Thus ‘dpe’ was born. ‘dpe’ means ‘Design | Participate | Excel.’ I made plans for a teaser kind of series ads to generate interest among the students.

Following are the three posters that were circulated as e-mails, one poster a day.

Notice the transition of background color and the change in the point of view of the box. ‘Provocative’ wordings like ‘We are second to none’ and ‘You are not a designer till you take part in this competition’ are coined and used. The box is open in the third poster only. The box and the alphabets are 3D modelled in SolidWorks software. We received quite a good number of responses for the first contest.

Software: SolidWorks, Photoshop
Design Date: 10-Nov-2009

This was one of the requirements I received from my friend describing the image to be put on a poster announcing the registration for a Soccer League.

As always, I designed three posters.

Corner Flag

This poster conveys the idea of soccer in a subtle manner. Apart from the logo, no football is featured in the visual. Fortunately, my friend too liked this poster very much. So it got printed in more numbers. I received some positive comments from my friends. This success shows that deviating from the requirements and creating something fresh (and green!) will always be liked by others.

‘Boy band’

Three silhouetted players are walking towards the camera dribbling the ball – just like a slow motion visual from a music video of a boy band. Vibrant colours and a subtle motion blur to the ‘Are you ready?’ caption… also went into this poster.

“Goal!”

A conventional, but a brilliant ‘save’ scene. Again vibrant colors… In this poster too, I added a motion blur to the ‘Are you ready?’ caption.

Acknowledgements
The following images are used to realize these posters:

• ‘Soccer’ by Admane Samir, Algiers, Algeria.
• ‘Football field’ and ‘Goalkeeper’ by Rawku5, Germany.
• ‘Training’ by Gabriella Fabbri, Italy.

Software: Photoshop
Design Date: 17-Sep-2009

‘Voices’ is a student magazine in my college with the slogan ‘Raise your voice, let yourself be heard!’ I got a chance to design posters that ask students to be a part of the magazine.

One of my earlier attempts of poster design for this same magazine can be found here.

‘Up’

Image Courtesy: Richard Sweet, London, UK

‘Mute’

Image Courtesy: Dimitris Kritsotakis, Athens, Greece

‘Voice’

Image Courtesy: Ingrid Müller, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3
Design date: 18-Aug-2009

Results of general elections in India are announced a few days back. This time, many of the candidates used the latest technologies like blogs, twitter, Orkut groups, Flash banner ads in websites, SMS campaigning… Also we saw a lot of public service ads urging citizens to use their fundamental right to vote.

In my college, this year’s Students’ Council Elections were held on 16-May-2009. I got the opportunity to design a series of posters to inform students about the election. Time frame for executing the work was very short.

Design Thoughts
Three posters are planned: One, a general poster about the election and important dates; second, a poster about Soap Box event of the candidates and third; a ‘Vote Now’ poster.

I didn’t want to depict a ballot box, people or other often repeated images for the work. A few months ago, I have used an image – ‘Leader’ taken by Sanja Gjenero from Zagreb, Croatia. Sanja has other images too in the same series. I selected three images – ‘Parliament,’ ‘Public Speaking’ and ‘Yes/No.’ Thus the ‘Let us…’ series happened.

And then…
The posters stood out in the notice boards owing to the bright and the riot of colors in a white background. The contrast of the posters was very high compared to the other posters and this became the differentiator. I am not claiming that the students’ turnout on the voting day is only because of the posters.

From the feedback, I got the impression that I goofed up in the body copy. All the dates were very confusing to the people. I think a small formatting may have done the trick. See what I mean:

Thanks a lot for all your feedback. Thank you Sanja, for the great images. You saved the day! More information on the students’ council elections are available at ‘Voices’ website.

Software: Photoshop
Design Date: 12-May-2009

“Smile please…” requests a press photographer.
“Autograph please…” requests one of my fans.
“Wow!” A child couldn’t hide her surprise when she saw me waving at the crowd.
“Well, I think…” I mumble when my opinion is sought by the TV crew on an international political situation.

I am famous. I am a celebrity. I am a star.

Who doesn’t want to be popular?

The brief
There are a lot of gifted people around us. People who can perform a task brilliantly than any others. Novelists, screen play writers, poets, journalists, artists… The list is endless. But most of them are so lazy that they always keep a low profile. Cajoling the future ‘Man Booker Prize Winners’ into writing an article for a college magazine is very tricky. And, that is my job.

The idea
A poster campaign is planned that will persuade students to send articles for the magazine. As I always practise, I wanted to stay away from the obvious choices in the design.

Since most of the students are just like me – chasing stardom or fame – I decided to use this thirst for recognition as the central idea for the posters. To connect well with the target audience, I wanted to bring them as the central attraction in the posters. That is how I got the idea of a photographer asking “smile please…” facing the onlooker. It was very easy to scale the idea and I made three more design options.

The design

Fortunately, I happened to get a good set of photographs for the posters. These photos ensured that the posters will get many eyeballs when displayed. The words mouthed by the characters are given as the mast head to retain the attention of the viewer. The tagline “You are famous/popular/a star/a celebrity…if your name appears” in the magazine did the trick.

The body copy and other data are graciously given to me by the concerned people. So there was no need for me to ‘actually’ invent and write something.

The outcome
Instead of selecting one of the designs, the panel selected all of them! This surprised me. All the four posters were printed and displayed prominently in the campus. Will they get enough articles for the magazine? Only time can tell. I am eagerly waiting to know the result.

Acknowledgements
Photo used in ‘Smile Please’
Gözde Otman, Istanbul, Turkey

Photo used in ‘Autograph Please’
Carl Dwyer, BW, Germany

Photo used in ‘Wow!’
i o f o t o, US

Photo used in ‘Well, I think…’
Jason Ralston, Florida, US

Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3
Design date: 15-Oct-2008

I was waiting in the hospital to see an ENT doctor for an hour. Absent minded, I picked up a three fold promotional leaflet of a Cell phone company. I started playing with it by folding and re-folding the ends. After some 30 minutes, I got a neat box in my hand. I tossed the paper box into my bag and soon I forgot about it.

After a few days, my brother informed me that the company where he works is conducting a jigsaw puzzle competition and they are in need of a teaser campaign to maximize employee participation. My brother is a software engineer and I have seen many of them in my life. I asked myself “What will make a software guy to come out and participate in a puzzle competition?”

The box. I mean, the Cube.

That is the answer.

On one fine morning, when you arrive at your workplace, you see a Rubik’s Cube sitting next to the mouse pad.

On taking it into your hand, you find that it is made up of folded paper and the base is open. This makes you to open and see what is inside. There is a text written in the middle: “Congrats! You cleared Level 1! Explore further…” Your curiosity is aroused and as you unfold the paper, you start seeing words and sentences announcing the coming of a Puzzle Competition.

This paper cube is made entirely by folding an A4 size sheet. No cutting, no glue, no stapler pins… One side of the paper has a pattern of Rubik’s Cube. The shaded portions inside the paper are not visible at first and that’s where we write the ‘Puzzle News.’

This is the folding detail of the A4 sheet to make a Cube of side 7cm approximately.

All Red lines are folds away from you. All Blue lines are folds towards you.

So, a visit to the doctor resulted in a good advertising campaign. Thank you.

Design date: 02-June-2008