We’d like to let you know that we’re all taking a little holiday from blogging here on Little Design Book. Until we’re back, the website will continue to be an online archive. We’ll keep checking in every now and then, so please feel free to continue interacting with us through the comments field.

If you’d like to read what we’re writing elsewhere, Aditya and Ruchita now also blog and manage Perch (www.perchontheweb.com)

Thank you for your support and enthusiasm over the last couple of years – we simply couldn’t have continued without you!

Until we meet again, all of us at Little Design Book wish you well.

Cheers!

Parle Safety Matches

Mother India Safety Matches

A few days ago, the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 was awarded jointly to three women- Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and journalist and human rights activist Tawakkul Karman -“for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”.

It angers me to know that it is still acceptable for us to discuss women’s rights as if they were different from human rights (to quote Hillary R Clinton). The general attitude towards women is always ambivalent. Women are simultaneously objectified and deified, both trapping us in an image that is not of our choice. Even if Sheila and Munni are all the rage, the ideal woman is always an ever-sacrificing mother.

The Bollywood film Mother India has always been considered ‘the ultimate tribute to Indian womanhood’. The film starred Nargis who played Radha, a single mother who struggles to raise her children, while fending off financial pressures and sexual advances from the antagonist of the film. In the end, she kills one of her sons to preserve the honour of her village. The image of a woman in a red sari- the colour of soil (or her blood?)- carrying a plough as though crucifying herself, has become a part of our canon of ideal women portrayals.

When I was gifted this matchbox a few years ago, I was amazed to find an iconic Bollywood poster on it- a crossing over of one art form onto another. Even more interesting is the image of Nargis and the plough on both striking surfaces of the matchbox- a new kind of doormat status for the still-sacrificing Mother India.

Mother India Safety Matches

Sri Lakshmi Matchworks, Sippiparai

-

A self-confessed junk collector, a greater part of Shreyas’s collection of printed ephemera consists of matchboxes. With Monday Matchbox, she talks about a matchbox (from her collection, or elsewhere) and its place in our visual culture.

The stage at KDY11 was begging for desi occupants

Why are Indian designers afraid of talking about design? Are they afraid that no one will listen to them? Do they think they’re not as ‘cool’ as their foreign counterparts? Are they ashamed of their work? Or are they just plain lazy?

At the recently concluded Kyoorius Designyatra 2011, only ONE presentation in 13 was by Indians. It followed then, that the same presentation was singular in representing the concerns, issues and challenges involved in being a practising creative professional in India. At the sub-continent’s only major design conference – billed as one of the top 3 of its kind in the world – the host country had very little to say for itself.

So what does this say about the state of design in India?

When I asked some of the visiting delegates this question, they gushed at the rise of India’s “emerging” creative industries. They were all at KDY11 because they felt it was the best place to get a sense of what Indian design is all about. They came to the Designyatra, met with local designers, ate the food, drank the wine and then went home to write about the amazing potential of Indian design. A word of caution Mr. Famous European Designer, potential is one thing and achievement is another; we Indians ain’t achieved nothing yet.

If we had achieved something, we wouldn’t hesitate to shout about it and share it with the other 1299 delegates at Designyatra. If we had something to show for ourselves, we would update those soggy Flash websites of ours (really! digital design is a LONG way off in India), blog about our latest project, start forums, discuss the critical issues that plague us, band together against lackadaisical government babus and invading MNC agencies alike, and make sure the whole world knows exactly what we do as Indian designers and how we do it. We would stand proud and present the things we believe in.

The question posed by this year’s Designyatra was “what’s next?”. I don’t know what other delegates came away with after KDY11, but I have a few ideas: what’s next is for India’s design community to stand up and be counted; what’s next is to stop complaining that India’s biggest multi-national gave its most prestigious project to a foreign studio, and learn how to get those projects ourselves; what’s next is to talk to each other, find partners and collaborators because if we don’t believe in each other, no one else will invest in the future of Indian design; what’s next is to stop looking across the fence at what our neighbours are doing and get on with our own work.

There is a lot of work to be done and a never-ending list of problems for designers to solve in the country called India, but all of it starts with getting to know one another’s work on a frank and open platform. Let’s be honest about design: how we do it, how we think about it, how we make good design into good business. We have to own it, to be known for it. When we learn how to do that, I’m sure we won’t be coming to Designyatra to listen to you, Esteemed Colleagues from 8 time zones away; you will be coming to listen to us.

The theme for this year's Design Yatra was ‘Next’

This year’s Design Yatra in Goa was a smaller, more intimate event than usual with an interesting mix of speakers from across the globe. Spread over two days, delegates were treated to some fantastic work; our sketchbooks are filled with notes and doodles that we will follow up on in the coming weeks. The theme for this year’s event was Next with some interesting conversations swirling around analog versus digital. This year’s two most anticipated speakers, Massimo Vignelli and David Carson couldn’t make it and I was looking forward to Vignelli’s take on modernism in the 21st century. There was more than enough, however to keep everyone’s head alight with some great work.

Irma Boom's presentation was the highlight on day one

Irma Boom was undoubtedly the star of the show as she had the audience in thrall with her books and the stories behind them. She urged designers to read what they were designing, considering the fact that most designers look at text as just another object to fit into the page. Each project of hers was a deeply personal journey and an incredible struggle to finish, something every designer has been through. Print is still a medium much loved in the Indian design community and it set the tone for some interesting debates later on.

Adrian Shaughnessy was another speaker to stike a chord with his ‘Watching the Designers’ presentation–the audience whistling and cheering his ten points on good designers. Particularly popular was point number 7, ‘Good designers are liars and cheats’. Its worth checking out Shaugnessy’s latest undertaking called Unit Editions which is every designer’s secret dream–to have their own publishing company. With today’s technology and access to easier online retail options I’m surprised there aren’t more people doing this, particularly in India with the emergence of stores like FlipKart.

Adrian Shaughnessy on ‘Watching the Designers’. LDB asked delegates to send in their doodles on stickers placed in the goodie bag. The one above is by Sheel Damani.

Type Radio's Typographic Chinese Whispers are worth checking out

Donald Beekman and Liza Enabeis of Type Radio had some great audience interaction and proved that you could put an intrinsically visual subject like typography on the radio. In fact they have almost 400 episodes of conversations with designers from around the world. A big hit with the audience was Typographic Chinese Whispers which had students converting a font into a piece of sound which was then passed onto another student to convert back into a font, with some surprising results.

Admittedly not all the speakers were at their best on stage. Troika who inspite of having some great work to show, were disappointing with a tedious presentation that could have done with a bit of editing. It is a fact that most presentations at Design Yatra tend to lapse into a portfolio parade of greatest hits which makes it a bit of a spectacle rather than a serious conversation. The only Indian representation on stage this year were the Khoslas–Sandeep Khosla and Tania Singh Khosla. Their topic of choice, India Modern, of how Global and Local can come together seemed a bit dated and lacked a contemporary view on India’s growing confidence in evolving its own design language. But Massimo Vignelli had an interesting point to make in his video, saying that with the ease of global communications these two distinctions (of global versus local) will cease to exist and ideas will be seamlessly absorbed into a new dialogue of this network.

Novi Rahman who was one of this year's Young Blood speakers, had a great presentation and could have been a part of the panel on the Future of Digital

The Dutch, who have become somewhat of a fixture at Design Yatra were out promoting their new initiatives for education in India. They are set to present a proposal for an Indo-Dutch collaboration on design education to the Indian Government at the end of the year. While the idea of collaborating with international institutions is welcome and a bit overdue, I believe the India Report prepared by Charles and Ray Eames and which led to the founding of NID, is still very relevant today–if only more design educators would take the time to understand what it says.

Mark Chalmers–“Religions are the best brands...”

The panel discussion on the Future of Digital has started a lively debate on digital in India.

I highly recommend sticking around for the workshops and panel discussions at Design Yatra as they never fail to bring up interesting conversations. This year workshops by Bill Darling of Saffron, Peter Higgins from Land and Irma Boom with Adrian Shaughnessy were nicely done and had some attendees bursting with inspiration. But the debate most of us are going to take away this year is the state of digital design in India. Following the panel discussion on the future of digital, there was a clear sense of unease among many in the audience. Digital is a medium waiting to be exploited in India but most designers in the country seem to be uncomfortable or even wary of working with it. LDB will look into this in future posts but its something to think about for next year’s Design Yatra: Michael Beirut and Thomas Heatherwick are slated to speak, but we should certainly expect a larger Indian representation on stage perhaps from less well known designers and studios. As always Rajesh Kejriwal and his team at Kyoorius pulled off another great event and Design Yatra is shaping up to be The conference for creativity in Asia.

–

Ruchita Madhok and Aditya Palsule from Little Design Book were invitees at Kyoorius Design Yatra 2011 in Goa. Photographs © 2011 Aditya Palsule. Illustrations © 2011 Ruchita Madhok.

Wally is the chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants and his ideas on the nation as a brand are an insightful look into how countries can build their image to attract trade, investment and tourism. In this exclusive piece for our First Person column, Wally shares some of his thoughts on the subject.

Wally Olins, Chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants speaking at Design Yatra in 2008

The Nation As Brand

by Wally Olins, Chairman, Saffron Brand Consultants

Most people know very little about nations other than their own. Where they know anything at all, their attitudes are formed from myth, rumour and anecdote. These almost always lean towards grotesque caricatures which are, mostly, relatively harmless.

Well known countries, of course, have the advantage; France – Flair, Italy – Style, Germany – Engineering, China – the New Superpower, U.S. – still tops in Technology, Main Street and Opportunity. But every nation has to get into the game if it wants to get more prosperous.

Nations, of course, have always attempted to project their political power, influence and prestige; largely for their own self-esteem and, even more in an increasingly globalized world, they continue to do so.

Nowadays, however, nations also need to compete on hard, quantifiable issues – exports, inward investment and tourism. Globalisation has changed the game. There are winners and losers. The winners get richer and stronger, the losers remain poor and weak. Each nation now seeks to promote its individual personality, culture, history and values, projecting what may be an idealised but immediately recognisable idea of itself for economic and commercial as well as political purposes. These pressures drive nations to adopt the marketing and branding techniques used successfully by so many global companies for a long time.

Some nations do it better than others. Made in Italy is, at the moment, worth more than Made in Turkey but, if Turkey or India gets into the game, things may change.

–

First Person is a new column in which Little Design Book invites practitioners to tell us about a particular project, their inspiration or creative process from their point of view.

Tara (2004) by Ravinder Reddy greets the visitor into the main exhibition space.

“What is India today?” is the question that the Centre Pompidou seeks to answer with its blockbuster summer exhibition titled Paris-Delhi-Bombay. An ambitious question, if there was one, this show brings together nearly 50 artists from India and France to address the idea of India and what it entails.

Physically and logically clustered into six themes of Politics, Urban Development & Environment, Religion, Home, Identity and Arts & Crafts, works of art emanate from a central ‘documentation area’. Lying quite literally at the heart of the exhibition and assembled around Ravinder Reddy’s Tara (2007), this circular, vermillion coloured space attempts to provide an overview of each of these themes and provides supporting material in the form of maps, statistics and census data.

Among the exhibiting artists are such well known names as Subodh Gupta (Ali Baba, 2011), Bharti Kher (Reveal The Secrets That You Seek, 2011), Sheela Gowda (Gallant Hearts, 1996), Jitish Kallat  (Ignitaurus, 2008) and Sudarshan Shetty (Six Cages, 2010) with their trademark styles and personal visions. Pushpamala N.’s collaboration with Parisian photography studio Harcourt produced an engaging series of three performance-photographs inspired by iconic French paintings. In this Indo-French exchange of artistic ideas, this partnership was the only one of its kind in the entire exhibition and the superior quality of its outcome cannot be underlined enough. While Pushpamala N.’s work reinterprets existing works, filmmaker Ayisha Abraham uses found footage of amateur home movies shot between the 1950s and 70s to create a dreamlike video collage of family life in India (Enroute or Of A Thousand Moons, 2010-11).

Ali Baba (2010-11) by Subodh Gupta

“]

The Spy (2009) by Pushpamala N. in collaboration with Studio Harcourt. [This image has been linked to its source at Le Figaro

While the displays in this exhibition enthral, their interpretation by way of text panels disappoints: in trying to dissect and map a complex, contradictory sub-continent, Paris-Delhi–Bombay comes across as an over-simplified attempt to impose order on the often slippery notion of India. While the device of sociological cross-examination may have seemed appealing in the presentation of a nation, it is little more than superficial in this case: India never was, nor is a homogenous entity; it isn’t, nor will ever be a unified, singular culture. To present it as such with vast, sweeping overviews in the information section, allows the exhibition experience to lapse into a pastiche of pop-culture references: the section on Home is illustrated with clips from Hindi film Swades while the wall on Religion is crowned with a camp diorama of Goddess Durga raising her hand in benediction. To the average French visitor who has never travelled to India, the exhibition text offers no more than exoticism. To me, it was an appalling re-iteration of clichés that the foreigners tend to associate with India.

If the purpose of the text accompanying this exhibition is to provide a context in which the work of the French and Indian artists can be intelligently viewed, then clearly it falls short of the mark. The art on display multiplies the concept of India at every corner, and one feels as though the India the artists speak of is a world removed from the two-dimensional space described by the curators.  It is unfortunate that this is the case: a delicate and sensitive approach to the introduction of India and Indian art could have done a great deal in enriching the visitor’s experience whether he is an aficionado of all things Indian or a newcomer to the subject.

Four years in the making and nearly four hours in the viewing, Paris-Delhi-Bombay leaves one with more questions than answers, and despite the flaws, celebrates everything that is to be admired in India: its multiplicity, its sense of dignified chaos and disdain for objective classification. At the same time it follows in the footsteps of the Pompidou’s “Paris” exhibitions such as Paris-New York (1997), Paris-Berlin (1978) and Paris-Moscow (1979), which attempted to “situate Paris in the circulation of ideas” and locate its relationship to other art hubs around the world. Delhi and Bombay are now brought to the table in a similar discussion on the role of cities as centres of artistic production and this is all very well, except for one niggling problem – Bombay ceased to be known by this name in 1995 and is now known as Mumbai. This apparent and glaring oversight makes me wonder then, if the entire notion of India being expounded in this exhibition isn’t as out-of-step with the times as its careless title.

By Arjun Jassal

I’ve always been fascinated by virtual worlds; the creation of social spaces which don’t have the constraints of physicality or physics. But VWs (not Volkswagen) have inherent problems: they aren’t very useful, they don’t compliment the ‘real world’ and you need solid hardware to experience them. Yet year after year, some firm or the other announces more virtual experiences. The concept just refuses to die out. Why?

I have no definitive answer, but I’ll go back to physicality and physics. Virtual Worlds let you add your thoughts, opinions in the form of 3D objects, animations, video, audio, text and share all of that in 3D dimensional space. It’s like having your own little fief, where everything is about you; your very own corner of the interwebs.

But what if you could do all of that without building a virtual world or dealing with all their real-world constraints? What if we could use the world we already have?

That’s when I hit upon ‘augmented reality’, a mashing up of the real with the virtual. The layering of digital information (from 3D objects to text) over what you see in the real world.

So far, so good. But how do you apply this fancy sounding ‘augmented reality’ (AR)?

For a while now, inspired by the web, I’ve been looking at all sorts of AR solutions. From watches that show up your hands but aren’t real (Tissot) to graphic novels with hidden content (SVK). While they’re nice and fancy, I wanted something Indian. Something that could introduce AR, involve a community, and be useful in some way.

It was during the last leg of April that I approached Khoj, an artists’ association that is based out of Khirkee Village in Delhi. While I was brimming with ideas, BlueAnt, the little company that I run, didn’t have the funding or the content to build an AR experience. After a few discussions and many cups of tea, Khoj and I came up with the idea of creating 1SAM or the 1 Square Augmented Mile project.

The concept was simple; over the years Khoj has had various contemporary art residencies, experiments and workshops all around the Khirkee Village. They’ve ranged from paintings and installations to live performances. Each of these initiatives has been carefully documented, with images, project reports and some videos. And while these records remain intact, the art work over time, has been replaced, removed or remade when a particular project was finished.

When I started walking around Khirkee, people at Khoj would tell me where something was installed or described what it looked like. The documented images provided some insight. But there was no way to connect where (the space where something was installed or an image was taken) to what (the installation or the image). I wanted to see those installations, the exhibitions and exhibits that had been removed years earlier. I needed a little window into the past.

But that’s not all. At the expense of sounding all gushing-at-the-mouth-poster-child-of-liberalization-sorts, Khirkee is an amazing place. It’s an ‘urban village’, which means that there are NO roads and buildings appear to be scarcely more stable than matchbox models. Yet it is right next door to one of Delhi’s most opulent malls (there are more than one). Plus the demographic of the area is changing; while some spaces are still occupied by migrant labour, Khirkee is being taken over by students, especially those from various African countries.

And as I saw this all, I wondered, what if I could catch the memories of every person passing through this rapidly urbanising while simultaneously deteriorating space? What if these memories could be shared? Or when I looked at the square mile, it would stare back at me with a host of mirrors, some held by me, some by others.

A screen grab from 1SAM in action

This is how 1SAM began.

Blue skies and ‘mind storms’ apart, building AR isn’t as easy as it appears. From the very start, you have two options: build everything from scratch or build on various AR browsers. Apart from the time and funding constraints, building AR from scratch requires understanding all underlying systems, building for the browser, on the other hand, required just looking under the hood of the browser. The closest I’ve come to an analogy, is that the former is like building your very own internet protocol and latter is like building a website.

Arun, who does R&D at BlueAnt, and I chose website. We selected ‘layar’, a stable AR browser that explains in simple English, how you can get information from various sources and layer it over what your camera sees. It also supports all kinds of devices: iPhones, Androids and even some Nokia phones.  Simple, right?

Wrong. The backend creation was simple enough. We created a database which would store the geo-location information with the URL of an image. The image we stored on Flickr, the geo coordinates we got from Google maps. We created a front end where users could add their own images and coordinates.

When we used the 1SAM layar and walked around Khirkee, the phone would figure out where we were; it would then use that to add images of installations and pictures that were taken around us. We had connected where to what. Minor changes aside, it worked quite well.

Except, we were testing 1SAM on iPhones. When we moved to Android devices, random things would work and others would just disappear. On different handsets, different things happened. No matter what we did, we just couldn’t fix this. As the submission and workshop dates approached, in desperation we contacted layar.

Their response was pretty much what we expected. The Android eco-system has become so fragmented, that code needed to be changed, not according to different manufacturers, but according to each handset model. Options that exist for the iPhone, don’t exist for the Android client. In sum, for every Android device the experience is just not the same. None the less we have got it to work.

Today, when you walk around Khirkee, with a decent smart phone and a 3G connection, your phone gives you a little window into the little pieces of art and various uploaded memories that existed around you. That little window to history has opened.

We hope that when you come around here, you’ll upload your very images, moments and memories onto 1SAM, leaving behind a little something, for someone else to discover and add to.

—

First Person is a new column in which Little Design Book invites practitioners to tell us about a particular project, their inspiration or creative process from their point of view.

All images used herein are © Copyright BlueAnt Digital Intelligence and have been used with permission.

Hero Honda (left) and the new logo for Hero MotoCorp (right)

Hero and Honda parted ways in early 2011 after a 25 year JV; with the Munjal family buying Honda out. As part of the agreement the Hero Group was allowed to continue using the ‘Hero Honda’ brand and mark for another 3 years but clearly the Munjal led Hero Group has wasted no time.

Enter Hero MotoCorp. The new identity created by Wolff Olins was launched on the 9th of August at the O2 centre in London, with dealers, employees and other stakeholders attending a gala event–true Indian style. The extravaganza included the launch of two new products along with the launch of the all new identity.

Wolff Olins are known for their bold and groundbreaking work. But this identity is suprisingly weak and it may be that the client killed off even the slightest hint of imagination. The abstracted ‘H’ simply does not hold together. The previous mark had red and black as the primary colours but it’s not clear whether there was enough equity to retain them. The mark was previously bastardised on a weekly basis by shabby Indian ad agencies and a stronger visual form would have made the group’s intentions clearer. The typography, which could have saved the day seems rather lazy. An uppercase ‘H’ and lowercase ‘ero’ at the same height look disconnected.

What they have got right though is the name. Hero MotoCorp gives it this right out of Detroit, RoboCop feel. Which was critical. ‘Hero’ without ‘Honda’ raised fears of a lack of technological prowess. ‘MotoCorp’ will help cross-off those early doubters–instilling a sense of confidence and it’s upto Hero to ensure the brand does not promise more than it can deliver.

At the end of the day it is almost unfair to judge any automotive brand in 2D. The exciting part will be the badge that goes on the fuel tanks. More fun to come?

The sheer numbers of the recently announced Core77 Design Awards are mind boggling. Over 10 days, 74 jury members from 13 cities around the world reported in by web broadcast, announcing the winners, runners-up and notable designs in 15 categories—an honour roll of over 120 design projects. Going by this first edition, the Core77 Design Awards, organized by the design super-site core77.com, are all set to become the most comprehensive honours for design in the world. So we should be very gratified that Indian design (or at least, Indian design education) has made a fair showing at the awards this year!

Congratulations are first due to Vikram Panchal, senior faculty at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad India, for being declared the winner in the Products/Equipment category. In a category dominated by industrially-produced objects, Panchal’s bamboo Load Carrier for laborers certainly stands out. Juror Rama Chorpash calls it “beautiful enough to display on a wall,” and Maria Popova praised it as a “true feat of simplicity-driven design.” Indeed, the Load Carrier displays many of the stengths that have characterized Panchal’s over 25 years of experience as a designer, the guide for the “Simple Product Design” project for fledgeling product designers at NID, and a collaborator with the Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN). The use of material is great—I can see how smartly bamboo will flex under loads that might defeat steel tubing; and the simplicity of the product really is heartening. But I’m also glad it won in this category because it displays what is to me a hallmark of great Indian design—the ability to use simple human empathy and engage with a problem that millions of people turn a blind eye to everyday.

Among the student honours in the same category was a project that must be familiar to old readers of Little Design Book. The Onedown Mousetrap, designed by Akash Dewan of DSK ISD International School of Design, Pune, was declared a runner-up, for providing a humane and playful way of dealing with rodent pests. And Dewan had the foresight to enter his design in two categories–Onedown surprised me by also receiving a notable mention in the Design for Social Impact category.

That particular category, quite appropriately, was judged from Ahmedabad by an absolutely stellar team of Indian jurors: Ashoke Chatterjee, former director of NID; Vikram Parmar, associate professor and director of VentureStudio – Center for Innovative Business Design, Ahmedabad University; Suchitra Sheth, designer, historian, and associate professor at the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at CEPT University; Anil Gupta, professor at IIM Ahmedabad, and vice chair of the National Innovation Foundation; and H. Kumar Vyas, pioneering design educator and chairman of the education council at MIT Institute of Design. They took an already difficult category, and pushed its boundaries by giving top honors to a completely unexpected project. In a field filled with holier-than-thou urban designers trying to patronize the world’s poor people, the jury team instead picked Matthew Ryan’s 4th Amendment Wear, which protests the use of x-ray scanners at security checkpoints to invade people’s privacy. As someone who has stood in one of those scanners myself, it is undoubtedly my favorite winner across all categories.

Image courtesy Jon Fraser

Only one other Indian design made it into the list of awardees. Made in the Dark is a range of jewellery made by blind craftswomen. The project is a collaboration between three students from the Royal College of Art, Jon Fraser, Ruby Steel, and Hal Watts, and two students from NID, Ahmedabad, Khushbu Dublish and Deepen Toppo. These five designers hit upon the bright idea of scented-bead jewellery that the craftswomen can put together using only their senses of smell and touch. The team worked with Andh Kanya Prakash and the Blind People’s Association in Ahmedabad, and the latest news is that they have found a retailer interesting in selling the jewellery. Made in the Dark was declared a notable design in the Design for Social Impact category.

An Indian jury team and four out of 120 honorees is certainly not a bad presence in an international design competition. But it is very telling that all the winning projects either came out of educational institutions, or were designed by students. It makes one wonder if professional designers in India don’t have the time or the inclination to enter awards programs. Design competitions have come under a lot of fire recently, but designers in India should not underestimate their value in bringing exposure and recognition, and eventually, international collaborations and projects. Top design firms all over the world make a big effort to document and submit their work to international fora–they understand that the exposure might ultimately translate into business. We won’t make our mark internationally just by designing an I-mark. Indian designers are good at what they do, it is time they started sharing that work with the world.