Here’s how to make a sketchy audio cassette art in 5 steps:

In case you were wondering why I chose these colors and medium? The answer is very simple, I had decided not to spend a single rupee on buying new material and these were the only acrylic colors available at home

Observe the next 4-5 days of your life carefully and note down your ‘Random act of Innovation’ for the day. There are no restrictions in terms of the kind of innovation done; it can be anything from finding a new technique to pour juice in a glass, easier way to arrange flowers in a vase to designing a new car! You can do this by noting it down on small post-it, taking pictures, sketching, making videos, basically any medium that is suitable for you and not taking up too much time from your daily busy schedules.

But the competition was won by our best friends Smriti and Shruti Mehrotra (and no they are not sisters!)

Scale- 1:4

I used Acrylic, H.I.P, Aluminum channels and Aluminium Pipes for the mock up. The acrylic is vacuum formed, which was quite a task to work on as it used to crack every time i tried cutting or sanding it.

A big thank you going out to my faculty and my friends who had to always help me come up with innovative (actually ‘Jugadu’) ways to model this unit.

Starting off: mould for Acrylic vacuum forming

Look at the mess:

Parts all ready:

The serious discussions and arguments over the techniques used:

Trying out parts:

Painted trays:

Assembly:

The final model:

‘The critique’: never satisfied with the work done:

Looking forward to your suggestions, comments and queries..

So our ambitious little group of 7 people thought that why take up a small system, let’s take something which we would have never dreamt of to manage. That’s how we ended up as the entire Pune city management as our main system.

We looked into all the departments, studied them, visited ‘the maze’: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)’s office, ward offices, etc. One time we were directed to some department and found ourselves waiting outside the Municipal Commissioners office.

Then we were divided in sub-groups, me and my 2 classmates took the ‘Road department’.

My Design Brief: To design an organised medium to regulate miscellaneous advertising in a local area for residents and small scale commercial enterprises, thus preventing misuse of public space and beautifying the ambience of the area.

We took up Viman Nagar, the place where our college is located, as our sample area. This area is newly developed and has Symbiosis university Campus , an IT park and is located near the air force base.

Most of the people who live here are new to the city and are students and bachelors living on their own. They are in constant need of new room-mates, 2nd hand furniture, new rented place, part time jobs, etc. This is the major reason for the flyers put up all over the area.

Current Situation:

Pune city has no laws against such ads, atleast none that the traffic and hoardings department were aware of.

So I came up with the following system plan:

When we were doing our research, we used to always meet enthusiastic people like chairman of the building, society manager or just a regular resident with a lot of energy and free time; waiting outside the ‘local corporators’ office. These people care about their area, they are willing to do something to make it look better. So my proposal was to provide these people with some perks and a cool position (like ‘Citizen manager’) for the job managing and monitoring that area.

The proposed unit to direct these advertising was to be placed outside local shops, where the residents often visit. PMC gets these units manufactured on contract basis, then rents it out to the shopkeepers along with the licensing required.

Looking forward to your comments, suggestions and queries.

How many times have you read a book, created your dream world of perception of the characters, sets, costumes,etc? Then you go and see the movie adaption and come back irritated because you didn’t like how a certain character didnt match your perceived image of the same.

Perceiving things plays a major role in designer’s life. They might call it design methodology or research methodology but technically they are teaching us to have the right perceived image about something.
A lot of times people mistake perceiving for judging and say its bad. Though both sound similar, the actions that follow are very different. While perceiving something ends up in better understanding of humans or users in designer lingo;judging well as you know ends up with stares, rude comments, taunts,etc.

I would like to introduce everyone to a game I often play while I am travelling alone(which I often am). What I do is I observe people around me and pick up one character out of the lot. Then I start imagining that persons family, home, furniture in it and most importantly the products he must be using. When you become a pro at this you can think of details like colours,models,etc. Its a fun game, try it!!

By doing this I am not stalking that person and definitely not judging him.This is just my effort of understanding that particular human and polishing my skills as a designer understanding that user. After all this, imagine how awesome it feels when that person takes out the exact phone you think he will have or reads the exact newspaper you thought he would read.

Dont forget to respond on how you succeded or failed in this game. Any other responses, comments and suggestions are welcome too….

1. People who say a lot of random things in life, are actually the most creative people you will ever meet.
2. If someone is taunting, teasing you, he doesn’t know but hes actually helping you in being a better person.
3. Nothing is impossible.
4. Jealousy is good for you, it makes you try harder to achieve things in life.
5. Those who crack stupid lame jokes actually have good analytical skills.
6. Whatever happens be optimistic.
7. We should always have a variety of friends, because that will always give you fresh perspectives in life.

Ok, some theories are mine and absolutely original but some are just listed because I like them and believe in them.