Student Thesis Projects
I have supervised more than 25 BDes, MDes projects in past five years. Here are some of the student projects where I have substantially influenced the students' thinking process and contributed a lot in terms of knowledge, time and resources.
During each of the project I have learnt a lot while observing the students' struggle and self realisations through their experiences.
the Lotus
Graphical explorations on 'form to formless to form'
Visual Grids based on Talam
Layaprasthara
Visualisation of User Interface Patterns for future
Chivukula Sai Shruthi
BDes 2015
MDes 2017
Abhijit Pathak
Layaprasthara: ‘laya’ means rhythm and ‘prastara’ means tabular representation. This academic project explains and demonstrates the principles of converting the structure of Talam (rhythmic cycle)- an element of Carnatic music into visual grids. The grids emerged from ‘Talam’ in carnatic music can be explored further for various applications in graphic design.
Layout design in typography is the process of arrangement of graphical units within a two/
three dimensional space. Grid is a well-known tool in graphic design. It can be defined as ‘an understructure used to discretize any continuum.'
Carnatic music, commonly associated with the southern part of the India, is known for its distinctive style of melody and structure. This classical art-form is a part of Indian traditional knowledge system and it is getting conveyed through generations by Master-apprentice model of knowledge transfer.
As an exploration to understand the rhythmic structure of Carnatic music visually, Analogy-
based design (ABD) principles were used. Analogy based approach is proved to be successful in problem solving and is used to create design support for innovative and creative design.
An analogy is built between temporal division of Carnatic classical music and spatial division
in layout design. The musical rhythm and tempo which give essence to the composition of music are taken as source for rules to build the grid structure in layout design. The knowledge representation of grids and its application for ABD is implemented to create the connection of these systems of graphic design and classical music.
The result of this analogy is the series of self generative grids. The coding of Talam in classical music gives many combinations to prepare grids for layout design. This coding
system can be implemented in any design software to generate readymade options of variety of grids for the typographers and graphic designers. This study gives the further motivation to analyse the relationship between talam and expression of swaras elaborated based on the specific talam.
This experiment will lead to the new correlation of spatio-temporal design principles.
This project is inspired by various futurists who predict future technologies through their very strong scientific research. Ray Kurzweil is the most influential along with Michio Kaku. Kurzweil (1999) has talked about the trends of computation by studying the evolution of humans and in fact the universe itself.
In order to extract ideas for future interfaces, I went to seek inspiration from ancient history that is Hindu mythology. While searching for some inspiration I stumbled upon the Lord Vishnu’s “Dashavatar”, which portrays ten different avatars of Lord Vishnu which he took for almost the same reason which was to bring order from chaos. Also the Dasavatars show a clear evolution from an animal, to a highly conscious human. The various phases of interface proposed do not have a direct or even an indirect relation with any of the avatars. I have only tried to abstract some keywords out of each avatar to come up with nine different patterns of user interfaces which could be helpful for future designers as they can follow any of these patterns. Also any of the patterns have not been assigned a particular time as they can happen at any time in future and not necessarily in any order.
This project is an effort to formulate TEN different patterns/categories of User interfaces. These patterns are based on current trends in technology, futuristic predictions and leap of faith. This is a documentation of thoughts on future of Graphical interfaces, which might be useful as a reference for all designers.
graphical explorations for 'form to formless to form'
the Lotus
An icon is a pictorial representation of an object. It is also used in the general sense of a symbol — i.e. a name, a face, a picture, an edifice or even a person readily recognized as having some well-known significance or embodying certain qualities: one thing, an image or depiction, that represents something else of greater significance through literal or figurative meaning, usually associated with religious and cultural standing.
The significance of the lotus (flower) can be understood by the fact that throughout many cultures, the Lotus has remained a powerful image and a spiritual icon especially in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Throughout history the Lotus was widely used in art and architecture.
Sourabh Kumar
MDes 2014
The aim of this book is to present a model to extract and create different forms based on the form of the lotus. To demonstrate the concept, the form of lotus was used to develop new forms. The book also presents a collection of two-dimensional forms and patterns created after exploring different forms of lotus. This book contains more than two hundred different forms of lotus selected out of fifteen hundred explorations. It will be helpful for designers for further exploration of new forms and ideas.
The forms and patterns presented in this book can be used for form design of a product, packaging, furniture design, graphic design,
and architectural design.
For this book the lotus has been studied from various aspects such as biological, cultural, mythological, symbolic, and religious. Studying these aspects were important because a lotus communicates different meanings based on its colour, form, properties and cultural context. In mythological and religious contexts the Lotus is used to symbolize a varied range of concepts like knowledge, beauty, creativity, purity, divinity and enlightenment. Physical aspects of lotus can be studied according to its structure, colour, and features.
In this book, the form of lotus has been explored as different representative icons (like lotus as sun, fire and female) with different meanings (knowledge, creativity and purity).
All these icons are categorised in six groups according to there properties and adjectives. These six groups are-
1. Geometrical, 2. Organic, 3. Ornamental,
4. Realistic, 5. Semi-abstract, 6. Abstract
Dyslexia Awareness and Educational Aid
DECODE
Poonam Wagle
MDes 2016
Objective of the project-
1. To create Awareness about Dyslexia (Phase 1) Selected target audience: School Teachers. Reason: LD can be detected only after a child starts going to a school. Teachers know the average grade level performance in academics and hence are in a better position to detect below average performance, than the parents. Only few schools in India have a counsellor. Also, not all State Boards have a provision to accommodate LD children. It is hence necessary to make people aware and help them understand about Learning Disabilities.
2. To create a Learning aid for the Dyslexic children (Phase 2)
Chosen problem: Problem of correct letter identification. Reason: Letter or word reversals & substitution., (Eg. was / saw, b/d, p/q, n/u). Cause slow reading & hampers the reading fluency. Amount of text, expected to be learnt by a child, increases with each Grade level. They grow ashamed as they struggle with basic reading skills. This causes low motivation, and low self esteem.
Deliverable of the project-
1. Series of awareness posters on Dyslexia
2. Information booklet for teachers and parents in English, Hindi and Assamese
3. Mobile based game for assessment and self improvement aid for kids with dyslexia
A board game based on Periodic Table
Like many other subjects chemistry is a fascinating and interesting subject. In present education scenario students are failing to replicate and apply the chemistry concepts in their day to day life, eventually end up with a feeling that chemistry is a more theoretical and a difficult subject. Our system is a kind of PUSH system where teachers and parents are pushing students to study, but it should be a PULL system, where students are interested in studying. The main objective of the project was to motivate students towards chemistry and exploring game as a teaching pedagogy to make students understand some of the concepts in their textbook.
So a board game was designed, which reflects the properties and reactions of periodic elements. Players do not need to know about periodic table for playing the game. But they will get to know about periodic table and element properties by playing it.
Yashodhan Mandke
MDes 2015
Adapa Shabari Nath
BTech 2015
Service Design for Logistics
BDes 2015
Ayush Jain
EasyPick is a service design project which was conceptualised and successfully implemented at Guwahati. It was initially developed as B2C model but eventually evolved as B2B service.
Everyone has some or other daily needs, everyone buys products from their surrounding local markets but often it is a monotonous time, effort and money consuming task. Availing other services takes inappropriate amount of time, expenditure and effort - both in travel and searching for an appropriate vendor. As a result, the customers resort to e-commerce services, despite the entailing delays and insecurity involved.
Vendors in the city don’t have the expertise, skills, funds or resources to create a system for
delivery of their products to the users or to go online and thus reduce the threat that
ecommerce has caused to them. Due to this trend, vendors in the city cannot penetrate the
modern, high-end consumers in the campus market. These users have the funds to spend,
which the vendors are deprived of, and the entire revenue goes, in most cases to the students’ hometown market or to e-commerce.
EasyPick attempts to make a user-friendly and user-centered system to match these needs,
expectations, demands and goals of customer and vendor, bringing in additional benefits to
both the involved parties.
Trust is what makes it work! and EasyPick ensures the highest standards in handling and transport of all items.
EasyPick is unique in its approach focusing on the vendors thus aiming to change the future of India’s local retail market. EasyPick aims to solve one of the biggest managerial and operational
problem by making a system that is optimised and secure to allot the order to best possible PickMan, and thus making a unique delivery network that can be used by any local business.
The process involved user need analysis, surveys, analysis of service design companies,
understanding of service design, material handling, logistics management, brand identity
creation, marketing, MoU’s, sales, operations, accounts and advertising. The mobile
application and website are under process of development.
