Author: niyathipramod

Typography in Design

Typography may be dated back to the eleventh century, all through the innovation of movable type. Before the virtual age, typography changed into a specialised craft related to books and magazines, and ultimately public works. The first instance of typography may be visible in the Gutenberg Bible, which commenced a typography revolution in the west. Fast ahead the current era , in which typography is frequently related to each digital world and print. With the start of the internet got there an innovative explosion of the artwork of typography. Suddenly, net designers had an abundance of fonts and kind alternatives at their disposal, making typography extra visually numerous than ever before.

A type face gives words a personality, a coloring. It helps in establishing a strong visual tone. Graphic designers use typography to adjust the text within the design. This helps in creating content with a purpose, helps in creating harmony and order with the visuals. Because of such designs with unique typography ideas, a brand can communicate with its audience in an effective way. 

The life of a designer is a fight against the visual flaws and somehow they need to cure it with design. A good typographer always has the knowledge about the spacing. Typography sometimes is all about the white space between the letters.  

Helvetica 

Since its launch in 1957, it’s become the go-to type for company logos and transport hubs, making it one of the most widespread designs of all time.  It is a beautiful timeless type. Helvetica was a typeface that was clear, neutral; it originated from the need for legibility. It was modern. Helvetica didn’t have the meaning in itself, the content had the meaning. It is also the smoothness of the letters that they almost seem human. It invites open interpretation. 

Now it’s become a default font, because of its versatility, it has basically no improvements to be made. The popularity of Helvetica continues today. It was the system font on the original iPhone, and it remained part of iOS until 2015, when Apple replaced it with its own San Francisco.

Bodini

This typeface was created in 1798 being inspired by the ideas of John Baskerville when he designed his namesake typeface. This was taken to the next level by Bodini by creating an extreme contrast between the tick and thin strokes, making the letters more vertical, and greatly condensing width than Baskerville. This went on to be recognised as the fonts main characteristics.

The Bodoni typeface has been used for a wide variety of different materials. In the eighteenth century it was used in Italian books to 1960s periodicals. In the 21st century, the late manner versions were used in advertising. The early manner versions were used for fine book printing. In the current centaury, this font is mostly used for display sizes. As their extreme thin strokes won’t reproduce well at smaller sizes, which can degrade their appearance and lessen readability.

Sustainable Design

Sustainable design seeks to lower the negative impacts that materials have on the environment and ecosystem. It in fact, increases the comfort of the inhabitants and improves building performance.  

Eagleyew house 

Eagleyew house and eagle nest sanctuary is a beautifully sculpted custom green home built with nearly 100 natural materials. The light clay walls are made with a mixture of clay and straw.

The promise of this house from the very beginning is that it’s a house that will last 300 years. It uses natural materials like clay and wood which when well taken care of will last for centuries. All the walls are one foot deep and are made of light clay which has many advantages amongst others absorbs and lets go both of humidity and heat. It keeps it at a very even temperature and it inhibits mold growth and it inhibits burning so it would be difficult to burn this house.

Techniques like permaculture farming and ags heating systems are used here. Permaculture can be understood as the growth of agricultural ecosystems in a self-sufficient and sustainable way. This form of agriculture draws inspiration from nature to develop synergetic farming systems based on crop diversity, resilience, natural productivity, and sustainability.

Right now the framing is around creating a sustainable, regenerative, and circular economy, whereby the things we create to meet our needs are designed to fit with the systems of the planet. Central to this success is the design of goods and services and that’s where these strategies and designers’ creativity fit in.

RALPH GILLES- AUTOMOTIVE DESIGNING

Ralph Gilles’ struggles to pursue his dream.

He was persistent on his dream to design cars, beautiful cars. The artistic style appealed to him more, he was sure about his interest in design since a very young age. His aunt encouraged him to write a letter to Mr. Iacocca and they answered back. His portfolio promised them of his talent. He felt loyal to Chrysler since when he was seventeen. .He appreciates his support system, his brother, his dad, his wife for encouraging and criticizing his work. He has clearly struggled to get what he want and has had dark times. He compares it to being a captain on a sinking ship, not leaving until the doors are closed. Gurney’s Automotive Repair is doing a great work.

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Ralph Gilles’ work style

Gilles states that he likes to sketch the front of the automotive first because the first judgement happens by the front design. He also values proportion the most. He wants his work to be full of care and passion that people still love it after 50 yrs. The product should age gracefully. 

This characteristic is what he vows by and the reason he was global head of design at Fiat Chrysler within five years of working with them. They claim that ralph became the youngest head of design so far.

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Ex: the 300 is one of Ralph’s best designs, it looks aesthetic, gives an impression of speed. It was affordable and appealed to the hip hop crowd immediately. Racing is Ralph’s form of escape. He feels one with the machine and it gives him a sense of tranquility.

The steps to success:

  • Reinvention is key. 
  • Ralph believes that designers create taste, they’re ahead of times and culture, and that is exactly how they’re supposed to be.
  • Designers should have to judge what the customer wants before the customer themselves knows what they want.
  • Passion and connection to vehicles is extremely powerful to be successful in this industry. 
  • A lot of innovation and effort contributes to his successes, too. 
  • The success of Chrysler depended on successful designed cars. There’s an emotional attachment to cars that keep even old designs alive.
  • Listen to the problems and create a product that solves multiple problems at the same time.

Sm-1 concept – the family vehicle.

In Detroit, the team discusses on making a car more like an extension of one’s home. Ralph realizes that he has to understand autonomous vehicles. He doubts if a car would be just another device to the people, no attachment to it whatsoever. They to take inspiration from his experiences and observations.

So, the sm-1 is an autonomous and capable car. The interior requires even more attention, to make it comfortable and holistic. Ralph emphasizes that the base is always important, a clear & distinctive base to capture the idea or the utility of the car.

 He wants to adjust a car that appeals to not one but all kinds of people. Ralph Gilles and his team regularly reviewed their progress, and discussed on the changes to be made until they all had a clear view in their head of what the sm-1 looked & felt like. 

The presentation

They set their aim as perfection. They made models and checked everything that is to be presented. The team and ralph have even discussed and set up the presentation room as to where the drawings and the depictions, the tools & models would be.

Ralph, himself, appears pretty anxious about the meeting, he understands that if Sergio Marchionne, decides to scrap it, they would just have to accept it. When sm-1 model was approved by Sergio, the team remembered to appreciate their efforts and they were evidently happy.

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Archaic Greek Sculptures

The earliest enormous stone figures (kouroi – naked male adolescents and kore-dressed female figures) were inflexible as in Egyptian fantastic sculptures with the arms held directly along the edges, the feet are practically together and the eyes gaze vacantly ahead with no specific outward appearance. These fairly static figures gradually developed however and with ever more prominent subtleties added to hair and muscles, the figures started to become animated.

Gradually, arms become somewhat bowed giving them solid pressure and one leg (as a rule the right) is put marginally more forward, giving a feeling of dynamic development to the sculpture. Magnificent instances of this style of the figure are the kouroi of Argos, committed at Delphi (c. 580 BCE). Around 480 BCE, the last kouroi become perpetually life-like, the weight is carried on the left leg, the correct hip is lower, the posterior and shoulders looser, the head isn’t exactly so inflexible, and there is a trace of a grin. Female kore followed a comparable development, especially in the chiselling of their garments which were delivered in an always practical and complex manner. A more regular extent of the figure was additionally settled where the head got 1:7 with the body, independent of the genuine size of the sculpture. By 500 BCE Greek stone carvers were at long last splitting ceaselessly from the unbending principles of Obsolete applied workmanship and starting to recreate what they really saw, all things considered.

In the Traditional time frame, Greek artists would sever the shackles of the show and accomplish what nobody else had ever before endeavored. They made a daily existence size and life-like model which celebrated the human and particularly bare male structure. Considerably more, was accomplished than this, however. Marble ended up being a magnificent mechanism for delivering what all stone workers make progress toward that is to cause the piece to appear to be cut from within instead of etched from an external perspective. Figures become exotic and seem solidified in real life; it appears to be that lone every second prior they were really alive. Appearances are given more articulation and entire figures strike a specific mindset. Garments too become more inconspicuous in their delivery and stick to the shapes of the body in what has been depicted as ‘wind-blown’ or the ‘wet-look. Simply, the models no longer appeared to be designs except for were figures ingrained with life and verve.

Egyptian Sculptures

Egyptian Sculptures-

Egyptian craftsmen, whose aptitudes are best exemplified in form, viewed themselves basically as craftspeople. Inferable from their control and exceptionally created stylish sense, nonetheless, the results of their speciality have the right to rank as craftsmanship extraordinary by any principles.

A great part of the enduring model is funerary—i.e., sculptures for burial chambers. The greater part of the rest of made for setting in sanctuaries—votive for private people and custom for imperial and awesome portrayals. Regal monsters were custom and furthermore served to declare the greatness and intensity of the lord. Without anyone else, in any case, a sculpture could speak to nobody except if it conveyed a recognizable proof in symbolic representations.

The standing male figure with left leg progressed and the situated figure was the most widely recognized sort of Egyptian sculpture. Hints of wooden figures found at Ṣaqqārah show that the principal type was being made as ahead of schedule as the first tradition. The soonest situated figures are two of Lord Khasekhem of the second administration, which, albeit moderately little, as of now epitomize the basic monumentality of all regal models.

The preeminent sculptural capability was accomplished strikingly rapidly. The enormously noteworthy life-size sculpture of Djoser guided the path toward the eminent imperial figures from the fourth tradition pyramid buildings at Giza. For nuance of cutting and genuine glorious pride, hardly anything of later date outperforms the diorite sculpture of Khafre. Barely less fine are the models of Menkaure (Mycerinus). The pair sculpture of the lord and his significant other epitomizes brilliantly both respect and conjugal love; the groups of three indicating the ruler with goddesses and nome (common) gods display a total authority of cutting hard stone in numerous planes.

This association of ability and virtuoso was accomplished in nonroyal sculpture just as in the painted limestone sculptures of Ruler Rahotep and his better half, Nofret, which additionally show the Egyptians’ amazing aptitude in decorating eyes into models, expertise further exhibited in the wooden figure of Kaʿaper, known as Shaykh al-Balad, the very encapsulation of the affected authority.

Among increments to the sculptural collection during the Old Realm was the scribal sculpture.

Ziggurats Versus Pyramids

Ziggurats and pyramids incredibly vary regarding reason or capacity. Pyramids were initially thought to be the last resting spots of the pharaohs yet later archaeological finds have revealed that they were worked with tight shafts reaching out from within to the external surface to lift the pharaoh’s spirit unto the sky. Ziggurats then again were said to have been worked to house the divine beings. In this way, they are simply the genuine residences of the divine beings themselves particularly in the perspective of the Sumerians and Babylonians. In such a manner, it’s anything but unexpected that lone the ministers were permitted to get inside the ziggurats.

Different elements of the ziggurat are the accompanying: a retreat region for the ministers in the event that there is an unexpected flood of water at the ground level, for the general security of the realm’s clerics, and it likewise serves to finish a detailed sanctuary complex with homes, stockpiling regions, and yards to give some examples.

As far as building area, ziggurats have generally assembled someplace inside the Old Mesopotamian locale (Sumer, Babylon and Assyria) comparing to advanced Iraq and part of Syria though pyramids were the frameworks underlying Antiquated Egypt and South American districts.

Ziggurats have an exceptional element of having steps, slopes or patios with their sides normally retreating while the pyramids frequently have an extended length of flights of stairs and smoother sides. Ziggurats are multi-celebrated structures which for the most part share a typical component of having seven levels or layers to speak to the 7 planets of the sky. These were additionally hypothesized to have sanctuaries at the top since there are no solid confirmations guaranteeing such until the present time. There are likewise no chambers inside these foundations and are regularly formed in a rectangular or square manner.

Pyramids have chambers inside and seem to have three-sided external surfaces (faces) that meet at one point at the top. Most pyramids have five faces with everything taken into account including its base in spite of the fact that there are four-confronted pyramids that have three-sided or non-quadrilateral bases.

Thus;

1. Pyramids are essentially burial chambers or graveyards while ziggurats are a greater amount of sanctuaries.

2. Ziggurats were underlying Old Mesopotamia while pyramids were implicit Old Egypt and Southern America.

3. Ziggurats have steps or patios on their sides and are multi-celebrated while pyramids simply have one extended length of the flight of stairs.

4. Ziggurats were said to have sanctuary tops while pyramids don’t have any yet a meeting point for its sides.

5. Ziggurats are chamber less while pyramids ordinarily have inward

Art History

The three paintings shown are Madame de Pompadour 1756 by François Boucher, Mona Lisa 1503 by Leonardo da Vinci and The Girl with the Pearl Earring 1665 by Johannes Vermeer. 

The first painting of Madame de Pompadour, was by Francois Boucher, it’s a Rococo painting and like other artists of this period the style is ornate and uses light colors along with asymmetrical designs to bring out the emphasis on Madame de Pompadour. Rococo artists and architects generally used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to Baroque works. In this painting, she is lying on a couch with a book in her hand, wearing a frivolous dress and an intricate up-do, and she is gazing off into the distance. All of the focus is on Madame de Pompadour, with her intricate dress and hairdo a distinctive contrast from the purple background. There is a lot of shadow in the dress which gives it a lot more depth, making it appear very realistic.

The painting Mona Lisa– a Baroque masterpiece by Da Vinci evokes an intense emotional response from viewers just as Seventeenth-century masters sought to engage viewers as participants in the work of art and often reached out to incorporate or activate the world beyond the frame into nature and meaning of the work itself. The painting presents a woman in half-body portrait, which has as a backdrop a distant landscape. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting—especially apparent in the sitter’s faint smile—reflects Leonardo’s idea of the cosmic link connecting humanity and nature, making this painting an enduring record of Leonardo’s vision. 

The painting of the Girl with a Pearl Earring shows a young girl in a dark space, a setting that seems extremely quiet and intimate. The background of the painting sets the mood of the painting and draws the viewer’s attention primarily to the girl. She’s wearing the eponymic pear earrings along with a blue and pale-yellow head turban which provides a pleasant contrast to the viewer’s eye. Unlike many others of Vermeer’s works, she is not unaware of her viewer or caught in a moment of concentration over some chore. Instead, she is caught in a fleeting moment and turns her head over her shoulder, meeting the viewer’s gaze with her eyes wide and lips parted as if about to speak. The girl’s facial expression could be compared to that of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, wherein both the paintings’ subjects are captured in a way that the viewer is beheld by curiosity as to what both subjects were thinking of when the painting was made, as both have a serene, and subtle mysterious smile.  The three paintings however, are exquisite as they each portray three vastly different women, each of which are expressed and painted with individual styles, textures, contrast and depth- an indication of the artist’s expertise and the period in which the painting was made.

Le Grand Jihad- Sufism in Chechnya

What is the Zikr? 

Three concentric circles of men, swing and sway to the beat of the chant. They stomp in time with the cadence of the chants and grunt from their abdomen and throat, the sounds filling the room. Every so-often one voice rises over the rest and the chant rises as a chorus of voices reciting and singing variants of the names of Allah. The men then pause, face right and walk in a counterclockwise motion, slowly at first then increase speed. As they gain speed, they start to jump on their outer feet and draw closer into the circle. The concentric circles then combine and begin to look like a spiralling ball. 

The ball then stops and opens once again. The stomping resumes slowly at first and then louder. Most of the men are entranced and are gripped in their devotion. The air around them hums, the floor shakes and the men turn left and once again accelerate the other way. The ritual is called a Zikr, the transcendent Sufi dance of the Caucasus, a tradition held deep in the heart of Chechen Islam. 

The Origin of Zikr 

The Zikr, used by the Qadiri Sufi Islamic brotherhood, as a form of prayer grew into a symbol of national unity and identity for the Chechens starting with its introduction in the mid-nineteenth century and later throughout under Russian rule. The ritual of dance became a call for resistance in Chechnya under the Tsarist rule, the Soviet regime and the current Russian Federation. 

When Dzhokhar Dudayev became the President of Chechnya in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, throngs of Chechens danced the Zikr in the central square in Grozny, showing their support and encouragement for Dudayev and expressing their dedication to Chechen nationalism after a long tumultuous history.  

During the subsequent war with Russia in 1995-the Battle for Grozny, even after the Russians had invaded their city, a constant flow of people danced the Zikr in the Freedom square to express their discontentment of the Russian invasion. The Chechens’ dedication and ardor to performing the Zikr even now continues as an important part of both their religious and national identity. 

Present Day- The Zikr and its implications for the Chechen future 

Inside Chechnya, where past Russian efforts to try to contain and eliminate the beginnings of a second Chechen war since the Soviet Union collapsed, the customary forms of Chechen religious expression are gradually returning to public life. It’s a revival burdened with deep meaning, and with implications that are unclear for the future of Chechnya. 

Now that the form of religious expression is reclaiming a place in public life and the daily respects of Islam in the Chechen people, the resurgence is quite unusual seeing as the practice of Zikr is seen as an element of policy for Chechens who are pro-Russia.  The fact remains, however, that Chechnya’s Sufi brotherhoods had never truly been vanquished- not by bans, repression, or exile by either the czars during the Tsarist rule or Stalin during the Soviet Era, and not by the Kremlin of late under Russia.

Ritual Burdens

The Story of Ni Ketut Kasih

Ni Ketut Kasih is a widow who lives in a small village in Bali, Indonesia. She is a proud mother of four children and the grandmother of twelve grandchildren. She’s lived her whole life surrounded by the complex cadences and mandates of the Balinese ritual calendar with events such as temple observances, holy days, festivals, etc. happening nearly every other day, and for many years Ketut has faced a specific kind of difficulty with the stress and anxiety surrounding her ritual obligations as the village’s ceremonial leader. 

She anticipates and prepares for the ceremonies and rituals far in advance, repeatedly assessing the state of her family’s preparations because of her position in her community as priestess. She finds her mind overrun by thoughts of failure and worry as she also reminisces the stresses of her childhood when her father was taken as a prisoner of war and she was forced to leave her schooling in order to look after her family. 

When the worries get too much, Ketut has a “fit”, she could disappear from home leaving her family and wander off to far places acting out in alarming ways such as undressing herself in the market or challenging others to a fight.  When her situations get beyond the support her family could give her, they take her to the state psychiatry hospital or give her the medications prescribed for her manic-episodes. She generally recovers quite fast and experiences long stretches of peace and quiet before another financial obligation or ritual evokes more stress, causing another episode. 

Ketut’s response to the stressors caused by familial, ritual or financial obligations raises questions about the purpose of these rituals and the psychological cost it brings for the those that execute and organize it. Ketut’s case exhibits a unique assemblage of stressors such as cultural obligations, childhood trauma, and neurobiology overlay to trigger cyclic manic-depressive episodes. This shows us the impact of individual paradigms of suffering and the requisite connotations which make ritual burdens excruciating on mental health.

Familial Support- Both a Stressor and Strength 

In an intricate but compelling discourse, it’s seen that Ketut’s family has always acted as both a stressor and strength throughout the course of her life. Meeting her extended family tends to elicit feelings of shame if rituals are improperly carried out and anger or envy over financial differences between family relations, however, her immediate kin provide a shield of support by actively avoiding labeling or stigmatizing her diagnosis in any way. 

During times when she calls herself as sakit jiwa, or mentally ill, her family unwaveringly does not call her gila, or crazy. Despite the fact that she’s been institutionalized many times for her manic-episodes, the family chooses to normalize Ketut’s experiences and in evading to merge her symptoms with herself, her family accentuates the temporary nature of her illness and this provides a sense of continuity to her daily life. 

The “Burden” Paradox of the Balinese Ritual

The term “ritual density” is used to describe the frequency of rituals/ceremonies within any particular culture. The Balinese culture is known to be one of the most ritually dense cultures in the world. The Balinese ritual calendar is 210 days long and full of cyclic events. An integral part of the Balinese ritual customs is the sesajen, or offerings. In the documentary, Ketut and her family talk about the practice of ngayah, “pledging oneself to god by making ritual offerings.” This idea shows us that the importance given to the preparation of these offerings in not only just the tangible result of the product but also the manifestation of the devotional method in which it was made in the end product. 

In Balinese culture, the etiology of illness and healing of a wide variety of personal and family diseases and problems are often interpreted as a result of inadequately done, forgotten or neglected rituals. Because of this, many families go into debt in order to ensure that a ceremony is performed in an appropriate and well-timed manner in order to avoid such kind of troubles. Thus, in making offerings and performing rituals correctly, many Balinese women take it upon themselves to ensure the well-being of their families and their communities. The extensive female labor and female leadership in consolidating sometimes hundreds of family members involved in ritual preparations may speak to the esteemed and valued role that women play in Balinese spirituality. 

Understanding the herculean task of physical labor, time, emotional and monetary investment, and spiritual strength required to make these offerings and fulfill familial obligations, combined with the importance of ritual in Balinese families and communities emphasizes how ceremonies aren’t just culturally elaborate celebrations, but also culturally evident stressors that strain pre-existing weaknesses or cause an illness episode in the likes of individuals such as Ketut. Thus, it becomes a matter of irony that the rituals meant to shield and encourage the purity, peace and balance of the community can also result in significant mental pressure for an individual.

BIOMIMICRY

Kira hunt is a landscape technologist working in Canada and specializing in park design, structural detailing, and heritage interpretation. Now, she works on biomimicry and learning strategies from nature that can improve our cities and bring us closer to the natural world.

WHAT IS BIOMIMICRY?

Biomimicry means to imitate life, i.e., design inspired by nature. This is a kind of approach that can be used in various forms of fields such as anthropology, architecture, etc.

The creation of Velcro

  • Velcro was inspired by the burrs of the Burdock plant. In 1941 a Swiss engineer named George de Mestral was hunting in the Jura mountains in Switzerland when he noticed small burrs from what was later identified as the Burdock plant stuck to his pant legs and covering his dog’s fur. Hence the hooks of the burr were replicated into the Velcro and hence a reusable fastener was created.
  • But this isn’t considered a biomimicry success as Velcro is harmful to nature because of its plastic content, so it could be better as it harms the environment. She calls it a shallow example of biomimicry.

The principle of circularity

Most Biomimicry practitioners follow life’s principle of circularity. They compound the resources and energy of nature. It is believed that energy is never exactly used up by a single product, only stored for a period of time. So recycling products can help the division of that energy and eventually lead it back to its source.

Similarly, if we protect the earth, care for the living systems, and green the society, the favor would be returned. We would get fresh and clean air, water, diverse food, and healthy places for people to live in. If we harm nature, by the principle of circularity we are harming ourselves. n life do to keep the earth life-sustainable?

To prevent this, what should humans do?

Mass manufacturing of short-termed usage products causes an increase in landfills. The circular economy works on this sector of designing products that have minimal to no wastage or pollution. Reusing the products will lead to healthy natural systems.

A good design always follows THE THREE Rs:

  • Reduce: Reduce purchasing and creating products that contain chemicals and particles that are harmful to the environment.
  • Reuse: try to reuse a product in multiple ways. Reusing natural resources leads to lesser consumption and a more sustainable way of living.

Recycle. Recycle a product to continue with existing materials.

How does life support life on earth?

The chemicals and combinations used by nature are friendly. The simplest elements are used the most. The human industry uses double the number of elements that are more toxic. Nature’s elements are biodegradable.

For example, the manufacturing industry uses plastic, foil, and paper and glues them together because of their different contributions for a cup. Individually, these components can be recycled, but when bonded together, they are impossible to be recycled. Whereas, a crab shell- retains moisture, is sturdy, and protects the crab. The only difference between the two products is that the crab shell is biodegradable and a single unit.

Do we really need to import products and resources from the other side of the world when we could make do with recycling waste materials itself?

We are at a unique point in time where we have the tools necessary to find the strategy of nature and to emulate the structures of the living world. Finding new materials to use would be a big sustainability win. 

  • Using products that can be made using biomass. This can help support regenerative and circulative economies. Using biomass for 3d printing can help us focus on different regions that can have their own niches. Coastal cities can take advantage of seafood waste, etc.

Conclusion

Kira Hunt advises engineers and designers to look for organisms that are solving problems that they want to solve and learn from them. We can bring in new ideas and reimagine the human activity with the living system that supports us!

Apple Products

Successful long term innovative companies have a broad vision mantra. Apple’s is “How do we make your life easier.” The main vision for apple product designers is observed to be improved accessibility, simplicity, and increase in functionality. In fact, the design seems to be of utmost importance in apple products that they appear to ignore manufacturing practicalities.

Apple design is more than the way something looks but the way it works on so many levels. Design defines experience because simplicity, clarity, and efficiency depict beauty. The designers work on bringing order to complexity. Almost all Apple products have a unique Unibody software that is thinner, resilient, all made out of a piece of aluminum. Each product is designed from the very beginning, its software.

Each product is identified with ways to be better, perhaps even before they are released. As they progressed the products became more intuitive and easy to understand and learn. To quote Jony Ives, “The best designs aren’t reserved, they’re used immediately”.

For example, the Macbook has the most efficient design possible, inventions across many disciplines, new MacBook is thinner and precise, butterfly mechanism, single led is used to illuminate keys, refined from glass to pixels, any moving parts(vents and fans) are eliminated to allow it to operate in silence and it’s extremely portable.

Within a visibly small amount of time, the Macbook Pro was released. It’s built for the extreme level of performance, remarkably portable. Most of the larger apple products give viewing content priority. Apple has a unique quality highlighted in the Macbooks and iMacs are the asymmetric fans that ensure even the lowest frequency of sounds to be heard.

Similarly, the iPhones, iPads, even Operating Systems were continuously developed. The changes and developments were tracked; they were observed and then developed. Most recreations in a more portable and smaller size weren’t reduced from the original version, rather, the main functions were concentrated into the new ones.

The video shares how much extensive research goes into a product to fit the user in the best way possible. The apple smart watch’s display time was consulted with multiple professionals before adapted into the watch itself. The watch could be highly personalized to fit the user. Self-expression was permitted via – multiple watch faces, different straps, each strap made of different materials, the hardware of aluminum, steel, and gold, wrist locks were made of different designs as well.

As the products progressed, they only became more successful, leaving little to none defective characteristics. Each product became more reliable and relatable. New ideas were easy to adapt.

Apple didn’t advertise its products in comparison to other branded products, but it’s own. The newest additions or improvements were announced first and then the relatability and familiarity are created using older products.  The consistently high-quality products from this brand are one of the reasons why Apple is successful.

Body Neutrality: What is it and how is it different from Body Positivity?

Body positivity has been around for years now, and it deals with challenging society’s view on the “ideal body type.” It refers to the assertion that all people deserve to have a positive body image, regardless of other’s opinions. 

Body Neutrality is, however, a relatively newer term coined somewhere in 2015 by bloggers, celebrities, etc., to disconnect the relationship between physical appearance and self-worth.

It is a philosophy that one should focus on what their body can do for them rather than what it looks like.

“The body positivity movement urges people to love their bodies no matter what they look like, whereas body neutrality focuses on what your body can do for you rather than what it actually looks like,” said Chelsea Kronengold, the associate director of communications at the National Eating Disorders Association.

While people that practice body positivity might say, “I love my legs, cellulite and all; they are beautiful.”

A person practicing body neutrality might say, “I love my legs because they help me run.”

Body neutrality is difficult to navigate when we have been taught that physical beauty can create happiness. But suppose a person recognizes a more petite physique or nose job won’t instantly make them happier. In that case, they can find body peace both before and after they change their body.

“When people become overly invested in changing their bodies to change their experiences of the world, it becomes a really dangerous sort of thing that perpetuates itself,” Wassenaar said. “Because oftentimes I find that you can’t ever change your body enough to make yourself happy.”

Dr. Wassenaar has also talked about how diet and fitness plans that require restriction or pushing our body past its boundaries are not body neutral. Those plans force a person to hold the diet or fitness plan’s specific rules above their body’s natural hunger or physical activity cues.

Body neutrality helps one recognize and prioritize how they feel in their body. This might mean moving your body because it feels good, and you enjoy the movement, and not to “burn off” the food you’ve eaten. It also means you listen to your body to know when to stop or take a day off.

Body Neutrality doesn’t encourage indulging in unhealthy choices; instead, it means that meals usually feature fresh, whole foods, but you also eat intuitively. That one does not have to resist the urge or suppress their cravings or “make up’ for a heavy meal by limiting yourself to salad the next day.

Dr. Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju

Born as Angad Gummaraju, Trinetra grew up always feeling alienated from her own body and plagued by society’s norms of gender identity. Having faced immense scrutiny and provocation from both society and her peers over the years for being different, finally, at the age of 20 she made the brave decision to come out as queer. 

She put up a post on Facebook that read ‘Call Me Trinetra’, officially coming out as a woman, and it was from here on that her journey of self-love and self-discovery became inconceivably more difficult. The ensuing onslaught of harassment, judgement was nothing like she’d ever experienced in her life, because this time, she wasn’t the confused and unsure teenager anymore, this time, she was the self-assured, informed and more confident version of herself. 

Since then, her openness about her gender identity made her the lightning rod for a lot of slander, transphobia and hate. But that didn’t stop her from chasing her dreams, she channelized her anguish into her studies and decided to go to med school. Being a med student exposed her to another plethora of challenges, from being thrown out of a lecture for wearing a nose pin, to not being allotted a room in the girl’s hostel because she didn’t have the ‘organs’ for it. It soon made her understand that the very flag-bearers of the field she pursued suffered from transphobia. 

She is now a YouTube vlogger who has been consistently documenting her transition journey on her channel ‘The Trinetra Method’. She underwent a gender confirmation surgery (GCS) abroad in February last year, after which she adopted the name Trinetra after the goddess Kali. Presently a surgical intern at KMC Manipal, and a well-known social-media figure, Dr Trinetra isn’t just a beacon of hope for others like her, she’s also an inspiration to anyone seeking to find happiness and self-love. Her once arduous but now buoyant journey warrants no emotion short of admiration and respect. 

The Enlightenment – The Great ‘Age of Reason’

Considered as a profound turning point in the intellectual history of the West, the era of Enlightenment was both a movement and a state of mind to those who sought logic and reason to contradict the then ever-present traditional beliefs.

The principal targets of these thinkers were religion (the Catholic Church in France) and the hereditary aristocracy’s hegemony of society. During the early years of the 18th century, a movement parallel to scientific advancement, for political revolution erupted in France. Denis Diderot, for example, linked reason to the conservation of virtue and its ability to check potentially harmful human passions in his writings. Similarly, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s profoundly influential works argued that man was born free and intelligent, but was imprisoned by the limits imposed on society by governments. True political sovereignty, he believed, remained in the hands of the people as long as the rule of law was properly maintained by a democratically endorsed government: a radical political theory that came to influence the United States later. 

Baroque Style painting (left) Rococo Style Painting (right)

The Enlightenment encouraged people to criticize the monarchy (then King Louis XVI) and corrupt nobles. Philosophers accused Rococo art of being immoral and vulgar because Rococo artists and architects adopted a more humorous, floral and elegant approach to the Baroque style. It was an art form with deep-rooted playful and witty themes, just like a theme borrowed from a classic love story. This motivated the “enlightened” philosophers to promote a new kind of art, which was moral rather than immoral and taught people right from wrong.

This new art form called “neoclassicism” attempts to present classical ideals and themes in a style derived from classical Greek and Roman origin. The neoclassical painting reflects the frozen shape of ancient relief sculpture, compact composition, and shallow space. Artists and intellectuals inspired by classical history made contributions to early neoclassicism, which was not only a way of looking at the world but was also a visual style. As we know, the two main targets under critical appraisal during the Enlightenment were the government and religious authorities. Many Enlightenment thinkers waged fierce campaigns against restrictions on freedom (such as censorship, discrimination, etc.) and religious interference in public affairs (such as law, education, government). These called for reforms, and they were put forth by some of the most eloquent writers in history, which is why the Enlightenment is also known as the golden age of satire. 

The two main well-renown writers in Enlightenment satire were Voltaire (French) and Swift (English). Voltaire fought against various forms of injustice, including religious and political discrimination, arbitrary imprisonment, and torture. He is mainly known for his many philosophical and satirical works, including novels, short stories and prose. Voltaire was also an accomplished poet, tragedian and historian. The Irish-English writer Jonathon Swift (Jonathon Swift) is perhaps the most famous satirist in history. He wrote many satirical essays covering many topics. His main personal complaint is the abuse of the Irish by the British. Swift’s masterpiece is the novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, which takes a series of wonderful adventures as the background to conduct a comprehensive investigation of morality, politics and society.

In conclusion, the era of enlightenment was the pinnacle of the evolution of modernity and contemporary societal ideals, thus it was an extremely rewarding effort for me to learn more about this intriguing and fascinating time.

Design Thinking

How did we end up here? In a technologically advanced era? With people that are aware of our progression towards a more electronically-enabled environment? Would it be possible without asking simple questions and analyzing?

Design thinking has been helping us solve problems and develop for personal, national, even global use. Design thinking is a systematic approach of empathizing with the user, observing problems, and creating innovative solutions. Human beings have limited brainpower. Due to habituation, our brains convert everyday things into habits to make space for learning new things. It’s a human tendency to get used to everything that we see every day normally.

It would be exhausting to notice everything as if it was for the first time. But you would have to notice the littlest details for user empathy and problem-solving. All great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practiced it. Observing and noticing takes practice and constant thought. You could start by consciously putting effort into staying a beginner.

Design thinking has been conveniently divided into five steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test.

The process begins with empathizing with the user: finding more about the concerns to gain a deeper understanding. Then, we proceed to define the problem statement and brainstorm ideas that could potentially solve.

Always try and reiterate the problems and questions. Always try to find a new perspective that could’ve been missed. Then we make a prototype after checking feasibility, functionality, user-friendliness, and other factors and test how it works with people.  Now, the steps do not have to be followed in the same order, depending upon the success rate of each step, you could repeat previous steps too.

Design thinking is important because it is the cause of innovation. It instills observation skills and helps in tackling creative challenges. Over the last decade, the practice of design thinking has made its way into a variety of other disciplines and industries. It is not only for designers or artists, it is for anyone or anything looking for improvement.

It is about seeing the invisible problem. It’s usually about looking broader and looking closer. Focusing on how things ought to be versus how things are.

Sometimes the solution to the problem is very basic and simple. Think younger, think about things as if they are new and you are looking at them for the first time. Think every day about how I can experience the world better.

It is essential to standout and think out of the box, to try and introduce new things, which might have been impossible due to the lack of technological and electronic advancement. We have all imagined what the future could possibly look like. There could be massive changes in how a city looks, functions, and develops. But, surely, this would be a result of design thinking shaping the experiences of innovators.