates the design. I add value to the product through creative input. I can see a product designed by me reach the masses.

What are your plans going ahead? > Well there is no resting for us. We have just started our design studio – it has eight people with a person from the business side working with the creative team. There are a lot of projects that we are doing and we hope to build a strong and large body of work. We draw inspiration from India and are building a portfolio with products which showcase the design vocabulary of India. We certainly want to be able to showcase our products internationally and develop a strong identity which is Indian, like the Scandinavian design which is so distinct. But we will get there. It is our philosophy and we live by it. Like Yoga and Bollywood we believe Indian Design can create a unique identity which will be accepted internationally. www.studioabd.in

nidh85 Nidhi Gupta, A Lampshade Full of Life Made from Old Film | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World http://bit.ly/cry0K7 12 Pool | 7.10 | #1

Blogger POOL: When did you start blogging?

Ranjan: I set up my website in 2004 and placed my papers and pictures as well as course materials with an intention to share with a wider public all these materials. For design advocacy, this blog primarily focuses on issues and concerns in India but would be open to cooperate and engage with all other like minded groups in achieving the larger objectives of the blog.

POOL: What are the core benefits of blogging?

Ranjan: Transparency and wide reach with access to all those who may be interested. Blogging also is an easy structure.

POOL: What were your original intentions for your blog?

Ranjan: Intentions developed as I went along. Comments and responses helped shape the content. As I learned how to write simple code in HTML I added links and downloadable papers that were relevant to the subject of my post.

POOL: Approximately, how many visitors frequent your blog?

Ranjan: Starting at about 1,500 visits per month I now have about 4,000 visits per month. In all about 75,000 visitors have made blog posts and there have been 175,000 page views so far.

M P Ranjan, Professor, NID

Blog Beats

M P Ranjan is Senior Designer, Head, Centre for Bamboo Initiatives at NID (CFBI-NID) and Faculty, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad since 1976. He has been responsible for the creation and conduct of numerous courses dealing with Design Theory and Methodology, Product and Furniture Design and numerous domains of Digital Design. He was responsible for the creation of the Indian Institute of Crafts and Design at Jaipur. A prolific writer and thinker on design, Ranjan has been writing his blog ‘Design for India’ since 2007. In an exclusive interview with POOL’s Sonalee Tomar, M P Ranjan shares his thoughts and ideas on blogging.

POOL: What topics do you discuss on your blog?

Ranjan: Design for India is broad based. It is based on what topic may be of interest currently. It gives access to new and interesting information as well as insights and discussions.

POOL: Do you think that it is more effective to be a blogger than to be a published writer?

Ranjan: These are different spaces. Publishing is difficult and in India we have very few visionary publishers for design subjects. Design institutes too have a terrible record for supporting publishing efforts since the administrators seem to believe that the designed object speaks for itself.

Blogging gives one the autonomy to reach audiences directly with little

budget support from the authorities.

Blogging can enhance the published material and reach a wider audience.

POOL: How much time do you spend daily on your blog? How do you direct traffic to your blog?

Ranjan: I write regularly. Earlier I used to post six to eight posts a month but this is now down to one or two and though the research takes up much time and effort, it is enjoyable. I also post links on Facebook and twitter.

POOL: What kind of feedback do you receive?

Ranjan: My feedback has been more direct and at many times face-to-face, very satisfying. I have also got many invitations to speak at international conferences since I started blogging.

POOL: Is there a flipside to blogging?

Ranjan: Time, it takes up a lot of my spare time but it is an investment and a great channel for expression of ideas and thoughts.

POOL: Do you think that blogs can fuel controversies with opinionated content?

Ranjan: Yes, by the nature of the medium. It is the medium to express personal opinion. You need careful articulation and arguments.

POOL: What tips would you give a budding young blogger?

Ranjan: Research and write. Start and grow as you go along.

POOL: Where do you see your blog in three years?

Ranjan: Hmmm.... Interesting question. About a million visits? Make a dent in Government policy in favor of design and design use? Have a more responsive design media in India?

POOL: Do you think that blogging can become a serious career option in India?

Ranjan: Yes, it can. However I have not monetized my posts with advertisements or any other devices since I do not wish to do so, but others may look at that as a real possibility. www.design-for-india.blogspot.com

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Point of View

Lulu Raghavan

lAndor associates india

Brands and brand experiences have never been more important. With rising brand clutter, increasingly pervasive media vehicles and fast commoditization of brands, how does a business differentiate itself in the marketplace? How does it ensure a consistent brand experience across various touch points? And how does it ensure that it stays relevant over time? Landor Associates is an international consultancy with 21 offices worldwide. Lulu Raghavan leads the Mumbai office of Landor Associates and is responsible for overall client and employee satisfaction. Among Landor’s key clients in India are Café Coffee Day, GMR/ Delhi International Airport Limited, Hindustan Construction Company, Sterlite Technologies, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, Tata Group, and Vedanta Resources. In this interview with POOL, Landor Associates’ Lulu Raghavan shares some of her experiences in building and sustaining enduring brands. Lulu herself has worked in Landor Associates’ many global offices. She has led corporate and consumer branding programs for a wide range of clients. Lulu is also a member of Landor’s global naming network.

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Lulu Raghavan

POOL: Landor is relatively young in India. How has your journey been so far?

LR: The journey has been incredible thus far. I’ve been amazed at how receptive prospects and clients have been to Landor’s track record of over 65 years, our breakthrough strategic and creative solutions, our understanding of the Indian company mindset and our ability in Mumbai to leverage the strength of our network for the benefit of their businesses. I’m very proud of our long-term client relationships many of whom we have been working with for over seven years, initially from overseas.

It’s also been really interesting to watch the market evolve. Companies are now paying much more attention to brand and branding as they are recognizing the important role that brand plays in business strategy.

the brand across the entire customer experience which is difficult in many parts of the world but more so in India because touch points can vastly vary from one geography to the next.

POOL: You have worked globally across many Landor offices. What are the challenges one faces while building a brand in India?

LR: The biggest challenge in India is implementation. Strategy and design look great in a PowerPoint presentation but can easily fall apart in execution. This has to do with production capabilities as well as our own attitudes towards following guidelines that ultimately hurt a brand’s consistency. One of the other big challenges is to strategically manage

POOL: With many Indian businesses getting active in the global M&A game, how do Indian brands ensure that their values stay relevant to companies they acquire outside India?

LR: This requires our corporates to have a strong sense of self and commitment to their core values and ideology. It requires investing in resources to merge cultures and help employees of the acquired company imbibe the acquirer’s culture and value system.

POOL: According to you, what should be the ideal values of a ‘made in India, made for the world’ brand?

LR: You know, I took a pot-shot at this while speaking on a panel discussing Indian design at a recent NID-CII conference on design in Delhi. Simple, sustainable and value for money could be the ideal values. The Tata Nano is a great example of this. It has already gained global traction as an idea and has shown the potential of Indian innovation. One of my co-panelists at the conference had opined that soul is a value that could set Indian design apart and I agree wholeheartedly.

POOL: What does one do when a customer gets tired or saturated with a brand? How does it reinvent itself?

LR: Brand fatigue happens when a customer feels that times have changed but a company’s products and services have not changed to keep up with the times. With fresh competitors who up the ante it becomes critical for an older brand to reinvent itself. In aviation it happened when Kingfisher started operations. A new proposition and a new look made the revered Jet Airways look a bit tired. So Jet had to re-look at its core proposition and refresh its brand across all points of touch to defend its leadership. Landor was involved in this re-branding. Opportunities for reinvention are plenty. SBI is a good example of a tired and old brand that has done a remarkable job of reinventing itself through investments in technology to ultimately improve the customer experience.

POOL: What does brand rejuvenation imply?

LR: Values are permanent and should never change. Brand rejuvenation would imply a new brand promise that may or may not be signaled through a change in the identity. Tata has rejuvenated its brands over the past decade without changing its identity or values, simply through its actions. www.landor.com

Rebranding, Cafe Coffee Day, by Landor

rohit_banka Rohit Banka | Birmingham UK, Going to be a tight day today with work and farewell party of a friend alongside.

Thinking how I can utilise the day effectively...? www.poolmagazine.in 15

Our Planet

Elephant

Poopaper “The first time I confronted an elephant’s rear end, paper was the last thing on my mind – I was too busy avoiding drowning under a mound of poo to think of anything else!” — says Mahima Mehra in an interview with POOL’s Gina Krishnan

Vijendra, our paper producer, wanted to take me to a little shrine atop a hill near Jaipur. The weather was fine so we decided to walk. But when we reached the foot of the hill, we realized most pilgrims preferred to go up on elephant back. So there we were, two pygmies trudging up, sidestepping slow rambling pachyderm behinds and swinging tails. There was dry elephant dung underfoot, and suddenly it struck us how similar it looked to the raw fibers from which we made paper. We ended up collecting a bit of a crowd, a result of pointing excitedly towards piles of poo. Even the prospect of having to collect vast quantities of odiferous dung did not seem to faze the brave Vijendra. So we performed several experiments too disgusting for a polite audience, and eventually came up with usable sheets of paper made of elephant dung.

The paper was christened ‘Haathi Chaap’, meaning ‘Prints of the Elephant’. I personally have been a fan of the Indian style street advertising - I remember Khattan Bidi, 555 washing bar, and ‘Tiger Chaap Danth Manjan’ ‘Haathi Chaap’ seemed an apt name!

Haathi Chaap came in seven years ago when we were designing packaging for organic food. Thus started a journey of the most unusual kind. People have looked at us and our elephant dung paper with amusement, disgust, interest and mild irritation. But in the last seven years, only two people have reacted negatively to the paper.

The response has been gratifying. Most people haven’t really needed any convincing. I guess it is the humor aspect which makes people

George Smith Patton Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

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want to buy it. Currently we are working at a project of making paper out of camel dung and helping in setting up a paper-making unit with a Non Government Organization (NGO) we’re working with. We would like to replicate it with wildlife sanctuaries. Also set up mini paper-making plants at rescue centers and create paper out of as much waste as possible. One of the things we have started recently is a publishing company which does books in as eco-friendly a way as possible in India.

I love traveling and discovering ‘offthe-beaten-track’ activity wherever I’m traveling gives me great pleasure.

My passion is working with paper in general. If I did not do what I was doing right now, I would probably be a photographer, mostly wildlife.

I think it is important to educate young adults about the rich heritage we have in terms of craft and how there are still enough ways to make the hand crafted concept work, so there are enough people demanding that craft from India grows much more than it has in the past. To a designer I would say, take any Indian craft and use contemporary design to give it form. It will become a truly unique product.

For us, the Hathi Chaap journey has been so fascinating that I will never look at poo the same way again!

Try our paper and maybe you will have as much fun experiencing it as we had in making it. www.elephant poopaper.com

Products made from Elephant poopaper

iyengarrukmani rukmani iyengar, When will people who pass these intellectual statements on twitter ........ever start working on them... www.poolmagazine.in 17

Beyond Borders POOL: How did you get interested in design? When did you decide to start your brand and what were you doing before you started the creative business?

Duchini: I always worked in creation, from T-shirts to hand bags for my own label, Roxie. Then I inherited a pair of old Louis XV armchairs from my grandmother. I looked at them and thought, “I have to make them look contemporary while keeping the memory intact. Each has to have a distinct identity of its own.”

POOL: Can you tell us a little about your education and experience?

Duchini: I studied arts in Argentina, and design in New York.

However I think I consider myself self taught by life’s experiences and stimuli.

POOL: At what kind of places do you show your work (retail/custom purchases/exhibitions)?

Duchini: My products are available through big brands, concept stores and deco-boutiques in Brazil and USA. POOL: What is your main target market?

Duchini: Since my pieces are one of a kind, each done individually, the target market is people who appreciate exclusive objects. Largely my clientele is the eclectic young.

Roxanne Duchini

POOL: Are you into creating a new niche in crafts with new technologies and textiles?

Duchini: I hope to do so. Use of new technologies and textiles can open boundaries. I like mixing world art in my own products to give my products a distinct identity. It seems to be appreciated.

POOL: Are you in some ways reviving a lost art?

Duchini: Art recycles and revives itself all the time. The messages are new though.

POOL: Who are your employees? What kind of people do you employ? Do you like to work with students?

Duchini: I don’t have employees, the work is all done by independent workers, carpenters, upholsters and embroiderers.

Sao Paulo, Brazil based Roxanne Duchini is a designer of flamboyant and eclectic chairs. A self professed artist who ‘considers it her duty to give LIFE to chairs...to provide them with charm and beauty...magically make them talk.’

She is able to do just that, imprinting her chairs with her ideas. Each chair is an individual work of art. She uses rare pieces of fabrics from different countries, which she has collected through time. The fabrics are also hand painted and dyed with different techniques (arashi and shibori, Japanese) This mélange is set on chairs, sofas, stools, cushions and purses to make them rare and coveted pieces.

The beautiful designer in conversation with POOL: deskala Deskala | Bangalore, @Flipkart is a good place to find Design books. We have been finding a lot of titles which were earlier available only in US bookstores #win 18 Pool | 7.10 | #1

Unfortunately I had never worked with students although it must be delightful.

POOL: How do you see your work evolving in the next three years?

Duchini: My ‘evolution’ will be to work and create diversity in mixing materials, and come out with daring new innovative ideas.

POOL: What is your brand philosophy?

Duchini: Be creative. Don’t be afraid.

POOL: How has the brand grown over the years?

Duchini: People are tired of mass produced identical stuff.

They are becoming more sophisticated. More and more people have learnt about crafts and respect art in all manifestations.

POOL: Do you admire the work of any designers?

Duchini: There are two well known brothers who design here in Brazil. They are the Campana brothers. They broke all rules related to sofas and chairs.

POOL: What influences your work?

Duchini: Passion.

POOL: When did you come to India for the first time and why?

Duchini: I first visited India in 2008. The reason was love… and then I fell in love with India itself.

POOL: What are the challenges you face working between Brazil and India?

Duchini: Indian work is exquisite, detailed and has history in itself. Brazilian work is more ethnic, raw. Unfortunately speed and time for obvious reasons are the big inconvenience.

POOL: Tell us five good and five bad things about India from your experience.

Duchini: The good things are easy - happy vibrations all over, fearless colorful statements. Intelligence. Willing to learn and

From Roxanne’s recent collection

to do. Humility. The bad things are lack of instruction and consequently poverty. Brazil has the same issues as India, and I don’t have many more!

POOL: What have you learnt from the mix of both Indian and Brazilian cultures in your work?

Duchini: It is a perfect match; unfortunately we are so far away.

However I am sure we will do wonders together.

POOL: What are your favorite embroideries and prints and how were they created?

Duchini: I appreciate tribal work from Australia to India, from China to Colombia. Aborigine-ethnic works are full of concepts, ideas and expression. All around the world we see fantastic fabrics and embroidery. Hopefully we can respect and protect them as a human legacy and heritage.

POOL: How would you describe your work in three words?

Duchini: Creative. Daring. Different.

POOL: What is your favorite place in the world for inspiration?

Duchini: The whole world in one big piece. www.itsroxie.blogspot.com

ranjit086 Purushottam Pawar | Baramati, “In life,v vl never know wat v hv been missing until it arrives n v vl never know wat v hv got until its missing...” www.poolmagazine.in 19

Spaces

“The recovery of community” I believe the best way to solve some of our urban problems, such as poverty, slums or violent neighborhoods, is to revitalize ‘the community-focused’ society.

Good communities allow individuals and families to support each other and they encourage people of different backgrounds to reach a common understanding.

As you look at the cityscapes of India, the dramatic changes in lifestyle are obvious.

The traditional ‘wada’ used to offer a courtyard as a community interaction space. Raw houses which used to be the history of generations have been replaced with a massive number of windows on the blank face of inhuman-scale structures.

Several flats and condominiums share one building and their walls with their neighborhood, but how much closer are we to others? As we gain bigger family rooms or individual rooms, we lose opportunities of interaction with others.

We are closing ourselves into small cells and building mental barriers. Is this a good life? I am still questioning.

Born Japanese and educated in the U.S., I was always questioned about my country.

Japan was spoken about as a country of wealth, an advanced nation with a rich living style. It is a one sided picture of Japan. As one of Japanese origin, I understand what is missing now in Japan.

I believe it is community.

For one year after my graduation from Academy of Art University, San Francisco, I was working as a designer and assistant project manager in Pyatok Architects, Oakland, USA. Pyatok Architects was established in 1984 by Mike Pyatok, FAIA. Over the past 25 years, Mike has designed more than 35,000 units of affordable housing in California, Washington and Arizona as well as master planning communities in Hawaii, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Generally the term ‘lowincome housing’ or ‘affordable housing’ implies basic, suitable and affordable land, efficient architectural design, and low cost construction technology and material.

Because the cost of housing is low, a household should not pay more than 30%

Tsutomu Sato

of its household income towards it. Often, this is the reason for affordable housing to have few facilities and poor maintenance conditions.

Mike’s design approach is what makes it different from others. Pyatok Architects is committed to the idea that both client and community need to work together in the design and planning process. The participatory design process is used

by Mike to deeply involve residents, community members, and stakeholders in the revitalization of low-income communities. Using hands-on modeling exercises, Mike helps communities identify their core need and plans to meet those needs through quality design. Till I joined Mike I too believed that affordable housing meant a vanilla house with no facilities. After working with him I now believe that community development starts from affordable housing designed differently and can be a key for the better future of housing and city developments.

devyaniwatwe PUNE/Bombay, Why did i join twitter?????

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Talking about affordable housing, there are many varieties. There is affordable housing for families, the older population, students, for use as home and office, mixed-income housing, rehab and renovation, and special needs. I think the concept of mixed-use housing can be adjusted in any country and has a strong potential for future community development.

Since affordable housing is for the working class, it is necessary to provide job opportunities. The ground floor units facing main streets are often used for commercial spaces so that house owners work and live at the same place. This helps community members to shop in their community and money flows into their community. It is also important to provide a childcare center for the community, because both parents work in most cases.

This eventually helps the community management cost; because the residents are provided a good environment to live

Beyond Design in as well as work, they have a stable income and pay rent regularly. Some of the communities provide a facility for computer education and job training centers to help people improve their work abilities. In such a community, a strong community bond is formed as people live, work and share life together. Here, they live and grow as one family.

In community housing, common space is very important. Since affordable housing needs to be high density, there is need for shared space. Community facilities such as a play ground, childcare, and a community garden are used for social contact. The small courtyard which is shared by 3-6 units is used as a place for gardening, children’s play area and interaction space for parents. At the same time, the small courtyard helps to build a community sense and security.

For designing such affordable housing, the community workshop which involves residents, community members, and stakeholders is very important. The program of affordable housing is very complicated and not possible to understand without listening to those who will live there. Most often, working class groups belong to a strong cultural background and the housing or community needs to respect this. The housing should be suited to their lifestyle. Residents in affordable housing communities should stay over a long-term and help in maintaining the property. People who stay longer also take good care of their house and surroundings. These eventually help the life span of the building. These lowincome groups do not have many choices; the facility and services should meet their needs as much as possible and not only from the cost point of view.

The future of affordable housing will lead to regular money flow, a good homely educational environment, and sustainability living. I believe this is the time to look back to the good old way of living and move forward as a community for a better life.

—Tsutomu Sato

Humlog ‘Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!’ The sound of kids singing in a suburban slum sounded odd, and Dr. Gaurav Chabbra decided to investigate. It was three kids celebrating a birthday with mud pies! The two-minute film titled ‘Mudcake’ was shot at Junta colony (a slum on the Chandigarh border near Mohali). It won the first prize in the international video competition organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the theme of Health and Environment. ‘The Mudcake’ is shot in Hindi with English subtitles and was the only Hindi film in the competition.

The film has no technical strengths to boast of nor special effects, animation or star cast. But what it says cannot be ignored by anybody.

It’s a story of dreams, happiness, ignorance, negligence and a lot more.

Dr. Chabbra grew up in Yamunanagar, a small town in Haryana. He was interested in arts but painting would never have been considered a profession. As a child of doctors, it was expected of him to follow the same career and he went to Ahmedabad. He has no regrets.

He believes he was subconsciously programed to play with stethoscope, syringes, etc. and developed a liking for the profession. He started photography in Ahmedabad and over the years it grew into passion, with some of his works selected for various state level competitions.

Photography in the true sense paved the way for filmmaking. After finishing his MBBS he decided to combine his degree with his passion. Though there was nothing known as ‘health communications’, he took the plunge undeterred. Humlog was born as an independent health promotion initiative.

Today Humlog is a registered self sustainable health promotion NGO. It has made a number of films for school health programs and health related campaigns for various state governments.

Currently Dr. Chabbra is working on a film on freedom of an individual. He is also working on getting open public spaces freed for their intended use as platforms of expression. It could be for art or anti-art. “I like Dadaism but definitely I’m not influenced by nor follow any art movement,” he says. He admits however that he would have liked to explore art in more detail had he the time to do so. www.humlog.org

Gaurav Chabbra

Stills from the video, ‘Mudcake’

invo Why are part time senior jobs so hard to come by ingenuity. www.poolmagazine.in 21

anuj Sharma

Collection KNOT

by Anuj Sharma

Keerthanaravi Keerthana Ravi | India, RT @pseudgult: Laloo prasad, when are you gonna join Twitter and kick the bollywood out from here?

22 Pool . # 01 [2010]

Anuj studied post graduation in Apparel Design at the famous design school, National Institute of Design (NID), India. He was then awarded the prestigious Charles Wallace India Trust scholarship in 2002 to pursue a Masters in High Performance Sportswear Design from the University of Derby, UK. Anuj was also invited to attend fashion coterie in New York. He was selected from four finalists to receive the International Young Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year award (IFFEY)

by British Council, India. Anuj was also recently awarded the Most Innovative Collection of the Year award at Marie Claire Made in India Fashion Awards, 2009.

The young designer was recently invited by British Council, India to do a show at the Alchemy festival in London.

Mainly working in the areas of craft development and performance wear, Anuj’s other pursuits have included teaching fashion and understanding human behavior with the help of fashion. He has previously shown collections in Japan, and the UK and has been a regular at Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai.

Collection 110 by 180 cm

by Anuj Sharma

saibaldatta Saibal Datta | Noida, India, Not feeling sleepy... this Jamaican time changed my system. www.poolmagazine.in 23

Business of Design

Be careless. Be reckless.

Be a lion. Be a pirate.

Be a designdaku.

Meet the dakus. Sahil Karkhanis, Abhishek Majumdar and Prabhat Mahapatra, and associate Devanshu Bhatt are ‘partners in crime’. The young team joined hands in 2009 to start designdaku, a multi disciplinary creative company, based out of NCR. The company creates brands, products and experiences for clients in over 30 different verticals.

Currently the team is engaged in developing a range of designdaku branded products for the Indian retail market.

“I have always believed that the objects we choose to surround ourselves with tell pertinent stories about the civilization that we, as a race, have created for ourselves,” says Sahil Karkhanis thoughtfully. He believes that the power to create objects implies a certain power to influence the thoughts and perceptions of the human race and, more importantly, the power to shape the future of our civilization.

For example, coins are the symbols of civilization and what it stands for; they symbolize a culture, and tell a story of what is significant to the culture.

Karkhanis has packed in experience as a freelancer, consultant, corporate employee and part-time entrepreneur for the last eight years and has helped design, among other things, fuel stations for India’s largest public sector oil and gas company, and coins for the Government of India.

Currently while nurturing designdaku, he also teaches at the School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi. He studied at the Industrial Design Center, IIT Mumbai and has a previous degree in Engineering.

designdaku is the culmination of an idea that he had nurtured since he was in design school. The only real way for a designer to truly wield this power is to put his money where his mouth is, and one could say this is as good a reason as any to start a studio. designdaku started smack in the middle of the recession years and most of its early projects came the hard way - numerous cold calls to potential clients and incessant pestering by way of follow-ups. Being based out of NCR helped since it serves as a hub for a very strong manufacturing and export industry in the north.

As with all start ups, the team started with baby steps, reaching out to potential clients in the immediate neighborhood; often in the same block or sector. For a lot of small manufacturing enterprises (SMEs), accessibility is a priority when working with design companies. Being close helped and over months the dakus gradually widened the circle. They now have clients in several parts of the country. Financial viability in the first

year and half was a more important issue to tide through than scalability and expansion. Cash flow was a huge problem.

Industry was in bad shape, payments were delayed and projects abandoned mid-way.

But as they say tough people last in tough times, and designdaku had the courage not only to begin in tough times but used that time to become faster, furious and more efficient. One of the things that the design team does is spend a lot of its nonworking hours building a media database of insights culled from things they see around them in their daily lives. This cuts down on research time on several projects. At the same time it also equips them to speak to potential clients for the first time. “We’re able to turn around projects faster, as a result and have ensured that payment milestones in each project are now closer together,” says Karkhanis. Just one of the small things that they have done to ensure a healthy cash flow at all times. Break-even, though, is still several months away at best.

projectvirginia ProjectVirginia | Virginia, Don’t Put the Cart Before the Elephant http://ow.ly/1Ui43 #gop #tcot #sgp #teaparty 24 Pool | 7.10 | #1

designdaku’s Team

Most of the early work was straight out consultancy - styling projects for white goods and consumer electronics manufacturers. Clients who came back to them found that it paid to be a little more ambitious than commissioning ‘touch up jobs’. A lot of older clients now see them as partners in the product development process and have come to trust their instincts and insights. Today new product ideas are as likely to come from designdaku as from their marketing team. A lot of the projects now involve developing new products and experiences grounds-up. It is definitely more satisfying to be involved in every aspect of creating a new product than merely the skinning of an object. From consultancy to partnership has been a slow but rewarding journey. It definite holds promise to get better.

At the same time, designdaku have also started investing a portion of their earnings on self-initiated projects that are independent of consultancy work. A lot of these projects stem from ideas that

they believe in but seem to go against the grain of popular wisdom today. The dakus believe in them enough to invest time and money into making them work.

The plan is to either approach potential partners to put them into production or float a new venture with investor funding to get these ideas to the market. By and large, the founding team would much rather make pots of money doing this than through consultancy work. In a way, this also solves the twin problems of commoditization and differentiation. Or, at least, it believes that in time it would be a solution. They have had very encouraging responses from most people and some have even offered to invest in their ideas but the dakus are holding off until they can prove to themselves that their ideas can be made to work.

The opportunity for designers willing to think beyond the corporate world and consultancy is immense today. Attracting employees to work with designdaku hasn’t been a problem so far. Branding is one reason. Every lateral thinking whiz

fresh out of college aspires to be a bit of an outlaw. The team has received the pick of portfolios from across the country, applying for internships and jobs. designdaku has turned into quite a vibrant environment to work in; music blares loudly in the workplace and bawdy repartee flies thick in the studio.

As a creative endeavor, their philosophy is, always, to keep things simple. They want to be involved in the creation of memorable things. The work has a lot of emphasis on craftsmanship and the team spends a lot of time getting the details just right. The group is also big on taking risks, willing to ride their careers and reputation on a hunch or gut feel. Design is a serious business but ‘to design’ is fun; it’s their raison d’ etre and they see no contradiction in that.

“If I didn’t seriously believe that I wouldn’t be doing what I am,” sums up Karkhanis. www.designdaku.com

designthevote Design The Vote | New York, NY, Here’s a fun drinking game: every time the president says “For too long”, drink a shot. www.poolmagazine.in 25

C K Prahalad

Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid

I never thought that a person of design would feel the loss of a person on the other side – management - but then I did not know C K Prahalad. There is not much I can add to what has already been written about him but for all of us at Incubis, the team which worked on Ginger Hotels, myself and my brother Rohit who had the privilege of interacting with him personally, the loss is heartfelt. – Amit Krishn Gulati

design for a new and innovative chain of hotels in the limited service segment. It was quite clear from the start that for a company focused on luxury, developing a new hotel around an affordable framework would require serious changes in mindset.

The first thing CKP did was to get all the project participants to focus on delivering a ‘smart’ product built around the needs and aspirations of the ‘emerging Indian’ traveler.

C K Prahalad For a creative person to mourn the loss of a person on the other side is rare – we are most likely to be at loggerheads with the management. But then I did not know C K Prahalad. There is not much I can add to what has already been written about him. For us at Incubis though, the team which worked on Ginger Hotels, myself and my brother Rohit who had the privilege of interacting with him personally, the loss is heartfelt.

Launched in June 2004, the Smart Basics™ concept created a revolution in the world of Indian hospitality. A GenNext category of hotels, Ginger signifies simplicity, convenience, informality, style, warmth, modernity and affordability and addresses the needs of the business traveler.

CKP was already well known for his passion for grassroots innovation when he was hand picked by the Indian Hotels Company (owners of the Taj Group) to mentor the strategic development and

Our fledgling architecture and design firm, Incubis had practically no experience of the hotel sector and by the time we were being considered as a potential partner on the design development of the concept, several well known international firms had already presented their initial ideas.

CKP surprised many in the Indian Hotels’ management by short-listing us so that our lack of previous experience would allow a fresh paradigm to emerge. It was typical CKP though and it required great entrepreneurial energy to carry these through by getting consistent management support. He immediately grasped the value our diverse work in architecture, product design and environments could add and viewed our potential weakness as a strength.

CKP was great at putting together cross functional people and getting them to synergize their competencies to ‘co-create’ successfully. We got the rare opportunity to see management thinking being put into immediate application up-close and were constantly struck by his unique blend of intelligence and approachability.

CKP urged the team to use design thinking to immerse ourselves into a potential guest’s mind and daily rhythms and offer

a compelling mix of ‘high touch’, ‘robust flexibility’ and ‘disruptive value’. He taught us that low-cost does not necessarily have to translate into low quality. A realignment of priorities in an innovative way is what delivers the goods.

Prototyping, User Testing and iterative design tools were used extensively during the early stages of the process and ‘getting into the sand-pit’ and reconfiguring the concepts (in this case done in the form of building several actual hotel room mock-ups) to evolve and refine was also something he was a part of. I clearly remember how conventional television sets were making the initial mock-up rooms look cramped and awkward. The elegant solution that emerged was to use wall-mounted LCD screens (quite expensive at the time) to save space as well as raise the ‘smart’ quotient. The Taj group followed soon to upgrade screens across its properties to LCDs. In our several interactions with him we were constantly struck by CKP’s energy and ability to give everyone’s opinion a perspective. There was no jargon – only a refreshingly clear sense of where to go next. Conversations with him were never one-way and aggressive debate was what he employed to get everyone to thinkthrough their ideas.

Working with CKP was an awesome learning experience that we will always cherish… a true ideas man who respected the power of innovation no matter how humble the source, and taught companies to address mass markets in a locally relevant, responsible, yet profitable way.

Manish Nema Manish Nema, Has never seen Sachin without his helmet while he is batting in international cricket.

Do u remember the last time he played with a cap?

26 Pool | 7.10 | #1

Featured

My Status in Pool POOL MAGAZINE Finally on road, and looking forward to bringing some more great designers into the limelight in the next issue. www.poolmagazine.in ABINASH MOHANTY NID Graduate in 2006 Jan. Graphic / Interface Designer. I am currently working with Idea Product Design, Ahmedabad.

However, being in a team we also handle other projects from BlackSalad (updating soon). abinash@blacksalad.com www.blacksalad.com APURV RAY I am a user experience design student at the Symbiosis Institute of Design, Pune, Intern @ True Sparrow Systems and having a lot of FUN!! Also trying to learn processing on my own. apurvrdx@gmail.com BHAVIKA 4 Years, 400 clients and growing fast!

Featured in Verve this month, the all girls design studio is now launching their very own photography competition. reachus@beyondesign.in (+91 98202 40802), www.beyondesign.in CHAITANYA KEJRIWAL Running a packaging design and innovation center focused on generating new ideas and IP that can translate to real commercial success for our clients.

Always on the look out for talented team members keen to join. chaitanya@parksonspackging.com www.parksonspackaging.com DEEPIKAH ARORA Design should speak the language of its users. I am trying to learn to speak the language through various media.

On a self-exploratory trip to the ‘What next?’ land! deepikah@gmail.com, www.deepikaharora.com

DIPEN DESAI Hidesign is looking for a product / leather goods designer (mid level-senior position) 3+ years exp min. Write to dipen@hidesign.com www.hidesign.com LUMIUM INNOVATIONS PVT. LTD. LUMIUM (earlier known as IDEA Product Design) is a product development consultancy offering end-to-end research, strategy, design, engineering, brand as experience services. Completed over 250 projects for Indian and International markets. Our multi-disciplinary teams focus on delivering product innovation to clients within the consumer products, telecommunications, medical, transportation and lifestyle product sectors. info@lumium.com www.lumium.com NEHA TAKSALE Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes—and even strategy. Today design thinking is important for all the managers. Design Management student at MIT Institute of Design. nehataksale@gmail.com RAHUL DESHPANDE Learning about design in the Real World.

Joined Wipro furniture business as a Lead Designer. A long way to ‘studiofy’ the corporate culture but people around are really open to change.

Loving my work & new company. thedesignd@gmail.com ROHIT KOUL Born in Kashmir. The majority of my art work is traditional pencil work, while my favorite category is drawing portraits. I also do sculpture and clay modeling. koulkings@rediffmail.com www. koulkings.deviantart.com/gallery/

SANTOSH KUMAR JHA A postgraduate in Crafts Product Design from Indian Institute of Crafts and Design, Jaipur in 2004. I am working as a Designer at the State Institute for Development of Arts and Crafts, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, in the sector of Crafts Product Design as well as for the livelihood and sustainability for artisans and craft communities at grassroots level. handicraftdesigner@gmail.com SMITA RAJGOPAL It’s as simple as that. An idea that leaves you smitten. Design you’ll simply love.

Words that speak to you and not at you. Smitten. A graphic design studio and consultancy. www.smitten.in TANU SINHA 4 Years @ NID. 5 Years of work-ex in branding & design industry. 27 years of passion for life & art. 8 year old visual communication designer, learning every moment, growing bit by bit and yet to find my calling tanu.sinha@gmail.com TRAMPOLINE DESIGN Trampoline Design is an Industrial Design, Product Innovation and Product Branding consultancy based in New Delhi. We’ve been busy working on our new space and website. Also on the lookout for new projects, clients and collaborations. bikram@designtrampoline.com www.designtrampoline.com VISHAL K BHARADWAJ Discovering new ways to take over the world from the safety of my bedroom.

Plenty of personal work, flexing muscles that client-work just doesn’t do. www.allVishal.com Send your status to: content@poolmagazine.in

abhijitbansod Bangalore, reading ‘the book of ram’ by devdutt pattanaik, very well detailed writing, intense yet simple! www.poolmagazine.in 27

Strategy

Million Dollar Makeover The recent makeover of the Pepsi logo kicked up a hot debate in its country of birth. What was more ridiculous was the strategy document which supported this

re-invention, the philosophical web of unnecessary complexity.

However, we shall resist making strategic or esthetic judgments. The arithmetic of this change would be much more than a million dollars - imagine the number of bottles, signage, trucks and other things that surround us that would don this new identity.

Brand makeovers, conceptually, are at the heart of all renewed business and brand strategies.

As companies evolve, they reconstruct, refresh and create new grounds of relevance.

While arch rival CocaCola stays strong with its over-110 year old identity, Pepsi has had a history of refreshing its look and has taken the makeover to a theatrical level, often as a marketing campaign.

Viren Razdan

The Pepsi case is a good example to understand the tenets of Branding – Visual Identity and Verbal Identity.

Visual identity is the logotype, color, typeface and symbols; it is the graphic representation of the brand – the part that consumers look at, feel and wear. Verbal Identity includes the character, persona and language of the brand; the way the brand tells its

story (tone of voice) and communicates to its audiences. The combination of the two forms the complete branding identity.

People relate to and love brands that have a unique compelling territory; the sharpness of this truth is Pepsi’s strength – to be the choice of the new generation.

So, there has to be a third dimension that truly-loved brands occupy, a special relationship, like Nike before the sweat shops and Ferrari during Schumi’s hey days. A brand that is not merely a visual or verbal entity but transcends to an imprint on the consumer’s heart.

The power of brand Pepsi has been ably demonstrated over the years and it has withstood a number of ‘makeovers’, some of which did not really take off well. In fact its play with Blue at the turn of the millennium and the ‘Change the script’ story petered off into oblivion but the strong consumer following pardoned the deviation.

In some manner Pepsi has been a badge for each generation, as has been the visual vocabulary of the brand, changing but timeless in its language. Though it must be said that the very speed with which Pepsi has transformed itself through its many avatars over the years has also insured against a sub optimal persona along the way – presenting a brand that’s stylish, young, and loaded with attitude.

Whether the new face retains the fizz or falls flat…well, time alone will tell.

—Viren Razdan

VidhyaAppu Vidhya | Mumbai/Pune If IPL was an insult,picture of a Pak ex-AF chief in out Govt Ad is payback?? India doesn’t seem to need an external enemy to undo herself!

28 Pool | 7.10 | #1

Poolers

Advisors Pool has successfully brought together some of the planet’s foremost thinkers and influencers, each of whom has played a transformational role in society and business. They will provide valuable advice and be part of an intellectual pool that acts as a sounding board and a conscience for this publication.

Abhijit Bansod Studio ABD, India

Adil Darukhanawala Editor, Economic Times, Zigwheels, India

Dr. Inyoung Albert Choi Professor, Hanyang University, Korea

Anaezi Modu Rebrand, USA

Prof. Anil Sinha Head, Visual Communications, NID, India

Anna Muoio Principal, Social Innovation, Continuum, US

Anuj Sharma Professor, NID, India

Aradhana Goel Designer / Strategist, Ideo, USA

Craig Branigan Chairperson, Landor, CEO, B to D Group, USA

Christopher Charles Benninger Architect, Studio CCBA, India

David Berman David Berman Communications, Canada

Deepika Jindal Managing Director, Artdinox, India

Essam Abu Awad MIDAS, Jordan

Hrridaysh Deshpande Innoastra, India

Jos Oberdof NPK Design, Netherlands

Julia Chiu Executive Director, JIDPO, Japan

Kieu Phem Haki Brand, Vietnam

Kigge Hevid CEO, Index Awards, Denmark

Kishor Singh Business Editor, India

Madhukar Kamath Managing Director and CEO, Mudra Group, India

M P Ranjan Professor, NID, India

Prasoon Pandey Corcoise Films, India

Rajesh Kejriwal Kyoorius Exchange, India

Rodney Fitch CEO, Fitch, UK

Shilpa Das Head Publications, NID, India

Dr Soumitra R Pathare Psychiatrist, Pune, India

Shrikant Nivasarkar Founder, Nivasarkar Consultants, India

Subrata Bhowmik Design, India

Sudhir Sharma Designindia, India

Suresh Venkat CNBC, India

Uday Dandawate Sonicrim, USA

Umesh Shukla Auryn, LA, USA

William Drentell Winterhouse, USA

William Herald Wong WHW Design, Malaysia

MULTIPLY

Photographer

Speaker

Entrepreneur

innoastra

INDIBRAND

Publisher

FINSERV

Strategist

Advisor

Agricultural Development Trust Baramati

Teacher

Traveller

Rohini Shitole

Pradeep Goswami

Prashant Agashe Shraddha Trivedi

Clients

Manasi Kothari

Sachin Shende

Kanika Mathur

Santosh Waragade

Pradeep Arora

India House

Where

Brand is it!

Team

Creative & Chief Executive

Design Team

Chief Financial OďŹƒcer

Sudhir Sharma

Associates

Vision

Strategy

What

Kuldeep Harit

Business Team

Service Team

Facilitators

Positioning

Communication

Help

Research

Product

Brand

Audit

Ideas

Plans

Experience

Aakanksha Malpani

Preethi Bayya

Services

Environments

Care

Sonalee Tomar

Markets

Seema Sharma

Anupam Prasang Khare

Anil Burte

Yammu Dodamani

India House, 53 Sopan Baug, Balewadi, Pune, India www.indidesign.in