CREATIVE DESIGN
In school, I felt that one's address must not be scrawled on pieces of paper, as was normally done. So, I began designing my own cards that enlisted my home address and telephone number. Friends who had taste, requested me to design their own, and thus, began a marvellous journey of trying my hand at basic graphic design. I wish I had preserved samples of my creative tokens from that time, but as it often happens, we do not know the eminence of the times we live in, and only in reminiscence do we realise its importance. I guess I have learnt my lesson well; to maintain a sequential archive of all my creative endeavours since. Some of the designs featured below have been conceptualised and drawn by me, while some others have been done with the help of my ever obliging design team at my company 2927.
Books
That was the cover page of a book of my poetry.
That was the back of the book with a poem.
HEARTBEAT
A book of poems
This book design happened quite by chance. The discussion from my manuscript led to design, and when I shared with the owner of the publishing house some of my paintings that I was carrying with me that morning, she quite instantly gave me the freedom to design some books for her publishing house. I had designed some more for them, the artwork of which I am unable to find in my digital storage, and the hardcopies of the books I remember gifting away.
I wanted Heartbeat to reflect the charm of the books that one found when browsing through the old bookshops at London or Paris, and yet, I wanted the jacket to be sporty and modern. What you will see below are two options I drew by hand. The first design was chosen, although, my choice would have been the one with the cherub simply because it had a certain poignant playfulness to it. The publisher thought that the landscape sketch seemed more commercially viable, and I let them have the last word - after all they were in the business and knew what would work and wouldn't work.
2927 Blog
The company blog at 2927 was conceptualised and designed by me. My
approach to it was simple; I asked Rahul, my business partner and founder of
2927, what was his most preferred pattern in fabric. His instant response was, “I
think I like plaid.” From there came about the idea of having the Tartan as the
principle pattern for our blog. I read that the normal trend these days is to limit oneself to showcasing a minimum of one image, or the maximum of three, in order to retain the interest of the viewer. Anything more than three, I learn, makes the viewer want to leave the page. If you are impatient by nature, then please be patient and enjoy the designs below...sometimes, in rushing through, we tend to miss the point.
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24
24 is the film division of the 2927 Group. We produce television
commercials, feature films and anything else that goes with the visual and
digital media. We have a mentor in Ravi K Chandran, and partnered with Subi
Samuel as the head of our company. The images were shot by me at home, the design
was conceptualised by me, the content of this website was done by me. In a
word, it was a delight to work on it since I wanted a noir feel to it, and I
guess I came rather close to achieving what I had in mind.
The name 24 came about simply because the best sex position is not 29
but 24 and to achieve it one needs a great deal of practise. Considering all of
us involved are veterans at what we do, it was but natural that we used a name
that not only corresponded to the 24 hours of the day, but also to the prowess
of the positions we were all masters of.
CAFÉ NOIR
Café Noir is a premium French Café chain across the A-list locations in Bangalore. They have their cafés at UB City, White Field, Bangalore International Airport and more. The brief was to create something modern, yet not losing the beauty of French design. My team at 2927 was at their best to come up with a lot more that has been featured on our company website, as well as on our Pinterest board (the link which you will find at our 2927 website www.two9two7.com) while I am adding for your viewing pleasure only few images of what I planned with the owner of the café, Thierry, who is also a dear friend, and consequently my team.
That was an advertisement we created for a luxury magazine.
That was a special menu design for Goût de France.
That was the menu design.
The table mat.
Stall design for the event at ITC Gardenia where they had won the best Café award for the third time in the year.
The wifi announcement poster at Noir.
TRICOG
The other most recent project was TRICOG. Something started by two dear friends.
EDITING
My restlessness with raising my eyebrows at shabby punctuation began when I was rather young as I recall, and therefore, it would not be offensive if one were to term me quite an OCD when it comes to incorrect grammar and sentences. What began as an urge to write letters like they did in old times, soon graduated into stringing words that some called poems, and behold, a book of my poems was published too, although I do not believe that I am much of a poet, as much as I am a creative writer, copywriter, novelist, essayist and the rest that goes with such revelations in the written form. My first vocal attempt at having content redone was for my big brother Subi Samuel's website. What had been drawn up by his team was excellent, but it somehow lacked the proficiency of expressing what my brother did - you see he was a magician with the lens. And as intrusive as it sounds, I could not sit quiet, so I secretly reworked what had been coughed up by his chaps and had them replace it with what I thought made clearer sense. Big brother's are, as luck would have it your first godfather's, and as a consequence Subi asked me to write something for Zoom Channel, on a series of photographs with the 'clown' being the central theme of the entire pictures he was shooting for them. That, I ought to admit, was what gave me butterflies in my stomach, as it was something that was accompanying my brother's work, of which I was a great fan. It mattered less that by then that I had had two books of my fiction published by Westland under my arm, add to that, I had written enough for my own company's website and had completed sufficient content for my friends who needed anything at all to do with creative literature, but the pressure of writing for family has this manner in which it weighs you down, but I was glad that the outcome was, in the end as I had desired, and thankfully, I hadn't to face as many brickbats as I had imagined. Soon after, I was thrilled when a dear friend Ravi K Chandran, who has attained worldwide fame for his exceptional camerawork wanted me to write him the questions that an award function wanted him to answer for his achievements. The questions had to stem from his own experiences, as well as reflect depth. That was something I greatly enjoyed crafting. Since then, I have helped edit, dust and firm together stuff for many people considering how finicky I am about incorrect representations of the language.
I could as well go on and on considering my love with words does not quite end there, but I reckon enough has been said. So I shall leave you with books written by a friend Matt Straight, who has tasted immense success with his books on fitness. I was honoured that he offered me the opportunity to edit his books before they went for publication.
I could as well go on and on considering my love with words does not quite end there, but I reckon enough has been said. So I shall leave you with books written by a friend Matt Straight, who has tasted immense success with his books on fitness. I was honoured that he offered me the opportunity to edit his books before they went for publication.