“The Nobel Committee has won the Bob Dylan Prize,” announced the Always Contrarian Everyman, or ACE, a lapsed academic I’d been introduced to by mutual friends, to help with some research on communications planning. “Only,” he continued, “that It gave it to itself, of course.” He checked my features to ensure that the inversion had… Continue reading Nobel, Dylan and the twilight of authority
Category: deep design
The Street, the Studio and Us
We learnt a lot about design, and about ourselves, in the last month. Our studio recently curated an exhibition, which pitted ten products by a Swiss product design firm against ten objects from our culture, to ‘tell their stories’. The pairings aren’t direct. Finding a counterpart requires a matching cultural context, which often doesn’t exist, so we tried… Continue reading The Street, the Studio and Us
University Logos: What’s Changed And Why It Matters
In India, the notion of the brand is both nascent and spreading at a gallop. States, NGOs, government bodies, spiritual leaders, cricket teams, and other once-unlikely entities are starting to receive marketing attention, so the brand is never far behind. It’s the new orthodoxy. University brands, an oxymoron in India until the 1990s, are a… Continue reading University Logos: What’s Changed And Why It Matters
To Clutter, With Reason and Love
“Clutter,” said the Grandiosely Opinionated Deviant, (GOD) “is a master theme of Indian visuality.” He adjusted a pair of futuristic-looking hospital-issue dark glasses, an odd presence in the restaurant we were in. Recovering from eye surgery, he’d asked—summoned, really—my help with making notes and drafting a paper on aesthetics. Clutter, really? I asked, thinking aloud. “Clutter,… Continue reading To Clutter, With Reason and Love
The Three Ages of Olympic Logos
Everyone loves a new, public logo. It’s a polarising icon, and comments are free. So it is with Olympic logos. Deep Design seeks not to praise or bury them, but to discover the meaning interred into their bones. Olympic logos support a strong, coherent brand, adapting its unchanging core to a dynamic world. The logos… Continue reading The Three Ages of Olympic Logos
We, the Undersigned
“The trouble with you creative fellows,” said VSOP (Very Superior Old Person), “is that you think brand only means advertising, or synthesising emotions to sell your widgets.” I’d sought advice on Brand India for an article, and sat across chutney sandwiches and coffee in the understated lounge of the lushly landscaped International Information Centre. I protested that no,… Continue reading We, the Undersigned
Making Sense of Election Symbols
By themselves, symbols mean nothing. It takes prior knowledge to associate, purely by convention, a white-tipped cane with its blind owner. More connotative symbols acquire meaning by social processes. In an English storybook, a cock may announce the break of day, while its Indian cousin, the murga, may identify a certain type of tandoori joint.… Continue reading Making Sense of Election Symbols
Bad Design, my Goodness!
In the beginning was Ayurveda. Then came Baba Ramdev, and all Things were made by him. And begat he a shampoo-to-noodles empire, and all around him were vanquished. Patanjali Ayurveda (Rs 4000+ crore) is FMCG’s most salient brand, and the most analysed. A spectrum of theories tracks its rocket-like rise—a branded-house architecture, its distribution model,… Continue reading Bad Design, my Goodness!
Requiem for the Music Store
First, the news. On a sad day for music lovers, especially those of the classical kind, the iconic music store Rhythm House, at Kalaghoda in Mumbai, shut down its online ordering service citing “obvious reasons”, in a message on its website on Valentine’s day. The physical shop shut down two months ago. That’s the end of countless hours spent there by rasiks (aficionados) in listening booths (what are those, you ask?) browsing the aisles, buying even; or c…
You Don’t Absolutely Love Your Vernacular Newspaper
First, the news. At a recent WPP conference, sponsor Rajasthan Patrika (the group that owns the popular daily of the same name) challenged participants to make ‘Hindi cool’. Storyboard editor Anant Rangaswami judged their efforts, not favourably; but his insightful piece argues that we should invert cause and effect. If Hindi newspapers invested in design, he says, Hindi would look cooler;… Continue reading You Don’t Absolutely Love Your Vernacular Newspaper