Opening Of The Eyes

@7am:
First thing in the morning when I wake up, I see my new plant already dead..
Reason - I couldn't water it for the past two days, because I was going through my
menstrual cycle.

I questioned what kind of myths I have been living on and following….
something that takes away life!!

That very moment I decided that I shall break-thru these irrelevant myths, and watered my dead plant. (Hope it comes back to life).

@9am: I posted on my FB:

“Early morning I see two people standing in the middle of the road and fighting, blocking the road...creating traffic! And Amir..you talk about in your ads "jinko desh ki fikar ho!!" I guess your tag line should be "jinko insaano ki fikar ho!!"
Kyon ho muje aisse desh ki fikar Jahan insaan se badkar uske car ke scratches ho!!”

Well ..early morning two back to back life experiences...in my agony...I learnt a lot.

The question is..now what do I do with it?
I am not a news paper editor or an influential celebrity to raise campaigns. May be as a designer, in my small way with the right opportunity, I can create an awareness message 'Break The Myths'.

But more than that, firstly as a human being & as an individual I can definitely create a self awareness..and ask myself what thought system…am I living on!!

Do I choose to follow myths blindly and let go of a life?

Definitely choosing forgiveness would be better for those two people..who created inconvenience early morning to many others over an argument on who knows to drive better!!

Definitely waking up with deep realizations is healthier than just blindly living.

Thanks John for asking me to write a blog., Till yesterday I didn't know what was my topic.

And it's called 'Opening Of The Eyes'.

By
Mamta Saighal,
Jr, Creative Group Head,
DY Works

From Meh to ROFL- How Stand-Up has become the next big thing.

 I just finished watching YouTube FanFest and realized how far comedy has come in India.

Till a few years back, stand up comedy for me was a rogue video of Russell Peters that somehow found its way on my hard drive.

It was back then that I stumbled upon a podcast by All India Bakchod (AIB), and that was my first introduction to the emerging comedy ‘scene’ in India.
What I heard, I liked. So, I went looking for the podcast creators on Twitter. Soon, I had discovered other comedians and their 140 character updates has kept me in loop since.

I may not have a thesis on the state of stand up comedy in India, but I sure am in a position to make an inference or two.

Social media has played a major role in making English stand-up what it is today. And I don’t think them performers will deny it. First hand digital interaction with the present and prospective audiences, gauging the public sentiment, platform for views Et all make social media channels very important for these performers.

In fact, social media has given birth to a few comedians.

Once you start cracking people up on Facebook and Twitter & have a loyal fan following, you wouldn't mind trying your hand at comedy in 'Open mics', would you?

Enlightening Encept

This past weekend we decided to enhance our knowledge bank and visit the printing and production facilities at Encept and Accuprint. 

Below is our team’s take away from this visit.
 

"Take a Print. This is what we all say and do in our day to day lives. The fate of a designer and his designs depends solely on one word - PRINTING. We may produce the best of designs, using the best of ideas, but it all boils down to how's it going to turn out when printed. Offset or rotogravure, Four Color or 8. These and many such challenges confront us on a daily basis.

The Printing Process

Our visit to Encept Premedia (Vashi) turned out to be the perfect answer. The key members there gave us an insight into how they as an organization make the collaboration between the agency/brand and the printer seamless and convenient. The services that they offer seem to resonate with the daily requirements of a designer. From fetching the right printer for your design & printing requirements to sample making, adaptations and proofing. The most important point to be noted here was that they create a repository of printers for future reference, so that a pack printed 5 years later from another printer would still be close to the original. Also what was interesting was that one of the key members gave us a little insight into how colour frequency is measured and the way it is translated into vibrations which are used to etch the cylinders used for printing. We discovered that Encept has already partnered on a few projects with DY Works, and it was great to see the kind of quality that they reproduced.

Branding For Successful IPOs

When many companies are jostling for attention in a crowded IPO world, where many are equally worthy – how does a name stand out? And how does it begin to ‘own’ all the positives it has  - so that there is an instant ‘buy-in’ without going into detailed financial analysis and promoter history every single time.  The answer lies in branding.

A brand is the sum total of what it’s audiences think of the company/ brand. There are multiple audiences for any company.

The Primary Audiences are internal and external and are in direct contact with the brand– their employees and their customers.  Their actions directly impact the company on a day-to-day basis. Customers increase the top line, their loyalty and willingness to pay a premium increases the bottom-line .  On the other hand, employees deliver the efficient and profitable functioning of a company. They  ensure company targets are met and they ensure competitive advantage through their loyalty and  dedication.

The Secondary Audiences influencers – and impact the company’s fortunes indirectly. They are Policy Makers, Media, Investors (both shareholders and Financial Institutions) and Industry bodies. (Such as Trade Associations, FICCI, CII).

The Tertiary Audiences are the customer’s customers in case of B2B brands and public-at-large. They do not impact a brand’s fortunes directly but do build a general public opinion about the company. (I have heard a senior govt. official talk about general goodwill and have said that public opinion will not let the TATA brand die if ever it is in dire straits; but a lesser-known brand might never get similar support).

There is one situation however, when the Secondary Audience of the Investor Community becomes as important as their customers and employees. The time when investors can directly influence the fortunes of a company is during an IPO.  A successful IPO is when the offered shares are fully subscribed or over-subscribed. Companies are over-subscribed when people believe in a strong growth story for the company. They believe in the future of the company and want to become a part of the growth story..

Fluffy's Farewell

Often jokingly called as the “junior-most employee” of DY Works, Boris a.k.a. Fluffy, has moved on from the organization as on 03/01/14

While he was here for a year, it is easy to make the mistake of imagining that he’d been here for ages – so well loved and “familiar” was he in this environment. 

Boris is always full of energy, and his self proclaimed craziness is infectious, making any project with him fun and  creating a great work environment. 

Wherever he goes, we are sure, he’ll bring colour and cheer to the organization.

By
DY Works

Caricature of Devatanu Banerjee By Chandrashekhar Aher

By
Chandrashekhar Aher,
Studio Executive
DY Works

CREATE, EXPLORE & INTERPRET

An identity brings purpose to life. It defines ones existence and shapes the corresponding behavior. A person’s identity is his/her name that is accompanied by the specific characteristics possessed by the person. If we look at brands, there in we see the projection of its identity in form of a visual mark, which is popularly known as LOGO. Logo is a mark that represents the identity and behavior of the brand for which it is created. It’s the start point from where the world of brand personality originates.

Each brand has its own category premises in which it breathes and a core brand essence that acts as a soul. They are living beings in their own way. These brands affect numerous lives. Thus, it should be unique, memorable and relevant to its context. With this the challenge is to adhere to category codes but create differentiation that can lend some unique character to it. This pinch of uniqueness should help it to get registered in the mind of the consumer and also prompt quick recall.
Logo creation is one of the important aspects in design industry. If we think in practical frame then we may put across this statement that the logos are created by integrating visuals/symbols with typography. Wikipedia/popular sources defines logo as a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. Though it belongs to the design domain, logos have crucial implications on human psychology and business generation.
Let’s look at these examples and see how logos occupy visual memory space and surprise us at various instances.
Examples: