Samata.Shiksha

An initiative by the government of Maharashtra aims at providing good quality education to all. Here is a mark we designed backstage to all the hard work put in by the good folks at Comet Media Foundation. Do have a look at their blog and youtube channel of samata.shiksha.

Each unit of book with a circle represents individuals of different communities depicted by different colours coming together, for quality education represented by the star contained in the negative space. 

A mark that promises excellent quality of education to all. Samata means equality in Marathi. 

Greenotels

A mark designed for Greenotels or Indian hotels that practice green methods. 

It consists of a tree at the centre flanked by two leaves on either side suggesting, protection of environment through green practices. In the negative space is the gesture of indian hospitality or the namaste, in this context - a symbol of request to adhere to green practices to protect the environment.

To Rishabh and Vanshika

Designed these cards for a wedding in close family. The events were all held in the beautiful Suryagarh, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

The illustration style has been kept similar to the folk art found on the walls of Shekhavati called Bhittichitra. The lazer-cut jaali, the colour scheme and motifs are all inspired from Rajasthan.

Accelya Hub

After a long pause from the studio here, there is a bit of an update. A few months ago we had wrapped up the identity design for Accelya. Since it was still under release we had to wait for disclosure and remove this post from here earlier.

However here is the story nonetheless!

As Accelya (a spanish co) and Kale (an indian co)  join hands for newer, better, bigger goals, it is the birth of an all new entity. Primarily the business here is to help airline customers streamline their financial processes. They also help them gain insights on business performance using decision support tools and data analytics.

The new brandmark for Accelya is a spark or an idea that emerges from a neuron-like network symbolic of the human expertise or intellectual capital. Coined as the HUB, it is the simplest and most efficient way to connect many origins to many destinations. Similarly "we" move, process and transform critical business information from its origin and convert it into actionable intelligence for stakeholders’ consumption.

The tagline “complexity simplified” brings forth not just our customer value proposition, but our attitude and approach to work.

The colour palette exudes warmth and personalisation - an extension of the human resource.

The logotype is constructed on the typeface Strada.

Annapoorna

We were a part of a great journey of developing an identity with an NGO that works in the area of providing a balanced, nutritious meal to young schoolgoing children. Unfortunately this never went into production, nonetheless would like to share the process here.

Brief : A simple and clean identity shall communicate the purity of thought, clean and quality food.
Brand archetype -
Innocent : wholesome, pure, trustworthy, honest, optimistic
Caregiver : selfless supportive, generous, nurturing, altruistic

Process : After some internal discussions, the name Annapoorna was aptly chosen as it is the Indian goddess of nourishment.



Our initial thoughts were along these keywords or guides-

Food for the soul
Goddess Annapoorna’s golden pot and ladle
Health Pyramid
Pure and Fresh
Mother’s nurturing care
Food for growth
Serving and receiving
The Bowl of Compassion

These thoughts visually translated thus :



After discussing these with our client it was mutually agreed to pick the three directions that had potential and develop those further. After some more rework these were the qualifying ones :



However at this stage too, we still felt there was more that could be explored. The pot and the ladle concept was interesting but not there yet. The health pyramid needed a bit more to it. The mother's hand was just not it.

So we started looking for fresh ideas along with working further upon these ones...

The pot and the ladle went through a series of form corrections to make it look a little less forced and more comfortable visually.



It finally looked close.



The pyramid concept looked better integrated and proportionate.



Besides these, some more routes were developed.

+Motherly nutrition+




+Joy of Giving+




+Nutrition for Better Life+




+Motherly Love+




This is where the story of this project was left hanging and we wonder as we look back, if it was to be then which one would it be?

MindWave Identity

Our client is an IT facility management service provider besides which they also provide IT hardware sales and support who had earlier required an identity for MindSpark Infosolutions.

The brief for MindWave was to design a mark that was industrial-like and could be eventually placed over products as well.



We experimented printing with white ink on ivory card this time to achieve this water mark effect on the cards.

MindSpark Infosolutions

Our client is an IT facility management service provider besides which they also provide IT Hardware Sales and Support.

The logo construction aims to convey order, perfection and quality of service in the mark.

A clean, simple and straightforward logo mark for a company that deals with corporates on a day to day basis.

I for Innovate

We were recently approached for designing certificates for an award function. But then whats in designing an odd piece of certificate?!
I understood first what our client had to say and asked if he was open to having an identity for these annual, industrial awards for in-house talent. He liked the idea.
Time for design is always a rarity with many projects I have learnt. We were a week away from the event day. But good ideas always come under the pressure of time!

Two days later when we met the following concepts were rejected...




However, this one gladly made it through.



The plus of this identity is that each year different objects can be used to form the word "INNOVATION".
This was adapted to certificates to felicitate the winners.



Since this was a small budget project we had to opt for digital printing only however we chose special paper for the three positions.
Wish there was a budget to do more experimentation and implementation. But like they say there is always a next time...

Project Closure : November '08

Archism

The first client will always be special to us. This was an architects' firm based outside Mumbai, in Hyderabad which meant all communication had to be over phone and online. I had met the proprietor of the firm Mr. Suresh Manikonda at a friend's wedding reception where we had been first introduced. A young dynamic entrepreneur, at that time I so totally related with him and what he planned for his new venture. I thought it would be very exciting to work for him.
A few days past he called in to say that I had been hired to do an identity for his company that he called Archism. I really liked the name as it almost sounded some sort of an art/architechture movement.
I was hooked...

Initial sketches




This led to four different directions that were presented.

Directions taken

1. The basic emphasis here was on the alphabet 'A' from ground zero view. This would symbolize higher goals, aspirations and more literally, high rises.

2. This one was smarter than it seemed! To give you the complete picture this one is ARCHIS.M., 'S' and 'M' being the initials of the man who coined the word Mr. Suresh Manikonda himself.


3. Archism brings a change to the skyline.

4. Alphabet 'A' in dark and light, play of negative and positive spaces, some draft lines added to give it an under construction feel.



First feedback

We were most certain that option 2 is what would catch our client's eye. It was to be, however he wanted to have a symbol and not just a logotype even after sighting some real logotype examples from existing brands. He insisted that it would look too plain and would go amiss.

Usually when a concept is designed it is presented there is a core idea which at that point I strongly felt would get diluted with another symbol being added. After a few more days of trying to leave behind what was attempted and looking at things afresh we concentrated on why the client wanted a symbol at all. Probably his clients were ordinary people who would miss the dots of the initials, probably at a construction site he would need to have a symbols for uneducated laborers to identify...the reasons were many...

Further Engineering

Of the basic five elements, Earth is represented with a square. Square also represents stability and thus a solid foundation. This is where the basic structure of a yantra comes from and temples are constructed on this basic principle.

In the drawing above one can see how the symbol is arrived at. It constitutes a square (symbolic of earth), Four arrows (cardinal directions) and Five dots (elements: earth, fire, air, water, ether). The light and the dark shade of the blue represented day and night.
The logotype was Futura (a typeface well known for its geometric proportions) which was modified slightly letting the alphabets go from light to bold (L-R).
Suresh loved it!


The symbol and the logotype were integrated and further fine tuned for production of basic office stationery for our client.

The Final Run

Here is how the final artworks looked like. We were also given the freedom to select paper of which the sample was couriered across for approval.
Since the symbol was appreciated so much we even thought a tesellation might add some bling and colour around the white.



Here is how it finally turned out.





I was thrilled when Suresh received the shipment and called in to say he loved it all...

Project closure: Oct '07