It’s Wednesday morning in 2033, and I wake up in my Amalfi Coast home. From the artwork on the walls to the smallest details, everything here conveys the story of a life lived with purpose.
I get dressed in a vegan leather Chloe blazer and my mother’s antique silk shawl from India. The combination of contemporary and tradition symbolizes my journey, but I wonder if I’m balancing things well, or if I’ve lost touch with what used to make me feel alive. In moments like this, I remember singing and dancing for the sheer joy of it, something I’d lost in the rush of developing my profession.
But there’s a constant pull: how can I meet corporate expectations while remaining true to my passion for doing good in the world? The weight of corporate expectations—client demands, investor pressure, and personal ambitions—makes me wonder if the success I’ve strived for has come at the expense of my integrity.
I am constantly working to reach a stage in my life where I can work for six months and then travel for the rest of the six months, exploring hidden gems, absorbing culture, and embracing diverse stories in ways that enrich both my life and my creative process.My family has always been there to support me, which is why I aim to achieve this work-life balance. While the customers, coworkers, and communities with whom I collaborate profit from the ideas I implement.
In the meeting room, presenting my latest project, I exude a quiet confidence that has replaced my former uncertainty.
I recall my time at UAL when I was developing my regressive design research technique. What was previously unsure and uncomfortable has become a guiding force in my work and identity as a designer; my approach to a project is my unique selling point. UAL has not only shaped my professional position but also established me as an engaged researcher and thinker in the creative sector.
I live like the main character in a fairytale, not because everything is flawless, but because I write my own story, balancing achievement with being true to myself.
Workshop Task
Brand: HP
Using the fairytale model to plot the narrative arc of the brand story through an illustrated and captioned storyboard –
Key elements of brand story: Message, Conflict, Characters, PlotHP(Hewlett Packard) Brand Story
This workshop involved understanding Brand Identity, and the meaning of icons, indexes and symbols. Informed by semiotic analysis, an iconic, symbolic, and indexical identity was transformed into an identity of another category. This blog provides an illustrated account of my workshop experience including the processes and thinking used for the redesign.
Redesigning Logos using Semiotic Analysis
As per the brief of the workshop, the logos were chosen based primarily on the three categories of signs they fall into: icons, index, and symbol.
Redesigning an Iconic Logo as an Indexical Logo
Slice Mango Juice Brand Identity
The Slice mango drink is one of the leading players in its category in India. With an iconic logo, it features a slice of mango and the brand name written using the mango itself. Its qualities resemble the object and can excite the sensation related to it such as drinking sweet mango juice (Peirce, 1976).
The Redesigned Logo
The logo redesign features a mango juice splash, serving as an index of the mango, making it an indexical logo.
Redesigning an Indexical Logo as a Symbolic Logo
Nandini Brand Identity
Nandini Milk is a heritage milk brand, that originated in the southern Indian state of Karnataka and has become a household name in India. The brand has a logo that features a cow in a natural landscape. The logo is considered an indexical logo because cows produce milk, and the index here is physically connected and affected by the object (Peirce, 1976).
The Redesigned Logo
The redesigned logo now features the Kamadhenu, a divine cow goddess representing fertility, prosperity, and the sacredness of cows. In this context, Kamadhenu is the signifier and the mental concept of purity, nourishment, and abundance by the signifier is the signified (Saussure, 1916). The meaning of this logo is rooted in Hindu scriptures, and it is understood through cultural associations, thus making the redesigned logo symbolic.
Redesigning a Symbolic Logo as an Iconic Logo
Parle-G Brand IdentityParle G Biscuit
Parle-G is a widely recognized wordmark brand in India. The brand is renowned for its iconic biscuits, which are commonly enjoyed with tea across the nation. It is believed to be the highest-selling biscuit globally. This is a symbolic sign since the logo does not have any connection with the biscuits (Peirce, 1976). It is recognised by the learnt significance based on the cultural practices of people who have grown up with this product.
The Redesigned Logo
This logo has been redesigned to be an iconic logo. The classic design of the Parle-G biscuit is unique to the brand and easily recognisable, even if people haven’t paid attention to the wordmark. Thus, it has been redesigned taking the iconic shape of the biscuits and its pattern, evoking a sensory memory for anyone who has touched the biscuit before. This is an iconic logo as it directly embodies the product visually rather than referencing anything else related to it (Peirce, 1976).
References: Visible Signs, David Crow Handbook of Semiotics, Winfred Noth
Sensory research involved engaging all our senses to explore and think deeply about something as simple as a circle. This process made me realise the countless ways we can investigate something that might initially seem straightforward or have an obvious meaning. I’ve come to understand that sensory research is a powerful tool for investigative inquiry, allowing us to delve deeply into a subject in a way that feels personal and unique to our individual perspective, using our senses as guides.
How does a circle move?
A Circle on a see-sawA Circle going round & roundA Circle rolling down a hillA Circle rotating in its placeA Circle going up & down in a wave A Circle bouncing up & down
What does a circle sound like?
What does a circle taste like?
A circle is quite versatile. It can taste as tangy as an olive, as sweet as a Ferrero Rocher, or as bland as aspirin. With a circle, what you get is entirely up to you!
The narrative task required us to create a story based on a fact we uncovered related to our chosen shape. This involved crafting a complete narrative, including elements like story structure, genre, theme, and characters. We developed three distinct narratives based on different facts, selected one, and passed it on to another group for further development. At the same time, we received another group’s written verbal territory and were tasked with building a visual world (in the form of a collage) based on the information they provided.
In the final step, we swapped our work again with another group, taking their collage and further developing it into a three-part storyboard. This entire process emphasised the importance of not becoming too attached to your work, reflecting industry practices’ collaborative and iterative nature. It also honed my skills in understanding a brief, adapting to someone else’s work, and expanding upon it as if it were my own.
Verbal Territories
We chose the 2nd verbal territory – which was given to another groupWe were given this verbal theme to create a collage based on it
The Visual World
Our Collage based on the verbal territory that we received
Storyboards
The Collage that we receivedThe storyboards that we made out of it
PlayLab was a fun, judgement-free, two-week experimental workshop that enabled me to explore branding design processes by delving into experimental research methods.
What are all the Research Methods that I can think of?
The workshop kicked off with everyone compiling a comprehensive list of both primary and secondary research methods, all in one place. This resulted in an extensive repository containing various techniques we have utilised or could use in the future.
This was followed by filtering out the visual research methods.
The starting point was the circle, my assigned shape, and the London Underground logo, which my shape buddy, Mira, and I chose to serve as our compositional reference. Using the tools of photography and AI, we used Adobe Firefly to generate a series of designs, incorporating circles found in our immediate environment as style references. To spice things up, I used circular objects made from various materials, resulting in a diverse collection of visually interesting compositions.
Seeing the unexpectedly good compositions, inspired by different materials made me realise that they could serve as the starting point for a brand’s visual identity. For example, these metallic circles, with their sleek and modern aesthetic would be well-suited for a watch brand.
What are the creative ways of representing a circle?
We then hit the library to explore books from various fields to find all the instances where a circle can be spotted. I got to analyse the themes and patterns they represented and derive a unique fact about the circle.
How can I design my own Primary Research Methods?
This process started with framing and defining the research question: “How can I develop innovative research methods to convey a meaning beyond the circle?“
This involved conducting a series of experiments using our research methods to discover something unique about our shape. We dived into shapes and sensory associations, keeping as our prime focus.
Method 1: Shapes & Colour Associations
This experiment was about finding out whether people associate shapes with certain colours – for ex: Triangles with the colour green and so on. This was a visual survey research method that involved the participants matching the three main shapes- circle, triangle and square with the colours of the rainbow. It was conducted on 10 students from LCC. I hoped it could give us insights specific to the thinking of design students as well. Although the results were ambiguous, I gained an insight into how people connect shapes with colours.
When prompted to explain their reason behind choosing certain colours for a specific shape, they mentioned that –
A Circle makes me think of movement, and movement makes me think of the colour Red”
It was fascinating to observe how people linked specific emotions and actions with a shape, and then connected these with the emotions that a colour invokes, all based on their past experiences with the shape and colour. So, while I could state that “Many people associate a circle with the sensation of completeness and perceive it as something serene, and therefore connect it with the colour green,” it’s also important to note that this is a highly personal experience for each individual.
Method 2: Shapes & Sound Associations
This was a fun research method that involved asking the participants to listen to different types of sounds – the sound of a dog, a bird, a frog, a whale and insects.
I had assumed that people would choose a circle to represent sounds like that of a dog, especially if they liked dogs since it evokes a positive feeling. However, I noticed that people chose shapes based not only on the feeling but also on the pitch of the sounds. For example, a high-pitched barking sound from a puppy was not seen as cute, but rather as a troubled sound. As a result, some people chose a triangle because of its sharp angles. I got to understand the thought process that goes into associating shapes and sounds and how this information can be leveraged in branding.
Method 3: Shapes & Visual Weight
In this research, participants were shown two sets of shape patterns for only 5 seconds and asked to identify the most recurring shape in each pattern. For the first pattern, many participants said circle, while some also said triangles. However, for the second pattern, almost everyone said square, likely because the size of the square was the same as the other shapes.
Squares with a slightly smaller size than the other shapes
Squares with the same size as the other shapes
As designers, we understand the concept of visual weight, similar to adjusting the size of certain letters in typography to prevent them from dominating the text. These research findings highlight the importance of considering visual weight when designing with shapes. If all shapes are intended to have equal emphasis, it may be necessary to make slight adjustments to their size or placement to prevent any bias in perception.
How to Make a Map?
For this exercise, we were asked to recreate the map of the area in and around LCC, but with a twist- not on paper, but within the classroom as a whole. As someone who has trouble with directions and maps in general, I was not sure how I would go about doing this. But, it turned out to be one of the best activities till now!
We were divided into teams like – The Road team, LCC team, Elephant & Castle and Elephant Park, which happened to be my team. At first, there was confusion and chaos, but once I interacted with the other teams and started to look at things relatively, the process was smooth and fun.
Panoramic View – Photo credit: Avinav Ghosh
After that, we were asked to use colour-coded sticky notes (Pink – Fail; Yellow – Pass; Green – Good) to mark where we conducted our research. This allowed us to reflect on the outcomes of the day. Although many experiments didn’t yield conclusive results, they helped me break free from the conventional thought process of conducting experiments and opened up new possibilities in my mind.
