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Documentation of student workTRANSCRIPT
semesterfiver e u b e n d ’ s i l v a _ g r a p h i c d e s i g n
_ u n d e r g r a d u a t e p r o g r a m m e
_ n a t i o n a l i n s t i t u e o f d e s i g n
We started our course by discussing the concept of a story and storytelling. Stories are often handed down from generation to generation and very often along the way they are modified and altered to suit specific spaces and times. I established that storytelling was not mere objective oriented narration of a series of events but was strongly based on personal point of views/ perspec-tives. In the Indian context, the ‘epics’ have laid the foundation of religious belief. Similarly, on a more global scale, texts like the bible have influenced millions. People find it convenient to use these stories whilst customizing them to give a message.
Film is a medium through which one’s perspective can be communicated to many. It is a ‘hot’ medium because the medium excites your visual sense and disregards your mental as well as physical presence. It can impose ideas in an entertaining and engaging manner. This made me understand how ex-tremely powerful the medium is. This medium had a number of pre-cursors which include folk-theatre, photography, painting, entertainment and radio plays. These forms created a need for something like film. There was a need to replicate a single instance of life and live performance repeatedly. This had commercial motives too.
filmlanguage
_ 3.0 credits_ 2 week units
a b e e r g u p t a
During the course, Abeer had us engage in lengthy discussions and debates not on film but everything around film. We brushed up our understanding of world history and traced how global events connected and influenced the evolution of film and cinema. We discussed bollywood, hollywood as well as European cinema at length and the reasons for why certain things identify with these domains of film making. How the medium has been employed and used so differently based on the space and time. In this sense, we very much dived into the social, political, economic and cultural space in which film functioned across time. This gave me a much more mature perspective on film and I understood that movies were never merely entertainment. Our individual assignment had us analyze a film of our choice. It was to be thoroughly explored from the following perspectives: Background– socio political, aesthetic, mythological influenceCentral theme- plot, character evolution, temporal structure, philosophy, Devices- Mis en scene, visual narrative, audio, imagery, imaginationApart from ‘Easy Rider’ which was my selected film for study, we watched a variety of other films and studied them from the same angles as mentioned above. It was interesting to uncover details and depictions that deconstruct stories. For example, deeper dialogues, symbolism, subtly placed elements all point towards a directors genius and clarity of perspective.Watching a film over and over again (with and without sound) made me so strongly sensitive to the what and how of storytelling. Like why was a certain camera angle chosen over another? Why pan? Why a long shot? Every element of a movie had significance and purpose. This would be of great significance in our following course.
elementsofvideo
_ 4.5 credits_ 3 week units
s . b . s a x e n a
As an introduction to our course, S.B Saxena gave us a broad recap of the concept of communication and it’s methods. We were given a small crash assignment to design a poster for the newly released movie ‘Shaitan’. The input I received from this introduction to the course was the importance, for us as visual communicators, to design and deliver an effective message. For that it is essential that we understand our audience. We must know who is communicating what to whom and be ready to prepare and correct our visual methods to suit the need.With this resolution, we dived into understanding the process of video mak-ing. The process happens in the following stages:
Synopsis >Treatment >Script >Storyboard
Video structuring, language, graphic communication, set design and narra-tives were discussed.Taking a step forward, we underwent a series of presentations and demos to understand the tools and technicalities behind video making. Understand-ing the camera, video signals, digital signal processing, special effects,video standards were explained. In addition to this I learnt of method of script writing and storyboarding and the basic equipment necessary for video shoot based on requirement. For example, The difference in undertaking an indoor shot versus an outdoor shoot demands different lighting needs. All this pre-pared us for the assignment.The assignment was to make a one-minute long film. Since our course was coinciding with Monsoon Fiesta 2011, we decided it would be not only rel-evant but also practical to make a promotional video for our visual commu-nication department. Also, our theme for the event was the element of fire, so it gave us a strong conceptual direction to head in.We brainstormed in groups as well as individually and discussed a number of ideas. My concept stemmed from a single line- ‘Play with fire’. To this I associated the various sports events that happen during MF. Connect-ing these two, I visualized a short, engaging, fast-paced ad film for the VC sports contingent. I had certain inspirations and visuals in my mind. So the first step was sketching them out roughly on paper. This was done without paying attention to how it would be shot. Then these visuals were given a certain structure. Every narrative has a beginning, middle and end. I tried to picture how my story could narrate these three parts to the audience without dialogue. The focus of the concept was to create something very graphic through the use of special effects. I felt like fire and the aspect of motion
in sports had a lot of potential. After a rough draft of the script was done, I drew out the storyboard. At this stage I had to visualize the camera and set to great detail. My understanding of film language was applied here. Why am I choosing this camera angle? Why is my frame composed this way? Light-ing? I tried to question these actions as much as possible though in some cases it was hard to justify and I had to stick to the fact that it ‘felt right’. Storyboard demanded detailed specifications of location, time of day, props required, equipment required. It was complete preparation and planning for the actual shoot. This happened over a couple of days. The actual shoot gave me an experience of the practical method. We assigned ourselves roles within the team. Vishalbhai and Bala helped us figure out how to do things right. We dealt with unforeseen circumstances and situations which tested our planning and improvisation and also our team skills.Editing was the most challenging stage of producing the film. We spent five days editing our film. The challenge here was to cook up the perfect dish with all the ingredients but no recipe. We had to deal with the factor of time in the video and position our beginning, middle and end in such a way that it’s digestible and visually appealing. After a basic edit, we overlaid the audio track and corrected the video to match the audio timing. Audio added a lot of value to our communication goal. The stage after that was adding special effects where needed and credit listings. Persistent correction and refinement led us to the final outcome.
Our course intent was to look at Indian storytelling and try to identify their characteristics and try to uncover what it is that makes Indian narratives ‘Indian’?The course seemed like one huge discussion on the Mahabharata and Rama-yana interspersed with films and readings. Personally, I have had no means of understanding or interacting these two epics before this course so I spent time absorbing all that was said during the class debates and sorting the in-puts and information in my head. I noticed some recurring ideas and patterns within these stories and between them. Also, I could connect the storytelling discussions to that which we had in film language. More specifically to Bol-lywood and it’s storytelling fashion.Again we uncovered many layers of meaning within these texts and tried at some level to extract how we could relate to it in our current space and time. Concepts like Dharma and Karma which are so core to the sphere of Indian stories. The movies we saw raised very interesting concerns about how these epics have been contemporarised and more importantly questioning of these interpretations. Our assignment was a written response to some debatable issues that deal with the texts. It was extremely challenging for me to reflect so deeply but I tried to summarize my personal understanding of the course through my answers.
slanarratives
_ 1.0 credits_ 1 week units
a r s h i a s a t t a r
Our course was very open ended from the start. There was a strong sense of ambiguity about what the expected outcome would be. My initial impression was that it would expose us to new media software and technology. Rupesh gave us some inspirational starting points to discover a direction. A series of videos/links/references that spoke of work done in the digital realm today. Surabhi, Anurag and I worked together as a team during this course. We wanted to pursue an area which had a genuine need for design intervention. One in which interactions and interactivity was highly primitive and inhu-man. For this we looked at our own everyday interactions and decided that ‘medi-cine and health’ would be our focus area. Medicine and health is one field that is relevant to every single human today and also one which has been severely ignored inspite of its extreme importance. Our aim was to look at how we could help improve the medical experience for ourselves that could in turn change the perception of healthcare in our country.Our first concept was the Medicard- a card that centralizes your personal medical data right from medical past to bills to insurances to payments. A
interactivemedia _ 4.5 credits
_ 3 week unitsr u p e s h v y a s
systemic plan where interaction and management was simplified to improve accessibility and awareness. However this concept wasn’t the most practical because it brought up many logistical problems related to business, system level changes. So inspite of a well intended direction, we needed to reframe/research our objective and re-strategise our method/application.With some reading up and research, we identified that the big problem with medical care was people’s perception of it. Our objective was to change this dreaded, negative, unknown scientific and painful perspective of medical care into something more positive, personal and individual–empowering. We created models to study how interaction and information work together with the user in a system. Understanding these relationship helped us frame the constraints to execute a suitable output. To achieve this we dealt with three bodies of an individual patients information. Past health records, present health concerns and future health recommendations. I dealt with the concern of connecting and sharing of information to pro-mote patient empowerment. My interface was a social networking website for medical matters. It aims at creating a support system for patients and to facilitate sharing of ones medical concerns and information needs. The process of achieving this outcome involved identifying features, information hierarchy, studying visual affordances, wireframing and prototyping. I also executed a video to demonstrate the user experience.
We were fortunate to have a one–week workshop with Andreas Schneider, an Information and Interface design faculty from IIJD, Japan. The work-shop was extremely intense and rigorous with prolonged contact hours and a very satisfactory output. Anurag, Cindy and I worked together during this workshop. We first had to choose a database or body of information to work with. We chose to use the database of internet usage on campus because we felt it had a lot of potential. Apart from this we also considered the graduate student directory, NDBI, student store. We also thought up some instances where we would procure data but they were not feasible with the time con-straint. Our next step was to brainstorm and come up with ways and ideas in which we could interpret, infer and produce the information in a more relevant and attractive manner. The brief was therefore more information design based. After discussing possibilities with Andreas, we decided upon an aim. We first visualized this aim on paper and then worked towards it.We would use the data of sites accessed by NID users to create popularity charts based on interests. These site url’s were then categorized into 5 parts based on interests. We worked with an existing 25 classifications. So after
oneweekworkshop
_( ) credits_1 week units
a n d r e a s s c h n e i d e r
obtaining the data, we had to analyze it and reduce them to 5. Then the url data had to be organized and kept aside. In the next step, Andreas scripted code to use these url’s to obtain the corresponding IP address. Once this was done, another script was written to obtain the corresponding latitude and longitude of these IP addresses. Thus, in two stages, the url data was converted into geographical locations. These latitudes and longitudes were then written into a kml file which exports a placemark onto Google Earth generating a series of such placemarks. Having done this, we simply used a cylindrical solid to depict the statistic of hits received by that website. Colour established the category differences. Using Google Sketchup, we constructed icons for each category which appeared along with the the sta-tistic bar.The resulting infographic was thus interactive as well as heavily informa-tion based. We functioned with a static database. But the ultimate objective would be to have a dynamic, updated database housing live data reflected the Google Earth representation. The course provided us with exposure to otherwise uncharted territory. Ex-posure to scripting was a huge learning experience. More importantly, An-dreas taught us the value of time and how to work relentlessly while striving for perfection. His work ethic and patience was inspirational.
The intent of this course was to enable us to conceptualize, visualize, create and publish effective, efficient and engaging publications by putting the knowledge of typography, format and layout into practice. The course fo-cused largely on the fundamental knowledge of typography, format and lay-out to meet the need of communication. The approach that Sanjay took right from day 1 was very refreshing. We were each given freedom to choose our assignments based on what excited us. I chose and executed 7 assignments of varying duration. Sanjay gave me creative freedom while guided me at crucial junctures.
Design a jacket for a book from the KMC, which has a lost or damaged one_The book talks about how African Art has been percieved globally through Western eyes as purely decorative art forms and has lost the meaning and cultural significance that it was intended for.The cover communicates these two perceptions. The clean, polished front represents how these statues are treated as mere museum artefacts. The back cover image represents the culture and expressive significance of these statues.I didn’t hesitate to use variety in type.
typographythree _6.0 credits
_3 week units
s a n j a y b a s a v a r a j u
Redesign the NID Graduate certficate_The major issue with the existing certificate for me was the complex struc-ture of information. So my first and most important aim was to resolve it typographically. This involved establishing strong levels of hierarchy which was an exercise in balancing type weight with gray values. The second aspect of interest was that of security. To assure that the certificate is not easily reproducible, I logically employed multiple printing techniques in the design. The background image would be screen printed. The border, text, signatures would be offset printed. The student name,discipline would be digitally printed. The logo at the top will be foil stamped in gold.
Design an abstract paperback cover for Chetan Bhagat’s Revolution 2020: Love, Corruption and Ambition _The book speaks of a projection of India in the year 2020 through the lives of three youth and the love triangle they find themselves in. I decided to try and execute something less Chetan Bhagat-like. Something more atistically mature than his colourful photoshopped covers. I believe the word ‘revolu-tion’ could stand on its own. This gave my concept a strong focus; every-thing else was played down. The treatment represents the dark emotion.Design a pocket size guide on Indian rock bands that belt out vernacular numbersI restructured my brief to some extent. I decided to make a pocket guide for a Bengali association called NMP that launches and promotes regional bands. So it’s purpose was more specific.I started off experimenting with unconventional folds and more complex brochure layout. However, after understanding the audience, context and practicalities of production, I decided upon a more conventional design. A fun part of this assignment was creating an identity and visual language for the organisation because it doesn’t really have one.
Edit and design a booklet for today’s design students based on the con-tent that exists in the book UNIDO– ICSID conference of 1979_After reading the 1979 conference reports and papers, I identified that a lot of it had relevance for today’s designer. At the same time, a lot of it didn’t. Taking that historic content and making it more understandable was fine but there’s so much more that design students today must know.‘NID and Design: Past and Present’ is a fresh perspective. It enriches todays student of NID with relevant extracts from papers written by Eames, Sarab-hai, Vyas and Chatterjee to present day concerns of Indian design that have been elaborated through National Design Policy and articulate essays by modern thinkers like the Visionfirst community. All this in a contemporary, unintimidating yet cultured publication.
Design a commemorative publication for Johnnie Walker that commu-nicates the value of its legacy without any mention of it being a blend of Scotch whiskeyThe question was– how could I present such a strong brand image in a
new way? My assignment was a collaborative branding exercise. I took the concept of ‘walking’ , twisted it and fit it into a rather ironic context. The publication uses the Asian Heart Institute as a medium to communicate the principles that Johnnie Walker stands for. Its a new perspective that quali-fies as corporate social responsibilty as well. It was my first assignment so I spent most of my time getting my typography and layout basics brushed up. A clean, sophisticated appeal.
Design a daily newspaper for Chitrakatha. This assignment made me redefine and rethink my role as a graphic design-er. It meant designing a publication system. To envision and create a frame-work for execution. The priority of process over product. What sections would I have? How do I allocate space? What sections would cater to what audience? What paper would I use? Where can I find it? Who do I need on my team? How can the layout be playful yet structured? How much image how much text? How much fixed content and how much current content?
Sanjay helped me tackle all these questions in the right order so that every-thing fell in place. I hopped back to square one over & over and ran back and forth from concepts to Lalshah to find workable solutions.
The course taught me two very important lessons– The first one was the im-portance of planning and systematic work. Publication design is a complex often non-linear design process. It requires one to set feasible constraints yet creatively explore format, typography and layout. The second most valuable thing I learnt was that a graphic designer is not just a visual thinker, but also a systems thinker. A graphic designer must be capable of not just ‘designing’ a cover or selecting type but getting his hands dirty with issues ranging from brainstorming, conceptualization, visualization, art direction, editing, proof–reading, producing, printing etc. He may assume critical leadership roles in projects and he must be prepared for it.
graphicdesigntwo
_4.5 credits_3 week units
a n i l s i n h a
The intent behind this course is to take forward understanding and skill set acquired in our basic graphic design course and apply it conceptually at a systems level.
Our course was structured more like a project. The brief was to create a set of pictograms to communicate a verbal concept to specifically and Indian audience. We worked in pairs, each selecting an area of study. I worked with Asmina on pictograms related to the field of Science & Technology. After brainstorming, we set two briefs: a set of pictograms to represent subjects in the domain of science and the second was to create a system of pictograms to represent the general processes involved in industrial manufacturing. The first was a more experimental and challenging one while the latter had more concrete application and audience. First I began research on science and it’s evolution within the Indian context. I discovered that a lot of it has mythological references. I drew distinctions based on this research between our interpretation and the western interpreta-tion of science. These led to many abstract ideas that i attempted to translate into abstract forms. The result however was more symbolic and not picture representation. It was after this stage that I identified that the challenge would lie in communicating to someone who has not ‘studied’ science. Thus my pictogram would have to play upon personal experience over formal education. I attempted to communicate the vague concept of the subject through the tangibility of experience that people might have had with it or
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an instance of it. But there was this constant dilemma of the representation being too specific to the act. In any case, the attempt was stimulating.In our second brief, the first level of form explorations were arrived at quite spontaneously and effectively. However the focus lay in developing and refining it. This meant form-specific exploration. For example, the sack. Bal-ance and composition was fairly well resolved. We attempted to use colour to layer meaning but sadly it was a premature move. Before that we needed to look at line weights and how the pictogram could have more weight on its own. Size and stroke weight were varied. We also attempted complete fills but instead stuck to gradient fills instead. Complete fills seemed too heavy to depict a dynamic process like industrial production.At some stage, with each of us working independently it was also proved necessary to set certain rules. This was essential to maintain visual consis-tency. These rules had to be repeatedly iterated and refined as we went for-ward so that even exceptions were accommodated by the system. This issue of consistency was a prime challenge. We were also introduced to material application of such pictographic and standards employed.Overall, the course gave us a more detailed and holistic look at form and context from a more technical perspective.
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Service Design JamThe Victoria–India Service Design Jam conducted at NID during which I participated with three other team mates- Anish, Komal and Raghav. The keyword brief was 'Design for Growth'. It demanded long nights of discussions, brainstorming, making system models and development of our concept. The idea was to look at the quality and value of the idea over then practicality and logistics. The concept behind our service was an organization that centralizes resourc-es for sports and physical activity primarily in urban areas to provide opportunity for all children to engage in healthy exercise. We executed a video to demonstrate our concept. This was a fun experience.
Kyoorius Designyatra 2011This semester I attended Kyoorius designyatra at Goa as a part of our college contingent. The yatra is a platform where select talented indi-viduals and studios from around the world convene to showcase some very inspirational and ground–breaking work. It was valuable exposure to a seriously vast range of design work across mediums, spaces, disciplines and time.
Offset Poster print job for Chitrakatha 2011Being a part of the newsletter team and taking forward my assignment brief to a live scenario, I took up the job of executing two-colour offset printed posters in the NID printing lab for the festival. It was a good live experience of the offset process right from design, layout, prepar-ing colour separation, plate making, printing to cutting. Many thanks to Sekhar, Tarun, Shirishbhai, Bharatbhai, Sachin and the rest of the print-ing lab staff for making it possible.
Artwork by Vivek V Ram | [email protected]
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