Of Monsters and Men

Of Monsters and Men

A series of happy coincidences introduced me to the Laneway Festival (or St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, as it is also known) sometime towards the end of last year. The lineup of artists performing this time around was diverse and brilliant; the fact that Bat for Lashes was also going to...
The November revision of the Mumbai Auto-rickshaw Fare card for 2012

The November revision of the Mumbai Auto-rickshaw Fare card for 2012

The previous version of the fare card has seen over 13,562 downloads since I put it up in April (this is just counting the PDF file of the Mumbai version, the JPEG of the same saw 6,415 downloads, the Thane PDF and JPEG saw 2,301 and 1.364 downloads respectively, before...
Bombay Bicycle Club

Bombay Bicycle Club

One of the advantages of being constantly online and plugged into social networks, blogs, videos, films and websites is that you’re always coming across new music and bands through recommendations, mentions and background scores. When I come across a song I like I usually look it up through its lyrics...
Perfectly Fluffy Rice: The Absorption Method

Perfectly Fluffy Rice: The Absorption Method

One of the first things I had to figure out to cook after I set up the kitchen at home, was rice. Like most other things, I looked up how to do so on the internet and then proceeded to fine tune the process myself, over repeated attempts. I only...
The Design Manifesto

The Design Manifesto

This is the first of a set of three manifestos I’m writing which I hope will form the seed, soul and eventually the spine of what this site eventually hopes to be. This is something I have been putting off for a while now, not out of procrastination, but rather...
Latest entries
The revised Mumbai Auto-rickshaw Fare card for 2012

The revised Mumbai Auto-rickshaw Fare card for 2012

11th October 2012: I’m currently updating these cards, so please hang on till I put them up here. I’ve taken the download links off for now to avoid any confusion. Updated version here.   Update (30th April 2012): The different versions of the tariff cards have seen well over 200 1000 downloads since I released...
Lucy Rose

Lucy Rose

Lucy Rose is a talented English singer and songwriter who I came across quite accidentally while sightseeing across the internet one day. In addition to playing an assortment of wind and percussion instruments, she also taught herself how to play the guitar. She creates her songs in an almost organically grown sort of manner, guitar...
Bat For Lashes

Bat For Lashes

If dreams had soundtracks, they’d mostly sound like the music of Bat For Lashes. Bat For Lashes is Natasha Khan, an English-Pakistani artist born and brought up in the UK. She performs with Ben Christophers, Charlotte Hatherley and Valentina Magaletti. Her background in the visual arts is quite strongly reflected in her music and the...
How to grow avocado

How to grow avocado

Avocado isn’t something that I’ve grown up with, especially since it wasn’t very freely available here until very recently. It’s still also quite expensive in comparison to local fruits and vegetables, but even since I was re-introduced to its special ability to liven up a salad, I’ve been hooked. There’s one particular time of the...
True North: Proportioning the logo

True North: Proportioning the logo

I remember a professor quoting the architect Tadao Ando once during a lecture about making architectural drawings during the early part of my graduate studies. I’ve looked high and low for the exact quote, because I don’t remember it verbatim. However,  the basic jist of it is that every line an architect (or designer) draws...
The Mumbai Auto-rickshaw Fare card

The Mumbai Auto-rickshaw Fare card

Update: I’ve released the updated version of this for 2012 here. I’ve been noticing continued downloads of the old fare cards over the past few days, even after the new release. Please use only the updated version, you’d probably end up in a fist fight with your rickshaw driver if you use the outdated ones...
The relativity of units

The relativity of units

What units do you measure with? Architects are trained to make their scaled drawings in metric units; when they graduate and go out to work in firms or as apprentices, many discover the old British unit system still in practice. Some of us who’ve jumped disciplines to graphic design are then introduced to point sizes...
Portishead

Portishead

Today is the day of the official first rains of the monsoon in Bombay. Usually its the sort of day that sees halted trains, traffic jams and people running helter-skelter looking for cover and transport. It’s a nice day to talk about Portishead, who I am listening to currently over the sound of wind and...
Vitruvian Man

Vitruvian Man

The original illustration of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man lies in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. It is drawn on a sheet of paper of a size similar to a standard A4 paper. The drawing is practically etched into the paper with (I assume) a bow pen. Tiny details and flaws, like smudged ink at the...
Crafting a symbol: True North

Crafting a symbol: True North

Sometime towards the end of last year, I started work on an identity design project for True North Learning Systems. True North are Rohit Mohindra, Jogesh Motwani and Raj Arora, who at that point were looking to set up a training centre for students preparing for their SATs and other tests and exams through an...
Note for the day:C major

Note for the day:C major

Music theory is something that most people look at as a complicated, massive thing, and it probably is. I’ve never really studied music or delved too deep into the complexities of learning how to read music and finding what notes occur exactly where on the fretboard or keyboard. Knowing the notes however helps a lot...
Perfectly firm home set dahi (or yoghurt)

Perfectly firm home set dahi (or yoghurt)

One of the end of day rituals I most clearly remember growing up was the process of mixing and setting a bowl of yoghurt for the next day. I forgot about this little tradition for a while when I started living on my own after graduating and starting my own design practice. Supermarket-bought commercial brands...