Aanya's Annaprashan

My lil niece turned 7 months in late October and it was time for the best baby Bengali ceremony ever! The 'Annaprashan' which is a baby's first rice eating ceremony, is done with great pomp and show where the baby is dressed up and fed all sorts of things. Its usually done by the Mother's brother / father. For Aanya, her dear grandfather (my father) did it. It was held at Noida amongst with friends and relatives.

For the invite, my sister wanted me to make a fun one and came up with a poem. Here's what was finally sent as an emailer inviting people all across the country!

The event went off pretty well and Aanya can now officially begin eating solids!

Colour for this Chappal: Red

The Basics of Printing

A course that we did in this semester (1st) was called 'Introduction to Printing' which was a course that began with a whole lot of theory and it ended with a whole week of practicals (More on that later). While we were learning printing and its basics, we had to document the entire course and our learnings. When I was almost done with my document, I realised that I had no cover for it because I had some initial ideas but I scrapped them because I felt they weren't working too well. Since the basics of offset printing lie in the inking processes, I was very sure I wanted the CMYK to be shown somewhere, Here's what came out at the end of it. What Im not very happy with is that the Y comes at the end, unlike the printing ink order ie CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black). A little more thinking into this will probably solve the problem. Food for though. Hmmn.

Its just coincidental that this post and the post two places before this (The Entropic Project) are similar. Probably my mind just thinks at the basic levels.

Colour for this chappal: CMYK!

Shooting Relationships

The last course this semester is Photography and we one of the assignments was to shoot with a film camera, shots on the topic 'Relationships'. The constraints were to keep the human element in mind and not shoot within a two km radius of the institute. It was one of a kind experience and I was happy with some of the pictures I took. After all the grueling walks throughout the city, the pictures are satisfying, especially when you are so under confident with a film camera! Here are a few of them.

Colour for this chappal: Earthy brown. I believe relationships are as strong as the earth.

The Entropic Project

When I joined NID, the first course we attended was a course called 'Introduction to Communication Studies' taken by a very learned and brilliant faculty, Mr Madhusudan Mukerjee. As our first assignment we had to work in groups and had to come up with something (anything) that would be very high in its redundant value but at the same time have a high entropic value as well. Basically we had to come up with something that was a very usual regular day thing but have a shocking value to it.

Here's what we came up with. I wouldnt like to disclose what the entropy is, but I do hope you can figure it out. Even though it was a group project, I would like to put it up as an entry on my blog because it was the first at NID, and probably one of the smarter things we (I) did.

I would like to thank my group mates, Roshini, Bhumika, Shirin and Poornima for all the hardwork and support ;)

Colour for this Chappal: Blue, I think.

Macs and Hearts

So I got a new Macbook Pro and what a beauty it is.

It took my heart away. The first thing that struck me when I saw it was the Apple logo and then how it got me all 'aah ooh' . So this entry is a metaphorical one. On a impulse and a five minute job, this is also my first design 'thing' from the Mac'.

The joy in a Macbook.

Colour for this Chappal: Red!

D & A

Ever since my sister (Dee) got married and moved into her own house(s), she always wanted me to design a 'nice' nameplate for her. 5 years and one cute lil baby later, my slow brain worked and today I made this for them. Simple and very them, I hope they like it. It corresponds to their names, Diya meaning 'lamp' and Arunav meaning 'the rising sun'. The challenge now is to develop an idea that incorporates the name of the lil one too. Another 5 years maybe??

Love you Dee and Dada. You are my all time favourite couple!

Colour for this chappal: Brown!

Kyoorius Legs

Earlier this month, I got an opportunity to attend a Design Conference in Goa. The event was great with some wonderful speakers and some very good sharing of work experiences. It was just brilliant.

There was a large student community who attended this and to me, it ended up more like a fashion show. People were so dressed up! From frilly frocks to almost not there pants. It was quite a sight! This entry is how I perceived my Kyoorius experience! Its also one of my first attempts of drawing human legs in such a large quantity. It was fun!

Black

Black I believe rules design.

Even when I worked, I somehow found that black saved my designs and me, a lot of times.

This compostion struck me while I was getting assessed for a course called 'Colour'. Ironic.

I miss black and all the glee it brought me. I love colours but yes, black is one of my favourites too.

Colour for this chappal: Black! Haha!

Aamra Shobai Raja

My Baba (father) has always been very fond of Bengali culture, inspite of staying most of his life outside Bengal and that has somehow been passed on to us. As kids, I vividly remember him saying the line from a Bengali song, "Amra Shobai Raja" translating to "We are all Kings", and yes, he made us feel like true Kings.

However hard I tried, I couldn't be a true Bengali, in the cultural aspect atleast. Either my voice was too shrill or my feet refused to dance! This blog post is a dedication to my Baba and a true attempt at a Bengali art form (Patua Scroll Paintings), that represents him at the centre as the Raja!

Happy Birthday Baba!

Thank you Rahul for your wonderful Wacom. It made this possible!

India House Menu Card

While I was at bOunce (http://www.bounceontheweb.com/), this was one of the last projects I worked on, a menu card for a Gurgaon based restaurant called India House.

The brief was clear, bring out the 'Indianess' in India House. I came up with this concept based menu card and it got approved, along with every single image I chose for each page. Most of the images were bought from Dinodia (http://www.dinodia.com/), one was from my boss's collection and a special mention to a friend, Rohit Nair, who was very nice and humble to contribute an image for this. Thank you so much! You can see more of Rohit's work here http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohitnair/.

It went into print only after I left and my boss was very kind to send me a copy. The paper and print quality of menu card is what made it look even better. It was one of the best and most enjoyed projects I have ever done.

Here are a few pages of the printed menu card.

Cover Page

A few pages of the inside

Photography courtesy: Anuj Gadre

Model: Roshini Pochont

Thank you for your valuable time and effort!

Colour for this chappal: Green!