Chrome v10 has this subtle new email notification for Gmail which I found to be particularly interesting. I haven’t found any resource online regarding this behavior, so decided to post it here.
I’m curious – is there any API to do this?
A super-interesting conceptual video for collaborative research project Mag+, initiated by Bonnier R&D, into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. Rather than introducing any sort of radical new UI paradigm, the concept relies on a minimalist yet typographically rich approach that mixes the best of print and screen interaction on a tablet-sized device.
Dec 27th, 2009 Dec 27th, 2009 Nov 6th, 2009 Nov 2nd, 2009 Aug 12th, 2009 Aug 10th, 2009 Aug 9th, 2009 OfficeTiger is the story of Joseph ‘Joe’ Sigelman and Randolph ‘Randy’ Altschuler, two unusual Americans who left their high paying jobs in the United States, traveled half away across the globe to India, checked into a hotel in Chennai and started a company. Office Tiger was recently sold for $250 million but their founders continue to work with the company and haven’t checked out of the hotel yet.
Canon illustrates how they prototype camera bodies using balsa wood. Interesting article and a good reference for product designers.
Tomas Nilsson was given an assignment to reinterpret the fairy tale – ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. This was the result
Mar 12th, 2009
Her Morning Elegance is a fabulous stop motion music video by Oren Lavie. The storyboard for the entire video was first created using computer generated 3d characters in place of its actors. Roughly 3225 still photos were shot for the video using one camera hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie. It took 2 days of shooting with live actors to create the 3.5 minute music video frame by frame. Overall, its a wonderful song.
Mar 6th, 2009 
Parle Agro, a Rs.600 crores food and beverage company, has introduced a fresh new packaging for Frooti – India’s largest selling mango drink. The new packaging includes an updated color palette and improved graphics.
Frooti has been one of my favorite drinks since school days. During that time, it used to come in this dark green and yellow, almost squarish type of package that made it stand out from all the other beverages on the shelf. It was small, highly desirable and tasted delicious. Its been a long journey for Frooti since, and the brand seems to be keeping up with the times.
The mango at the centre of the new package sports a headset, presumably as a sign of today’s iPod generation who are extremely mobile and connected. I don’t know why, but there seems to be a clever uncanny resemblance with the Apple brand – notice the mango curve on the right along with the positioning of the leaf. I can’t help but draw parallels with Apple iTunes for some strange reason.
Frooti is available in 65ml and 200ml TetraPaks. Also available in PET bottles of 250ml, 500ml, 1000ml and 1500ml.
Somehow the lighter yellow shade of the new packaging gives the impression of a citrus drink (lemonade) instead of mango. On the positive side, the Frooti typeface seems to have had a minor refinement giving it a more three dimensional feel with its subtle drop shadow.
In terms of taste, its been more or less the same for the past couple of years. I remember relishing the true taste of mango in Frooti more than a decade ago. Unfortunately, at times I get an artificial taste if not chilled properly. The price of the new Frooti has also increased by 20%. The new drink now retails at Rs.12. Its a clear sign to compete with the other mango drinks from Real and Tropicana which retail at about Rs.15. It would be interesting to see how Parle Agro can capitalize and gain marketshare with the new packaging of its most valuable beverage brand.
Feb 27th, 2009 
Three – Tom Alter, Pascal Seiger and Suresh performed at NID Heritage Campus last evening. Alter recited and performed in English and Urdu. Seiger created magic on his Saxophone and Suresh danced to classical Ottam Thullil style using mythological narratives.
It was a fairly nice evening put together by three diverse performances. I particularly enjoyed the ‘Father & Son’ play by Alter. It was a fairly simple and predictable story, but his expressions and acting were classic. Seiger improvised on his saxophone which I initially found difficult to listen to, but when he explained the techniques he used, I realized how difficult it must’ve been. Suresh was interesting, particularly for his antics on stage in the midst of his performance.
The acts were followed by a small informal baatein session. Tom spoke about the play – its beginnings, how the three of them met at Adi Shakti and also shared some experiences of their previous performances. What follows below is an excerpt from the talk, one where Alter talks about his views on journalism and Slumdog Millionaire.
Many thanks to Dr. D.J. Mathew for sharing these stunning photographs.
You’ve acted in so many movies. How did you deal with being typecasted?
I’ve not been typecast. The very first film in which I appeared was a film called Charas with Dharmendra and Hema Malini. I played Dharmendra’s boss. I was famous in entire Punjab in those days because Dharmendra was god in the Punjab region. Yeh to Dharamji ka boss bana. I played a very positive role of a interpol officer who would speak Hindi and usme sher-o-shairi bhi thi – that was my very first film. So since the very first film, I’ve never been typecast. Its the work of journalists who refuse to do any research; its very convenient and easy for them to write, “Oh, Pascal is a Frenchman who came and lived in Auroville and therefore he’s like this”, “Suresh is from Kerala and he cannot speak Hindi, so he’s like that”, “Tom Alter is angrez” and so on. Journalists are the laziest professionals in this entire country. They dont do any research. Its not a battle for me, because I’ve never fought it. I’ve just done what I wanted to do. I came into films because I wanted to be the next Rajesh Khanna.
I remember when I applied to the Film Institute, (aap logon ko woh zamana yaad nahin hai – 1972), every second top film actor was coming out of the Film Institute. To get into the Film Institute was… once you got into it, you won the key to heaven. I auditioned just like everybody else. There were more than 1000 of us in Delhi for the auditions and out of that 1000, two of us were selected. I happened to be one. I got in purely on merit and nobody asked me are you american, Indian or angrez. I’ve never cared and I’ve never had to give such a long speech as I just have. Its been fantastic. and I’m not been typecast. I’ve been extremely happy.
On stage, for the last ten years, I’ve played Maulana Azad, Sehgal, Arjun, etc. Its been fantastic. So when these journalists say … I remember when I went to Bhopal.. I’ll tell you how bad it is with these journalists. I was doing this play ‘Maulana Azad’ in Bhopal. They had put up a big banner -’Tom Alter in and as Maulana Azad’. They had put these posters all over. We were having a press conference, which I didn’t want to attend, but one which I was forced to. One big journalist from Bhopal, I cant recollect his name, he said – “Mr. Tam, why you only play Angrez”. I looked at him and told him “aap ke peeche jo poster laga hai, yeh kya kisi angrez ka hai?” He looked -”Oh, this is play on Maulana Azad, so you are playing Lord Mount Batten?” Uske baad, maine woh gaaliyan di us aadmi ko, jo mai aapke samne nahi de sakta hoon. And I said – “You get out, before I kill you”. This is the level of intelligence, commitment and research that we have to deal with day in and day out with journalists and I’m not patient any more. I get very very angry.
We’ve heard that you’ve recently made some interesting comments on Slumdog Millionaire. Can you share it with us?
I dont want to get passionate. I think Slumdog Millionaire as a film is exploitive, clever, predictable and mediocre. How in the world it won eight oscars, I dont have a clue. I really dont have a clue. I’m stunned by it. What worries me is not that it won eight oscars but in the great city of Bombay, very few of the big directors and producers have had the guts to stand up and say that its not a good film. Whether its Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Karan Johar – they’ve all said that this was a great moment in India cinema. Its not even ‘indian cinema’, so how can it be a great moment? Its not Indian film. Somebody said to me, a journalist – ‘oh India should be very proud, India has won eight oscars’. India has not won eight oscars, Indians have won eight oscars, not India! Its not our film. But that to me, is not the issue. The issue is what I’ve said – its a mediocre film. And the other thing that gets me very upset, (please take this in the right light) the scene where the car is stripped of its four wheels and everything in front of the Taj Mahal. Now a car bought in by two foreign tourists is stripped of its four wheels and sound system in broad daylight in front of the Taj?? What are we talking about? Then that little kid as he’s getting bashed up, says ‘you wanted to see India? This is real India’. Now if that film was made by Karan Johar, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Yash Chopra, Aditya Chopra, Subash Ghai, the Shiv Sena would have gone into their house the next morning and burnt it down because you’re blaspheming India. Nobody has said a damn thing because it was made by an angrez. Now they’re wrong to say anything, but where do we stand? Let’s take a stand and say what is quality and what is not quality? All of us can name ten films – Hindi films, Malayalam films, French films, we’ve seen in the last one year that are a hundred times better Slumdog.
I’m happy for the individuals who won the Oscars. I spoke to Gulzar today – Gulzar is a very dear friend of mine. Maine kaha, “Gulzar bhai mubarak ho”. “Tom bhai, mai kya kahoon aur kya na kahoon? Bas mujhe milgaya”. Maine kahan, “Likte waqt aapne ye kabhi socha ki Oscar milega?” He said – “Oscar kya, maine kabhi award ke bare mein nahi socha. Ab dekhiye kya mila.”
When we have to, in all walks of life, whether its tonight’s performance or Slumdog Millionaire or whatever you’re designing, lets stand up and if something is bad, lets say its bad. If something is good, lets say its good. And, Slumdog is a bad film!
I’m sorry, even if had not won a single award, I would’ve said the same thing. Its a bad film. I see nothing outstanding except for the performance of the young kids and the young kids were fantastic. And that Dev Patel was very good. The young guy from Film Institute, my institute, has won an award for sound mixing. But has any paper said that two other people also won the award with him? No. Har akhbar mein yahi hai ki hindustani ko oscar award mila. Bhai do aur angrez bhi to the saath mein us award main. Has any paper said that? We have to face the truth. Speak the truth. Thats why I love this play – Maulana Azad. He’s speaking his truth in it. He had the guts to stand up and tell people that they’re wrong. We have to do that. If we cannot stand up in a public function and say that Slumdog is a mediocre film, where are we headed; because now Slumdog has now become the… benchmark. And why are Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai and Karan Johar saying.. because all they’re seeing is the next fifty million dollar project would come to them. Yash Chopra has lost, going on, two hundred crores of rupees in the last two years as his films have been a flop. ‘Coz he’s been making absolute rubbish. Which is the last film that the great Yash Chopra actually made himself? Veer Zara? I’m sorry, Veer Zara was produced by him but not directed. What was the last film he directed himself? I’m a big fan of his old films. Can anybody tell me? Silsila! When was that made? Bees sal pehle! (twenty years ago) What was the last great film that Subhash Ghai made? That was twenty years ago. What was the last great film that Vidhu Vinodh Chopra made? He made one – Parinda. Bees saal pehle. All these guys – great cinema idols/icons of the Bombay Film Industry, because of the corporate nonsense they got involved in, none of these great guys have actually made films themselves for like twenty years. Yash Chopra has not even made a film. These people are desperate and suddenly Slumdog Millionaire comes on – wow! Its just the same theory that – whats her name – Jitendra’s daughter, Ekta Kapoor – Make mediocrity because its easy to make and its not expensive. Publicize it. Make sure that nothing else can get to compete with it and then walk home with crores and crores of rupees. I am frightened to death that this is whats gonna happen with our film industry after Slumdog. Infact, in the last five years we’ve made some outstanding hindi films. Commercial. Outstanding. But I’m afraid this whole silsila which had started with Lagaan and has gone upto.. well, I would say the latest…of I mean so many films that you can take the name of, but … something like Rock On. This whole silsila is gonna come to a stop because they are all far better films than Slumdog. Just because Slumdog has made money and won awards, people are gonna start making Slumdogs.
We were making films like Slumdogs back in the 80′s. What type of films made Amitabh famous? Slumdog. Twenty five years ago! Its beyond my imagination. And I want somebody who’s worked in that film to have the guts to stand up and say what I’ve just been saying. They all know it in their hearts but will they say? I want Saurabh Shukla or Irfan Khan, brilliant actors, who in this film are bufoons; I want one of them to stand up and say that this film is lousy. But will they do it? No. Taka – all they can see is money.
Sorry, I said I wouldn’t be compassionate about it. I do think its a very dangerous moment in Hindi Cinema, because we’re just coming from a very low moment and in the last 5-10 years we’ve made some absolutely brilliant films. I’m afraid that its all gonna go back to mediocrity and I hope and pray that it doesn’t.
Feb 25th, 2009 Feb 20th, 2009 Feb 18th, 2009 Feb 17th, 2009 A new twitter plugin for Safari with URL shortener.
Power of Ideas is a Times Group campaign to promote entrepreneurship.
The invited members for the Ahmedabad edition were -
*Live Updates*
14:00 – Dr. Barua, Mr. Khambhatta, Mr. Soparkar and Mr. Shroff have just come it. Pleasantries are exchanged and some jokes are shared.
Panel discussions will begin shortly. We are still waiting for Mr. Patel to come in.
14:05 – Mr. Khambatta says 7 – 8 % growth is good for the economy and society.
14:10 – I just gave my introduction. Reporters are sitting in the room and warming up the discussions while we wait for Mr. Patel.
14:12 – Mr. Patel just walks in. Okay, we’re set now!
14:14 – Mr. Ashwin, Chief of Bureau – Economic Times gives a brief intro on the Power of Ideas. Question to Dr. Barua – ‘Do you think there is a slowdown? Are you scared of it?’
14:16 – Dr. Barua – “Yes, there is a slow down and it will affect the lower rung of the society.” 2009-10 will be the real test and it is likely to go down even further.
14:17 – Mr. Khambatta – We look at the consumers directly. In India there is a great deal of consumption. We have to ensure that financial markets should be better aligned. We cannot distance ourself from the Word Economic situations. Indian Govt should look into more transparent regulations instead of less. There’s a demand across all sectors and I dont think there’s a recession. The whole issue is with the financial mess around the globe. We should strive to come out of this mess. We should see a better growth (7-8%) by next year!
14:20 – Mr.Shroff – Our services are aligned with the American and European markets. I’m not scared about the adversity. True mettle of companies show how they steer out of adversities. These are the good times to put proper structures in place. Karl Marx is being revived. I think this is a great time for newer startups.
14:25 – Mr. Soparkar – We have 75% exports. We are far better than our competitors in European and American markets. The slowdown will definitely hit the demand. This is time to reduce our costs, better align our manpower and put things in place. We believe we will come out as a winner when the turmoil ends.
14:27 – Mr. Patel – Every business will get affected. There will be some impact across industries. Pharma companies will also be impacted but it will be minimal. There’s is an opportunity for our industry in this slowdown.
Ashwin – Do you see a brakes on acquisition?
Mr. Patel – Good assets will have acquisitions. If you are cash rich, there’s always opportunities to look at.
14:30 – Mr. Ashwin – We would like to know a brief about your journey. If you had some cash with you right now, would you get into startup mode once again?
14:31 – Mr. Khambatta – Rasna has always been an entrepreneurial company. Just recently we launched Devils’ Workshop which is a new product for Indian market. India as a country does not eat doughnuts. But we still went ahead. We as a company believe that we should try different things. Its good to fail.
Youth of today have better ideas than our existing managers. But these youth lack a lot of things – commercialization, scale and business model. For eg, in todays paper there was a story about a student who won a bplan competition with a syringe. But there are aspects that these people dont understand.
14:35 – Mr. Shroff – e-infochips is about 12-13 years old. Its a services business which began as a bootstrapped operation. We have expanded to over 700 professionals so far. We have already funded 2 ideas – one in India and one in US more or less in our space. Tough times are better times to start companies. Less money is a great strength to test your ideas. In tough times, everyone tries to be very frugal. All of these things contribute to a higher probability of success in tough times.
14:35 – Mr. Soparkar – Funds will never be an issue for good ideas anywhere. We are looking at increasing our services with more value added products.
14:38 – Mr. Patel – We are a 55 year old company started by my father. This is the best time to invest in new ideas and also acquire. This is the best time to get talent as it will be more easily available. You are forced to think about market expectations. IBM and Apple are some of the best examples of companies that have steered from worst times.
Real globalization will begin after we move away from this crisis.
Ashwin – The cleansing process is whats happening now.
14:41 – Dr. Barua – If we dont do anything in the window of opportunity that we have now, we will go down even further.
14:42 – Mr. Soparkar – Fraud is different and regulations are different.
14:43 – Mr. Khambatta – Our banks are one of the best regulated in the world.
Mr. Patel – This is the time to flex your muscles. We as a company decided not to do any layoffs as its more difficult to get jobs. Any company has 10-20% of cost as a personnel cost. Look at your business strategy – get rid off assets that are becoming a liability.
If you’ve got talent gaps, this is the best time to get the best talent and build the organization going forward.
This is the really the time to innovate. You have to think differently to become really successful.
Ashwin – Do you think this is the time for more entrepreneurs?
14:48 – Mr. Shroff – There is a good chance for quality entrepreneurs rather than quantity. Mentions about Bill Gates. Entrepreneurship has to do with something “within” an individual.
Mr. Khambatta – You should first take a job and learn at somebody else’s expense and then become and entrepreneur.
Dr.Shroff – Great time to cleaning up of operations.
14:54 – Mr. Soparkar – No college teaches entrepreneurship. They only teach business. Entrepreneurs needs to have a drive to do so many things. A business man will always be comfortable.
Mr. Khambhatta just gave me some gyaan on going the incubator way. Why dont you use the incubator at NID??
Ashwin – Are you happy with the incubation happening at the moment?
15:00 – Mr. Patel – There is a demand for more and I think the govt will come out with more.
Ashwin – What are the hurdles for entrepreneurship?
15:04 – Mr. Soparkar – Unless an idea is well communicated to the masses, it becomes a little difficult.
15:05 – Mr. Shroff – We should first look at all the opportunities for an entrepreneur. All CEOs begin to look at cost cutting measures during recession. If you’ve got an idea that is capital intensive, then it becomes a little difficult. What we lack, at least in Ahmedabad, is people who are role models and those who can mentor the young guys.
If you have passion to build a company, then you will go a long way. If your aim is to only make money, then you will get tired at some point. The hurdle for an entrepreneurship will be the individual himself.
15:09 – Mr. Khambhatta – The hurdle for an entrepreneurship is the govt. beuracracy thats involved in starting a venture. Incubators should make administration easy for entrepreneurs and leave them to do their work.
15:11 – Mr. Patel – Idea is basically innovation. Unfortunately, in our institutions there’s no freedom for ideas that are generated by individuals. Idea generation should be encouraged by institutes.
15:13 – Dr. Barua – Patenting is a western concept which is being imbibed by Indian companies now.
15:14 – Mr. Patel – There was an act that was passed in the US ( doesn’t remember which one) was instrumental in creating American entrepreneurs in institutions. There should be a legislative change to generate more ideas in India.
Dr. Barua briefly talks about Media and Entertainment course in PGP-X and Aamir Khan‘s recent visit to IIM A.
15:15 – Dr. Barua – The education system needs to changed to encourage more innovations and creativity.
15:16 – Mr. Soparkar – We should change society. We should teach our children to question. We always kill curiosity. Indian society has fundamental weaknesses. We are heroes but we cannot write. Thats a reason why we don’t patent a lot.
You should be interested in what you are doing.
15:19 – Mr. Khambhatta – India’s strength lies in its masses. Simple, low price ideas will be a great one. These are ones that fetch better and faster returns. People dont have basic access to clean water. Think of a cheap water purifier that masses can buy. These are ideas that are yet to find competent solutions.
15:21 – Mr. Patel – You need to have a niche idea. You need to differentiate yourself from others – you will get your success.
15:24 – Mr. Shroff – Ideas are dime a dozen. What makes for an entrepreneur is the execution irrespective of the failures that come by.
Ashwin – Is there a stigma for failures in India?
15:26 – Mr. Patel – If you don’t learn to fail then you’re not an entrepreneur.
15:27 – Mr. Khambhatta – Schooling system needs to change.
Theres a new question from Jitendra of Ahmedabad
15:31 – Mr. Khambhatta – Big busines today is small car.
Ashwin – Any cracker of idea in your sector, Mr. Shroff?
15:32 – Mr. Shroff – Renewable energy, infrastructure, educational are all opportunity areas. 60% of our population can’t read or write. There’s an opportunity there. There’s a company called educon that is working on this idea. There are always opportunities.
15:34 – Mr. Khambhatta – New ideas should align with existing or future trends. If you’ve got an idea and there’s no trend for them in the society, then its likely to not succeed.
15:35 – Mr. Patel – Outsourcing is going to be a big opportunity for the pharma industry.
15:36 – Mr. Soparkar – Entrepreneurs should not look at export to start with, in the chemical industry. Indian companies serving other indian companies will start booming up sooner than later.
15:38 – Mr. Shroff – IT is becoming a utility. There is a lot of opportunities in how to deploy IT. For eg, how do I use a mobile to deliver innovative healthcare? Fundamental trend – average selling price gets halved every year. You start thinking there and try and validate that in the market.
15:42 – Mr. Soparkar – Funds are always available for a good idea.
15:44 – Dr. Barua – [To Jitendra] – Yes, the education system definitely has to change.
15:45 – Mr. Patel – You need to have clear focus in your business. Venturing into different business will only lessen your focus.
15:47 – Mr. Khambhatta – Entrepreneurship has to be taught. Youngsters should be taught how the industry works. We have to work very closely with academia to encourage such activities.
15:50 – Mr. Soparkar – I went to US and met a 7th grade student. These girls were asked to create a county. They had to worry about the infrastructure, how to organize transportation, etc. These things make their imaginations go wild. In India, on the other hand, our youngsters are taught to rote learn.
15:54 – Mr. Khambhatta – We don’t encourage entrepreneurs because they will become our competitors. We encourage ideas in our organization as a contest every year. These ideas are then selectively imbibed in our organization.
15:55 – Mr. Patel – We do have idea generation workshops in our organizations. We spend time to assess the situation and come out with a way to steer away from it. We will definitely get affected by the global crisis. It will stay for another 2 year. Given that, we are running offsites to discuss what we need to do to survive these tough times. You need to remain prepared at all times.
16:00 – Its over.
Thank you all for pouring in with your questions and participating in this panel.
Feb 4th, 2009 Feb 4th, 2009 Feb 3rd, 2009 Dec 17th, 2008 Dec 9th, 2008 This is the text of the convocation address video by Kumaramangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group, broadcast at NID Heritage Campus on December 7, 2008.
Governing council members, Mr. Succena, Faculty, Graduating Students, Ladies and Gentlemen. First and foremost, let me apologize for not being there with you in person. Keen as I was to visit your school, one of India’s finest institutions, unfortunate circumstances have compelled me to stay away. As a start, let me state quite frankly that I envy all of you who can draw, paint and design. Sadly, I wasn’t born with the kind of talent that you have but I do have great admiration for your skills. And after years in business I do know that good design is not only good for business, it positively impacts the way we live.
When I took over at the Group, there were two people, two men among others who really inspired me – Steve Jobs of Apple Computers and Akio Morita, the cofounder of Sony. Both of them are survivors who braved tragedies to come out strong. And interestingly for you, their most important ally was good design. Let me tell you two stories from their lives that inspired me. Steve Jobs dropped out of college and ended up attending a calligraphy class purely out of interest. He obviously didn’t know at that time, that ten years later when he designed the first Macintosh, he would incorporate all of that into the Mac. The Mac as we know was the first computer with beautiful typography. It had multiple typefaces and proportionately spaced fonts. So if it was not for Steve Jobs interest in graphic arts, we would not have computers looking the way they do today. If you work anywhere in the graphic arts – advertising, design, photography, product design or even jewelery design and architecture, the person who profoundly changed the way you work is Steve Jobs. I’m sure those of you who work on Mac or use an iPod will agree with me. The other is Akio Morita. He started Sony in a bombed out headquarters after World War 2. Realizing long before others that design would be the key to success in the future, he gave his designers a leading role in his organization, and look at the rewards that they have brought in. In short, what I mean to say is, that a lot of the companies I admire have great design at their core. And today more and more companies across the world are realizing this and design is finally getting its due.
So what really is the role of the designer today? The role of design and the designer in today’s business environment has changed. The historical role that the designer had was that of being a beautifier at the end of the value chain. “Hey thats my great idea. Come and make it look good.” That’s what the big inventors condescendingly said. While designers still added tremendous aesthetics and appeal that went a long way in reversing the products desirability and value, it was still only a peripheral role. Fortunately for me, for you and for the world the role of design and designers has since undergone a drastic change. Let us take a look at the evolved role of the designer today.
Gone are the days when designers were treated as mere beautifiers; people who were called in as a mere after-thought, simply to add the final fit and polish. Gone are those days when in the 1990s, industries like consumer electronics and packaged goods, treated design as a later stage add-on. Today companies look on designers as ideators – professionals who are at the core of the business and involved in all aspects of the business right from the start up to the finish. Hence its important for you to be aware and accept that the company and the people you will work for, will expect you to play a larger role in the organization. What this also means is that you will get a lot more important and at the end of the day, you will have the greater satisfaction of a job well done.
Moving forward, what really are the vehicles, parameters and requirements for a new-age organization to excel in? It needs at the outfit a strong and cohesive image and identity. With that in mind, it need to get its product, people, processes and the environment to flow in sync with the image that it has created for itself. Let me illustrate how design today can play a central role in each of these critical requirements by taking a few examples from the Aditya Birla Group.
Building the image and identity of a company is the foremost part of design management. The graphic communication or visual identity of a company contributes significantly to its potential. Twelve years ago, the Aditya Birla Group, as a cohesive entity, did not exist. As in, there was no one strong brand identity tying all the group companies together. What we hadn’t checked were many companies and diverse industries, each of whom had their own logos and their own established identities. The common man and even some stake-holders did not even know that these were Aditya Birla Group companies. This meant that the Group were not reaping the rewards and equities from these companies and at the same time companies were not reaping the equity of being a part of the Aditya Birla Group. Hence was felt the need for a strong brand identity that would unify the company under one banner – The Aditya Birla Group’s banner. As far as the stake-holders were concerned, we also had to change perceptions of the Aditya Birla Group. Considering all of this, we decided it was time for the Aditya Birla conglomerate to re-group, re-focus and re-position. We developed a whole branding strategy with key long term objectives were to inspire confidence amongst investors and share holders, retain and attract quality talent, boost employee morale and transform ABG into a well known, recognized, high value corporate brand not just in India, but across the world. Designing our logo was the first step in the communication plan and it helped us lay the foundation for all future brand building.
We christened our logo – Aditya, the rising sun. Aditya also stands for Aditya Birla, the name of our founder. It also means the sun in sanskrit and even as the son which is after the world, it is a universal symbol – a symbol of positivity, life, growth, prosperity and leadership – all the things that we stand for in the Aditya Birla Group. Take a look at our logo. The sun rises over two circles. The inner circle is the internal universe of the group. On the other hand, the outer circle is the external universe of opportunities. The inner beams converge to form a focused core and the outer beams depict the brightness and the expanse of the sun. The logo depicts energy, solidity, vision, progress and of course, our Group’s omnipresent spirit. The next step was to carry the logo across to our group companies and therefore create a synergy. This was not as simple as it seems since a number of companies had an already established visual identity of their own – companies such as Grasim and Hindalco. We had to synergize the group logo and the company logo without compromising on the equity our group companies have earned over the years. This is where the role of design was crucial.
The next task was to change the perceptions of the Group, both internally and externally though communication that respected one Group. This began with the creation of a Brand Identity Style Guide which was given to all our companies to follow, after which we sought to change perceptions internally and externally through multiple communication interfaces; be it to top managers, share holders, employees, investors or even to the public at large. We then followed this up with our mass communication campaign, ‘Taking India To The World’, which as you may remember positioned us as a global leader with a world-wide presence
Not only did we achieve what we set out to, we at times exceeded it. Today the Aditya Birla Group’s image is at an all time high. I’m proud to say that we are placed among India’s most respected companies, we attract some of the best talent in the industry, our revenues and earnings across the world has risen exponentially and what is truly notable is that the total awareness of our Group went up by nearly 100% in key metros. Today the equity of our Group has risen manifold both nationally and internationally. Design helped us weave our Group into an integrated whole and it no doubt played an important role in us recognized as a truly global Indian multinational.
Let me take another example from our Group which probably you’re familiar with. This illustrates how design helps create powerful and cutting edge communication. The brand is Idea and the role of design-thinking was to bring up a human-centric approach to cellular technology. In the clutter of mobile communication that largely dealt with technology’s snazzy but rather useless features, we leveraged design approach of seeing the category of mobiles from a socio-cultural eye – interpreting mobiles as an Idea for social empowerment and for change.
We as a Group, entered the retail sector last year. Currently we have 660 super marts and 2 hyper marts under the brand name more. Today more is already one of the largest players in the retail market. Private labels or our own ‘in-house brands’ as they’re called are an important product offering. They have two key objectives. One is to provide great value for money to our customers. And Two, and importantly, to create brand differentiation and loyalty to our stores. Our private labels are not known brands and we do not spend money advertising and promoting them. However the sale of private labels earn greater profit for more than what branded products do. So while private labels are a challenge, they are also very important. Packaging design plays a vital role in the retail space. In supermarkets, shelves are cluttered with various similar products from different companies. So, the only thing that separates you from the competition is your design of package. And as I’ve mentioned, since we don’t advertise private labels, the brand name and packaging design has to work really hard to induce ‘pick me up’. Hence, the packaging design challenge for Aditya Birla retail was to create the correct perception in relation to the price, quality and packaging of our private labels. To ensure shelf space, attract customers to pick up our products and easily communicate the essence of the brand, and all this in one glance.
Lets take a look at some of the more products and their design. Feasters is a food brand from our private label. We carefully chose this name because it had dual connotation – of a celebration and of a tasty meal. It clearly talked to people who wanted to feast. We wanted the Feaster packaging to shout out from the shelf. So our packaging used vibrant colors and mouth watering food shots to communicate great taste. It appealed to our young target audience and people were immediately attracted to it.
In the case of ‘Maha Saver’, it had to stand out as a no-frills brand so the name instantly spelled out the savings. The packaging design used a clean minimal background, simple font and a red circle as a mnemonic for savings across categories. Even the packaging material we use was basic and simple in order to keep the costs down and to convey how economically priced the ‘Maha Saver’ brand is.
As we know, the FMCG soap and detergent category is very performance oriented. To show how our brand more than delivers on its promise, we chose the name ‘110%’. The size and bold color of the logo were very prominent on the packaging and reinforced our brand promise. Our brand’s key functional benefits were emphasized on the pack.
So what did design achieve for our brand? I’m happy to say that Feasters noodles has actually achieved 55% of Maggie noodles sales from more in less than a year. Also for every 100 bottles of Kissan ketchup sold, we sell 88 bottles of Feasters ketchup. ‘Kitchen Promise’ another more private label brand and ‘more pickels’ together out sells Mother’s Recipe by more than two and a half times and ‘Maha Saver’ has been dominating the competition across categories. I’m very proud to say that this year Aditya Birla Retail was conferred the Golden Spoon Award for the most admired private label food and grocery brand.
Design has also helped up in seeing, what would be relatively mundane for the general public but, are of huge interests to businessmen like us – process efficiencies and savings. Let me take you through an example from Novelis, our company that makes aluminum roll products on how design has proved efficiencies for Jaguar.
Traditionally the bodies of Jaguar cars have been made of steel. In 2002, Novelis partnered with Jaguar to become its technology partner. What Novelis did was to totally revolutionize the Jaguar. Novelis used aluminum to design the Jaguar XK making it ultra-modern and strong. I think one of our biggest design innovations was the adhesive bonding of the aluminum panels in combination with the rivets for the Jaguar. Novelis has also worked with Jaguar on every stage of its development; starting from the initial design going right through to the product development stage and finally we took it to completion till the end manufacturing stage. As a result of this design innovation, Novelis managed to reduce the weight of the Jaguar by as much as 40-50%. The car now had high torsional stiffness that gave it improved handling. It had increased joint fatigue resistance that gave it structural integrity. And even more important, it had excellent crash energy management and field resistance that made it a safer and more durable car. In addition, this simple change in design led to a chain reaction of benefits to the car maker, like reduced maps, better fuel economy, improved performance, less emissions, 100% recycling and improved safety. So, thanks for some innovative designs at Novelis, the Jaguar XJ and XK today are lighter and roomier and yet larger. They are easier to handle, accelerate faster, deliver well on fuel economy, emit less green house gases, offer greater safety and they are more affordable than competitive car brands.
As we all know, today protecting and preserving our environment has become critically important. This is something that I’m personally very concerned about and as a Group, our companies make a concerted effort to see where we can do our bit to minimize emissions, recycle and conserve. Design, we believe can play a key role in helping the environment and a classic example of this is our Grasim cement factory.
Lastly, there is the inspirational role that design and designers can play. This is the story of the Gandhi museum. As some of you may know, our family shared a long association with Mahatma Gandhi. He spent his last days in the Birla House, which was our family home in Delhi. In his honor, we have converted the Birla House into the eternal Gandhi multimedia museum. Instead of filling the museum with exhibits that visitors passively view, we designed the museum using hi-tech digital 3D exhibit to capture the attention of and to inspire the youth. Our museum presents the story of Gandhi-ji in an arresting interactive digital way. Its the first of its kind multimedia museum. Whats really interesting is that everyone from scholars, artists, craftsmen, to electronic designers, digital artists and animators have worked on this museum to keep Mahatma Gandhi’s vision alive. Visitors can actually walk around and interact with the exhibit. These are some of the exhibits you will find at the museum -
The shadow charka is a exhibit where Gandhiji’s charka casts a shadow. When visitors touch the shadow it changes into a quote of Gandhi.
The children’s vision exhibit is unique in that visitors can peep into a kaleidoscope to explore stories of Gandhi. These stories have been specially composed by children.
In the freedom songs exhibit, each time a visitor strikes a sing on the harp, songs like the National Anthem and “Sare Jahan Se Achcha” start to play.
Well, the future truly belongs to the designers simply because good designers and of course, good entrepreneurs listen to their eye. They see future possibilities and thats why the future belongs to them. The world you visualize today is the world we all will live in tomorrow. The cars we drive, the houses we live in, the clothes we wear, the gadgets that makes our lives easy – everything starts with the designer. You. So continue to dream and dream well because the future really is in your hands.
Finally, to conclude, I would like to offer you my take on the qualities you need for success once you step out of this fine institution and into the real world. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need weird shoes or long ponytails to be a design thinker. In my view there are these five straits that designers should have to be designers of the future.
Collaborating, assimilating, enterprising, experimenting and being hopeful – interestingly all these traits are integral to the melting pot that is India. Its time for you to take it to the world and to make us proud.
I wish you all the very best.
Thank you.