Akosoto.com is a place where nursery rhymes, songs, riddles, games, do it yourself toys, illustrated stories… are compiled in the Malayalam language. This is a new venture from antzFx.com. Let us try to know more about the website.

Click on the following images for full size view.

Here are the posters in the language we all speak.

What is ‘Akosoto?’

No, the word is not Japanese. The name ‘Akosoto’ is a tribute to the 1992 Malayalam Film ‘Yodha’ directed by Sangeeth Sivan. The hero of the movie is fondly addressed as ‘Akosoto’ by the Rimpoche – a small child. We are sure that all the Keralites will identify themselves with the name. We are presenting Akosoto as a friend of your child.

A small talk on the inspiration

It was some months ago. When I was singing a nursery rhyme to my daughter (now she is two years old), my father asked me in surprise “Do you still remember this song? I taught you this song some 30 years ago from a children’s magazine!” My father has forgotten many of the lines. This made me to think about a website where we can collect and publish old songs, stories, games, ‘do-it-yourself’ toys…

My brother FULLfx | aneeskA immediately jumped into this and he made sure that the website will be up and running. He plans and posts the articles and does a lot of house keeping of the website.

The Akosoto Team

I must say that a big group of people contributed and encouraged us. Apart from my brother, my wife and daughter, my parents, my in-laws, my friends… are consulted for various articles posted here.

I should name two friends here: Geo Paul E and MahEsh C Menon. They are with us in every step and provides unconditional support, ideas and criticisms.

@AkosotoDotCom

Our Twitter handle is ‘@AkosotoDotCom.’

Tell us what you think

Simple. Shoot an email to:
write[ at ]akosoto[ dot ]com

Image Credits

Following images are used to design the poster and header of the website.

• Think: Jesse Therrien, Alberta, Canada.
• Pills: d-s-n, Warsaw, Poland
• Medicine 2: Sergio Roberto Bichara, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Download JPEGs of the whole Calendar (ZIP, 4.38MB) »

January 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	February 2012  Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

March 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	April 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

May 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	June 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

July 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	August 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

September 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	October 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

November 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	December 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

Design Thoughts

Compared with the designs of previous years, we have changed the format of the calendar.  Earlier we used to give two months in a sheet. This time, only one month is in a sheet and the digits are arranged inside ‘S M T W T F S’ — representing ‘Sunday Monday… Saturday.’ The digits are in the font Constantia.

Following images show the metamorphosis of  ’S M T W T F S.’

The first version had  ’S M T W T F S’ in Constantia Uppercase. The second version had Constantia Lowercase. The current version uses an outline (without fill) of modified Swatch font.

I modified ‘t’ and ‘m’ in the Swatch font to better adjust the digits inside. The ‘s’ for Saturday and Sunday are rotated 90 degrees. These changes ensured that the dates coming under a particular week are in a single column rather than staggered as you can see in the first two versions (Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday). Also, I removed the black fill of the ’S M T W T F S’ and retained a thin grey outline to give more emphasis to the dates and images on the sheet.

Dear Reader, I hope all of you will like this and will buy a print version from us.

Design Date: 09-Nov-2011

Extra – Our calendar designs over the years – 2011 Flowers, 2011 Green, 2010, 2009

Click on the image for a closer view.
Blank ‘Business Card’ stock image by: Brian Lary, Madison, US

A page from my notebook

I don’t remember from where I got the inspiration for using a notebook page background, but I have successfully used it twice thrice in the past. First, for my brother, I designed prize certificates with ‘notebook’ background for “Melange 2006,” organized by University College of Engineering, Thodupuzha. Then a notebook page served as the background for my e-mail wedding invitation card. People liked this unique look.

For a final assignment/presentation of a Post Graduate Degree subject, I again used this background for the PowerPoint slides. Initially we (two of my friends and I) wanted to project the slides in ‘portrait’ format; but reverted to the traditional ‘landscape’ format a few minutes before our turn as its readability was better.

When we projected the slides, our Professor was surprised and she blurted out a “What is this?” Fortunately the GE Healthcare team, who were evaluating our assignment along with the Professor, liked it and we got an ‘A’ grade. In the clutter of plain vanilla and PowerPoint default templates, our presentation did manage good ‘brand recall.’

Because of these experiences, I wanted to use a notebook page background for our new business card.

The design

The logo, company name and URL follow the antzFx logo and typography standards. They are placed on the top of the page. The person’s name (14 pt font size), Mobile phone number (8 pt ) and E-mail ID (8 pt) are in a font called ‘Hand of Sean.’ The font color is a blue (#003399) that we usually find in gel ballpoint pens. The mobile phone number is given a yellow (#ffff30) fluorescent highlighter effect. A single ‘space’ is given at both the sides of ‘@’ for easy readability of the E-mail ID.

The reverse side of the business card has a green (#009f00) background. All the text is in ‘Trebuchet MS’ font, except the ‘Arial’ ‘@’ sign of Twitter handle.

Download a blank PSD template for this business card (ZIP, 64 KB).

Who printed this?

Many asked this question to me. I printed 96 business cards for Rs.185/- (This includes printing charges, cutting charges and VAT for double sided prints on four 300gsm A3 sheets, matte finish) from Print Xpress, Richmond Road, Bangalore. Their customer service is the worst among competitors, but they are also the cheapest in Bangalore.

Reactions

Click on the image for a closer view.

The few ‘lucky’ people who received my new business card generally favored the design and mentioned that the card is quite memorable. Well, what do you think?

Design Date: 03-Sep-2011

Advertising

• Are you going to make advertising your career? See ‘A life in advertising’ http://www.munnaontherun.com/2011/08/life-in-advertising_05.html “Must be true!”
• You can turn any car into a convertible! A social service campaign by Amélie Company. http://osocio.org/message/you_can_turn_any_car_into_a_convertible/

Animation

• “Weird Al” Yankovic says “Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me.” The video is kinetic typography, probably in AfterEffects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KCSA7kKNu2Y

Art

• Ursus Wehrli finds everyday situations of disorder & organizes them into neat rows based on color, size, shape & type. http://www.fubiz.net/2011/08/31/the-art-of-clean-up/

Fun

• 14 things that always happen in movies, but never ever in real life. Movies just recycle unrealistic plot devices! http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2011/01/26/things-that-always-happen-in-movies-but-never-ever-in-real-life/
• Cartoonist Donald Soffritti imagines the later years of superheroes, enjoying retirement, with some funny outcomes. http://dailyinspiration.nl/character-design-retired-superheroes
• See the doodles that people drew on windows with dry erase markers so that the images project onto the scenery outside. http://windoodles.tumblr.com/

Inspiration

• Jeff Meakins is a talented designer who does packaging, rebranding, logos, posters… for well-known brands. His works: http://jeffreycmeakins.com/
• Designers, Read “33 Designisms” – modified Holzer’s truisms, questioning what we do, why we do it & how to get it done. http://morladesign.com/MD_33ideas.pdf

Logo/Identity Design

• Beach, Umbrella, Jellyfish, Seahorse and Beer! Read the design story of the logo for BarCamp Goa: First Edition. http://antzfxway.com/2011/09/22/design_bcg1/
• These logos make you smile at the brilliance of both the idea & the execution & have several layers of meaning. Great! http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/50-fantastically-clever-logos
• It is surprising how logos can influence other logos. Stefan Asafti’s project on interchanging logos of rival brands. http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Greatest-Brandversations/1971913
• Redesigning a logo can be just as hard as creating a new one. Here are five ideas to spruce up your logo design. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/08/5-ways-to-spruce-up-a-logo-with-examples/
• A fauxgo (fake logo) is a symbol created to represent a fictional company or organization that exists only on film. http://fauxgo.com/archive

Photography

• Why I never got this idea? Large Objects shot as miniatures using a giant coin and tilt-shift effects. http://www.petapixel.com/2011/08/18/large-objects-shot-as-miniatures-using-a-giant-coin-and-tilt-shift-effects/
• Gulp: The world’s largest stop-motion animation shot on Nokia N8. The crafting surface was 11,000 square feet of beach. http://www.dudecraft.com/2011/08/gulp-worlds-largest-stop-motion-film-by.html

Print Design

• ‘Truth and Lies’ humorous poster series: this is what you say, but (this is what you mean) – and we all know it. http://www.behance.net/gallery/Truth-and-Lies/2018665
• Kerning is fun! All right, unless you’re a serious typography nerd, that’s definitely not going to be a true statement. http://designshack.co.uk/articles/typography/8-simple-and-useful-tips-for-kerning-type/

Product Design

• MuteWatch – An interesting product, more interesting packaging design. I love it! http://www.notcot.com/archives/2011/09/unboxing-the-mutewatch-at-ar.php
• Lovely idea! The Karlsson Table Clock Book adapts neatly into your bookshelf disguised as an actual set of books. http://goo.gl/lGtfu
• Printed Circuit Board business card with inbuilt electronic decision maker logic. Press the button to get ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ http://www.devicers.com/ynbc/
• A low-cost, ergonomic load carrier for laborers wins Core77 Product Design Competition. Design: Vikram Dinubhai Panchal. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664663/core77-taps-7-carryall-as-years-best-product-design

Web Design

• Even if you’ve never heard of Andreas Shabelnikov, you’ve almost certainly seen his works: movie websites. Interview: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/09/interview-andreas-shabelnikov/

Why? Because I love to do a design under a lot of constraints. I believe that this will help me to explore and find innovative solutions. If I am correct, this is my fifth logo for a BarCamp (BarCamp Bangalore 7, Bangalore 8, Bangalore 9 and Kerala 9, Bangalore 10). I have tried to give an individuality to each of them. I suddenly found myself in an ideating mood.

Beach, Umbrella, Jellyfish, Seahorse…

This image shows the direction of my initial thoughts. Then I remembered the excellent observation by Joshua Johnson.

Rather than just making something attractive, designers look at the design process with a pinch of added intelligence and a perspective that skewed enough to see things differently than the rest of the world.

These types of logos make you smile at the brilliance of both the idea and the execution and have several layers of meaning that can hit you in waves.

A Foaming Beer Mug

The first time I visited Goa was on a ‘study tour’ from my graduate college. I remembered my friends observing that ‘Beer is cheaper than water in Goa!’ This made me to visualize a tall and foaming beer mug that you used to see in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

I had to add a yellow side and bottom lines to enclose the words tightly. The foaming bear is made from a half of the standard Barcamp logo.

Yes, I know. You indeed need ‘a lot of imagination’ to visualize this logo as a foaming beer mug!

One more option I tried was the one with a thought bubble in the place of the present foam. Later I abandoned it.

Incidentally, just see the typographic treatment given to the 2010 Tamil film Goa directed by Venkat Prabhu.

Fonts in the Mug

I wanted the alphabet ‘p’ of ‘BarCamp’ to be the handle of the mug. This made me to split the words as |bar|camp|goa| and arranged them one over the other to form the tall mug.

|bar| and |goa| are in Niagara Solid as it is a tall font. ‘The first edition, 30 October 2011′ is written in the font Journal. Now it took some time for me to decide on the ‘mug handle.’

Earlier I considered both Quadranta and Century Gothic. After the feedback from Niju and others, I settled for Yanone Kaffeesatz as the ‘p’ in this font resembles the shape of the actual beer mug handle pretty neatly.

Posters and Badges

Following are the two teaser posters designed for BCG1. Click on the image for a larger view.

Title: Chair on empty beach
Photographer: Fred Fokkelman, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Title: Colourful umbrella
Photographer: Gareth Weeks, UK

Two badges are also derived from the above posters so that people can display them in their websites.

So, what do you think? Drop your comments below.

Design date: 22-Sep-2011

Download links and a brief on the design are given below.

Download Links for Desktop Wallpaper/Calendar

‘Vande Mataram’ wallpaper with calendar (August and September 2011)
Click here to download in 1920 X 1200 pixels (JPG, 486KB)
Click here to download in 1280 X 800 pixels (JPG, 319KB)

‘Vande Mataram’ wallpaper (No calendar)
Click here to download in 1920 X 1200 pixels (JPG, 435KB)
Click here to download in 1280 X 800 pixels (JPG, 280KB)

Design Notes

Barun Patro shared the following image that formed the basis of the Calendar Wallpaper design. Thank you very much, Barun!

I recolored the three bright ribbons to the tricolor. I feathered around the central light source and deleted that part forming a gradual transparency at the centre. I placed this image on top of the first image.

I prepared on more layer with a feathered central light source. This time, I applied ‘Inverse Selection’ an deleted the selected parts. Now I got a transparent layer with only the central light. I stacked this on top of the other two layers.

When I merged all the three layers, I got the present, final image that shows an aurora and tricolor ribbons. Simple, isn’t it?

‘Quadranta’ font is used for ‘Vande Mataram.’ The calendar is created using ‘Constantia’ font.

That’s it! Awaiting your comments…
Happy Independence Day!

Design date: 03-Aug-2011

Advertising

• One fast car, 2 different types of cameras & a ton of empty parking spaces. Making of the new VW ‘light painting’ film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSV5wK1GzHA&feature=youtu.be
• Do you have the smarts to identify each story in these ads? Decode the equations. http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/2011/04/brain-candy-toys-little-pigs-cinderella-humpty-blind-mice/

Inspiration

• 10 must-see TED videos that either explore the way to create great design, or urges you to think big in your design job. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/ted-video-for-web-designers/
• Inspiring article by Leo Babauta. “I’m always where I want to be, doing what I want to be doing.” http://zenhabits.net/happy/

Print Design

• The first thing that you’ll learn in any basic design layout class is that ‘centered alignments are weak.’ Find out why: http://designshack.co.uk/articles/layouts/how-to-use-centered-alignments-tips-and-examples/

Product Design

• Shooting anti-gravity & rotating scenes in films require Computer Graphics. Wrong! See the amazing mechanisms involved: http://www.ohhaveyouseenthis.com/2011/07/inceptions-rotating-corridor.html
• Ever since we were kids, we’ve been in love with paper airplanes. Now you can buy Electric Paper Airplane Kit under $20. http://www.geekextreme.com/gadgets/electric-paper-airplane-conversion-kit-10736
• Could you transform your everyday bicycle to have the look and sound of a real motorbike? Turbospoke does exactly that! http://www.turbospoke.com/products-turbospoke-what-is-it.aspx
• ‘SavePaste’ eliminates the hard-to-squeeze dead space, minimizes toothpaste residue inside & reduces 2 packaging to 1. http://www.yankodesign.com/2011/07/15/get-more-out-of-your-toothpaste-tube/
• The most unusual and creative packaging designs. My favorite is ‘Breakfast.’ http://www.toxel.com/design/2011/07/14/15-examples-of-creative-packaging/
• Brief: Go into a pound shop and pick a seemingly uninteresting object and rebrand it. Ric Bixter’s answer is elastic! http://ricbixter.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/elastic-band-packaging/
• Yunfan Tan visualizes ‘Magic Emotion’, an eyewear that helps people in expressing emotions and brings some fun to life. http://www.behance.net/gallery/Magic-Emotion-Concept-Eyewear/1723529

Logo/Identity Design

• A clever way of putting a pair of scissors in a salon logo. Read the story of ‘Play Salon’ identity design: http://kikkidu.com/play-salon
• State Bank of India logo shows a keyhole. Wrong! Read the ‘real’ logo logic here: http://kikkidu.com/sbi
• If you’re a freelance photographer, see these 50 inspiring photography logos before you set out to create one yourself! http://www.inspiredm.com/50-inspirational-photography-logos/
• How to design a logo in 30 seconds: Malcolm Fontier logo. “Really, are you serious?” “Trust me. It’s gonna be good.” http://justcreativedesign.com/2011/06/29/how-to-design-a-logo-in-30-seconds/
• Read the logo design story of Flipkart.com. http://kikkidu.com/flipkart

News

• “Ripples” is the annual design expo at the IISc Bangalore. Ripples 2011 is on 08-09 July. You are invited! For details: http://antzfxway.com/2011/07/05/ripples-2011-iisc-bangalore/

Web Design

• We all liked Martha Graham doodle on Google homepage. Read the amazing story of the guy who thought it all. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/07/08/interview-google-marcin-wichary/

Click on the image for a larger view.

Ripples 2011 is happening on 08th and 09th of July (Friday and Saturday).

The speakers in Ripples 2011 are:

• Mr. Jagannath Raju, Director & Co-founder of Systemantics, a robotics company.
• Dr. Suresh Nagesh, Managing Director of Voith India Ltd., a Mechanical Engineering conglomerate.
• Mr. Tassin Hubert, Automobile Designer at Pininfarina, Italy.
• Mr. Jayant Karve, Product Designer specialized in medical equipment design.

We invite you to visit IISc and Ripples. Enjoy!

Update: 09-July

Ripples 2011 was a huge success. The student organizers did a fantastic job!

Read this newspaper report on Ripples 2011. Deccan Herald: IISc students’ designs cause ‘ripples’

Here are some photos of yours AnaskA truly attending the function on 08th July. Photos are courtesy of Mahesh C Menon.

Pramod Khadilkar, AnasKA, Himanshu Chaman, Tojo Thomas and Manoj Mahala.

Prof. J E Diwakar and AnasKA

Saleem Ahamed Sir and AnasKA

Himanshu Chaman and AnasKA

Inspiration

Logo/Identity Design

Photography

Print Design

Product Design

Web Design

Cricket Premier League

The company, where I work now, organized a cricket tournament ‘OPL’ in the last weekend. 12 teams, representing various business groups, participated. ‘Throttlers’ is the team from my business group. They are the defending champions. Although they reached the finals, they lost the cup to the rivals by 3 runs.

Media Blitzkrieg

Two-three days before the match, all the teams except our ‘Throttlers,’ started a media war. Logos were created, posters were made, FaceBook fan pages were registered, Ringtones were offered for subscription and team videos with theme music were uploaded in YouTube. I was also told to be ready to design a poster, in-case we win.

But we lost the finals and became the “OPL Runner’s Up.” On Monday morning, I rushed to design a poster that exhibits a ‘never-say-die’ attitude.

Design Specifications

The mast head reads “We are second to none. Wait till 2012…” This clearly translated the idea that ‘Throttlers’ are in second place now; but will regain the cup in the very next chance.

The fonts used are Serena — for the mast head/ body copy, Rosewood Std. — for the logotype and Bernard MT Condensed — for the tagline. To create the ‘Throttlers’ wordmark, Victorian Style Photoshop Brush by DiaMara is used.

I hope you liked the poster.

Design Date: 13-June-2011