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Found on SikhNerd

Beautiful video:

Case in point (in case you missed it), the current Pepsi identity and logo was undertaken by branding agency Arnell Group and documented within a leaked PDF entitled ‘BREATHTAKING Design Strategy’ to prove that this logo is a akin to the Da Vinci Code of branding, drawing on everything from magnetic fields to the “Golden Ratio” and taking nothing short of the Earth’s geodynamo and the relativity of Space and Time as direct design influence… no, I am not making this up.

Such overblown pomp is normally reserved for the world of Art – or should we take this as further evidence that the grey area between the Art and Design worlds are ever-expanding?

Nothing speaks the truth more than graphic design… or does it? I am talking about an industry where David Carson can use his graphic designer’s discretion to deem an article so dull that he ran the text in the abstract Zapf Dingbats font in its entirety. With the rise of popularity on Infographics the question now raised is – Does data visualisation aid understanding, or simply invite attention through beauty and desirable graphic design? Discourse in design is always healthy and I enjoyed the debate between Neville Brody and David McCandless on BBC Newsnight (skip to about 26 mins in).

For me, there is a balance to be found. I am a fan of David McCandless and his work on informationisbeautiful.net as in my view, potentially information information is presented to me in a more palatable and simplified fashion, with the aesthetics subliminally being appreciated as an after-thought post visual clarity. Conversely, examples of infographics such as the iPhone Deconstruction Critical Wayfinder project by Ben Millen is supposed to serve as analysis of the device, the corporation, the vast network of shareholders, technology and the distribution – but to paraphrase Broady – would serve better as something I would like to own and hang on my wall at home.

Worthy of note, is that this debate in itself has now been paid tribute by an infographic of its very own courtesy of Toby Bradbury (with a fitting small print).

A clip from the 2009 documentary “Objectified” which focuses on industrial design. In this clip, Jonathan Ive talks about the iMac, and the Unibody design of the MacBook/MacBook Air & MacBook Pro.

On camera Jonathan appears uncomfortable and almost embarrassed about the length of his efforts to achieve such a level of detail.

Meeting him in person was truly a rewarding experience, and his passion for his work came through just as clearly, although in more of a humble and welcoming manner.

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Mashup of scenes from Pixar’s Up with the trailer for Inception by Frank Ireland.

Being a designer and of Indian ancestry, this has significance interest to me. However, while I should be excited, I have mixed emotions about both the design and opportunity this represented for design from India to shine on a global stage.

The winning design by Udaya Kumar (a lecturer in design at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai) blends the Devanagari, ‘Ra’ and Roman character ‘R’ well but my first impression of the design is that it has taken fitting in with the existing symbol set as a primary objective.

Kumar spoke on his design being based on the tricolour flag with two lines at the top and white space in between.

He says, ‘I wanted the symbol for the rupee to represent the Indian flag. It is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters – a capital ‘R’ and a Devanagari ‘ra’ which represents rupiya, to appeal to international audiences and Indian audiences.’

It is in this respect that I am somewhat disappointed by the design and after learning more out the selection process, how low profile this was given the scale and magnitude of what is represented. The manifestation (if successful) worldwide is difficult to imagine… the number of keyboards and typefaces alone that will eventually feature this across the world is huge.

The Indian economy is one of the fastest growing and India in general has taken a strong shift towards international recognition – but I wonder, does this symbol represent a greater focus on integration than showcasing the ability of Indian design? I can’t help but think that this is more a case of fitting in with the respected high-flyers within global business than being symbolic of the changing values that India and Indians hold.

Michael Johnson, of design consultancy johnson banks, rates the design as a B or B plus suggesting they could have gone for something more unusual and gotten away with it but instead that conservative voices probably were prevailing in the end, and in this respect I strongly agree.

The chosen symbol was selected from 25,000 entries ahead of four others shortlisted by the Indian cabinet and I cannot believe what an amazingly low standard these are. Whether this is representative of the entrees or the selecting judges remains to be seen. With the once in a lifetime opportunity this brief represented, perhaps the Indian cabinet could have showed the forward thinking that is represented by the Indian public by welcoming entrants from Indian designers across the world.

Update:

An article on Design Observatory details how the Indian Type Foundry (Peter Bilak & Satya Rajpurohit) are intergrating the symbol into their work using Open Type’s Ligature features and how the Unicode Consortium are working towards releasing a format for the new symbol. As the design is gaining acceptance, i’m disappointed to see a dark cloud forming above this with the talk of corruption underlining the design competition – but ultimately not surprised.