Logo design often involves a very fine balance between being visually arresting and blending into all the material that inevitably surrounds it. This balance becomes even trickier when the logo is for a person and not an organisation. If the individual is in a very visual line of work, the choices are less complicated but when seemingly stoic industrial realms are involved, clown colours, googly eyes and other such blatant attention grabbers are out and the logo needs to walk a tight-rope between modesty and visual boldness. This was very much the case when I set out to design a mark for my Father, who works in world of water-treatment and industrial chemicals as a consultant.
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It’s been ages since I properly indulged in folding paper things, and yet more ages since I attempted to design an original origami object of my own. In keeping with the festive mood of Diwali, and some prior experience in this regard, I decided to create a design for an origami Diwali diya, the open clay oil-lamp traditionally lit in homes for the Indian festival of lights.

In a previous lifetime, when I was still wearing a uniform and attending school, I had designed an origami diya of this sort, but that was more remix and hack than original creation. I used modified versions of two appropriate origami objects to assemble a Diwali diya which was very convincing in its form. This time, however, I wanted to start from scratch and I wanted to create the whole thing from a single piece of paper. After a few miss-steps the design you see above resulted, and this is how it is made.
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It’s been years since I’ve done anything resembling actual food preparation. Not that I’m a klutz in the kitchen or ignorant about the secret ways of the pot and the pan, but I’ve simply not found the necessity nor have had the specific inclination. Holidays, however, are meant to put you in new situations and so tonight I found myself in possession of two bundles of spinach, limited additional ingredients, and the need to concoct some form of dinner. This sautéed spinach with potato mix is what resulted.

Nothing too complex, rudimentary, in fact. A bit of oil heated in a broad saucepan. Cumin seeds (jeera) added to sputter. A pinch of sugar to help in the browning of the potatoes added in small pieces. After that it was a matter of adding what was available, salt, some turmeric powder (haldi), a few slivers of fresh ginger, and then finally when the potatoes were sufficiently brown, a healthy dose of the spinach, cut into rough pieces. A very little water to help it along once the leaves had reduced, and some chaat masala and a pinch of amchur to add some flavour.

Worked out very well, mostly because the potatoes were well cooked without being reduced to mush. It would have been better with onions, and some fresh garlic, but considering it was improvised from what was available, a flavourful success.

Samir

In ten days, it will be ten years since my Mother died; A few days ago I lost a friend, someone I will miss dearly for all that we shared over the years. Whether death comes after a long illness or in a sudden blinding flash of circumstance, no one wants it. Death is thrust upon us all, no matter how expected, logical or reconcilable the causes and the train of events leading to it. Death is never welcome.
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Getting the opportunity to design a fresh logo for a new and focussed blog is not as common as you’d think. It’s true that I don’t actively pursue such projects because they are often under-planned and the clients have unrealistic budgetary expectations (Read: want it done for peanuts), but new blogs with a plan and a clear purpose are not born everyday. Those that are often have previous branding or design identities to follow and work from. So when Amit Suvarna decided to use the power of nepotism to choose me to design a logo for his newly planned marketing blog, I jumped at the chance.
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I recently finished working on a logo for a make-up and hair-styling business. Rosalyn Manuel, the proprietor and stylist in question, found me through a mutual friend. She wanted to create a mark that would best represent here particular take on beauty and make-up. As with such things, we’ve been working on and off on the project for months, because other things often come in the way and priorities shift, but we did get back to it eventually and thus Vanity Rose was born in full.
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“How would you draw a face in Inkscape from scratch?”, is the question I was asked, so to demonstrate it, I started drawing a random face in Inkscape and this is what resulted over the following four days. This portrait of an elven princess turned out to be a good demonstration and also a good reminder to me about the strengths and quirks of vector illustration. I’m asked about vectors, and Inkscape particularly (which I recommend often to people who want to get into digital art), quite often, because while vectors provide a wonderfully forgiving way to explore digital art, they also involve a way of thinking quite alien to the average person. Understanding the thought process needs work and explicit demonstration at times.
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