Design is not just for Designers

I came across a very interesting article on how art generally and design specifically helps in one’s daily life. This goes for people who don’t deal with art on a daily basis too.

A few pointers caught my attention. Enumerating them as follows:

1. Any package, brouchure or website which had some design thoughts on it never comes across as a ‘designed accident’. Even if the content inside does not interest you, the overall design stimulates your brain.

2. Learn to doodle, draw or paint. Learn how to talk when you are producing this art. Helps a lot in whiteboard presentations.

3. Learn to take good photos. Understand what makes one photo better than another one.

4. Watch TED videos related to design and creativity.

5. Take walks alone in the nature or or in your neighbourhood when traffic is not at its peak. Helps not to have your phone with you when you do this.

6. Take walks alone with your phone along (better in the airline mode) and record your thoughts on the way. Put it up online either in your blog or as a “not for public” entry. This could be a seperate blog or a tumblr account.

After all there is design in everything we do. Do we not design strategies or financial projections?

Coca Cola and happiness ambassadors

Coca Cola is about to dispatch a set of “happiness ambassadors” across the globe to find out what makes people happy! This project is called the ‘Expedition 206′ and the results should be a must watch for.

Coke has been one of the biggest adopters of social media and internet in general. The entire idea of culture and pop that goes with the soft drink company has been intact for a few decades now. This initiative should also see a lot of internet action. Lets see how this looks like post 2010.

Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind buying some online coke merchandise in the form of Beanbags or sling bags which are available only online (ebay). Does that really make me happy? I don’t really know!

On CIOs and Social Media Ban

A lot of companies (read CIOs) ban the use of Social Media sites as a part of their Internet policy.

Few factors such as fear of negative reputation, employee productivity, wastage of time etc. forces such moves. Check out this study on social media behaviour in companies for deeper insight.

Good to know that almost 10% of the companies are open to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube usages inside firms. High time companies redefine their “cultures” of Freedom and Respect!

Viral from C2W – fail to impress

Just stumbled on a new ‘viral’ from contest to win. They call it the ShineShah aimed at promoting retirement plans from IDBI.

Do check it here (if you really want to that is). Very losely connected script and making fun of a cult character from the past leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Guess its time we see something fresh!

But the fact that I clicked on an ad from facebook to reach this viral should be good from a numbers point of view. I am not convinced about IDBI though.

What is keeping my ‘net-head’ running

Mighty trip at home without the use of internet was good. But, the ‘net-head’ in me is rearing its head back again.

Social Media – can’t stop tripping on the possibilities. Squidoo has come up with some brands which has taken this medium very seriously . Thinking of ideas by which brands around us can gain in a major way by use of good old Youtube, Flickr, Facebook, Tweets and such.

The really awesome idea of user generated stuff going has proven to be as cool as Karl Marx’s theories (sorry, it doesn’t really work), but activating curiosities and ‘hey this is nice’ comments from them sure can help in brand recalls (hope so, maybe, keep fingers crossed).

Reminding myself again and again – content is king! Running around and bumping into content providers; read movie makers, photographers, artists, cool random people, you and me!

If you were guessing Weltan Butterfly got trapped in a spider…….

Website? No! Facebook group? Yes!

I decided to do some marketing along with the bootstrapping of Weltan Butterfly. The idea is to keep a glamour factor running along – its costs nothing to be cool!

I had one dude who asked me “Website?”
Currently deciding to keep the website idea away and do my stuff on this Facebook Group instead.

Till then, keep the cool flowing…..

Logo Crowdsourcing – Weltan Butterfly

John Pathrose had made a logo for Weltan Butterfly over a cup of tea and Classic Milds.

So, what do you think?

Work starts off at Weltan Butterfly

Happened to do the first official thing on sunday. Mad excited about moving on from the “talk” phase to the “do” phase. Weltan Butterfly kicks the cocoon!

So what is it that exactly happened?

The idea was to try stuff on Youtube, but Facebook is one place which is too wide and too misunderstood. So, I sat down with Dale Bhagwagar (well known Bollywood PR) and decided to run him through things you can possibly try on Facebook. I was on for a ride!

The usual stuff was to be expected. Hurried through info page, hurried through Photos section and hugely forgotten video section – A Bollywood PR has loads and loads of rich media content, waiting to be consumed.

We started with his info page and a few hours, dry fruits, lots of tea and one car-servicing-guy-who-got-mildly-ragged later, I was sitting in front of the most well made Info page that I have ever seen. Do check http://www.facebook.com/dalebhagwagar for details.

Why should you be interested in seeing this profile?

1. This man is a genius when it comes to positioning and media manipulations
2. This man has a wide range of interests (personally and professionally). This one profile is an unlocking point to a large number of Facebook Fan pages and the like
3. This man is interested in connecting to like minded people (read people from media, movies and such)

Also happened to upload 150+ photos into his Facebook album – with celebrities, with students, with people in general etc. Wonderful place for surfing around. So, go ahead and add him. Lots coming in from that Facebook profile.

Let’s Dance – a good bollywood movie :-)

I happened to see a movie in style the day before the release.

This is “Let’s Dance”. A very cool movie based on dancing and zero star cast. A whole new set of people – which includes the actors, child actors, director and the producer, technically well made and mind blowing soundtrack (includes a lot of drum and bass, mid tempo dance music and a few glitches here and there).

Cool hip hop dance steps – check
Children dancing (spins, splits and all that) – check
Very groovy soundtrack – check
Amazing Hindi from an actor – check (Neil – the restaurant dude)
True mumbaiyya hindi from kids – check
Very cute lead actress – check
amazing visuals – check
Arrogant actor who has some human elements too – check

Lots of kissing, fondling and general steam on the screen – FAIL
Promotion and lots of money pumped to make the movie look good before it hits the screens – FAIL

So, go ahead. Give this one a chance. Hit the theatres for Let’s Dance. You wont be disappointed! Do check this Facebook group for details. Check out this blog for more details on Let’s Dance

How to subscribe

I see a surge in traffic on this blog off late. Thank you all! God Bless!

Now, the deal is I would like to keep this blog as is. Not buying a domain and transferring it. Neither am I planning to do an email subscription to the blog.

…. …

The coolest way to keep in touch with a blogger is to have an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication feed). For this purpose you need to have something called an RSS reader. I use Google Reader. This works in a very similar way like your Gmail and all you need is a Gmail id to subscribe to this blog.

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