2010 in review:: thank you all for dropping in…

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,900 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 15 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 30 posts. There were 38 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 12mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was April 3rd with 108 views. The most popular post that day was concepts of logo for RTI, Govt. of India.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, drypastels.blogspot.com, design-for-india.blogspot.com, issuu.com, and thelambstudios.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for right to information logo, question mark, question mark icon, duality, and indian rupee logo.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

concepts of logo for RTI, Govt. of India April 2010
53 comments

2

New logo for RTI launched in India October 2010
3 comments

3

The Indian Rupee symbol and the logo for RTI June 2010
7 comments

4

Logo for Right to Information: alternative ideas May 2010

5

Ajit Ninan on RTI, the new logo and other things September 2010

New logo for RTI launched in India

finally, in India, the Right to Information has a new face.

The new logo of the Right to Information was launched on Thursday, 28th October 2010, By Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Honourable Minister of State, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.

the new logo for the Right to Information

Along with the new logo, an information portal was also launched

The design and layout of the web portal is nothing great to talk about, but the intentions behind this is worth commendation. How many governments have such seminal acts like the RTI Act 2005, which allows the general public to question them, their processes and their decisions. This of course increases the accountability on the part of the government office bearers and participation from the citizens leading to good governance. It is a beginning, even though full of speed breakers.

The official announcement can even be seen on the facebook page of the Honourable PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh, here.

The following day, advertisements were published in all leading newspapers in different languages across the country.

here are a few previews I could get locally – in The Indian Express (English),

the half page advertisement in The Indian Express

in Sandesh (one of the largest  Gujarati dailies)

the ad in Gujarati daily, Sandesh; which is broader than the english dailies

and also in Rajasthan Patrika (Hindi, the Ahmedabad edition).

the single colour half page ad in Rajasthan Patrika

The basic concept of the ad was provided by us, but the final designs and artworks were done by DAVP (Department of Audio Visual Publicity). There is no saying that the people out there definitely need some inputs in typography. Look at the sentence breaks in the Hindi version – the first column. Perhaps they also need a good proof reader. note the spelling mistake in the web url in the gujarati version.

It is sort of funny that people do not read what they are supposed to – The Department of Personnel and training had published over a thousand copies of the guidelines to be circulated to the various giovernment departments. I think the concept of graphic design will take some time to catch up, but it will surely.

For the pdf file of the guidelines in English, please click here.

it took me over 8 months from the first meeting with the Minister (kick starting the project) to the final launch. A glimpse of the alternative concepts of the logo presented to the Ministry can also be seen here.

It is an important day for the Right to Information movement in our country and design for India. and I feel proud to be a part of this movement.  Looking forward for your valuable comments and feedback.

Tags: Government of India, India, logo, logo design, NID, right to information, RTI, RTI logo, symbol design, tarun deep

Ajit Ninan on RTI, the new logo and other things

Launched in October 2005, the RTI Act in India is finally catching up.

The public-at-large is becoming more aware about the advantages this act brings, making the decisions of the government more transparent and accessible (of course there are also those who often misuse the provisions of this Act and file an RTI application on almost everything under the Indian sun – well it takes all kinds of fingers to make a hand). This of course leads to a greater accountability in the actions of the babus.

This year, during the RTI awareness week (5th-12th October 2010), the Government of India is finally launching a visual face of the RTI Act. The new logo is going to be implemented, so that people are able to relate visually to entire provision.

the cartoon by Ajit Ninan, one of my favourite artists and cartoonist (since the days I used to wait for his Moochwala comic strip in the Target magazine)  has his own witty take on the RTI.

More on the final logo of RTI and its launch soon.

/cheers

Tags: Ajit Ninan, logo, logo design, NID, right to information, RTI, symbol design, Times of India

The Indian Rupee symbol and the logo for RTI

While there is  a good amount of debate going on the final selection of the rupee symbol. If you may recall an open public competition was announced way back in February 2009 by the Ministry of Finance. The shortlisted entries flashed in the media in anticipation of the results being announced by the MoF, happened to be an internal exercise of the design team of Economic Times. Read more about this here. The text clearly indicates that these were done soon after the competition was announced.

There also seems to be an RTI application filed against the entire process and the manner in which it was conducted. It raises serious doubts about the intentions of the governemnt while dealing with such a project of not just national importance, but also international significance. There is also a website on this, which you can see here.

Coming to RTI, you must be aware that I was working on design a logo for the Right to Information on behalf of NID. Well, I had worked on several options in the second round of iterations and presented to the Ministry. Here is a sneak preview. Do leave your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Tags: Government of India, Indian Rupee, logo, logo design, NID, right to information, Symbol, tarun deep

understanding vulnerability for disaster risk reduction

well, this an old project which I was revisiting for a paper I am working on ‘visual perceptions’

I collaborated with an old friend of mine who is a qualified architect but a passionate illustrator, currently counting time as a e-learning expert.

check out the finals here . you can download the full pdf, and some more details of the project here.

The actual brief was to develop a set of 18 panels (due to constraints of space at the client’s training centre). however, better sense prevailed and within the same budget we worked out the panels, plus a booklet which is easy to read/browse. The icing on the cake is an accompanying DVD which has high resolution artworks – ready to print (upto 2′x3′) and also low res images which can be used for presentations on teh subject.

Tags: bilingual, disaster risk reduction, exhibition panels, Gujarat, gujarati, hand drawn illustrations, printing, Ranjit Balmuchu, rural audiences, Typography, Unnati, vulnerability, water colours

sneak preview : fresh on the press

my second calendar this year. can’t hold the excitement, this one is a single pager. still fresh and wet in the press.

a sneak preview

the first colour being perfected

2nd colour: not yet registered

printed in two spot colours (no pantone, we mixed the colours in the press) on 80 gsm SSP uncoated, on our inhouse single colour Roland Parva (1964 vintage). 1200 copies are going to be officially launched on the 14th June (new academic year at NID).

full story soon !

Tags: calendar, NID, offset printing, paper, planner, Roland Parva, tarun deep, two-colours, Typography

Who said typography had to be stiff and boring?

cover of the book, as it appears on thier website

came across this book recently (thanks to Shreyas for sharing the link)

All of 196 pages, in a hardbound edition, Don’t go by the size of 16×21 cms! the inside pages share tons of information in a very elegant and interactive (rather addictive) manner.

Hyperactivitypography from A to Z is an activity book for typographers illustrated in a nostalgic vintage style to give it a sweet and childlike look.
The book is packed with activities, ranging from silly to hard core nerdiness. It’s great to test your skills on and to learn new things while having fun.
Who said typography had to be stiff and boring?

Done by a team of young designers under the leadership of  Paul van Brunschot, Studio 3, based in Oslo, Norway.

click here to flip through the book.

It is a must ‘own’ for anyone even remotely related with anything to do with typography

Unfortunately at the moment it is sold out. I am sure Paul and his team is working on a reprint

Tags: Book, hand drawn illustrations, hand lettering, illustration, Norway, Oslo, Typography