The Exuberance of Heritage

Sumil Dutta, Architect at KGD-Architecture shares his winning entry(special mention) for designing label for first Limited edition of Absolut for India.

What was the challenge all about?

Absolut, India organizes a design competition for their label to be released for the first limited edition of Absolut Vodka in India. They wanted the design to be a part of history and be part of the rich creative heritage of Absolut through the essence of India. The selected label will be widely visible for their marketing campaign for the limited edition and on shelves all over the country.

The challenge was to create an India-themed design, about what you love most about India into a fresh, inventive design.

The Exuberance of Heritage – Sumil Dutta

What was your design philosophy?

The Exuberance of Heritage

The design shows elements which are very specific to India highlighting the natural and architectural heritage of the country. The elephant with a raised trunk is a symbol of good luck and fortune while the silhouette of Qutub Minar is symbolic of the architectural prowess of our country. Auto rickshaw is an element which has been a part of people’s daily life or travelers from world over. The pattern behind the silhouette is a representation of the rich articulate forms which have been a part of the culture for centuries. All these elements are restricted to the country and in conjunction say for sure it is ‘Absolut India’!!

You can view other entries here

 

Pranaam Lounge – KGD Design Build

INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPMENT 360 Degree

Development 360 Degree – As the name suggests is all about an all-round development.

This is an initiative that came into action when all enthusiasts of KGD got together with a burning desire to do something that is beyond their professional responsibilities. Volunteers got together and brain-stormed to Ideate, Share & Action together.

The initial sessions brought forth a number of concerns, ranging from improving inter-team interaction to developing neighbourhood’s street-front. And the underlying intent was clear – to add an edge to ourselves as Individuals, to our teams, to our environment and to KGD as an International Firm. The Group began with assimilating ideas in 4 basic categories, so that like-minded efforts can function in a common direction.

Ideas were categorized under 4 streams, based on the circle of impact the initiatives will cater to – Individual, Department/ Office, KGD Cares (Create Awareness and Responsibility Effectively toward Society) and International Scenario.

The 4 teams decided to take up responsibilities and resolved to accomplish atleast 1 small step in each month.

Putting below a glimpse of the Teams and their first initiatives towards their respective streams:

	INDIVIDUAL DEV.	DEPARTMENT/ OFF. DEV.		KGD CARES	DEV. ON INTERNATIONAL MAP
FIRST ACTIVITY : FOR SEPTEMBER
	– Launch Knowledge Sharing sessions’ Calendar	– Launch the Material Library : Soft Lib. & Physical one at the Front Porch		– Develop the street front opp. our Office.	– Release the KGD Newsletter
	NEXT ACTIVITY : FOR OCTOBER
	– Initiate Inter-team Interaction	– Create a Dev. 360 Corner for sharing Information		– Start linking with neighboring schools for assisting in educating.	– Identify Design Competitions to start working on.
TEAMS
1	Akhtar Imam		Sudheera	Shameer Mohamed	Rajiv M Vyas
2	Tehmina		Jomy George	Swathi Rani	Shruti Mukherjee
3	Harilal M.		Mahesh K L	Tehmina	Sampada Paithankar
4	Shivani		Shivani	Veena Jayprakash	Tehmina
5	Siddesh		Rathi	Dhritika	Lakshmy S
6	Kriya		Lenu	Rathi	Amrutha Varshini
7			Deepak Raj	Deepak Raj	Sriram Palakad
8			Sabina	Zainab	Dhritika
9				Jeffrey Butts	Jeffrey Butts
10					Siddesh
11					Shivani

Moving forward with a Synergetic Start…..

Keep your ideas rolling and sleeved rolled in to – Action time!

All are welcome to join in any of the above initiatives. Get in touch with any of the team members to be a part of this brigade.

Interview | Creative Spaces at Aditi

What makes a great workplace? We all have our own ideas about what makes a great workplace. There are a lot of things to be considered as indispensable in a top workplace, it’s important that it make you feel innovative, productive and inspired.

Aditi is one such place; here is what they have to say about their workplace and their wall art in office. You can also visit their blog to know more.

“Aditi help businesses accelerate their revenue growth through Systems of Customer Engagement. By bringing together market leading expertise across cloud, design, analytics and mobile, we help businesses engage, understand and monetize their customers.”

 

The Litehouse

Q: The human spirit, the spark for creativity, can be sparked by absolutely anything…so what sparked your creativity to paint the walls at workplace?

At Aditi, our culture is one of creativity. We consider ourselves inherent geeks in the work we do, the technology that we work with every day and our passions, such as hacking, coding and video gaming marathons. An environment full of geeks is an especially creative one where crazy and awesome ideas are constantly driving the way we collaborate and bring out solutions for our customers. In order to make this environment conducive, the Aditians were allowed to paint their bay walls and customize their workplaces to create the space that best reflects themselves and the work they do. The idea was sparked by the employees of Aditi and the geek in us was thrilled to implement this.

Q: “Great ideas come in a great workplace. And great workplaces have great workstations.” Isn’t this a new concept of 21st century workplace?

Traditional workplaces have workstations and cubicles that are geared more towards the individual. But in today’s day and age, collaboration is the key to building a successful team that can ship great ideas and solutions. While working together, employees need to create a space that inspires them as a team. By breaking away from the conventional workstation system, employees can create work areas that suit their personality, hence fostering an environment where they build a space they can call their own.

Q: So, who came up with this idea?

Aditians came up with this idea.  In this instance we allowed individual teams to come up with ideas and suggestions. Each team wanted to create their own personal space that inspired them to come up with great ideas, awesome code and amazing solutions. Once the idea was executed, more employees wanted to try the same in their work areas and we let them go for it!

From inception, Aditi has always believed in creating an environment that is not just another workplace, but one that employees want to come to each day and enjoy themselves, as they work. This initiative was a move to create that feel.

Q: What was the inspiration/ideas/themes/concept behind these various wall art?

Being a collection of art, caricatures and graffiti, every Aditian who participated in the wall-painting session brought out their inner geek and painted what inspired them the most. If you look at the wall art, it is a reflection of all the images, visuals and memories that have inspired each employee and best reflects themselves.

 Q: Was there any time-frame and budget involved? Do give the details.

 There was no time frame involved. The best illustrators and artists from each team came with their colors and pallets one day and began working on each wall.

Q: Do you have a design team? What kind other fun design work do they indulge in?

Every Aditian is naturally a designer. We bring awesome design into every aspect of our work and in order to be able to do this, we to have a space that inspires and fosters creativity. The regular employees aside we also have a team called Aditi Litehouse which focuses on creating amazing artwork, user interfaces and designs for our customers.

Q: What’s the next fun thing you are planning?

At Aditi, one can never say! It’s all up to the employees. The Aditians come up with crazy and whacky ideas to make Aditi a great place to work and if it was wall art yesterday, it could be roof art or bay decorations tomorrow, a hackathon or a video game marathon. We’ll just have to wait and see 🙂

 

The Other Side of the Story

The Other Side of the Story also known as TOSS is the section where we decide to feature and discuss designs. Have any fanciful places you have seen? That awesome workplace you would die to work at? That chic spa just loved the interiors. Have been to that trendy restaurant that everyone is talking about? Or that modish building that you ogle at every time you pass by. Let’s talk about it here. In TOSS section, once every month, we feature those brilliant places through exclusive interviews and reviews separately.

Here is what you can do: contact us for any such places you seen or been to, bring us the contact, or you can even write and mail it to us. Simple, isn’t it? Go ahead hunt it down!