Codesign identified the need for a platform to address the lack of information pertaining to visual design work from India. The studio identified print and the web as two mediums of intervention. I undertook the creation of the publication.
The print publication aims to kick start a progressive analysis of our contemporary visual culture and dismantle predefined notions of our visual language. The project encompassed the identification of inspirational designers and projects. Background research and nine interviews carried out, in person, over the phone and via e-mail, provided me bare content to begin writing. Thus, was born the annual review — Dekko, which comes from the Hindi work dekho, which means ‘to look.’
I wrote articles aspiring to give an insight into design relevant to India today. Eight of the eleven articles make an inquiry into design in India with hopes of uncovering roots of its originality. It forms a picture of a country whose design is establishing itself through ingenious processes and applications, becoming ‘Indian’ in ways previously left unaddressed. The articles come from the corner of an explosive culture (letters from the east) to influences and stories of achievers (in the making). From revealing a hidden visual language (picture this) to information that offers new definition for visual design in India. Some stories let you converse with the past and estimate the future (spoken words) others come from a new frontier (response). The articles I wrote were used on the web platform that was simultaneously created.
The project required adaptation, resourcefulness and travel, and brought immense learning through the interaction with visual designers across the nation (and beyond). I honed in to interpersonal skills to bring in information that enabled me to successfully design a publication for the design community in India.
