Had to post the background design

I was overwhelmed by tweetdeck and its awesomeness but sometimes i do go to the twitter page on a browser and as and when i started looking at some really cool personalizations on the profiles i could not stop thinking about it. Now i dont know if my brain has been telepathically monitored by G-14 or not, i recieved the usual plain stamped envelope on my doorstep which requested me to design the twitter background for G-14. So i was like here i go....the result is this.

Sketchup and some new things comin your way

I have never had the time to get off Alias or Solidworks or maya or catia or unigraphics or Pro E to actually notice how much fun Sketchup is. On the weekend i started to sketch some guns and battle turrets for you know what - of course G14, and i could not stop wonderin why i had to spend so much time to model this crap in one of the fancy 3D modeling softwares if i was gonna slap some good textures on it and spend more time rendering. I downloaded sketchup and i am so freakin pleased with its intuitive interface and ease of tools. This is a blessing for people who are new to 3D, understanding the 3D space and not only navigating it, but also visualizing the same is something a learner can grasp very easyily. The transition to one of the better softwares is so much easier. I wonder how the big wigs at school have missed this. Understanding why certain solids or surfaces behave the way they do, the concept of building a 3D model is what needs to be taught, not the software itself. This is something sketchup does very well and i keep going back to my engineering classes where my prof continuously insisted on learning the basics right. How shapes interact, this also gives us a very clear understanding related to styling, why did u want to shape that edge that way.......i am glad this has been an eye opener. Ohh and by the way watch out for some stuff from this.....

100 days

I remember this movie, a very cheezy hindi movie called 100 days, actually it wasnt bad at all which i saw as a kid, it was titled 100 days. I am not talking about that but actually completing 1oo days at case-mate.

It has been a very interesting 100 days, a lot of new things i have learnt, a lot of things that i had forgotten i have had to rejuvinate, a steady routine (Thankfully) and a great deal of knowledge. To understand how designers would work with other departments and various personalities has been extremely interesting, so interesting that i had to start observing some very common attributes. People like being in a group, the lone ranger is not the role you want to play. Now when we look at objects , its kinda the same way, when designers design a product, it is always placed in an environment that they belong in. I have also learned that the quicker you are, the better you get at it. I used to put all my energy and effort and thought into a simple photoshop rendering, using paths, masks and what not, but to convey information, a very simple scribble in sketchbook pro is enough. A simple idea could be the next best thing, or some very complex engineering could be just dismissed as " whatever". Its at the end of the day getting the job done that matters.

But honestly in how many companies do you get a chance to hang out with the CEO, talk about everything under the sun, i actually get a shoulder massage every day...now isnt that appreciative enough....hell yeah it is. I work with some very intelligent people, very smart and also some are just plain freakin hilarious, all part of a really good team. I also have an opportunity to observe and learn the entire product development cycle. Day to day logistics, the nightmares of inventory, storage, sales, tacos on fridays, getting hit in the head by darts, nerf guns and dogs at work, can it get better than that.....noo way ....All in all i have all the right reasons to get up early on a monday morning and rush to work. By the way did i mention i get to design some cool sheaat......ohh yeah.

New stuff from more G-14 assignments

This time it was another envelope with my name actually spelt right, all 37 letters of its holiness on it. I was freaking out and it seems my neighbor saw someone drop off an envelope at my door, she described him as a lean tall guy with who she said surprisingly looked like a G-man out of the 60's with a black jacket, white crisp shirt and a thin tie. But i was damn serious about this and i started having fun with the assignments, so here goes another one of those and i do get actual permissions to post these from the G-14 high command.

General Roark from G14

Still continuing the mystery of G14 i received a request for a character design project from G14. This guy was supposed to be like a super soldier and also the one who was in charge of G14, but also he wanted to be completely inconspicuous and like any other normal special forces guy you see. This is not even close to iteration 1, it was a 15 min sketch but it was a lot of fun. Lets see how things progress with G14.

Assignment B from G14

The usual thing, i got another envelope titled " Assignment B", this time i was spooked, had no address, no postmark, so i am thinking some one who knows me is doing this. But it gave me a reason to sketch, so here is " Assignment B".

Creepy but interesting

So i got this completely anonymous envelope a few days ago which was started by 2 guys who called themselves design mercenaries, design guns for hire, i was completely curious and i started my research about them on the internet, not a single byte of info on them, nothing. I also started to look up some good design buddies of mine who have been on the scene for quite a long time and tried to leverage their contacts to dig into these people. I got nothing out of the whole thing too..... finally 2 days ago i got another email saying " we are watching you", now this was getting really creepy and then i got an email a few hours after asking me to do some cool stuff....i was wary of the entire thing as i received an envelope titled " Assignment A", i was also supposed to drop it off at a post box address and they told me its classified. I know this is not true, so i am blogging about this, someone is playing a prank on me fa sho.

Beauty and the brand.

A few friends of mine started talking about how brands are trying to manage their identity by defining various consumer targets, which started a whole war of words. When a brand defines itself and its consumer base, there are various sub personas and personalities in it that also compliment the various attributes it tries to target. So the big question was " Does a brand need to stick to demographics as its research into the consumers, or how do you branch out with other resources to sell more of your products, rather even design for those consumers. We start with the assumption that consumers identify what they want, but according to some key new findings on consumer shopping frenzy its the opposite, people sometimes want to go in and find something different and something that their friends or family cant predict. People are not predictable any more, a social order that has altered the perception that a tween would like squishy and translucent materials, true they do but not all is the same with the demographics.

I started to research into this topic a lot more, and the more i read and observe, i notice a lot of overlapping in terms of social interaction. When people are interacting socially or in a group there is an overall consensus on certain aspects, its also the same with high schoolers and college students many who want to be followers than trend setters. That mentality forces them to buy and display what is socially acceptable, others want to go completely opposite and with stuff thats almost rebellious, others look at things comical, some go with intelligence. These perceptions almost directly relate to emotional perceptions like will, anger, laughter, love, desire etc.

This got me looking into the concept " Design & senses" and to understand this, i think i need to research a lot into what stimulates certain senses in the brain, how does behavior influence consumer decisions when they are given a lot of options. The industry we are in does not lack options with products, you can find a whole lot of options, also something i want to research into is role of aesthetics in product differentiation. A lot has been done in this field but something i am very interested is the emotional aspect of aesthetics and how it influences a brand..... More to come as i find some more.

The woes of visa interviews.

The amount of documents i had to prepare the whole set of documents for Divya for her interview was astronomically frustrating. She also had to carry the huge wedding album, actually since i am indian she had three, we do like our photos and we have a lot of people attending the wedding as well. As they always say a picture is worth a thousand words, here we go.....

Desperate for sketching

Wanted to sketch something desparately after working on a shit ton of product development work and i was really bored.....After hours were the best, my cintiq at home a 12 inch wacom is perfect, it has the right surface area and also the pressure sensitivity is much better, have no jitters when you move the cursor to the corners, anyways so did like a retro blue print sketch, still completing it and will keep updating it here.

Hilarious sign posts in my hometown.

Thanks to subba, my very close friend who is an ardent cricketer and the star of mysore newspaper these hilarious sign posts have been posted here. check it out.

The Farmery

TO all you agricultural enthusiasts and architecture nuts, here is an example of how practical an industrial designer can be when it comes to designing space and objects with a correlation to nature and growth. The farmery concept from my very good friend - Benjamin greene, a recent graduate of NC State's college of design is exceptionally detailed oriented as part of his final thesis project. Ben has mixed practicality with a big picture scenario approach to make this design not only unique and fresh, but has also thought about all aspects of the business plan, budgetary concerns and also the space in which it can be sustained. I especially love the subtle green accents on most of the designs and the shelves. I also see a lot of inspirations from interior design and architecture. I especially loved the part about staffing though. CEO :Ben Greene. Support him by checking out his website here : LINK

Via : The farmery by Ben Greene

Interview - Ben Procter.

Another post about Ben Procter's work. I found this very interesting interview about Ben and his work. Surprisingly a lot of designers have one very common feature, simplicity. check out his interview here :

Link

Transformers - Down and dirty.

Ben procter who has created such iconic designs in 3D as being the lead illustrator for the new transformers movie has a great sense of humor it seems. He has created this incredibly funny transformer called the " Septicon". The image explains everything else.

Via : Ben Procter

Transformers Galore

My Collection of transformers is growing steadily, my previous collection of autobots kinda outgrew the decepticons, a trip to target changed all that, I still think Optimus prime is by far the best transformer i have ever owned......but i love the complex construction of Megatron, every small detail has been duplicated to the T on the miniature model.

Transformers ID Work.

There has been so much of design work done on the new transformers movie, the powerful works of Ryan church, Tim Flattery, and many more are so awesome to view, but i recently found out about Ben Procter. His work is just genius, the process that has shown is even more genius, the thought put into the designs are exactly like how you would assemble a machine, part by part. Check out his alias videos on how optimus transforms.

Reincarnation of hobbies

Now that i have some time over the weekend, i can get back to my hobbies, building scaled world war 2 airplanes. I recently started my long lost hobby. Ever since i went to design school, i had little time to pursue my hobbies, now that i can spend some time over the weekend it will be a good way of relieving the stress buolt up over the week. I have always liked detailed model building, it started when i was in high school, when i used to build non symmetric cardboard models of battleships and motorcyles and of course planes. The inspiration for all these came from a comic book which was just all about world war 2, called " COMMANDO". It was the best read and the most fun i have ever had with comics and imagination. Right now i have two projects i am working on, the ME 262, the first operational jet fighter to fly and the Fokker DR.1 Triplane which was flown by the legendary red baron, Rittmeister Manfred Von Richtofen. I also had to get a few extra shelves from IKEA to display my collection all over again..