Ravishankar Design

Classical Bell Metal Lamp Conceived in the environment of traditional bell metal casting master artisans of Payyanur, a small town, near Kannur, north of Kerala state, India. It was designed by me and developed during a Design Workshop conducted by me, objective being for the sustenance of traditional craft artisans of the region through product design diversification. It is made through the traditional lost wax process and cast in bell metal which is a combination of mainly tin and copper. Design of the form inspired from the traditional and ceremonial objects of India, I have attempted to create a timeless, characteristic and classical piece. The purity of its form and proportion is distinctly Indian. This product is being made by individual Bell metal master artisans on order basis and was also being retailed through various State Handicraft Exhibitions.

The ability level the product demands must be minimized. India where there is excess of everything, a mind set of living in the present future, indifferent behaviors, and uncomplaining adaptability to populous man made environment, thinking universal design is complex. So what are the collective and universal pain areas of India and its people which affect considerably and look for solutions by design? Variance in literacy, multiple languages, migration from rural to urban, health & hygiene conditions, gender issues, global cultural influences, technology penetration & spread, congested environments, 25 million differently able, etc If one drills further into these areas we would come up with universal design need/problem statements to address and solve. This would have a wider impact on larger audience that uses and interacts with day to day objects and environs The key factors Universal Design looks at are motor, sensory and cognitive abilities with respect to usability...

‘Design’ in the Digital/Information/Technology Age has been my preoccupation these days, in the context of education and practice. Question that comes to me: what is it that I can offer today as an individual design professional or a team player where everybody knows little or more of everything!! Is it user centric thinking!...everybody talks of it; research!!...there are enough in number; strategy!...marketing professional forte; product idea conception!...techys’ default forte; visual appeal!...free for all domain, software freely available to all and so on. Lets for the time being keep aside verbose on ‘the designers’ role’ etc and think simplistically for clarity. Take technology driven products and services as the case. The navigator on mobile publicized today has an interface conceived I am sure by a team which has not questioned its understandability /comprehend ability with people. Has anybody dwelt into what is the mental model of a Ramu on the street, of the route from...

On the 2nd day of their orientation program at the National Institute of Design (NID), Bangalore, the 40 foundation students of the 2008 batch were given an impromptu assignment to come up with solutions of a door sign to depict entry side. These glass doors on campus were newly fitted and didn't have handles and one didn't know which side to push to open. The students were asked to come up with out of the box symbolic solutions without being literal. The following ideas were applied to the doors. Anshu George depicted through foot prints of a split personality!! Sohini pasted a signage as if written by the local carpenter in his own pronunciation. Kartik showed lot of hand prints creating a play. Ayush played around with the word exit by placing it inside and deliberatly exagerating the x.

The language we use in the nomenclature of prompts/labels in human-product interfaces is a vital consideration in design. More so in today's and future context with diverse users and IT consumer durables becoming more affordable and common place. The interfaces of products such as ATMs, mobiles, home computers, cameras, TVs, etc. Whats prompted me to write is the semantic ambiguities that exist. Lets analyse/question a few commonly phrased prompts which we have been seeing since digital technology became domestic. Take the search prompt. When someone tells me to search for something it means either something is lost, misplaced or hidden somewhere! It could also mean that the system has got all of it jumbled up somewhere (like in a haystack) and you look for it, if you find it good luck to you pal!! This nomenclature has probably evolved from a developers stand point and remained unquestioned and users eventually got used to its function. I believe that the metaphor 'search...

Every nation or ethnic demography has its own pre-occupations that direct thought and action which 'determines' design. It is a contextual adaptation directed by a brief with a democratic, non violent, comforting, rationale and aesthetic sensibility. There are various prefixes being attached to design nowadays such as experience design, service design, and the plethora of writings on the web that it is becoming difficult I feel for ‘pure design’ academics to bring clarity into each. I think these prefixes are specializations or sub categorizations at the brief level and gain importance at the professional implementation level of a design into the required result of a product or a service. How does Indian industry look at these specializations/ categorizations (like accessory design, toy design, Information design, exhibition design, furniture/retail design, digital design, transportation design, etc.) Though there are industry verticals in each of these categorizations, are ...

Every city or town had a market place or the Mall road equivalent with a unique flavor of the place and character to its shopping spaces and the things sold. When one has visitors from another town, they would all make a trip to an MG road or Main Street or Linking road or the 17 sector, to check out something which they don’t find in their streets back home or things unique to this town like chikkon kurtas or kolhapuries etc. Today you walk these roads/streets and find the same brands and the same clothes or accessories any city you go to. Nothing new or novel about visiting a market to shop or browse in a new town. And they talk of shopping experience. Brands can get so boring!!