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

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

Even during the logo competition for BarCamp Bangalore 9 (BCB9) in August, 2010, I was thinking about the logo for BCB10. BarCamp Bangalore 10 is happening on 11-June-2011 at SAP Labs. Being a fan of films, I have decided to make a typographic logo for BCB10 similar to the title design of the Hollywood flicks X-Men and XXX.

This is my logo that was created as part of the BCB10 logo competition. Click on the image for a larger view. Read on to know more about the design thoughts.

‘Genesis’ of the BCB-X logo

Michelangelo painted some scenes of Genesis in the Sistine Chapel, Rome that shows God creating man. The ‘touch of life’ is an inspiration for countless stories and designs.

BarCamp Bangalore is infusing life to the minds of Gen X and Gen Y. This idea made me to depict the ’10′ using the Roman numeral ‘X.’

The fonts used are ‘Magneto’ and ‘Niagara Solid.’ ‘Magneto’ has a classic, yet modern appeal. It is seen widely on modern technology based products. The ‘X’ is actually a flipped version of the ‘X’ found in the ‘Magneto.’ I did this to have a uniform width connection between the ‘bcb’ and ‘X.’ To gel both the fonts, I had to convert ‘Niagara Solid’ to a slanting format.

Version 2.0

As the logo started growing on me, I chanced upon an improvement of the logo. This modified version 2.0 shows the ‘X’ as a younger person who hand-holds the ‘bcb’ and marches on to a new future. The BarCamp logo is shifted towards the ‘X’ so that it forms a face that smiles.

Wish me luck for the BCB10 logo competition.

Image Credits

• Genesis by Michelangelo: Jeff and Joy Scott Family
• Signboard: Ilker, Turkey
• Rusty sign: Zsuzsanna Kilian, Hungary

Update on 10-June-2011

The results of BCB10 logo competition is announced.

And, I didn’t win. I would like to thank you for your ‘likes’ and comments in the competition page.

Design date: 03-Jun-2011

You all may have seen the pictograms of Olympic events. I am told that the pictograms of Munich 1972 Olympics are the most popular, even today. When I sat down to design the SnT Run logo, I did a small research on these simple, yet powerful pictograms.

The idea

A running person is the central theme in all marathon logos. I also decided to go as per this custom and include one in the logo. My attention was mainly on the font so that the whole experience will be unique. I decided to include a reference of the shape of a racing track in a stadium.

Execution of the Idea

The SnT Run logo is constructed using parallel lines of uniform width. A constant radius is maintained for the curves. The ‘n’ and ‘u’ of “SnT Run” are aligned in such a way that an abstraction of a racing track in a stadium is visible. The running man is also created by applying the same rules.

A 3D version of the logo is also created that can be used in print media for publicity.

The Result

Stage Backdrop for SnT Run 2010;
In the foreground you can see AnasKA / antzFx, Urvesh, Ashveen, Tojo and Praveen

Stage Backdrop for SnT Run 2011; A proud winner on stage.
Photo Courtesy: Mahesh C

This blog post explains the design of SnT Run 2010 Poster.

Design Date: 07-Feb-2010

The first image that comes to my mind when I hear ‘click’ is that of a cursor or a mouse.

But ‘Click’ can also be the sound of somebody taking a photo. If you are using a film camera, the sound comes when the film is exposed by the shutter and the next frame is advanced. In an SLR camera, the sound is generated when the mirror inside the camera rotates to direct the light on to the sensor or film. In a digital camera, the sound is generated electronically to give the ‘feel’ of taking a picture. There is usually a provision to turn OFF the sound.

FULLfx decided to name his photoblog as ‘Clickography‘ and he entrusted the logo design with me.

Click on the image for a larger view.

At the click of a button

I have an OLYMPUS digital camera where the zoom function is integrated into the photo taking button. In the Nikon D90 of FULLfx, instead of zoom, the ON/OFF is integrated to the button. This control became the center of my thoughts.

Century Gothic is a very ‘rotund font’ and I integrated the ‘C’ of ‘Clickography’ into the logo that represents the photo taking button.

Most of the “normal” people had difficulty in identifying the ‘photo angle’ of the logo. But the ‘client’ accepted it as all the photography enthusiasts identified it and made the connection.

Great!

Logo Design Date: 15-Feb-2011

Other Interpretations

The logo, when watermarked on a photo, can also look like the ‘Copyright’ logo.

One of my ‘uninitiated’ friends told me that my logo looks like the top view or plan view of a broken tea cup on a saucer!

Another friend told me that the logo looks like ‘Central’ logo. Following is the logo designed by Idiom Bangalore for Future Group’s Central Department Store. You can read the story behind Central’s logo here.

Year Planner is a Single Sheet Calendar

“This time, we will design and print an year planner for our organization. Well, are you volunteering?”

This is my Creative Director talking to me in the last week of December, 2010. I thought: “Why not? After all, an year planner is nothing but a single sheet calendar with some boxes to write notes.”

Armed with a Google image search, I started the design.

Jerry and Cheese

‘CheeseCare‘ is the name of the organization and we generally place images of cheese in all corporate communication. I started with a cheese, then I came to a mouse chewing it and then a punchline emerged out of nowhere: “CheeseCare: We use mouse to carve out design.” I decided to add a computer mouse somewhere in this line.

Design Decisions

This is the draft version I submitted for review. Click here to download (1280×800 px; 256KB) When this is approved, I shall update the latest version here.

• Yellow Color: I took the inspiration from Yellow Post-It notes.
• 2011 is not mentioned anywhere because I wanted to increase the shelf-life of the planner. So, you can probably use it till the world ends in 2012!
• Since year planners are stuck on walls above eye-level, I thought that placing the names of months at the bottom of the sheet will be better.

• Care is taken to color alternative columns differently to assist easy reading. The same rule applies to weekdays and weekends.
• Fonts used: ‘League Script’ for the punch line with a ‘Wingdings 2′ computer mouse; ‘Helvetica Neue Bold Condensed’ for the calendar; ‘Baskerville Old face’ for the website address. “Design Matters” came with the logo and the font is ‘Hand of Sean.’
• Image Courtesy — ‘Mouse’ by Galina Puzyrna, Ukraine. Thank you for the comical illustration.

That’s it! What do you think of this ‘yellow planner’?

Recently, I posted the news of my new 2011 Calendars (‘Green’ and ‘Flowers’) in the DesiCreative Forum (A popular Indian Advertising Forum). A good discussion followed about the design merits of these calendars. Although I never claimed that the designs are unique and creative, these were brought up by a couple of people. This made me to ask myself: “Can I design a creative Calendar with a ‘Wow!’ effect?”

And then…

After some hours, I came up with this unique and creative 2011 calendar.

The Idea

• Only one month will be printed on a T-shirt. So one needs to buy the full 12-sets for a year.
• Since the calendar on the T-shirt is for the owner’s use, it is printed by rotating the calendar 180 degrees.
• The calendar is printed in perspective for easy reading.
  Do you remember the brand names painted on a cricket ground? They are painted in a distorted perspective view so that the strategically placed TV cameras can show them in correct proportions.
• If you feel that you won’t be able to read the calendar on your T-shirt, then opt for the ‘horizontally flipped’ or mirrored version. Here, you have to use the make-up mirror in your vanity bag.

What do you think about this ‘perspective printed/flipped printed, self-reading’ idea? I love to hear your thoughts.

Image Credits

Piotr Bizior for ‘Business Superman.’
Armas Hundén for ‘Blank Tee Photo.’

Thanks!

Update 14-Dec-2010

Following websites have graciously featured this t-shirt calendar as one of the creative calendars of 2011. Thank you guys!

• Ixiqui — 4 Creative Calendars of 2011
• 1 design per day — 5 Creative 2011 Calendars Design

Download the whole Calendar (ZIP, 5.74MB) »

January 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 425KB)»

February 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 384KB)»

March 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 376KB) »

April 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 624KB) »

May 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 538KB) »

June 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 434KB) »

July 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 600KB) »

August 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 679KB) »

September 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 696KB) »

October 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 345KB) »

November 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 279KB) »

December 2011 Download (JPG, 1920X1200, 783KB) »

Dear Reader, Thank you very much for your time and I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Extra – Our calendar designs over the years – 2010, 2009