Features | Colour Quotient by Asian Paints

Since the beginning of this year, I have been a regular contributor for Asian Paints' digital publication - Colour Quotient. Here is some of the stuff I have done so far:

Tiling Bombay by Kahani Designworks
CQ Interviews: Design Museum’s curator Alex Newson on Breathing Colour by Hella Jongerius
Rubberband collaborated with Memphis’ founder-member & painter Nathalie Du Pasquier
CQ Interviews: London-based artist Tyga Helme finds colour inspiration in India.
Elements: Photographer Ricky Gui documents Singapore’s ‘Hidden Doors’
Amygdala recreates Indonesian bamboo craft for contemporary market
SPIN combines Wood, Metal and Nordic Design to create furniture
Design Meets Art at Architect Rooshad Shroff’s Solo Show 15,556
Design Indaba’s Emerging Creatives: Mpho Vackier
Outings Project comes to India
Design Indaba’s Emerging Creatives: Ashlee Ainsley Lloyd
Meet OneOrTheOther, a Bangalore-based design startup that creates beautiful minimal posters
Sensory Experiences: ‘Boutique’ by Niklas Roy; an experimental colour-to-smell translator
Intertwine: I was a Sari turns old saris into contemporary lifestyle products
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Personal Project | The Floating Magazine 2.0

The Floating Magazine (TFM) is a digital publication about visual culture in Asia & Middle East. This is a project I have been running for about a year, and have recently re-launched with a new design and new features. Check it out:  thefloatingmagazine.com

Interview | Paul Willoughby | Paper Planes

All the brilliant, off-kilter, independent magazines of the world, take a bow. The D&AD Professional Awards 2016 gave away its precious pencils to ten indie magazines from different parts the world –Avaunt, Rubbish FAMzine, Sirene, Beauty Papers, Buffalo Zine, DEAR, Design 360˚, Flaneur Magazine,The Ride Journal and Weapons of Reason.

We got an opportunity to talk to one of the jury members for Magazine & Newspaper Design category of the D&AD awards – creative director and graphic artist Paul Willoughby. Paul has worked as the creative director of the iconic Little White Lies magazine. He is the co-founder of creative agency Human After All that also creates one of the winner magazines, and one of our favorites, Weapons of Reason. Paul’s portfolio boasts of other clients like The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New Yorker, Adobe, IBM, Nike and Adidas.

We talk to Paul about the D&AD judging process and his experiences of working on Little White Lies and Weapons of Reason. He also gives us some interesting insights into Makeshift magazine and Rubbish FAMzine. Edited excerpts:

READ ON: http://www.joinpaperplanes.com/blog-detail/paul-willoughby/

Personal Project | The Floating Magazine

The Floating Magazine is (so far) an online personal project that I started in December 2015. It is dedicated to having meaningful conversations with visual arts from Asia and Middle East. Here are the artists who I have interviewed on the platform so far:

Chirag Wakaskar, founder, Everyday Mumbai (India)

Dhruvi Acharya, contemporary artist (India)  

Hadi Uddin, photographer (Bangladesh)

Xuan Loc Xuan, illustrator (Vietnam)

Eiman Elgibreen, artist (Saudi Arabia)

Shiho Kito, photographer (Japan)

Tejal Patni, photographer (Dubai)

Can Cetinkaya, illustrator & artist (Turkey)

Yael Bronner Rubin, artist (Israel/Hong Kong)

Esther Goh, illustrator (Singapore)

Jia Sung, artist (Singapore/USA)

Sveta Dorosheva, artist (Israel)

Nouf Alhimiary, photographer (Saudi Arabia)

Yashaswi Mathis, artist (India)

Takashi Yamamoto, printmaker & artist (Japan)

Sai Selvarajan, filmmaker (India/Sri Lanka/USA)

Neuneu Woo, illustrator (China/Singapore)

Kouzou Sakai, illustrator (Japan)

Adil Hasan, photographer (India)

Kurchi Dasgupta, artist (Nepal/India)

Chia Chi Yu, illustrator (Taiwan)

Kursat Bayhan, photographer (Turkey)

John Ed De Vera, graphic designer (Philippines)

Kishor Sharma, photographer (Nepal)

Selman Hosgor, illustrator (Turkey)

Kathrin Honesta, illustrator & graphic designer (Malaysia)

Heraa Khan, artist (Pakistan)

Meera Sethi, artist (India/ Canada)

Feature | Commercial Minimalism Shakes Up Indian Design | Rice

Just a few weeks back, two international stores made their debut in the upscale Palladium mall at Lower Parel, an area populated by swanky skyscrapers and chic boutiques.

One of the two stores – H&M, saw a staggering amount of shoppers pillaging the store on the launch date. While this was quite predictable, the amount of interest that the other store generated came as a pleasant surprise. This other store was, of course, Muji.

I remember visiting Muji for the first time during a trip to London in 2012. At that time, I couldn’t even imagine that a brand as “bare” as Muji, however intelligent, would ever find its way to India. Launched in 1980 in Japan as Mujirushi Ryohin which means “no-brand quality goods”, Muji now has a cult following around the world for its ultra functional designs, and its branding strategy of, well, non-branding.

Muji refers to its products as empty vessels and it is in essence the complete opposite of the over-embellished products that dominate the Indian marketplace. Things, however, are obviously changing, and Muji’s presence in India is a testimony to that.

READ ON: http://readrice.co/commercial-minimalism-shakes-up-indian-design/

Feature | Food Packaging | PrintWeek India

Interview | Chip Kidd | Kyoorius

"Our second conversation in the series of interviews done during AGI Open conference, held in London on 26th and 27th September, is with the extremely talented Chip Kidd. Writer, art director, book designer, editor and Batman fanatic, Kidd gave us one of the wittiest and most entertaining sessions at the conference. He specializes in book cover designs and has been working for Alfred A. Knopf since 1986. He is also the author of well-known books including The Cheese Monkeys, The Learners, graphic novel Batman: Death by Design and the most recently released and much talked about Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, a book targeted at children."

Click here to read more. 

Video Interview | João Cardoso Fernandes (Isobar) | Kyoorius

João Cardoso Fernandes is the chief creative officer at VIEW Isobar. João is trained in computer science and mathematics. Attempts to operate and understand his gadgets, like the VCR instigated João’s interest in developing interfaces that would allow humans and machines to interact in a simpler and more productive manner. After pursuing a career in advertising, he co-founded VIEW in 2000, which is now the Portuguese branch of the Isobar Network.

Watch the interview here. 

Video Interview | Melissa Weigel (Moment Factory) | Kyoorius

Melissa Weigel, creator and director at Moment Factory, started as a performing artist. As a contemporary dancer, Weigel got involved with multimedia and found it be “a nice way to express herself”. Her passion for multimedia and performing arts led her to Moment Factory. Today, Weigel is a key-member in the award-winning team and specializes in creating and directing larger-than-life, integrated multimedia for stages and public spaces. Here, she talks about the weirdest briefs that she has received, her personal high-point of working with Madonna and about her best projects. 

Watch the interview here. 

Interview | Sumant Jayakrishnan | Kyoorius

Profile | Puran Bhaat - Puppeteer | Kyoorius

Interview | Astrid Stavro | Kyoorius

Here is another interview we did at the AGI Open conference, held on the 26th and 27th of September 2013 at Barbican Centre, London. Astrid Stavro is the founder of Astrid Stavro Studio based in Barcelona, Spain. The studio specialises in concept driven art direction and editorial design. Stavro has written for various journals including Creative Review, Grafik and Étapes and is currently a contributing editor of Elephant magazine.

We had a quick chat with her about how self-initiated work is second nature to her. She also tells us about her publishing house Infolio which she recently co-founded along with her husband Pablo Martin, her upcoming project and how one should never marry a graphic designer.

Read the interview here. 

Video Interview | Laura Jordan Bambach | Kyoorius

Laura Jordan Bambach has recently joined  Mr. President as a creative partner and is also the co-founder and director of SheSays, a volunteer organization that encourages women to take up digital careers in creative industries and is working in15 cities across the world. SheSays also presented another interesting venture, Shout, which is a platform where women in digital advertising can collaborate. She is also the founder ofCannt festival, which runs alongside Cannes as an alternative for those who can’t make it to the Cannes.  She is also the president of D&AD for this year, 2013-14.

In this interview, Bambach talks to us about a subject dearest to her heart – women in digital advertising. 

Watch the interview here.

Video Interview | Ramesh Sathiah (Song Zu) | Kyoorius

Ramesh Sathiah is partner & creative director at Song Zu, Australia and Asia’s most awarded Music and Sound Design Company. Sathiah has graduated from Cross University with a bachelor’s in Music. He is also the president of the Music Jury for the London International Awards for 2013. In between sessions at this year’s Designyatra, we caught up with Sathiah for a conversation about the role of music in advertising, clients’ approach towards it, sonic branding – and why so many brands ask for an ‘Intel’. Here, in this video, he also talks about the excitement and challenges of ‘making music’ and confesses that, “…the only thing that is better is to be a rockstar.” 

Watch the interview here.

Feature | Synth City: Sounds of Bombay | Kyoorius

The distinctive and characteristic sounds of a place often get lost in either the overpowering visuals or the overall clatter of large cities, like Bombay. So the shopkeepers’ rhythmic chorus is often forgotten while visualizing the colorful and vibrant touristy Colaba. The restful sounds from the Haji Ali mosque, merged with the cadenced sea waves, are often lost in the noisy traffic.

In October last year, Studio X, an interactive space based in Fort in Bombay, launched an initiative ‘Synth City’ to capture and recreate the unique sounds of various areas of Bombay including Colaba Causeway, Haji Ali, Mahim, Chor Bazar and Marine Drive.

Click here to read more.

Feature: Creative Cities

My Life in Design: Tania Singh Khosla, tsk Design

Video Interview: Dominic Harris (Cinimod Studio)

Dominic Harris developed an interest in lights and lighting much before architecture. He eventually qualified as an architect at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London and is now the founder and creative director of Cinimod Studio. His endeavour to integrate interaction technology and architecture with innovative lighting schemes is much evident in many of the projects he has undertaken. Blending all that he loves has been central to his work, like the project to build a UFO. While he suspects that a ‘sensible’ company probably should not take such projects, he himself has done it more than once and says that it wasn’t possible for him to refuse anything like this. Here is the interview.

Interview: Shantanu Suman

While we have all seen the vibrant and dazzling truck art in India through our own eyes and often through various photographers’ and videographers’ lenses too, but have never really gone to the roots of where and how it all started. Shantanu Suman decides to travel to the interiors of the country to throw spotlight on what the truck art really means to the truck owners and how it goes way beyond just being colorful “art”.

A masters student at the University of Florida, Suman, along with a group of talented individuals, has created the unique documentary Horn Please. The film talks about the origin of truck art in India, its evolution and how it influences not just the world of art but also the lives of the artists and truckers who interact with it on a daily basis. Apart from this film, he has extensively worked on various other innovative projects centered on Indian trucks as a part of his university thesis. For him, this is just the beginning.

Here is an in-depth interview with Shantanu Suman and a showcase of his work.

Kyoorius Knocks

Interviews with creative folks from all over the world including India under the section Kyoorius Knocks. Here are some of my favorites.

Japan: Illustrator Kotaro Chiba

Finland: Designer/Photographer Miemo Penttinen  

India: Paper Artist Parth Kothekar

China: Illustrator and animator Oamul Lo

Hong Kong: Graphic Designer Jim Wong

Philippines: Illustrator Kerby Rosanes

Nepal: Graphic Designer Swapnil Acharya

Iran: Illustrator/Painter/Animator Rashin Kheiriyeh

Ireland: Illustrator/Designer Steve Simpson

India: Designer Pallavi Sen