A 'Serif' existence!

 Many students get stuck when the stage comes, where project topics are to be finalised. I get lots of requests to give suggestions for Design projects. I strongly believe that a design student should be able to find topics in society where good design intervention can contribute in improving a scenario or in creative problem solving. Unfortunately, as time goes by, more and more students despirately look out for spoon feeding. So I am sharing some of the project topics I feel can make sense somewhere. Project 1: Title : Story of Indian Designers : A multi media system to introduce Iconic Indian designers and their work to school children. Description: This project aims at introducing Indian school children to design as a profession, works of indian designers like Yashwant Chowdhary, Sudarshan Dheer, R.K. Joshi, Shekhar Kamat, Bhumra, D Udayakumar, Pranav Mistry, Ashok Abraham etc  and how their designs have contributed to the country’s progress. The final output can be an aff...

  ജി. വിവേകാനന്ദൻ •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• May 5 ഇന്ന് 97-ാം ജന്മവാർഷിക ദിനം സ്മരണാഞ്ജലികൾ!       ഒരു ചെറു പ്രത്രവാർത്തയിൽ നിന്നാണ് ജി. വിവേകാനന്ദൻ തന്റെ ഏറ്റവും പ്രസിദ്ധമായ നോവൽ 'കള്ളിച്ചെല്ലമ്മ' എഴുതാനുള്ള 'ത്രഡ്' വലിച്ചു ഉയർത്തുന്നത്: കുടികിടപ്പുകാരിയായ ഒരു സ്ത്രീയെ തേങ്ങാ മോഷ്ട്ടിച്ചതിനു, ജന്മിയുടെ പരാതി പ്രകാരം, പോലീസ് പിടിച്ചു തേങ്ങാ കുല ചുമപ്പിച്ചു സ്റ്റേഷൻ വരെ നടത്തി എന്നാണ് വാർത്ത. വാർത്തയുടെ വരികൾക്കിടയിൽ ഒളിഞ്ഞു കിടക്കുന്ന ദൈന്യമായ ഒരു 'ജീവിത' കഥയുണ്ട് എന്ന് വിവേകാനന്ദൻ തിരിച്ചറിഞ്ഞു... ശേഷമുള്ള നോവൽ - കഥാപരിണാമം വിവേകാനന്ദൻ്റെ 'കല്പനാവൈഭവം'. വിവേകാനന്ദൻ 'കള്ളിച്ചെല്ലമ്മ'യുടെ കഥ പറഞ്ഞിട്ട് ആറു പതിറ്റാണ്ടായി (64 വർഷം). 1956-ൽ ആണ് 'കൗമുദി' വാരികയിലൂടെ ‘കള്ളിച്ചെല്ലമ്മ’ പ്രസിദ്ധീകരിച്ചു തുടങ്ങിയത്. വെള്ളായണിയിലെയും വെങ്ങാനൂരിലെയും പരിസരഗ്രാമങ്ങളിലെയും ജീവിതമാണ് ജി. വിവേകാന്ദൻ പറഞ്ഞത്. ഇവിടങ്ങളിലെ ഗ്രാമ്യഭാഷയും ഉത്സവങ്ങളും നാട്ടുഭംഗിയുമൊക്കെ ആവിഷ്‌കരിച്ചു. വെള്ളായണിക്കായലിന്റെ തീരത്തെ സാധാരണക്കാരുടെ കഥയാണ് ‘കള്ളി...

Mukesh won a National Award for Information Graphics for the second time. (The China Journalism Award, approved by the Central committee, conducted by All-China Journalists Association. It is the highest award for journalism in China) Mukesh was my student when I conducted a series of Design Workshops for the staff of "The Week" publication at the Malayala Manorama office at Kochi, Kerala. Apart from being a wonderful designer, he lives upto his name by singing all hot songs of the legendary singer Mukesh. His works can be viewed at http://mukeshez.blogspot.com/ Mukesh Mohanan

Happy 2021 Came across this interesting example of Perception Shift Typography by Avani Kale. Avani Kale is a design student at Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai. She is on her way to become a UI/UX designer and has a keen interest in lettering and typography, especially in Indic scripts, and when she's not working, she loves to experiment with Kannada letterforms. She is also the recipient of the "Best in Typography award" at the Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai. Designer: Avani Kale Instagram: @aartvani

Design Charcha : Q&A on Design and Life.   "Design Charcha" is an online initiative by Prof G V Sreekumar, IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay, to provide a platform for students and public to interact with Design Academicians. The interactive Q&A session is conducted through Facebook Live All are welcome to ask questions : Students, Designers, Teachers, Public......all are welcome! You can can ask any kind of questions, it is NOT mandatory to ask design related questions. We will appreciate short and specific questions.  Next  Q&A  session will be on Friday, 5th November in Facebook To participate, fill the Google form here https://forms.gle/zFNbzXvWsH8bQVuC8 Link to live page:  Facebook.com/gvsree Recorded sessions can be viewed in Youtube. All friends are requested to subscribe to this channel. A short customised name for the channel can be set up only after we reach 100 subscribers. First three sessions were named "Chai...

Lots of questions are asked about how to use Hindi text in Indesign and Illustrator . I get atleast three to four mails/whatsapp text every month with the same question. What I recommend to users of InDesign: 1. Download and install any Unicode compatible Hindi (Devanagari) font. If you like Mukta font, it can be downloaded free, from  https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Mukta?preview.text_type=custom 2. Type the text in Hindi in  https://www.google.com/inputtools/try/ 3. Copy the text 4. Paste the text in text box of InDesign 5. Select the text in Indesign and change font to Mukta or any Unicode compatible Devanagari font 6. Then go to Window>>Styles>>Paragraph Styles (or press F11) 7. In Paragraph Styles >>Create New Paragraph Style>>Edit "New Paragraph Style">>>"Advanced Character Formats" and change the language from English to Hindi (India) 8. In Paragraph Styles >>>Justification>>in "Composer" >>...