Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Industrial design of artifacts – Note 1

Design and designing is a creative and analytic process which gets rolling either from a given or discovered intent or an unprecedented act or inspiration. In design what you decide in the beginning to be and what you do at the end is the same, is not a design mind, what you imagine in the beginning and what you as a participant let it manifest to be in the end is the design mind.

In the journey of design, the designer plays a dual role of the creative and the rational analytic, the degree of swing between the two depends on the personality of the designer though. Also may sometimes depend on the client’s expectations and in selecting a designer for the intended purpose.

When the designer gets started, she/he through a studied process or a way-about imbibed through experience, sets a goal purposefully or vaguely, depends on whether one is an ant or a grasshopper. (http://ravishankardesign.blogspot.com/2013/08/we-need-antsalong-with-grasshoppers.html). However, the common kit of tools used would be while conceptualizing or visualizing the design inwardly for one self or outwardly to the team or client, a creative brief, set of attributes of the end artifact to begin with followed by a concept note which has a theme supported by mood board or extracted from a mood board extending to a narrative. The theme is the underlying essence or a subliminal narrative of the intent depending on the context. It would be an imagined description with a creative freedom of using metaphors or analogies, the stimuli coming from the mood board or inspiration board as the designer may call by one’s contextual choice.





Monday, February 19, 2024

Living Home Part 1


I have these tiny I/2 inch size frogs jumping around my house, they leap 100 times distance than their size btw…, I have home lizards all over, but I feel terrible when they get jammed in the door unnoticed :(… I have large spiders, couples by the way :) in the loo or other places, maybe they notice me :)… crawlers millipedes, my lower of bifocal spots them and I step aside,… cockroaches of course, I don’t kill them just toss them over, when very angry they are my target though ๐Ÿคจ….. ok now I want you to: design toys for the little frogs, safety gear for the lizards so that they don’t get jammed in doors, meta garments for love coupling spiders, fixed pathway for the millipedes, and contraceptives for the cockroaches. And we all live happily ๐Ÿ˜Š


Ravishankar | Notepad | July 2022

Friday, October 13, 2023

quantum brew

Flux on its own, is a random self, therefore it’s maiden name. 

When matter in any form comes in, flux gets a purpose and marries, to set a motion of gay abandon for whatever love. The embodiment of matter in motion meets more such and therefore more flux and more embodies working to reach equilibrium, of an imagine.

Calmness 'as in being cool' in this quantum chaos is the consciousness, maybe ! Observing and doing the responsible/sive tasks nonchalantly and come back home and drink brew merry to wake up to the sunshine and until uncle calls and says fresh brew is waiting guys ๐Ÿ˜‰



Ravishankar, October 2022/23.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Plight of the Nucleus

 

Everyone of physics talks about protons, neutrons, positrons, waves n particle but they don’t discuss the plight of the Nucleus!!๐Ÿ˜€

While this is metaphorical, I love physics and shared this quite sometime ago, with a dear friend in Jorhat, Arjun Trivedi, a PhD in Physics, worked at CERN, and now started a school for the Tea garden children, Selenghat Valley School..,,, his reply ...

That is actually a very good point, Ravi, and one that my research group was also involved in trying to bring to everyone's attention, which in other words is that everyone is talking~doing more with the parts (electron, proton etc) than the whole (nucleus)! And a lot has to do with how reductionism has somehow become more fashionable — finding parts of the whole for a while was very exciting and even very valuable in subatomic physics, but increasingly it seems that fewer are working on the whole! The theory of the whole continues to be profoundly challenging because relative to the parts that can be analyzed in great parts in a linear domain, when dealing the whole the non-linearities are inescapable, and which even makes the math very hard!
Thank you for sharing with me, Ravi, your thoughts ๐Ÿค— It means a lot to me. You are a man filled with many thoughts and emotions, and to get an insight into them is truly special.
I too love physics. It took me a while to get my bearings on its depths, and to summon courage and faith that are prerequisites to being a master in it rather than its technician, and by that time I was at the cusp of leaving physics and returning to India, and, so, could not really develop mastery in it, but am grateful to have come away with such insights that I am finding powerfully to be common across all human thought...

Ravishankar Oct 2023

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Digitisation & Empathy


Visited Jawahar Navadaya Vidyalaya in Titabor, 15 km from Jorhat along with Krishna last week. His children twins, are very bright kids, in class 5 in a state government school. I thought they should move to Navodaya, a beautiful initiative of the government, a school for children of interior India and low income parents. Krishna’s daily income depends on the weather btw!!

Met the Vice Principal and told her why we were there, she was very polite and pleasant, enquired regarding admission to 6th std coming year.
She later said applications were closed for 6th std on 31st August, we were in September already. I asked if there was any way of applying. She said not possible since it’s all online from central office and it’s closed.
Krishna looked disappointed.
I felt bad too.
There was no way. 
There used to be ways earlier I thought though how right they were, a different matter but for right people ways were maybe!

While driving back and talking to Kartik, I said Digitisation has no Empathy.

Can this be addressed by the comfortables in the nu tech environment in which Krishnas and Kamalas live in too and wish to be part of !!

Ravishankar 30/09/2023

Monday, July 31, 2023

Few takeaways from the 3rd NEP Conclave

3rd National NEP Meet, Delhi: Holistic Education, Academia & Industry Connect - Few Pointers I gathered from Immersive Panel Session Chaired by Dr Anunaya Chaubey and from the talks by other panellists:


  • Pedagogy vs Heutagogy 
  • Continuous Up-Skilling
  • New Job Roles & Profiles
  • Domain knowledge
  • Middle Path (Madhya Marg) approach to Generalist vs Specialist
  • Industry Academia to Co-lab in areas of future value creation
  • System understanding and thinking (connecting the dots, relationships, empathy and creative action)
  • Education for Living or/and for Earning! Or overall well being!
  • Social Science workers and their professional inclusiveness in industry
  • Enabling MSMEs to attract talent 
Is the industry agile enough in mindset and action to adapt and adopt this!
Is the Academia getting tailored to this paradigm shift !

Who will be the first mover to design this product, the future worker!
The MOE and Industry have set the stage to initiate way forward.

While the profiles of Industry and Edu institutions and persona is diverse and individual intent different in terms of wealth creation and knowledge creation, 
the common conscience needs to be value creation which shall spread vertically across the pyramid. 


Ravishankar Vallabhajosyula, 30th July 2023

Monday, July 3, 2023

Few Pointers on Sustainable Packaging

The concept of modern-day packaging has boomed with the advent of the large consumer purchasing power, multiple brands with diverse competing SKUs in retail shelves and FMCG manufacturing companies besides advertising collaterals. While purpose of packaging is primarily functional that of protection, storage and for shipment, its commercial need in the context of design to attract, shelf throw and pick up to convert the product to sale is its predominant attribute practised by commerce.

The issue is Systemic in nature involving multiple stakeholders primarily business houses including the end consumer responsible to solve and resolve the design, generation and disposal of non-degradable packaging materials and its management. A wicked problem.

The approach conceptually and strategically may be to:

·       Identify the bulk of products which generate waste along with institutional of both public and private consumption and apply the 3Es principle (educate, engineer, enforce)

·       Create by design centric businesses which produce bio degradable packaging systems and solutions housed in MSMEs and which have the economies of scale to replace the existing solutions using natural materials, innovative additives and processes

·       Promote sustainability indices in packaging and incentivise the manufacturers and most importantly the marketeers.

·       Create a value proposition for sustainable packaging which becomes the next game changer amongst brands in retail both above and below the line advertising and marketing

·       Design and develop well-engineered solutions for packaging life cycle management both at enterprise and end consumer level which start-up’s can take up as business opportunities across urban and upcountry markets.

·       Innovations in brick and mortar retail formats and design models which minimise packaged products creating new buying behaviour among consumers.

 

Ravishankar Aug 2022 Notes

Saturday, June 17, 2023

Institution Design

Empowering People with their expertise and make aware their limitations to overcome

Empathising with People Emotions, Aspirations, Insecurities, experiences

Negotiating through People inter-work, inter-social/cultural/political relationships

Coursing the young as design minds

Navigating for the set purpose ahead 

Scripting inter-engagements, interfaces for an outcome of said purpose and value through a collective intellect and not on singular opinionated views




Setting up an Institution is the Design of a Story of a present and future continuous living entity. A book which will have multiple beginnings and ends, today and the day next. A story which is transient like the wind, course it takes is dependent on the Designer and the engagers/ actors in the story, gratified by a sense of cherish able experience to look back and say, hey! I was part of that Story, fought my internal and external battles and participated through my work and acumen for the collective conscience of purpose, self worth and value of what it was conceived for and set the next day rolling forward.

Friday, February 10, 2023

Seagull & Frogy

 

A Seagull in one of its vagabond flights lands on the wall of a well. He wonders what is this and there is water deep inside within parched stone wall, never seen something like this before!!

Sees a Frog swimming in it and asks’ “Hey what is this place?” Frogy replies "it’s a Well, well! These bucket people call it so!"

Seagull “ Ooo! …do you like its here?”

Frogy, sitting its side walk the of the wall, “ Well!! I don’t know… there are predators here sometimes and a bucket which falls in unexpectedly to draw my water, dangerous for my kids and family and my friends!!”

Seagull “Friends! In here? Who are they….?”

Frogy “ My friends, Wormy, Snaky, Goldy Fish (my love interest, btw!, don’t tell my wife ๐Ÿ˜‰) and many others…..”

Frogy “Btw where are you from!!”

Seagull “ Oo me!”

Frogy “Yep”.

Seagull “ I come from the blue sky and blue seas and wild breeze and winds and sunshine”

Frogy, Wow!! And tell me what you do there!!

Seagull, “I fly in blue sky, do acrobats with the wind, romance with myself and with your Goldy fish look alike Birdy of mine ๐Ÿ˜‰

Frogy “ Oooo!!”

Seagull “Ok buddy, time to go…”

Frogy “Hey wait, take me with you for a ride, I can see your places too…”

Seagull “Sure, Leap out of here to my wings”.

Frogy “ Yaaa!! Hmm!! Now you mean.  Let me think, …I don’t know!! What about tomorrow, 2 PM?”

Seagull “Nai…who has seen tomorrow! I am off buddy.....(flying off the wall, says) “btw watch out for the bucket dropping, and say Hi to your Goldy fish ๐Ÿ˜Š

Ravishankar - Feb 2023

Silent Unknowns

So many things happening at the same time….startup India, NEP, hackethons, online programmes, WFHs, Home deliveries, E-com Apps, Bit currency, Instagram reels, Research funds, incubators by the corner, AI, MI, DL and all, ….govt schemes, twitter habituals, SDGs, Metaverse, Yoga, Drone tech, ….you may add more.

Meanwhile, Krishna, 28, 8th std pass, a very bright, intelligent and diligent man, who is my help at home, during the day is a freelance dailywage. Rainy day is a bad day for him, misses his 400 rupees, sunny day is good if he is lucky to find work!! There are many many Krishnas and Kamalas in the urban diaspora, support rungs of the rotor, silent unknowns in the flux and fluff.



Can we please PAUSE and set priorities in order and say, Ok what are those things best for us all and that we are good at doing and do that for us all. Not be wannabe in Everything and work on settling Kamalas and Krishnas for a comfortable living !!


Ravishankar - Nov 2022


Thursday, January 26, 2023

DESIGN MIND

 

What you decide in the beginning to be and what you do at the end is the same, is not a design mind.

What you imagine in the beginning and what you let it manifest to be in the end, is a design mind.


Ravishankar Dec 2020


MY NEW SILVER CARDS

My Hypothesis on new age design professions


Artist Designers Scenography designers, Character & Avatar artists & designers, Graphics, Furniture, Artifacts

Product Designers – Interactions & experience designers, Gesture & Movement designers, artifacts with personalised character and behaviour designers, CMFs and details designers, Form & Expression givers, Design strategists, Universal Designers

Clothing designers – Textiles, Fibres, Material Designers, Ensemblers, Indigenous Crafts, Lifestylers, Accessorisers, Stylists

Communication Designers - Conversation & Language designers, Inclusive Designers, Message & Content designers, Navigation designers, Information designers, Creative controllers, Brand designers, Media Strategists

Tech Designers Experimenters, Makers, Prototypers, Detail & expression givers, AI Designers, IOT, Extended Reality creators

Concept Designers Setters of new design & Innovation directions, Trend setters, Design Futurists, Story Tellers, Dreamers

Social Designers Contextual Thinkers, Human, Environment, Sustainability centred, Digital Humanities

Service Designers Service Blueprint designers, Inclusive designers, Self enterprise model designers, Experience designers

System Designers Complex Problem Solvers, Strategists, Design Management, Policy makers, Design Lifecycle planners

Ravishankar April 2022

Sunday, January 22, 2023

To Critic is easy !

Design as a profession is Persuasive, not authoritarian

It’s all pervasive all during the day while you walk up or switch to work, and if you imagine or claim to be a Designer, Appreciate the well done or resolve, participatorily if it needs correction. (Participative Design is an act/skill of being detached yet an empathetic approach if you have the mind for it and navigate it to its end elegance of what triggered you to engage in). Correction is about whether holistically the design is working in terms of functionality, meaningful usefulness at large, is elegantly done and is inclusive.


Ravishankar, Jan 2023

Monday, December 5, 2022

My notes on North East ...

Existential vs Sustainable/lity is the quintessential of the region NE…., so it needs to be taken ahead in the context of quote-unquote development in a way such that…Position it the way satisfying aspirations of the ethnic urban bred and inclusive of the local demography of ( sustenance and existential) through meta-laws and whatever to empower and Sustain its ‘existential commerce’. NE and so do many parts of this land on the globe people live on. On and on. 







Industry of the non environment polluting kind, that which is about: Self sustenance of products and services which are intrinsic to the region culturally, a Destination of Ayur for example, of Liberal Art, IT Resource industry, Tourism reimagined as a get away! with pace of life with nature…few directions…

Excerpt from my writing in progress...

- Ravishankar | Notepad | August 2022.

Thursday, December 1, 2022

System Theory Paradox

We begin with abilities and then develop in capabilities and mediocrity to deal with the systems and procedures we have created around ourselves. 

Any system stabilises to mediocrity of status quo.

Disrupters come in once in a while, and nonconformists, many struggle in the system and die, the few left do whatever….. for a new familiar system which stabilises again to mediocrity… 

Present continuous Chaos is the order of the universe. 

A mindless continuity.


- August 2022 from my Notepad