Ramesh Design Blog

100_1463

100_1463
Originally uploaded by centroidhub.

Fw: Here are the links to the best advertisements of last year. ...

----- Original Message -----

To: kannan
Cc: Pramod Chaudhary
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 3:32 PM
Subject: Fw: Here are the links to the best advertisements of last year. ...

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/02011.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/03010.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/11071.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/06037.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/01043.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/08101.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/18037.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/19044.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/20003.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/22018.htm

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/25170.htm

flickering from email

flickering from email
Originally uploaded by centroidhub.

CENTROID LOGO

Design - Connecting the enduser, the designer and the manufacturere

Opportunity - National , International and design in social and rural context

People - Inhouse, outsource and networking

corporate identity - Nags temptation

Link - http://www.nagstemptations.com/

Centroid executed the corporate identity of Nag's Temptations......

forbes article on Induatrial Design

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2005/12/05/tastemakers-industrial-designers-cx_tm_1206taste_ls.html

design methodology

blog link .. need to explore more ...

link

test for designer continued

with reference to the earlier posting .... find attached the images for the test for a designer

my trip in designing

THIS IS A OLD MAIL - ABOUT 6 MONTHS AGO .........

now the thougts have refined much more and there are lots of additions and deletions to this....

Hi sam,

went through your blog sites, and thought would share my experiences in the last 10 years, including the 2 years in IIT Delhi about "my trip in designing ......"

IIT Delhi - The times when we had interacted, not so much but to a certain level. I was always a quite listener and still I am. But the urge to internalize things has brought me to the stage which I am now. The design education during my stay at IIT Delhi was the beginning of a new carrier, a new perspective of looking at things. At this point would like to talk about what I was earlier.

Basically from Chennai, South India - a place which is endowed for its cultural nuances..... From a very well groomed family background, was the last kid with 3 elder sisters, had the luxury of a good schooling, a paid engineering degree, as a normal kid, went through the trip in life as it takes, did it religiously to the best of what I could, got a university rank in Civil Engineering. Dad a Structural Engineer had lots of influence on my studies and the perspective of looking at things, since that was the only environment which I was exposed to led to my undergraduate studies. Have been drawings, sketching as a hobby from the time I knew, led me to my basic skills in visualization. After finishing schooling had interest in Architecture, but the terrible entrance procedures, which I had to undergo did not allow me to do architecture, so landed up as a Civil Engineer.Immense patience and open mind nature has been my greatest fortunes. Always ambitious but keep waiting for things to happen the way, till the time it happens the way I wanted it to happen. From a conservative society, which South India is still in, and from a Clan called "Chettiars", who are the bankers in those days, traded to Burma and Singapore, as an individual in childhood days the conservative society has played a very immense impact of what I am. The way of thinking, the way to move with people, the mannerisms, the respect to others, the way of talking the base had been laid during those days, which I had picked up from what I had seen from my immediate vicinity and surroundings. Which is a long story in itself. But basically want to say at this point that the conservative society which I was brought about in also has a great impact of what I am today.

Coming back to the IIT Days, was like as told earlier, looking at things in a newer perspective. As I see today, the stay at IIT Delhi, is not only the place where my base of the design is laid but its also a place which allowed me to see within myself, my qualities, my inner as what it ought to be. The point which I am trying to make is the child hood days, had influence of others and they stay at Delhi , moving with totally a different breed of people, friends and others, made me to question what I am and what is there in me. And from that time onwards it is a game that I am playing to find out what my trip in Life is.

To talk about the design education, to tell in simpler terms, we had an overall exposure in design, methodologies and we were trained to explore and learn newer things as it comes. I will talk about the design education which we were exposed to in a separate mail. Its a community where we see like minded people, figuring out what life means to them. The only thing we still carry forward from IIT Delhi, is " Design is what Designers do", and "Designing" is a process in realizing the self, the attitude what we have reflects in what we do. The final designed product is only the outcome, as a designer we were exposed to enjoying the process of design, enjoying self.

ROYAL ENFIELD - Got placement with the prestigious legendary Royal Enfield Bullet manufacturers, and returned back to Chennai. The initial two years in Royal Enfield, I was exploring all sorts of works. I was always hands on, and that quality had allowed me to pick up the finer nuances of the product, and now I am confident of making a mechanical engineer scream out during a technical discussion of a product being manufactured. The stay at Royal Enfield, allowed me to explore the wider context of a product, from concept till the product is marketed. The different stages in development, the importance of design attached with each stage in depth understanding of the process, the systems, the work culture, the basics was laid at Royal Enfield. I had explored lots of designs and had made mockups and prototypes of many of my designs, which were lying in the garage, and we still kept on exploring kept our creative ideas flowing. One fine day the top management changed and we had our new CEO, a young and dynamic person. He wanted to see our works, the mockups from the garage were dusted out and showed to him. That began the birth of the THUNDERBIRD, he was wowed by the design and the transformation that a design could bring to the product. Then within eight months the product with much of refinements were out in the market. When discussing with piers of mine, I would say that Thunderbird was not done in eighty months, the two years of effort that we had put in exploring in depth the different areas of design, had allowed me to bring out the bird so fast in the market place. Thunderbird is a success story and there was the Bullet Electra, and many more accessories and smaller items, which the company made fortunes. Then a bike design from groundup was conceptualized and that was the time I realized that the skill level required to design a ground up bike is immense, with much of effort and the little experience we had gained from the previous years, I had brought it to certain level, and then left the company to venture on my own. The ground up bike is still in the final stages of completion and its about 4 years since it started and it will take another 2 years to see the light of the day. The six years stay at Enfield came to an end by December 2004.

NEXUS DESIGN - Along with my juniors who were running a successful point of purchase design consultancy in Delhi, branched out along with my junior in Chennai specializing in Product Design. Knowing theoretically that consultancy is altogether a different ball game than in being in a company, jumped in to it to experience the pain and pleasure in that. With not much of focus and with the theoretical backing up of Nexus Delhi, ventured in to the field. We were taking up projects as it came, we started our work initially with graphic designing, a brochure for a construction consulting company, and followed by their corporate identity for the company, we ended up doing their visiting cards and letter heads, but still enjoyed the newer experience of designing and exploring the printing process and related areas, and more importantly in handling clients and the finance part. Then it followed up with a Corporate identity for a hospital in Andrapradesh and their internal and external signage for a huge hospital which was built around a hill.

From my old friend in IIT Chennai, got in to product design for a optical equipment - a finger print authenticator, which led to the beginning of my carrier as a product design consultant, we religiously put our efforts conceptualizing the product taking semantics from a thumb and designed the product around it, since it was our first product, not to take chances we brought in expert from the plastic industry to detail out the finer plastic detailing parts, the fits and the tolerances, We did lots of sketching and finalalised on two concepts and made solid models and realistic renderings on the computer and showed it to the client. We took the client through the story of the design process and the semantics behind the form of the product. The idea got sold, we made foam models, then the interesting part, packaging the internals with in the volumes and since it is an optical equipment, take all the considerations of the light scatter and the reflections and so on ... the technical part was proven to the client with FRP prototypes, after finalizing on the design and the details. The CAD model was sent for Rapid prototyping , we reassembled the product checked for all functionality from the clients perspective and all design parameters from a designer perspective. The same was cleared and we sent it for soft tooling and got 25 numbers of components. They product was very well received and is in the field testing stage in the market place.

The time the product was displayed at IIT Chennai, we started getting enquiries and we started with a Remote diagnostic medical kit , a telemedicine kit designed by another company from bangalore also associated with IIT Chennai. This product was even more challenging than the Finger print authenticator and we followed the same process and our renderings we displayed at various places, the client asked for 3 sets of print out of the final designs to be displayed at various places. We successfully completed this project also.

In the mean time through Enfield contacts got in to 3M, to designing automotive graphics on a retainer basis, many automobiles in India carry our graphics and also got a diesel engine styling project and a agricultural engine styling project all at the same time, we handled it and looked to that the design deliverables were perfect and the best to what standards we know were the best. It was a hectic schedule everyday but we had enjoyed the whole process. The design process of each and every product can be dealt with as a separate story telling exercise in itself.

In-between my partner in chennai decided to leave for personal reasons and was left all alone in the consultancy business, looking after design, engineering, marketing, finance and client servicing all under myself, with a small team of two diploma holders to help me out. Then we decided to close down Nexus chennai operations, with a friendly hand shake.

FREE LANCING - for about 1 month was free lancing and was on my own exploring various opportunities and possibilities for survival and also thinking on a longer term perspective on what I needed to do, and how to do. This break allowed me to think afresh in a number of areas, think back about the what I was and also think forward on what I wanted to be.

CentroID Creative Hubb - after a good in depth thought process, Centroid Creative Hubb was born in April 2005, with some basic contacts earlier, I started on my own all over again, with only task before me, and a strong focus - If I need to make my living, I will make it through only product Design. With this as the only strong focus got in to the field, with immense confidence in self. This all happened by questioning self and what I wanted to do and which gave me pleasure.

From a business perspective being in a consultancy field laid down few milestones which I needed to cross to lay a strong foundation for a design consultancy. The tasks which I put before me were building a strong team to back me up with the rest of the design process after conceptualizing, buying a legal version of a solid modeling software is has become the bare necessity tool for assisting in capturing the design intent, and building a self sufficient workshop to handle studio projects with qualities top notch. The underlying urge was to create a very good folio of works to demonstrate our capabilities and to work in all areas of product design.

Again through contacts from Enfield, got in to SAME Tractors, a MNC based in Ranipet about 3 hrs from Chennai, got a break which made CentroID to make its first step in Automobile Design. We had to design the body panels for the tractor, with some basic constraints. We enjoyed every moment of it and were over joyed when the tractor had come to our studio for reference purpose. We patted it, we admired it , spent hours and hours along with it , discussing in and out the possibilities which will lead to our deliverable of the final design. We had presented six concepts, and they were new to the word of 3d modeling and were excited to see the photorealistic renderings of our earlier work and demanded cad surface models and Photorealistic renderings of four concepts. This made us realize that when exposing to clients we need to be careful in what to show and what not to show, because it can turn back any moment. But we enjoyed by hiring additional man power, experts in surface modeling and completed the concepts well in time. The concepts were presented as photorealistic renderings and as 3d animations which the client can zoom in, rotate and see the details. The concepts were sent to Italy to their parent company for approval. Two concepts were approved and we did FRP Prototypes of both the concepts. We worked day and night and was a very relishing experience completing the mocks. The finalized concept was taken to the suppliers and discussed and we were also involved in finalizing the cluster samples with the supplier and incorporating that design on the product. After a couple of refinements the concept was signed off and was displayed during their dealer conference, which had got a very good appreciation from all of them. The final stages of Engineering detailing and discussion with the vendors are going on.

At CentroID, we handle projects from concept till production support, because the Indian scenario is yet to reach the maturity level, where with only the concept the client and take it till production with out loosing the design intent. To see our Ideas see the light of the day we work with all the client till the production support. The activities involve concept design, presentations, concept refinements, packaging checks, Engineering detailing as per the materials - plastic , sheet metals etc., Detailed Engineering Drawings, Process sheets and we also get involved in discussion along with the vendors and incorporating the vendor feed backs in the concepts with out spoiling the design intent of the product.

As we started the Tractor, we got a couple of projects a low cost ATM for the rural market, also along with IIT Chennai. We were involved from the initial stages of the product, the design was a very challenging task and we need to cross lots of barriers to prove our design in that context. Now the Pilot lot of 10 Nos. is made and is under testing. We had made one two concepts for the product and got one approved and made FRP Prototypes to showcase the final design.

We also handled a Genset - project parallely, which we totally redefined the visual looks of the product and brought the genset from a total engineering functional looks to a very friendly and approachable elegant design. The tooling for the product is under process.

We also completed a Thin client computer, for a client based in chennai, we had a spent a lot of time in packaging the product along with the client, but because of functional reasons, the product was out in the market with the internals that were readily available, The front panel was injection molded in ABS and the rear sheet metal case was mass produced by CNC process. The products were designed for defense applications and the first lot of 100 computers were delivered a couple of months back.

We worked on a Kerosene stove project, the client had a patented burner around which he needs to design the stove for the African market, which looks elegant and also costs very cheap. Every bit of metal was calculated and the blanks were reused and the product design was successfully completed and drawings handed over to the client.

For a company involved in Educational Lab equipments for colleges we had designed a Security server, which is like a computer CPU packaged along with a couple of hubs inside with some security features. The client was wowed by our designs and the process was enjoyable for both the client and us. The client has high regards for us and keep giving us works on regular basis, we just completed a Fiber optic power source - front panel graphics, which contains the electronics the led and is only 2.2 mm thickness.

Another client through word of mouth got to know us and brought a Automatic soap dispenser and a Automatic Room freshener, which he had picked up from China during his recent visit and told that these models will work only in china and design them for the Indian context, with totally a new look and feel keeping the internal packaging items the same, with some minimal additional features, the concept design is complete and the engineering detailing is under process.

Recently we got a break in to the writing equipment design market and worked for a local pen company called saber, for their gripper and executive model pens, during the final stages of completion we were referred by their director to Reynolds, and we had got their range of pens for the year to be designed, which started with about 5 different pens in different categories to be designed. We are just in the concept design phase of the project.

After about long wait the client whom we had designed the diesel engines and the genset, gave us the three wheeler load carrier project, which has just started and is in the beginning stages of conceptualization.

The above short lines are about the projects we have done, but the process of designing each is a story which would be interested to share sometime.

From a business perspective, I had put a team of designer to help me out with some basic works , two engineers to take care of engineering and cad modeling and two diploma guys to assist in model making and cad works. I always have the core the conceptualizing with myself. We had invested in a software called Solidworks, which will cater to most of our solid modeling works. We are in the process of looking up for a new space to set up a workshop cum studio, which should happen in a couple of months from now. With this as the base we should be done with the fundamentals and go in for next step of action plans to build over this.

What next....The question now is am I satisfied with what I have done? , There always remains that there is a long way to go, and what ever has been done has been with the limited knowledge and experience which I have and I need to experience a lot more, But being caught in this vicious circle one needs to take a stance back and look afresh, during which time saw your mail and had hinted lots of questions and more questions on what next to follow.

Thinking of all possible negatives which if eliminated will give me clear path to follow, one strategy may work or may not work - let me try it ......

1. I am not interested in building a design folio for myself, I feel that there is enough works as a base level to demonstrate the capabilities.

2. I am not after Job - Since running a design consultancy, I feel makes me feel much better along with design than in a industry (there are many reasons for this statement..)

3. I am rather not after money - I have seen the best and the worst of things financially and have survived both and am now what I am.

4. I rather have no immediate family commitments, still a bachelor, dad and mom should be possibly able to take care of themselves.

5. I am rather not after learning, schooling, attending coursework's. I am in a position to debate on a topic, have my own perspective of things, and strongly feel it has to be in a certain way and very often question the same.....

6. I am now running a consultancy and am committed to it both morally and financially

What I need ....I need overhauling of myself .....to make my thought process still stronger ....

....Immediate is setting up a workshop which will complete the base requirements for a studio, With the Business plans as of now expand the studio, with funding from VC's, and get in to design much more professionally and make a breakthrough in the design scene in India. As a quite listener, I have retained CentroID also as a quite company till date, even though we have been working with so many companies, we have not done marketing till date, only through word of mouth we have been getting projects, and we get repeat customers who give us more design projects based on our previous works. Even the design community does not know that CentroID exists, My company is what I am. I want to blast out and want to explore more into design through CentroID. Ofcourse want to make it a multi billion dollar company.

My Strengths and Weaknesses...we will discuss in person.....

The thought process on /about design .... ....The thought process on designing , as I have experienced ....

> Design is a vast boundless area

> Focusing on Design, or discussing about design can happen with "Design in a context"

> the word CONTEXT could mean Background, Circumstance, Situation, Frame work, Perspective, Environment, Milieu

> Context are the boundaries within which we are discussing about design in specific

> "Design in a social context" is a broad area , "Design in Indian Scenario" is a broad area

> So for researching or talking about design in CONTEXT, one should be first knowledgeable about the context

> Knowledgeable means - Experience the context, been in it, lived with it, internalized it, know about the past , felt the present and can comment/ predict about the future

> The Indian Design Scenario, requires more than what it is today - First I am trying to figure out what the present Design scenario is and next I am trying to bridge the gap with CentroID as a means on a very large perspective. (CentroID will do it is a dream, but it is achievable is ambitious .....but walking towards it is a reality)

> The above statement through out lots of questions ? What is Indian ?, What is the Scenario we are talking about?, Who are the people whom we are addressing? What is the Design Scenario?.....++

> IF one is talking about Indian Scenario about Design, Does similar Scenarios about Design statements exists about other countries say Italy, US, UK etc., Is one knowledgeable about it? To discuss about the Indian Scenario? Is there a scale of comparison??

> Example 1 - A statement about Indian Design Scenario - "Outsourcing Killing Creativity of Indian Designers"

> MNC's coming to India for cheap labor, has entered the design scene as Class A surfacing, Indians if smart enough should look at it positively and take surfacing as the first step and pitch in to the core of conceptualizing. The above statement can also be questioned as we cannot generalize the overall scenario. But this is in specific with atleast about 70% of the passing out Design students are after it. Is it a healthy scenario ? Debatable??

> Example 2 - Another statement about Indian Design Scenario - "There is immense scope for Industrial Design in the Indian Context"

> Questioning the scope for Industrial Design?, Is India is need of Design Brains??? is that the answer...

> Is India in need of Creative Professionals ??? Is that the answer...

> I don't have analytical data to prove this ....but it is a statement which needs to be researched ..which has got immense potential and will redefine the Indian Design Scenario.

> The statement made my many of my piers, starting a design consultancy in chennai is not worth it, the statement is disproven, now I am overloaded with work and am not able to cater to the requirement of the chennai market alone.

> On behalf of India, can an Individual make a statment ....needs data that needs to be researched to make that statement...

The above statements are context specific, and not directly related to design as such, its about oppurtunities and the skill sets.

What I am now trying to do through CentroID is building a framework within which design can be discussed through projects that we are working on in the present scenario. Its a journey which has just begun....

Fw: Our feedbakc on Concept 4&5

Our detailed mail for our water heater client - for proceeding with the next stage of work .....

We have received the file containing the comments.

1. Inspection cover to be placed at right angles - The inspection cover present position is made length wise larger to accomodate both vertical and horizontal tank mouth opening. So we cannot turn the inspection cover at 90 degrees. For ease of thermostat fitment we will review the inspection cover parting line.

2. For ease of mouth assembly removal in addition to the above point, we will review the inspection cover parting line.

3. Visibility of the lights from sides - The scoops are very marginal, and it would not affect the visibility when seeing from the lower botton side wise. We will anyway review the same in a 1:1 rough cardboard mock and check this parameter.

4. Regarding thickness of foam - We will review the design and take care that minimum 25mm of foam is maintained at all levels and at the boss portion we will maintain 15mm foam thickness.

5. Boss positions in line - The profile of the panels is curved, so it is difficult to retain the bosses inline, we will review this parameter also and visually align all the bosses inline, Even if dimensionally they are not inline, visually they look neat and proportionate.

The above parameters we should be able to include and accomodate in the design.

Vertical 1 and Horizontal 1, Concepts are the same - the internal packaging items and the colour alone have been changed.

If the vertical 1 concept is final, then we can start the second stage of engineering design. Where we can start to look at in detail

the complete layout of the parts in detail and individual part detailings

1. The fitment of the panels

2. The fitment of the safety Device, thermostat, electrical units and the plastic panel if reqd to mout these items.

3. Detailing of the plastic parts - ribs and bosses

4. Detailing of the light unit

Please let us know if any further information is required for finalising the Vertical 1 Concept. Before we get on to the Engineering stage the top most priority is to finalise the styling, the looks of the water heater. It would be better to have a meeting and conclude on the styling, and freeze the concept.

During our next meeting, we will

1. Finalalise the External Looks of the Water heater.

2. We will present the concept with the following labels in the water heater

a. Venus - Embossed in the plastic panel

b. Product name - Rage with mild graphics including the position for the same for horizontal and vertical type

c. Positioning of Warning Label

d. Positioning of Serial Number label

e. Positioning of IEC and ISI labels

f. Positioning of Venus - 3D label

(please let us know if any additions are deletions are there in the list)

3. Discuss in Detail about the engineering - we will bring hand sketches of the engineering details and the fitment of the components.

4. Lights - (I've a sample of the thunderbird cluster) - we can review the same in detail

5. Provision for remote control, we would be requiring the packaging dimensions of the internal unit to sense the signals from the remote.

Please do include if any other points to be discussed during our face to face meeting.

User Interface Design - CEMS - Concept 2

We had a detailed review on concept 1, the elements like 3d letters, 3d dialogue boxes and rounded corners are difficult to implement on .net software. They would be requiring the vg.net software.

So the second concepts with in the constraints that are available, I've tried to give an elegant and a industrial feel to the software interface.

Again in this interface also green has been used as a predominant colour due to energy management fundas.

Enjoy the work.

Happy Designing.

Ramesh Manickam

Building industry - 70 years - mammoth operations

Arup is a global firm of designers, engineers, planners and business consultants providing a diverse range of professional services to clients around the world.

Through our innovative and fully-integrated approach, which brings our full complement of skills and knowledge to bear on any given design problem, we exert a significant influence on the built environment. We are the creative force behind many of the world’s most innovative and sustainable designs.

Our firm has over 7000 staff working in 70 offices in more than 30 countries. At any one time, we have over 10 000 projects running concurrently.

Arup has three main global business areas – buildings, infrastructure and consulting – although our multi-disciplinary approach means that any given project may involve people from any or all of the sectors or regions in which we operate. Our fundamental aim is to bring together the best professionals in the world to meet our client’s needs.

ARUP Services

User Interface Design - CEMS

These are some of the screens for a touch screen panel - user interface design. This is one of the concepts that we are showing to the client today.

testing for a designer - methodology

From: Ramesh - C e n t r o I D

Received your resume and folio.

Since you have worked on students furniture - find attached some images of the student furniture with details of different view.
I would expect you to Model this furniture in Pro/E or solid works - render it in Proe- wildfire- photolux or Solidworks - Photoworks and send me a presentation to showcase your 3d modeling / rendering and presentation skills.

Your sketching needs to be improved a lot, your basic strokes are looking fine, but the usage of material / paper needs to be improved. Dark and light lines contrast needs to be maintained. Your strokes need to be done with more confidence. I've attached some images of pencil and pen renderings - you could practice them, make some iterations in the concept and send me these images also. In this exercise I'would like to test your sketching abilities.

I've attached a bike, have this bike as the layout, I would like you to retain the engine, front wheels, rear wheel , front suspension , rear suspension the same. Would like you to work on a concept , render it in photoshop and send me a presentation of the bike. With this exercise I would like to test your conceptual abilities.

I would like you to practice good on sketching, finish these exercises with in a months time and send them to me.

FEED BACK

During making concepts - ideas are the base ... - if you get one idea (as in your case like a leapord or a tiger - muscular form),

making that idea as a form is where design comes in. (check if the idea integrates with the other elements that are already existing)

During designing, have some of the basic things like

1. Proportion -

2. Positive Negative spaces and

3. Relation ship between elements

as the key in getting the desired style and making the idea as a well designed product.

Again in your concept - i find that the photoshop tool is overriding the design elements, you are getting too much carried away by the airbrush tool and it give bulbous form. Always keep the final form as the objective and try working towards it.

Some tips in conceptualising - take two print outs

1. The base bike as it is and

2. The base bike with only the wheels, suspension and engine and remove all other elements

With tracing or butter sheets, make pencil concepts - make your concepts based on ideas and make them elegant with above points in mind. Scan them and then bring it to photshop with overlays and different layers, try to bring out the effect that is required.

My expectations are still high. Would like to see much more refined ideas.

agile concepts

check out scot amblers - AGILE CONCEPTS - LINK

user interface, Ergonomics - links

Ergonomics - Internet Resources & Consulting by Usernomics.

The thrill of being an Entrepreneur

An idea and a vision to make that idea successful, makes a successful entrepreneur. The trill of being an entrepreneur is remarkable, the first thing that one come across is decision making. The confidence in making decisions, at appropriate times. Every time a decision is taken there runs miles of questions and miles and miles of answers to explain the situation, analysing them quick and making a decision fast is a basic skill an Entrepreneur should have.

Being an Entrepreneur is no easy joke. I keep telling to my friends, that its fun time being an Entrepreneur, but only problem is you will never get sleep at nights.

An Entrepreneur - start up venture , passing through it is the toughest part. During this period one has to focus both on the long term and the short term ventures. Too much focus on any one activity will lead to the other hanging and one tends to get caught up.

Everytime, like holding a torch in a dark road, point it away and point it near and keep moving towards the required destination. The immediate pot holes are very important and they have to be cleared very carefully, because if one gets caught in that then it would be very difficult to reach the destination.

Let me change the tense and narrate my own experiences and the thrill of being an Entrepreneur:

For me it was a dream and always driving towards seeing products designed by me to be seen in the market. I will do any thing to make it happen. This drive had been there since the time when I had been in IIT Days. The dream made my passion to design and bringing the product out in the market so strong as days went by. When I was sitting in the Interivew for Royal Enfield, at IIT Delhi, I had told the same thing, that I want to see my design on the roads. This I found as the main drive, day or night I was able to drive the team along and bring things to a reality.

Making this to a business model, was the next step. What do clients want from a designer, its not only the design, its the full solution, that is expected. This told me that I was not bizzare in my thoughts and am moving in the right direction. Unlike many designers, where the style of the product is done and then the engineering is being done by some one else, then the design intent gets cut off and the product goes for a six. This is what I wanted to be avoided and made the same to be a business model, providing complete solution for a product to be launched in the market. At Centroid we will do anything to see the product the light of the day. That is the only driving force for us and we keep stressing it in every project we do.

Talking of the thrill come again the adrenaline that passes through you every time. Being in Centroid, I am the Operation Director, Strategic head, Business Development Person, HR person, Finance Head and so on. Multiple roles, none of which, I have been never exposed to other than Design.

I would like to keep focussed the topic and talk more about the trill in ever specific function being as an Entrepreneur, and the times when the adrenaline pumps up high and gives you the thrill ....

Initial Days : We were very doubtful about ourselves, but we had a vision and confidence that we could do good design. But we asked ourselves how do we prove it to the outside world. So we set ourselves a target of building our folio. We were mad running after projects. Doing all possible projects that we could get, but we kept our quality levels high, and we knew from our experience before that the quality is what is going to bring us the customer back to us. Since our priorities were in building the folio, we had left out the money part. We were over straining ourselves and exhausting all our energies in doing more than one man work. If you see our folio now - May 2006, and see the amount of work we have done, it would show as if we were a strong 20+ man power team executing all the works. But to actually say we were mostly 4 ~ 5 people team, which included people leaving our team, becasue we were not able to pay them. Now recently only we had become a 7 member team. If we see some oppurtunity for a project, till the time it gets converted to a project, we burn the midnight oil, in showing proposals ourselves and trying to impress the client that we are capable of doing the project. This had taken most of our time and energy. We had a good hit rate and most of the projects got turned in to as revenue earning projects, Since we have put overselves down saying that we are fresh and we have recently starte a consultancy, gave the client advantage and we were cut down on costs.

Strategic head - The vision of acheving a world class design organisation is still before us, for that we had the task of laying a strong foundation. But when time keeps going, still on this there is red hot fire, beneath my seat, which will never let me sit patiently till we achieve that. Making different strategies, evaluating differen ideas, and thinking out of the box. With constraints and without constraints, and always the vision gets transformed in to short term deliverables, and targets for the immediate months. Since being both a strategic head and operation head, concentrating on both simultaneously I was lost for some time. So Strategy happens once in 3 months, then take stock of what we are doing, are we going inthe right path, any course correction needs to be done. THINK, THINK CREATIVELY, DREAM, FIND OUT PATHS TO ATTAIN THE DREAM...The adrenaline pumps not only during bad times, when a interesting idea pops up and when I am excited, the feeling is like WOW!. I Enjoy that moment.

Business Development - Looking for projects is a constant activity, and it keeps going on always. Any one gives a call and says that we have a project, we will be the first one to be there to evaluate the project and see if it fits our bill, and if its with in th scope of what we do. During Business devleopment, once in a while we keep sending blind mails to all possible contacts, to see if we could interest any one. We launched our site and it had brought us good response and also good clients too.

Water heater design considerations

The best part from the old designs are
1. Two colour combinations
2. The form of the first concept - where the projection is coming and the cross lines are coming
3. The flushed bottom area
4. The Crisp and near corner lines of the rectangular concept
5. The large inspection cover mouth.
6. Cross plate dividing the internal compartments

The dislike areas
1. Wave like effect - what are the waves doing there
2. The identity of the water heater which is similar to the V-guard type to be changed in looks.

The challenge is to get new fresh looks - new form for the water heater

pens - scoopy model

check out our latest category of pen - the below one is a modification on the neogen concept - blue and the above one is a new design - orange - we have named is scoopy - retractable model pen.

silo - 3d modleing nurbs models

check out silo - nurbs modeling software

silo

shoe - interesting

A interesting shoe - found in product design forum - 3D rendered in CAD

Rajesh jain weblog

Rajesh Jain - weblog

Centroid - Logo

At Centroid we make a link between the User, Manufacturer and the designer, through the services we provide at Centroid, through the products we design.

The logo shows dynamism - spinning - gives a very swift feeling.

The reflection on the center shere - shows the logo 3 dimensional and adds to the bubbly look.

water heater latest - the wave

This is the latest model we had presented, but the client wants some more refinements, he feels that the sides of the water heater looks very plain and want some more elements. On the form front, it looks like a very familiar form and wants a combination of concept 1 and the latest concept.

my project for the day - water heater

ensure marketing has an impact

how do u make the right impression

nags temptations

check the latest graphics of a food chain - it is located at GN Chetty road - T.Nagar,
We had done the graphic design of the logo - how is it??

Affordable Design In India

Designing in Indian context, listed are some projects which are apt describing the context
1. ATM for rural India - VORTEX
2. Telemedicine kit - Neurosynaptics
3. Thin Clinet Computers - Novatium

check to link to postings

this is a check mail to check link to postings

check for links

tagging of blogs

i want to find out how to tag the blogs.

post blogs in different headings.

and keep reviewing them adding to them.

long posting problems

last blog posting, i sent a email posting, of dexigner newletter.

it is a long mail, with variety of images.

see how it has come. whom to complain about this.

learning to edit links and post images

Editing links

Template option, copy and paste

href="http://news.google.com/">Google News<

Take me to Centroid website

and keep changing the website and the tag for the website. I've added Centroid Creative Hubb site index, design in India and Solid works sites. This list will keep going on ...

But now will need to figure out how do i group these sites and with in those groups. have these sites listed. May be will have to learn a bit of html programming.

Attaching images

This is a logo design, which I had done for a client for his travel solutions business. This was on my immediate vicinity in my documents folder, so uploading to check my first image on the website.

Found a problem when previewing that the image was on the top right corner, trying out now with cutting that html tag and pasting it just above this text. IT WORKED

Let me try out attaching a few more links also
core 77
Design Engine

Wondering what this insert block quote is - it displays the contents in a sperate pargagraph - need to find out what this is.....

This would be real use to me - keyboard shortcuts

control + b = Bold
control + i = Italic
control + l = Blockquote (when in HTML-mode only)
control + z = Undo
control + y = Redo
control + shift + a = Link
control + shift + p = Preview
control + d = Save as Draft
control + s = Publish Post

My first learning experience with blogs is through - first cut. GOOD.

Ramesh Design Blog

Saturday, March 24, 2007

100_1463

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Fw: Here are the links to the best advertisements of last year. ...

flickering from email

Thursday, June 29, 2006

corporate identity - Nags temptation

Monday, May 15, 2006

forbes article on Induatrial Design

Thursday, May 11, 2006

design methodology

test for designer continued

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

my trip in designing

Fw: Our feedbakc on Concept 4&5

User Interface Design - CEMS - Concept 2

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Building industry - 70 years - mammoth operations

Monday, May 08, 2006

User Interface Design - CEMS

Sunday, May 07, 2006

testing for a designer - methodology

Thursday, May 04, 2006