RIP Anant Raje.

I met Anant Raje many years ago- I was writing an article on his works and had gone to Ahmedabad to meet him. Not sure what I was expecting, but I did not expect to see this nice, warm old man walking towards me. Very humble and down-to-earth, with a twinkle in his eyes. Sort of a Santa Claus, I thought. And so unlike a stalwart in his field.

He took me around the campus and gave me a personal tour of the IIM building, and explained the structure to philosophy of the architecture- it was an astounding lecture. One I can still visualise. Which is why whenever I have gone to IIM after that (once with Bimal Patel), I somehow always land up seeing the place with Anant Raje in it.

As time passed, and I could not keep up with the correspondence as I had earlier done, unfortunately Anant Raje became just a memory and a name in my list of works. And as I left the magazine and started my own firm, there was no interaction at all. Which is why I did not hear of his passing away till two days ago.

As I am sitting down writing this post, with the rain falling outside my window, I can see his smiling face. And its one that brings a lot of sunshine amidst the grey memories.

Dear Prof. Anant Raje, RIP.

- Darpana.

Smart Ads

For the past few days I have been looking at the Idea ‘Walk when you talk’ ad and have been suitably impressed. At first, I was not really impressed with it, but then when Mukund pointed out a small detail, which is actually very big, I realised what this ad can do.

Apart from connecting on an emotional level, wherein the customer is made to think about his/her health and so walk, it also goes to say ‘walk the talk’. But the biggest USP of this ad is not what it gives to the customers, but what it gives to the client. If one actually realises and observes, one tends to talk more when we walk. So more talk time results in more money for the company! What an idea, Sir ji!

There is another ad that has rightly caught on the undercurrent of moods and emotions of the working class of this country. The Cadbury’s ad of “pehli taarik”. It encourages people to have a sweet (in this case, chocolate) because it is the first of the month. Yes, all of us look forward to this day, because we get our salaries. And what better way to celebrate this moment of having some cash in hand during this recession period, than a nice ’sweet’. In India, it is tradition that we give/take sweets on every small/big joyous occasion, and this ad has managed catching that emotion really well.

Smart Ads are not just those that are effective and unique enough to catch your eye and make you take notice of them. They go beyond the idea of selling a brand to actually make the customer buy the product.

- Darpana.

Twitter on…

Mukund and I just joined Twitter recently, and simply love the format. It’s so easy to connect to everybody and be updated on not just people, but even happenings, events, companies and more. With just a line, you are in touch with someone, somewhere.

I think ‘making connections’ is the key to everything in the future.

At Sarvasva, we believe in this future and have therefore taken up many initiatives towards it. The very talked about ‘Pecha Kucha’ is one such event. Just yesterday, the Indian Express newspaper carried an article on the same and our initiative of getting it to Pune. http://epaper.indianexpress.com/IE/IEH/2009/07/02/INDEX.SHTML

‘Design Intersect’ is another such event. Aimed to be a ‘people to design’ connect, the idea is to throw open design to public through various installations, exhibitions and A/V presentations. This is not to preach or lecture about design, but just to let it be stimulated into the senses. A lot of people in India are not aware of what ‘Design’ is, or how it can affect our everyday lives. And very few designers even bother to push it beyond the realm of the office and client space. But design has been and is about social impact. And if we cannot think to make that connection with the public realm, we are missing out on the key element to design.

Connecting alumni from college is another interesting exercise we have got into. Our college, the Academy of Architecture, is 52 years old and we never had an alumni reunion, leave aside an alumni association. Thanks to great connectors like Facebook and Orkut, we were able to get in touch with 300+ ex-students of the college and organised a grand reunion party for all batches. The power of connection, Jai ho!

Coming back to Twitter. If you just read through the many tweets, especially of responses to a particular tweet, it’s crazy how much information is within your reach and also how you suddenly get updated and are also in the global scene of things, all within minutes. Its as if the future is unfolding around you, and you are a part of that important moment.

You can reach me on http://twitter.com/DarpanaSarvasva to know more on what Sarvasva is upto.

Cheers,
Darpana.

DNA Pune_ interview. 3rd June 2009

History in the making for Indian Design

Dear All,

Last evening, 30th May ‘09 saw a group of designers getting together to initiate and form the first national body of designers of India. It was just a preliminary meeting, but one that will consequently set the precedence for any action that will be taken in this regard.

This initiative has been taken by the Pune Design Foundation (PDF) and the Association of Indian Design Industry (AIDI).

We had Shrikant Nivasarkar, President IFI, who joined in as friend and advisor.

Will keep you all updated as we progress.
Warm regards,
Darpana.

‘White is the new green’ innovations.

Courtesy TrendHunter.com

100 'White Is The New Green' Innovations (CLUSTER)

(TREND HUNTER) White is pure, nature is pure, nature is green, hence white is green… It sounds like a logic argument gone wrong; or maybe not.
Artists and inventors around the world are embracing the purity of the color… [More]





India Design Festival

The Pune Design Festival became a larger platform called the ‘India Design Festival’  this year.

Apart from giving a presentation and help in organising, Sarvasva also had come up with an installation called ‘chaos theory’, for the overall theme of ‘Environment and Design’, wherein we collected discarded bottles and paper every day at the Festival to show how much waste the designers themselves generate, in a matter of a week.

We also got the ‘Polar Bear’ down from Mumbai. Our friend and artist Hetal Shukla, and the creator of this car, was here too.

And some of the highlights for us was the participation on the panel discussion on design, with  CNBC (to be broadcasted soon), the very interesting talk by Prasoon Pandey, the various new friends we made and the great learning experience.

Architect Darpana Athale’s ‘Pune Walks’ programme will introduce Puneites and tourists to the magnificent heritage of the citySar

DESIGN RESPONSE TO TERROR.

Design Response to Terror PDF08:
System Design and Strategy Formulation – Session 1

A very recent initiative of the PDF, in lieu with the terrorist attacks on Mumbai on 26th November 2008.

Mukund Athale of Sarvasva Designs made a presentation and introduced a new project that we are working on, which can help tack people’s movements.

Aims

During this workshop participants will seek to answer the following questions:

• What are the problems we identify in the current scenario?
• How can design contribute to create meaningful intervention in such a situation?
• What formats can be explored?
• What are the design solutions we intend to seek?

Format of Workshop

10 – 12 pm : ‘My response to terror as a designer’- a 3-5 minute presentation by members (preferably 10 slides or less)

12 – 1 pm: Identification of problems and design intervention areas

1 – 1:45 pm : Lunch

1:45 – 3 pm : Participants will form groups and work out action plan for design response/ project scoping

3 – 4 pm : A concise action plan with milestones/ expected outcome

Initiated on December 4th, 2008 at Symbiosis Institute of Design, Pune.

Design in ‘Spare Time’???

Saw this poster and many of these actually, in the streets and bylanes of Pune. Makes me wonder if Design is now relegated to a ‘housewife’s hobby’ that one can learn and do during their spare time?!

(c) Darpana Athale, 2008.

Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!

Since we moved to Pune, we’ve installed a permanent Ganpati idol at home, and every year I make a small idol that we pray to and submerge (in a bucket outside the door). Being environment conscious, our Ganpati idols have always been ‘green’ and made of clay, wheat flour,etc. This year, we have consciously decided to use all the ‘raddi’ (old newspapers) and make a recyled Ganpati.

The only thing used in this Ganpati, apart from the newspapers and a little bit of water, is glue to stick the various parts. We have made many of these to give out to our guests who come home for the darshan.