Two of our branding projects got featured by Brand New - UnderConsideration, a portal which reviews most of the significant branding projects of the world. Both these projects got highly commendable reviews in context to their approach and relevance to India and the world. Acknowledgements from the Western community were heartening as they affirmed that our solutions entrenched in local context had meaning for a global audience. Repeatedly, we saw the word ‘love’ which went beyond logic to tap into hearts, not just minds.
A sampling of the comments:
Visual branding of Ayushman Bharat
" . . . and applying those patterns tight around the windows and doors creates an impressive branding system that can be appreciated in all the finished buildings. I love this project." — Armin Vit
"Smart reminder that graphic design and guidelines are not just what we usually think it is. And even if we think this project is charming, we need to remember that charming tourists is not the point here. We're not the target." — Olivier Bruel
"This is a nice reminder that at the heart of design, ultimately, is the desire and need to communicate. I love everything about this." — Tyler Porter
Partners' Forum branding
Another great case of relevance, appropriateness, and consideration from the folks at Lopez Design. — Armin Vit
Love the whole system, including the repurposing of the conference materials. It's all thoughtful and comes from the purpose/mission of the organization. It's not a logo, per se, but it doesn't matter what it is. It works. — Mr Choi
From empowering artisans to repurposing the art; this is a branding marvel! — Vinod Anthony Thomas
Love the idea of repurposing the conference materials to empowering the artisans! Such a fantastic initiative. Love those totes — Eddy
Out of the silos
Most of us think we are ‘unboxed’ while we are still boxed, as getting outside the box requires a dramatic change of perspective, which can only happen with rigorous new experiences.
The whole world is structured in vertical silos and sub silos of experts who know how to do their particular job pretty well. While each silo acts in context to its bigger picture through the means of a brief, largely the norm is “This is what you understand and know best - stick to it.” This is an age-old practical indoctrination which encourages us bots supposedly doing our jobs in a well-oiled machine with the aim of keeping the world economy on a constant churn, providing people food, clothing, shelter and protection.
With this one-sided viewpoint with objectives that are meant to serve economic gains, we have ended up creating an unfit world for ourselves and every living creature.
More than the corporations, politicians, institutions and experts, if at all there is one body or group of people who could have made a positive difference to this world, it’s the ‘Designers’. Mike Monteiro talks about this in his book aptly titled ‘Ruined by Design: 'How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It’. He goes on to say that designers are the gatekeepers of the world. And we have failed in our jobs.
Everything is by design
We swear by this: everything is by design, and look at design inherently as an all-encompassing domain (besides being a generic term) which is supposed to be cognizant. Simply put, design is the centre of everything we do. Every aspect would be considered while indulging in the process of ‘design’. It has failed to deliver goods largely because the process gets very complex: the designers per se need to be in an influencing position as each decision could have ramifications, some of them serious and irresponsible. (not to be confused by ‘system integrators’).
Now closing the loop on our two projects.
Ayushman Bharat HWCs
India is a diverse nation and 'one size fits all' does not work, especially when one needs to work at grass roots. A simple paradigm shift on creating a user centric branding for 1,50,000 health centres brought ownership to the people at their local level. Each health centre has its own unique identity yet it belonged to the mother national brand. Find out more at:
Lopez Design - Ayushman Bharat Branding
Noted @ Brand New
2018 Partners’ Forum
For the Partnership Forum in New Delhi, we furthered the branding exercise of creating an identity and language using local Pipli crafts by creating all conference materials with textile instead of Flex or other environment-unfriendly material. These were then repurposed into pillow covers, table runners etc. which were given away as gifts to the delegates. The designs that came out of the exercise were handed over to the craftspeople to use, encouraging commerce. We are now looking for large markets for these craftspeople to bring about economic growth to these clusters, triggering enablers for sustainable development. This nuanced approach to a simple conference branding exercise changed the outcome, widening the impact manifold.
2018 Partners’ Forum
Noted @ Brand new
The Impossible Cube
In 1958, illusory artist M.C Escher printed his work Belvedere for the first time, in which he etched a building that in reality is impossible. At the steps, sat a boy inspecting an ‘impossible cube.’ Escher was a master at using the two-dimensional plane to create forms that are cannot be constructed in the three-dimensional world. Yet, by finding a different perspective, he showed us that illusionary worlds are very much possible in another plane.
In design, we have to constantly step out of our regular systems and coordinates to find other planes of reasoning, other dimensions, in which we can make the impossible, possible. We have to leave and come in through the out door. We have to find a way to make our dreams materialise.
Illustration: Concept and execution: Namita Jain with support from Nishita on motion graphics