Ep. 288 - What is Plork? with Nitesh and Sonal (7th Anniversary)

Ep. 295 - Woman Graphic Designers with Ruchita Madhok

Tune into this 7th episode of a 10-part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Ruchita Madhok. Audiogyan creates this series in partnership with @godrejdesignlab

Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, its daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating design world.

Ruchita has been a guest on episode 159, named “Designing a Visual Guide”. The poetry of everyday life inspires her. Through the mediums of cyanotype printmaking and drawing, she explores the conversations between nature, the cosmos, and the inner self. An award-winning communication designer, Ruchita brings a passion for print, photography, and illustration to her work as she plays with words and images to create works of art, books, and zines. Ruchita is the Founder and Director of Kahani Designworks and built Storycity, Imaginative books, maps, and guides for curious people.

We talk about what it means to be a graphic designer, in India, as a woman, and how you grow as a designer, many things to unpack.

Questions

1. Who is a graphic designer? What's the job? You engage yourself in Poetry, Literature, and many other things beyond design. How critical it is for any creative endeavor?
2. How do you see growth in this discipline? What does an entry-level designer do in Graphic Design? A person with 30-40 years of experience like Paula Scher or Milton Glaser - Will they be still hands-on like a performing artist? How do you see the graphic design career ladder?
3. I understand that Design has many aspects, including communication, solving problems, and more… Particularly in graphic design, it’s communication, right? What is making you move (or have moved you) from Graphic Design and infographics to ‘art’ and more niche sort of storytelling? Why have you started exploring cyanotype printmaking and more?
4. Kahani Studioworks and StoryCity believe in collaboration? Do you hire? What do you seek in people with whom you hire or collaborate?
5. How does your trio identity as an Indian woman, a designer, and now an artist influence your artistic style and perspective?
6. Do you see a distinct thread running through your work that speaks about your Identity or Indian-ness? How do you harness it to give it a personality or avoid it stereotyping your work? What would you share as a tip/advice for young designers?
7. Do you think your design work / or art needs to impact society? Should it influence fellow and young designers? You have been taking a lot of workshops and are interested in education. Tell me a little bit about it?
8. Ethical practices and sustainable design choices are now becoming mainstream buzzwords. Where are you on that and what are your principles in this dynamic world of Graphic Design?
9. In today's digital age, where people have been looking to increase the number of followers on social media, what advice would you give to Indian Designers (especially women)? What do they chase? What can make their work stand out or be impactful in this noisy world? How long can it take to find one’s voice?
10. The design field is vast and multifaceted. How would you encourage Indian women designers to explore their unique strengths and passions to find their niche within the industry?

References

1. https://www.instagram.com/ruchitamadhok/?hl=en-gb
2. https://www.ruchitamadhok.com/
3. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruchitamadhok/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&originalSubdomain=in
4. https://www.behance.net/ruchita
5. https://www.kahanidesignworks.com/
6. https://homegrown.co.in/homegrown-creators/ruchita-madhoks-botanical-cyanotypes-are-vibrant-interpretations-of-the-poetry-of-light
7. https://audiogyan.com/2020/01/22/ruchita-madhok/
8. https://www.storycity.in/

Ep. 294 - Role of the Creator in Games with Dhruv Jani

Tune into this 6th episode of a 10-part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Dhruv Jani.

This series is created by Audiogyan in partnership with @godrejdesignlab

Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, its daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design.

Dhruv Jani joins us on Audiogyan as we talk about the role of the creator in the world of Game Design. Dhruv Jani is an artist at, and the founder of the independent game studio: Oleomingus. He studies postcolonial writing and interactive fiction and explores the use of video game spaces as possible sites of protest and reparation.

Questions

1. What does a game designer do? What does it mean to be a game designer? How can one become a game designer? What skills are required? Which other professions are required while designing a game?
2. Can you give a quick snapshot of how games came into existence and how they evolve into today’s video games and mobile games? A short history of sorts?
3. What are the broad categories/genres of games and which ones do you deal with? What’s special about your genre?
4. Your games often start with a narrative. What comes first when you think of a game? An event, a discovery of the past or a speculation of the future? An event? Where and how does any of your game start for Oleomingus?
5. What has politics to do with games? Is it because you have to pick a side? Is the game a Western concept for India? India has been a land of compassion, inclusivity, and forgiveness.
6. You call games to be Interactive fiction. Narrative interface design. What can and can not be told using games? Where does the medium flourish and where does it break?
7. Games have certainly evolved and come a long way. Now, I guess it’s the biggest industry on this planet. The games I recently got to know were Werewolves and Mafia and somehow the theme seems to be based on trust. What’s going on? How do you see it impacting the new generation and society at large?
8. Games are highly addictive, why? Which ingredient makes it addictive? Who is supposed to design it? Can you explain with an example of how the process happens?
9. Given the power of games, what’s the biggest responsibility of game designers?
10. Where are we heading as game players and game makers in this world of meta-verse and AI?

Reference Reading

1. https://audiogyan.com/2022/05/25/game-design/
2. https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-the-right-consume-histories-dhruv-jani-studio-oleomingus-talks-creativity-meaning
3. https://indiaifa.org/grants-projects/dhruv-jani.html
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium
5. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game)
7. https://oleomingus.com/about-1
8. https://www.stirworld.com/think-opinions-gamescapes-indian-video-game-developer-studio-oleomingus-reconfigures-history
9. https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/sep/22/video-games-india-politics-dhruv-jani-sushant-chakraborty-studio-oleomingus#comments
10. https://indiaartfair.in/game-grammar-dhruv-jani
11. https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/3kxpgw/this-first-person-game-is-a-surreal-meta-fictional-experience-in-colonialism
12. https://www.sleek-mag.com/article/studio-oleomingus-surreal-video-games-marginalised-stories-india-history/
13. https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/the-indiebeat-how-studio-oleomingus-is-crafting-its-indian-post-modern-fairy-tale/
14. https://killscreen.com/studio-oleomingus/
15. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&hl=en&user=AMZG-C4AAAAJ&sortby=pubdate
16. https://www.ted.com/talks/dhruv_jani_the_interactive_fictions_of_generous_history

Ep. 293 - Pushing the boundaries of design with Saif Faisal

Tune into this 5th episode of a 10 Part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Saif Faisal, A new breed of bold Contemporary designer and founder of SFDW

This series is created by Audiogyan in partnership with @godrejdesignlab

Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, it’s daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design.

Massimo Vignelli’s once said, “If you can design one thing, you can design everything.” Even in our part of the world, somewhere in 15 hundred.. Mirza Khan Abdul Rahim once said, “Ek sadho, sab sadhe”..

Saif completed his training as an Architect from RV School of Architecture in 2010-11, alongside designing and participating in Formula SAE-Racing with the Mechanical engineering students at the college, where he acquired diverse experience in design, manufacturing, and technical know-how. After college, he went on to learn woodworking. These diverse formative explorations gave him a polymathic learning experience.

His work draws heavily from his understanding of Anthropology, Processes, and Technology, which is very integral to his creative explorations. The deep appreciation he cultivated of ‘Essentialism’ from racing is revisited in his Design and Architecture.

Saif is involved in guest lectures and talks at design and architecture schools. Apart from being an avid motorcyclist and a lover of cafe racers, he is into boxing and pursues his culinary interests rather seriously.

Questions

1. You’ve done architecture, lifestyle products, furniture, jewelry, accessories and more. How do you define your work? You also have diverse interests, from motorcycling to boxing and cooking. How do these pursuits influence your creative process?
2. Who according to you is a designer? You talk about “Essentialism” - What is the essential quality to become a designer?
3. What is the difference between Essentialism and Minimalism according to you? Is Essentialism more inclusive than minimalism? Lets take Loup of example.
4. You draw inspiration from sociology, philosophy, and anthropology. How do these disciplines inform your understanding of the human experience, and how does that translate into products you create? Any example of a product you made?
5. If I can take the liberty to say, Art is expression while design is functional, responding to a problem. Where and how do you see art and design lines blurring, given your work deals with higher levels of aesthetics.
6. Why do you call wood to be a humble material? What did you learn in wood work? What made you consider learning that? How can it help any designer interested in making physical products?
7. Do you see geometric forms as a universal language? Do you see that in Indian history or culture? How have you borrowed this universal language and contextualised for India? May be you can explain with the lamps that you have made?
8. Where are you on Massimo Vignelli’s quote, “If you can design one thing, you can design everything.” How comfortable the journey has been to switch domains? What advice would you give anybody who has such wide range of interests? or does one need to master something before traversing?
9. You often talk about Indian design education need to level up. Our work needs to appeal to a global audience. What do you mean exactly? Where are the gaps? What can be done about it?
10. We have often seen us using Jugaad as one of the primary methods of innovation. What is you take on that?
11. What do you wish from the new “Make in India” generation? How can they push the boundaries of design?

Reference Reading

1. https://www.saif-faisal.com/
2. https://www.instagram.com/saiffaisal.designworkshop/
3. https://www.platform-mag.com/design/saif-faisal.html
4. https://www.linkedin.com/in/saif-faisal-51247315/?originalSubdomain=in

Ep. 292 - Maximise to minimise with Chitra Vishwanath

Tune into this 4th episode of a 10 Part series, "Designer’s Digest” with @chitrav89 (Chitra Vishwanath) - Principal Architect and Managing Director of BIOME Environment Solutions (@biomearchitecture)

This series is created by Audiogyan in partnership with @godrejdesignlab

Designer's Digest series is about Design as a profession, it’s daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder, and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design.

Chitra Vishwanath is an Indian architect based in Bengaluru who works on themes related to ecology and architecture. She has been running her own architectural firm since 1991, working with other architects on many projects of all sizes. She is currently the Principal Architect and Managing Director of BIOME Environment Solutions. She firmly believes that the true essence of a remarkable firm lies in the gradual fading of its founder's individual prominence. The establishment of a firm is influenced not only by the founder's drive but also by various contextual factors. Chitra cannot be solely identified as Chitra Vishwanath without acknowledging the integral role of Biome. Similarly, Biome's existence in its current capacity is inseparable from the contributions of her colleagues. BIOME has been involved in more than 700 projects encompassing the construction of buildings of all sizes and water harvesting and sanitation structures with specific relevance to the ecology of the sites. With earth as a basic material input in construction, BIOME has designed and built many structures. We’ll be talking about ecological architecture in today’s episode.

Questions

1. We often use “architect” as a word who guides, designs, and oversees. Etymologically as well, it’s derived from arkhi-, chief +tekton, builder - chief builder. Who according to you is an architect?
2. What constitutes an ecological architecture? Could you talk about the 4 aspects of architecture from your TEDx talk, resourceful spaces, designing construction systems, water and waste management? Maybe by taking an example of one of the many schools you have built.
3. What is Maximise to minimize? Good design is no design at all, right? How do you strive to create a positive impact while building structures? What are the key principles and values you live by?
4. What should be / can be the index/metric of good ecological architecture? Why?
5. What according to you is the biggest role of architects in India, given the current time?
6. Over the last 31 years, you have grown to 31 member strong team. Seems a conscious choice to stay lean. Why?
7. You have a lot of Junior architects on the team. What are their primary job responsibilities?
8. For Biome, every project is a test bed for developing a collaborative multidisciplinary approach grounded in informed decisions. How does Biome onboard, execute, and deliver any project? Where and how are Junior architects involved? What do you expect from them?
9. What according to you is a good measure of an ecologically sensitive outlook in a student or junior architect entering this field of architecture?
10. What kind of architects do we need for India’s future? What tips/suggestions would you like to give young architects?

Reference Reading

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitra_Vishwanath
2. https://www.instagram.com/chitrav89/?hl=en
3. https://www.biome-solutions.com/about-us/
4. https://www.linkedin.com/in/chitra-vishwanath-8513593/?originalSubdomain=in
5. https://www.archdaily.com/tag/chitra-vishwanath
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMiekG0IJfM
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41tlOqU-6PM
8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlf3TyKdcAg
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EviAtiqoLTE
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlwbK-ybQX0
11. https://dev.earth-auroville.com/chitra-vishwanath-architects/
12. https://www.e-coexist.com/mailchimp/building-small-chitra-vishwanath.html
13. https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/know-your-architects/a686-chitra-vishwanath-creating-an-ecofriendly-way-of-living/
14. https://medium.com/@ar.aesha/ar-chitra-vishwanath-and-her-design-philosophy-282b64a99f83
15. https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/case-studies/a5644-the-paper-workshop-by-chitra-vishwanath-architectural-semantics-with-vernacularism/
16. https://www.facebook.com/chitra.vishwanath.3/
17. https://www.instagram.com/biomearchitecture/
18. https://www.biome-solutions.com/
19. https://audiogyan.com/2022/01/10/design-of-wells/

Ep. 291 - Designing beyond Earth with Susmita Mohanty

This is the 3rd episode of a 10 Part series, "Designer’s Digest” with Dr. Susmita Mohanty, an Indian spaceship designer and a serial space entrepreneur. This series iscreated in partnership withGodrej Design Lab - a platform that encourages and advances design excellence and exploration. Godrej Design Lab believes in the power of design to make a meaningful change. I am so happy and proud thatGodrej Design Lab is supporting the journey of Audiogyan.

Designer's Digest is a series about Design as a profession, it’s daily grind, the secrets to climbing the design career ladder and what edge we’ll need to thrive in the captivating world of design.

I want to start with a line by Vincent Van Gogh, “For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream”.

Questions

1. Can we start by, who is a spaceship architect or a designer? Can you also elaborate on the 3 genres of space architects [Voyage d’Esprit, Man-in-a-Can, Trans-Gravity]? Where and how do designers fit in?
2. What does it take to become a spaceship designer or an architect? If you can share your version of a career? What does one do in their early years and then possibilities as they become a veteran like you? Design is broadly about problem solving and we see a lot of lateral entrants. Is it possible in this discipline?
3. You’ve said, traditionally government agencies tend to design in a very engineering centric approach where they don’t invite architects, designers to build stuff. With designers engaging in such space, collaboration with other professionals like physicists, engineers, biologists, seems inevitable. What are the challenges and rewards of such interdisciplinary teamwork?
4. Importance of multidisciplinary. You’ve straddled across design, art, tech, humanities, choreography. What was it like growing in Ahmedabad in 70-80
5. What are the unique challenges and opportunities in this sector for a designer? You mentioned about designing spaceship interiors for long distance travel, spacesuits to keep away from sharp dust on other planets, especially on the moon. Climate is another important domain to look into.
6. What all sections of the rocket or a spacecraft (For eg: Soyuz, I loved the video) could be given to designers? Where all design interventions can be done?
7. What made you start Earth2Orbit and later Spaceport Sarabhai and what exactly you folks do there? Can you share any specific project or a milestone that made you very hopeful about this it having a huge potential in India?
8. Considering costs, policies and constraints of this highly guarded sector, what makes your hopeful about brewing design talent in India? Can you slightly talk more about your 2017 article “India is sitting on a space goldmine”?
9. You often say, “space is not just about technology. It’s also about business, social impact, geopolitics and more about perspective. Could you please elaborate on it from a designer’s lens?
10. You often encourage entrepreneurs to look earth from 400km above. After working closely with such great organisations like ISRO, NASA, ESA what has been your biggest learning so far.

Reference reading

• https://www.weforum.org/people/susmita-mohanty/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susmita_Mohanty
• https://www.imd.org/ibyimd/innovation/beyond-earths-boundaries-a-journey-of-innovation-and-leadership/
• https://www.stirworld.com/think-columns-soyuz-the-world-s-most-reliable-human-spacecraft
• http://earth2orbit.com/index.php
• http://www.themoonwalker.in/write.php
• https://thebrilliant.com/opinion/why-billionaires-playing-space-ping-pong-leaves-me-cold/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Adams