A day late, better late then never. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. And thank you Mr. Anonymous in my guestbook, I got the hint. I’m redoing my site. Hope in the new year, I’ll greet everyone with a revamp. Until than Happy Holidays, Stay Safe, Party Hard :)

If you like the graphics above, you can download the PSD here. [DOWNLOAD]

After six great years, Lounge 72 is closed.

Thank you for those inspiring years. I still have 2 yrs of the calendars, all 24 hi-res PDF calendars. And I was looking forward for the 2008 edition. I was a a loyal follower of the site. From the line arts to its minimalist design.

Thank you for inspiring me. I’ll miss you.

My first visit to Pune, a day trip returning the same day. I’m unable to see the city except for my place of business and, of course, the airport. There was no evening flight flying to Bangalore, so I’d to catch the 5:30pm flight. I’d a rather very hectic day in Pune, coupled that with a skipped lunch, surviving on few mugs of coffee. And the last thing I needed was a delayed flight of 2 hours. The sky was clear, but no sign of my flight, the reason - no place for another flight to park, but the apron has just two plane. And it seems there is already some 3 flight hovering, waiting in queue to land.

Pune, the next upcoming technology destination after Bangalore & NCR (India) hasn’t upgraded. I pray it doesn’t meet the fate of Bangalore, choking at its seams, where the infrastructure can’t keep up with the industry.

I’d put a picture comparing Pune’s airport with my lil town Imphal airport.

Sharing a presentation I’d done to introduce usability to fellow colleagues. I hope you find it informatics.

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A city stripped of advertising. I’m not sure, how to react to this article - São Paulo: The City That Said No To Advertising.

The “Clean City” law passed last year by the populist mayor, Gilberto Kassab, stripped the Brazilian city of all advertising. So how’s it looking now?

In a lot of places, Piqueira says, this has led to the removal of posters but not the structures on which they were displayed. “It’s a kind of ‘billboard cemetery’.”

Photographer and typographer, Tony de Marco, has been documenting the new, ad-free world of São Paulo, publishing a sequence of images on Flickr.

At a time when outdoor advertising has become part of the urban landscape. With the amount of visual pollution, or rather an overkill of marketing blitz. Could you imagine New York Times Square without its ads. Or back in Bangalore, it’ll be quite a strange feeling to walk down Brigade Road devoid of its neon lights & ad hoardings.

A couple of days back I read this article on The Hindu, that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will be spending USD 10 million on brand building. Backed by mother brand TATA, a household name in India from FMCG, automotive, energy, engineering, hospitality etc.

“It (brand building exercise) is a major step ahead for TCS for making its brand name visible across the world…” - Keith Sharp, TCS Director Marketing (UK)

And I don’t think people will need to search for news that Hutch is now Vodafone. And if news are to be believed, Vodafone is spending Rs 100 crores (approx $25 million) for the transition campaign. To avoid alienation for existing customers, the pug & the cartoon characters might be around for a while.

Beyond the color palettes that I use for each different clients. I believe branding is of giving that personality/image into the consciousness of the customer. The greater sense of purpose or emulating that attitude (as in Nike).

In the case of Apple, sometime in mid 90s, John Scully marketing executive from Pepsi marketed Apple, boosting its ad budget from $15 million to $100 million.

“Apple’s brand is the key to its survival. It’s got nothing to do with innovative products like the iMac or the iPod.” - Marc Gobe, author of Emotional Branding & Principal of d/g worldwide

So, on a closing note,

“You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.” - David Ogilvy

You can take a short Brand Assessment Questionnaire.

In the never ending feud between designer & accessibility advocates. How many times have you experienced your design coming back, with comment of Color Contrast test failed. Not that designers are heartless biased people with no concern.

While there are lots of resources on the web to check color contrast. I’ve compiled a few, though I use Vischeck & Colour Contrast Analyser (Vision Australia) quite often.

• Colour Contrast Check
• Colour Contrast Visualiser
• Colour Contrast Analyser Firefox Extension
• Colour Contrast Analyser (Vision Australia)
• Vischeck