Brands place a premium on attention, firing images and words shaped into messages to inform and persuade. Indeed, we live amidst a war for our attention, an exquisitely perishable wisp that lives in the now. But like breath, attention is a quick burning fuel that enables the flow of communication but does not add to… Continue reading Hidden In Plain View: Physique
The Currency of Design
“I refuse to add to the chorus,” said DOPE, as the Designer Of Practically Everything was known to his colleagues, “dissing the Rs 2000 note’s design. Instead, let’s treat it as an occasion to ask explore what design means.” I looked sadly at the new Rs 2000 note my newspaper had sent for the interview.… Continue reading The Currency of Design
Indian Embassy Hacks: A Joke On Us?
Recently several Indian Embassy websites were hacked by Kapustkiy & Kasimierz L 2 Pentesters from Netherland, using the most basic security hack of SQL Injection. And it doesn’t end there: Yes, they are making fun of India and the worst part is that they are right. The Pentesters Pentesters are White / Grey hat hackers that… Continue reading Indian Embassy Hacks: A Joke On Us?
Currency design of the new 2000 rupee note: covered by Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera news group in conversation with Itu on the design of the new 2000 currency note, introduced by the GoI at the onset of its demonetisation drive.
Brand Is UX, Or Something Like That
The 20th century was the Age of advertising,“ said the Undisputed Strategic Panjandrum, known with awe as USP, “right up to the Great Shift or the digitisation of everything.
ICD curates the BIG-GAME Q&A
BIG-GAME design studio, Switzerland presented a retrospective selection of 10 products designed over the past 10 years. Each of the products designed by BIG-GAME was paired with one item found in India, selected by us. The 10 finds posed Indian counterpoints to BIG-GAME’s products that related to them, explained and contextualized them in unexpected ways.… Continue reading ICD curates the BIG-GAME Q&A
Nobel, Dylan and the twilight of authority
“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
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
The Hamburger is an Important Part of My Web Diet. Don’t Kill it Just Yet.
Hamburger menu bashing is a popular theme on almost every blog, worth its salt, writing on UX/UI. Thankfully it’s a debate, not a conclusion (here’s one). And the hamburger saviours have enough of a voice, for me to not feel nervous as I write this. It Ain’t Necessarily So Josh Constine of Techcrunch has successfully argued that… Continue reading The Hamburger is an Important Part of My Web Diet. Don’t Kill it Just Yet.