Jugaad Studio - the culture, craft and creativity mash-up!

This project has been very close to my heart for more than 2 years now...After being in 'skunkworks' for a long time, Jugaad Studio - an ideas, design and merchandising company begins life on facebook TODAY 6:00pm.

Jugaad Studio is an ideas, design and merchandising start-up! There are two of us to begin with. My friend Yogi - the artist and designer and myself - the conceptor and curator of ideas - some cute, some quaint, some crazy!

There are so many good design studios around us. We will try to focus on the popular culture space - Bollywood, cricket, music, etc. And serve up delicious dollops of mashed up concepts - on tees, as posters, on mugs and the moon:-)

We will share & sell our ideas and finished products on the fb link above. Stay tuned!

Bye Bye Mumbai, Hello Delhi

After 6 years of a sort of dream stint in Mumbai, last week I packed my life and belongings in 105 cartons and headed north to Dilli!!

It's been a busy week settling down in Delhi(actually Gurgaon)! One needs planning skills of a different kind getting a new home started...Finally this evening I am connected to the web again thanks to Airtel broadband.

Trying to catch up with the world having missed much of the debate and action around Cannes, the run-up to the budget and Wimbledon!!

While I chug back into the blogosphere, read a nice post recommended by blog-buddy Neil Perkin on Creative Paralysis by Dave Trott. I love collecting stories like this in my head. Here it is...

When Bill Shankly(one of Britain's most successful and respected football managers)managed Liverpool he had a very gifted young striker playing for him. This young star worked hard, trained hard, and studied the game.

In one particular high-pressure match he found himself with the ball at his feet and only the goalkeeper to beat.

He thought about everything he’d learned.

Should he wrong-foot the keeper and go round him?

Should he bend the ball around the keeper into the top corner?

Should he try a power shot and hope the keeper can’t hold it?

Should he hold up the ball so he could lay it off to someone in a better position?

While he hesitated a defender took the ball off him and booted it upfield to the other end of the pitch.

When the young striker eventually came off the pitch, Shankly asked him what had happened.

The striker said he’d been trying to pick his best option.

Shankley said, “Look son, if you ever find yourself with the ball at your feet and just the goalie to beat, stick it in the net and we’ll discuss all your options afterwards.”

I often think advertising is like that.

We’ve got young copywriters and art director getting confused by concentrating on complicated things that aren’t their job.

So they can’t do the simple job they should be doing.

Instead they spend all their time thinking about brand theory, new media, cultural memes, and social latency.

Now maybe brand theory and the all rest has some relevance for planners.

But that’s their role in the team, not ours.

It’s our job to stick the ball in the net.

And that’s simple, or it’s nothing.

Now, I don't follow football at all and I have recently left advertising, but loved this story for it's simple and powerful lesson...

Looking forward to Monday and the start of a new and exciting journey! Must rummage through my notes for some other post ideas.
Neo's Ben 10 overlooks our packed samaan:-)And while I hardly drove my old war-horse Lancer, felt nostalgic about selling it off:-( I was particularly fond of its blue-green-silver colour and the front grille. I don't know why I am sharing it, but I guess it was important to say it one last time! And our new home...actually a small independent house in Gurgaon, quietly redefining my Bombay sense of space!

The Grandest Brief : Make India's Children Creative & Innovative

Read this piece on the National Innovation Foundation's efforts to ensure that the creativity within the child prospers with time and not vanishes! Read the article on www.livemint.com here!

Main pointers from the article:

- The initiative is called Ignite '08 NIF wants to instill confidence in children and help them grow as citizens who do not live with unsolved problems, but find their own unique solutions to the problems.

- Anil Gupta, executive vice-chairperson of the National Innovation Foundation and a professor at IIM, Ahmedabad speaks of the four segments of the Ignite '08 campaign.

- The first being creative and innovative solutions developed by the children. Every student would be motivated to try and develop original solutions to various problems around them during the summer vacation.

They can also submit ideas if they have not been able to convert them into physical projects. The NIF will give financial and mentoring support to complete the projects.

- The second segment consists of children identifying the problems and inefficiencies in everyday life. For instance, the cooking gas gets exhausted without any advance warning. Why couldn’t there be an indicator telling in advance how long the gas will last? They will submit these problems with possible solutions.

- The third segment is the rich traditional knowledge of India related to health, child care, women’s problems, clothes, cosmetics, haircare, construction, food processing, etc. There is an erosion in new generation’s knowledge in these areas because of lack of connectivity between grandparents and grandchildren. We will encourage children to document such knowledge.

- Finally, it’s not enough to be creative. We have to learn to appreciate others’ creativity and innovativeness. Students have to scout for the innovations and outstanding attempts to solve problems, even if unsuccessful, in the neighbourhood. It does not matter whether the innovator is educated or a school dropout.

What a laudable grand effort by the government and NIF!! Check out the nif web-site here...

Bono-vita

"If we ask children below the age of 10(maybe lower) to draw a spacecraft, they will design their own design.

After the age of 10, they will draw a rocket with N.A.S.A written on the side!!

We think we like children to be children but create conditions( generally speaking) where they prefer to act like adults as soon as possible:-(" - from Edward de Bono's book 'New Thinking for the New Millennium'