CRASTOS
brand identity for sound recording studio.
Author: Milind Dhaimade
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CRASTOS
CRASTOSbrand identity for sound recording studio.This is a story of talented sound designer, Arun Crasto’s strife and passion to start his own recording studio. It’s his sheer skill and struggle that made us christen his studio CRASTOS. The name & story of Crasto gave the brand CRASTOS quiet a revolutionary personality, which opened up an interesting visual scape. The challenge was to create a balance between the 3 aspects of the brand’s personality: the revolutionary, the skilled & the technological savvy side and the amiable side.We represented CRASTOS struggle by recreating the Che Guevara’s Imagery with Arun Crasto. We shot Arun in similar costume and added a twist of the headphones.SYMBOL: I created a symbol of the Red Star, which also looks like the letter ‘A’, (inspired by symbol of the red star on Che Guevara’s beret, first used by the Red Army in Russia since after the revolution in 1917). To wear such a symbol would suggest one is also a revolutionary ready to fight and shed ones blood.Then I converted that photo image into a vector graphic and added the Red Star symbol on the beret to complete the whole rebel image that we were seeking.LOGO: The symbol got beautifully integrated in the logotype replacing the letter ‘A’ of CRASTOS. The Logotype with contemporary square font with rounded edges, reflects the softer amiable side of Arun.SUPER GRAPHIC: I created a pattern of red rays emerging from the centre reflecting the sound vibrations and kind of a revolutionary movement.All the brand elements came together creating an interesting brand unit for CRASTOS.STATIONERYCRASTOS RECORDING STUDIO.LOGO IN 3D ON THE STUDIO ENTRANCE WALL.CRASTOS CEILING: Collaborating with the Interior Designers we created the brand’s super-graphic pattern on the studio’s ceiling with the Red Star symbol in the centre.The red rays were created with aluminum shafts that met in the centre on the circle.In the circle centre, we made a Red Star symbol of acrylic material with LED Lights inside.The LED lights also went around the circle, giving the feel of the sunlight rays when lit.CRASTOS COFFEE MUGI painted the Crastos unit sans the logo, on an empty alcohol bottle and filled it with salt to ward off all the negative energies. I gifted him this on the opening of his studio. “May success be with you always!” -
SECRET 7
SECRET 7″
Vinyl Sleeve Design for music album.
Secret 7” was an exciting project combining music and art in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust held by Talenthouse. There were seven bands and recording artists that you could choose from and design an artwork for a seven inch vinyl sleeve for any one of the songs that inspired you. I chose Ben Howard’s “Black Flies” and Florence and the Machine’s “Only if for a night”.
Vinyl Sleeve Design: Black Flies
“Yin & Yang”
I could feel the angst of a breakup in this song, the cold winterchills in the beautiful lyrics. The design was inspired by the line “Maybe you were the ocean when I was just a stone.” I explored the concept of the Yin & Yang. It describes how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn.At East London in the Idea Generation Gallery:
I am happy that my design for Ben Howard’s “Black Flies” was selected and exhibited in the Idea Generation Gallery in East London in the week leading up to Record Store day 2012. But I am more happy cause on that day, each of the selected vinyls at the gallery were on sale and all the profits went in the aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Each winner received a printed copy of the vinyl sleeve signed by the artist himself.
Vinyl Sleeve Design: Only if for the night
“Yantra”
This song has an amazing wholeness of sound that vibrates into your soul. I wanted to represent its surreal and ethereal quality. It inspired me to explore the concept of Mantra(sound) and Yantra (visual instrument to depict sound). According to Indian tradition, every ‘thing’ manifest comes from Primordial Vibration of sound. At the centre of the design is the 43-triangle complex, geometrical, Shri Yantra. It is formed by nine interlocking triangles that surround and radiate out from the central (bindu) point, representing the meeting point between the un-manifest world and the manifest. The Yantras are pieces of sacred art in India, used as centering and meditation devicesI wanted to visually capture the vibration of the sound that has a dark and heavy tone yet very soulful. -
SUZLISTAA
SUZLISTAA
Branding for flower arrangement service
Suzlistaa means well-arranged in Sanskrit. After going through several rounds of naming, we found “Suzlistaa” was the right choice for Kavita Sejpal’s exotic flower arrangement service. Yellow marigolds, pink carnations, red roses, white lilies… it’s indeed an art to create a perfect balance of form, shape and colour to create a Suzlistaa. My attempt was to capture this in a contemporary style.
DELIVERY VAN -
SLC IT
SLC-IT
branding for Snow Leopard Conservancy – India Trust.
Refreshing the brand identity for the Snow Leopard Conservancy-India Trust (SLC-IT) was not only an immensely satisfying job but a great honor too. The Snow Leopard Conservancy-India Trust is an independent NGO based in Leh-Ladakh, dedicated to protect the endangered snow leopard in the trans-Himalayan regions of Ladakh. The objective of the project was to create a distinctive identity for SLC-IT to generate awareness about the endangered species and its correlation to a healthy habitat and ecosystem. And help spread awareness to a wider audience by various cost effective ideas.
LOGO
The idea was to depict the correlation of the conservation of the snow leopard to its environment. I used the most distinctive feature of the snow leopard, its large thick spotted tail around the snow capped Himalayas depicting its correlation to its habitat. The head peeping shyly from the other side captures its very elusive nature. Brand colors are borrowed from nature; blue symbolizes the snow, sky & water and the natural green is also the color of eye of the snow leopard.
LOGO FOR SIZE BELOW 5 CMS
LOGO IN B/W FOR SIZE BELOW 5 CMS
BRAND FONT AND COLORS
STATIONERY: As the other idea, we printed the spotted tail on the reverse of the letterhead. The idea being that on making 3 folds of the letterhead, the tail would go upright on the last one. So when the receiver pulls the letterhead from the envelope, he would be greeted with an upright tail, which signifies that the sender is “pleased to meet you”.
BROCHURE: Our brief was to create an economic single fold brochure for SLC-IT. The objective was to create quick short guide to introduce SLC-IT, what it does and what you can do for them. SLC-IT believes that sustainable conservation is best possible with the participation of local community. The cover of the brochure highlights that belief, opening inside to a chart that at a glance tells you what SLC-IT does. The back cover tells you how you too can be a ‘Friend of Shan’.
SAVE THE SPOT: Save the Spot corner was a fun activity first held at LIFF 2012. STS corner had large cutouts of the snow leopards put up on the wall, without their spots signifying the decline of the endangered species. We made stickers of the spots in 3 different sizes, each at different price value. All you had to do was buy a sticker of the spot and put it on the snow leopard. The idea was to involve people in some kind of a physical act of saving the snow leopard, giving them a larger sense of contribution to the conservation of the endangered species. Each contributor got free postcard that said “Thank you for giving me a spot” with all the SLC-IT details.
BRAND EXTENSION: (Snow leopard is called Shãn in the Ladakhi language) ‘Friend of Shãn’ was created to instill pride & camaraderie amongst the supporters of SLC-IT. When you volunteer, contribute or support SLC-IT in any way, you become a ‘Friend of Shãn’. We designed a ‘Friend of Shãn’ unit and a stamp for the event. Each supporter got a stamp on his hand. The volunteers & donors also got a badge and tee shirt.
WEBSITE HOMEPAGE:(www.snowleopardhimalayas.in) We redesigned the wireframe structure of the website and the homepage with our new brand guidelines. Strategically we split the homepage into 2 sections highlighting SLC-IT’s main areas of work: Conservation of wildlife & its habitat and protecting Community livelihood. And then added a ‘Take Action’ section for quick glance of what you can do to help, which was totally missing in the previous website.
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HYDROPRO
HYDROPRO
branding and packaging for drinking water.
It was rather shocking to know that an upscale area of Bangalore city had no direct source of drinking water. An enterprising Mr. Suryakant Malgikar saw the need and decided to market packaged drinking to such areas. During some field research, we found that there was an overall lack of knowledge on the purity of drinking water and what one should look for in a packaged water brand. Thats where we got the idea and name – HYDROPRO. Ask the water experts, who adhere to strict and stringent quality guidelines laid down for water purification of packaged drinking water. Hydropro is created in an excellent lab within a BIS certified manufacturing facility. It goes through the 8 stage purification process before it reaches you. We decided to illustrate this process in an interesting simplified manner and displayed it on every bottle of Hydropro. We really want people to know the water they drink. It was an interesting exercise to create a humble brand identity for an expert brand.LOGO
BRAND STORY ILLUSTRATION
FRONT AND BACK LABEL FOR PACKAGING OF 20 LITRE BOTTLE
BRAND FONTS AND COLORS
FOUR FOLD BROCHURE FOR SALES TEAM
SALES TEAM UNIFORM
HYDROPRO DELIVERY VAN
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PRAKATA
PRAKATA HET YAAD
Packaging for short film.
Prakata Het Yad, a film in gibberish, is a cynical look at modern day urban India living in a near psychosis of being steeped in westernism outwardly yet inwardly, afraid to lose its ritualism. The unusual title is an anagram of “A day at the park”, keeping in sync with gibberish style of the film. The striking colorful imagery and the gibberish style have been my design inspiration.
FILM TITLE
PRESS KIT
Prakata Het Yad poster at IIFLA (Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles) with the Film’s Director -
allok
allOK
Brand identity for tech support service
What happens when technology fails you, and you don’t have an IT department that will rush to your help? Here comes allOK, a tech support service from TechCrew Pvt. Ltd. With the growing dependency on Technology, it is very reassuring to know that there is a tech support service who will be there at any time no matter where you are, to ensure that your technology is all okay. And that’s how the name ‘allOK’ was born.
allOK – two powerful words that guide the brand’s delivery each time every time. It’s more than a name, it’s a brand promise. The visual identity reflects the brand’s simple, clear and accessible personality. It is also guided by the brand’s value of ‘Positive Service’, ‘Constant Curiosity’ to stay updated with technology and ‘Result Driven’ so that the customers can always say “it’s allOK”.
LOGO
LOGO IN BLACK & WHITE
BRAND FONTS & COLORS
SERVICE DESCRIPTOR
ENDORSEMENT
STATIONERY
FOLDERWEBSITE: The homepage opens on photos of satisfied customers. When you scroll over a photo, the image tongles and on the other side you see headings of different navigation links.
UNIFORM
SERVICE VAN
STICKER : When the system is serviced and working all okay, then it is certifed with the allOK sticker.
SOUVENIER: PAPERWEIGHT -
L&F
LOVE & FAITH
Brand identity for Love & Faith.
When we started our film & design company, we wanted the name & identity to reflect our core values in an honest, interesting way. We called our company “Love & Faith”, a simple yet very powerful guiding force. It’s our outlook towards the world, how we look at each other, our work and all the people who come into our lives. And eventually it’s our beacon to great, honest talent.
LOGO TYPEFACE
LOGOThe identity is inspired by the Buddhist Thangka art. (Thangka is a scroll painting with striking colors that was done with minerals & vegetable dye.) The base of the logo is a bed of flowers in a realistic rendition from which emerges the heart, in a graphic rendition, spreading Love & Faith in the universe.
OUR WORKSPACE
MOTION GRAPHICSSPREADING LOVE & FAITHOne afternoon we got an idea and asked each one in office to write in one word what they love, and then connect it with one word about that which they have faith in. Like I love ‘art’ & i have great faith in ‘science’. Art & Science. With all the words that each one had written I made an interesting typo puzzle. (as shown below)
Everyone got excited and we created a set of office memorabilia with that puzzle. We made tees, mugs, booklets & wrapping papers which remind us daily to love and have faith in our hearts. When our clients saw this, they promptly participated and gave us words that they would like to have on their desks.
And Love & Faith started spreading…
The Typo Puzzle: The first words connote “LOVE” and below that is the second word connoting “FAITH”. Both are connected with an ampersand ‘&’ in red color. The first 2 letters of the first word that are common with the other word in the puzzle are in grey. Like “RT” of “FLOWCHART” is common with “ART”.
BADGES FOR FILM CREW
ART
ART IS EVERYTHING
The things I love to live for…
SHIVASHAKTI: Done in Madhubani style with poster colors on paper. This is one of my firsts, done during college days where I was discovering different style of indian folk paintings. Gond & Madhubani are my favourites. Inspired by our rich history of traditional folk art, i wish to create somekind of Indian design language that can be be applied in the graphic space.
BUTTER KRISHNA: Done in Tanjore style with gold foils and semi-precious gems. Under the aegis of a Tanjore Master from South India, this was my first attempt at Tanjore. The painting is made by the gilded and gem-set technique – a technique where gold leaves & sparkling stones are used to highlight certain aspects of the painting like ornaments, dresses etc. This rich style of art has originated from Maratha court of Thanjavur, where the gods and godesses were the main subjects. Traditionally Butter Krishna is a sitting pose of child krishna wearing only ornaments, holding a butter pot in one hand. I have framed my Butter Krishna in the traditional Chettinad wooden frame.
I LOVE CALVIN: My first bottle art happened, thanks to my husband. On his birthday, I gifted him this empty bottle inside the whisky box…he was delighted to see the wrapped gift only to find an empty bottle with my funny art on it.
since then I have been collecting all kind of bottles… recently inspired by their pet Valerie, I painted this one for Richa & Luv Kalla on their birthdays.
SAVE THE SNOW LEOPARD: I painted this for the team of SLC-IT (Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust), when they came down to Mumbai for the Kalaghoda festival.
RISING KUNDALINI: On my trip to Bhutan, I noticed paintings of erect penises on the walls or even installed on the door entrances. It was rather intriguing that traditionally symbols of an erect penis were used intending to drive away the evil eye and malicious gossip. They were actually available in the market where I picked up this one made of wood. My idea was paint it with this interesting concept of coiled kundalini rising up like a snake, reflecting the inner energy of the soul rising for liberation.
