Root Red Design

12/05/2021

A couple of years ago while I was visiting NID Haryana for a course for the students of Visual Communication (VC) design, I couldn't help but pop into one particular classroom; every now and then, on the way to mine. This room had a whole different vibe to it. Tables cluttered, heads bent, hands busy with wires, batteries, LEDs and other electronic paraphernalia. A tiny bulb would light up here and then there and the young faces of the students would visibly light up too.

Prem Sagar, founder of https://www.banaao.co.in was the visiting faculty taking this course on Digital Prototyping. This quiet, unassuming young man was teaching them how to create simple, smart circuits to give life to amazing ideas. Prem mentioned how easy it was to make interactive print posters as well and soon a few of my students and I, gate crashed into his class to learn how to make a simple circuit.

What followed was the first interactive print poster made by these students of VC with a smartly placed button which when pressed would light up a contextually relevant part of the poster. So easy and yet such an exciting dimension added to the whole experience of a print output.

As I see the beautiful video below I am reminded of that poster which lit up a whole bunch of young minds.
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/smart-x-conductive-thread-kandenko-japanese-commercial

Smart-X conductive thread visualizes how we are all connected with Connecting Thoughts, a promotional video for Japanese infrastructure company Kandenko.

21/02/2021

Restaurants; among many others, paused due to the pandemic. As they pick themselves up and start brewing ideas on how to serve love again — masks and social distancing not withstanding, here's an identity design we did for a quaint restaurant which comes to mind.

Starting with the signage design for the same place, it's wonderful to be inspired by the image of the gorgeous tree with the huge rock face behind. The old, all-white aristocratic structures the tree lives surrounded by, also lend themselves to the materiality of the ideas we explore.

Soon, we hope to have some coffee too…

21/02/2021

You are invited...

It's one thing to engage in the process of feeling the invite — the texture, the thickness of the paper, smell even and observe the ink layered over the crests and troughs of the surface. To flip it over, any which way, bring it closer or pin it up if you love it enough. With digital however, it's a different game. Trying to evoke the same feeling in a so to speak sterile medium; where readability and file size become critical factors, is a challenge we love.

Here are a few of the many invites we did for both Print and Digital.

21/02/2021

24/09/2020

Deck of Brilliance is a brilliant set of tools to help think of different approaches. Mainly for ads, but read the intro to each tool and there's a wealth of insight there for creative problem solving .

Idea generation tools for creative professionals By Juggi Ramakrishnan and Todd McCracken

20/08/2020

"Vision is not merely a matter of passive perception, it is an intelligent process of active construction."

That loaded insight shared by Donald Hoffman in his book 'Visual Intelligence' sheds some light on the behind the scenes complexity of something we take so much for granted for its effortless, unseen efficiency—vision and the intelligence associated with it.

"Our visual intelligence richly interacts with, and in many cases precedes and drives, our rational and emotional intelligence. As a designer, your images must pass the scrutiny of a customer's visual intelligence before they can go on to convince her rational intelligence of a need and her emotional intelligence of a desire for your product."

Literally speaking, the complexity of the act of seeing involves repetitive cycles of feedback to help eliminate dead ends as illustrated in this diagram of connections between the visual areas of monkeys, by David Van Essen. Bear in mind, it's likely to be more complex in humans.

Visual designers—there is like they say, a lot more to it, than meets the eye :)

15/08/2020

'Emergence' is a key spin-off in Systems Design. Components like brick and mortar can come together to create a 'whole' building, but the synergies between the components could lead to different kinds of engagements with spaces and in interpersonal interactions.

In VisuaI design too, Emergence — one of the key ideas behind Gestalt principles, is crucial from a visual cognition perspective.

Placing good components — good choice of type, great-looking images; doesn't automatically lead to a desired whole — layout.

With humans hard-coded to decode visual information within hundredths of seconds, the perception that hits you within the first micro-seconds of looking at a layout becomes the anchor with which you then judge every other component as you dig deeper.

So if the Emergent property of a layout is 'energetic', you expect the components to add to that first impression as you engage with and understand the design better. If defining the Emergent quality is not a conscious part of your design, then you stand to lose a crucial chance to connect with your user.

IBM's Design Language is a great way to get to know your 'components' so you can better define the Emergent properties of your design.

Good typography starts with type basics tracking, leading, alignment and line length. Find guidance for best practices in the use of IBM IBM Plex®.

13/08/2020

Water scarcity was listed in 2019 by the World Economic Forum as one of the largest global risks in terms of potential impact over the next decade. Compounded by water wastage in millions of litres everyday.

Smart water management solutions designed to manage and save water efficiently are helping plug the gaps.

Root Red Design is working on the UX and illustrations for a website for one such firm. Here's a sneak peek into one more of the illustrations being made.

02/08/2020

Happening now, tune in folks:

Hi!
Episode 2 of RadioWada is here!
This is the time Foundation is graduating into the senior mode, a big decision to take.
We present to you "THE D-CIPLIN PILL" (The Discipline Pill): The greatest crossover of the greatest people from all over the country, talking about design and disciplines.
Stay tuned for the bonus question/answer session at the end of the episode only on zeno.fm (one-time on-air)

Tune in to live at 4:20 PM on https://zeno.fm/RADIOWADA

Listen to podcasts on Spotify and multiple other services.
https://linktr.ee/radiowada

30/07/2020

Work in progress illustrations for a Website for a Smart Water Management Enterprise.