In the past few months, some of India’s leading brands goes for a brand makeover. Major retail store Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop changed. Shoppers Stop now boldly says ‘Start something new’. The ‘Born tough’ tyre brand CEAT goes for a more streamlined logo and the poor rhino is nowhere around. Godrej group of companies, now has a dash of color in their font logo.

Indian bank Canara bank rebranded to a more upmarket color. Joining in, UTI Bank morphed from its old school logo to a more jazzy AXIS bank. I guess they felt the need to stand up to the competition of the multinational banks with an image makeover and a better brand positioning.

Has anyone thought about the AA in Anil Ambani’s Reliance logo. Think about it. Sometimes it could be that dying need to make the presence felt.

Virgin & Google team up for human settlement on Mars, from open source to open source planet on this auspicious day of 1st April 2008. www.google.com/virgle

Probama, cool WordPress theme, sad it comes with a political tone.

This Mango is not a fruit. This Mango is not a clothing brand. This Mango immerses you in real, everyday conversations in 12 different language courses. You can access up to 50 lessons for FREE at Mango Languages.

Photo: Scott Robbin @ Flickr

From the people who bought you ENSO. Though not officially announced, another Humanized product, BLOXES. It’s more of a low-tech geek toy rather than any serious ‘building blocks’. But true to it’s name, from computer software to cardboard b(l)oxes, they sure live up to its name.

From their blog,

Bloxes are essentially 3D cardboard Legos that ship flat, and fold up in modular building blocks that are strong enough to stand on. While they aren’t tech per se, we use them for building tables, walls, cubicles, and desks at the Humanized office. Google and Mint.com have already ordered some, and Mozilla has expressed interest in using them in their offices too.

Catch some ways to use Bloxes in this Flickr group – Flickr: Bloxes!

In another context, looking at some of their works and their philosophy. I won’t be surprised if it goes the JotSpot way. Yep! get acquired by some bigwig firm like Google.

If you’re looking for extra online storage. Say the magic word Windows Live SkyDrive. Yep, Microsoft is give 5GB of password protected space.

Of some of the freebies music albums out recently. I quite like Radiohead Inrainbows. Yorke described the album as Radiohead’s attempt to “describe…as coherently and conclusively as possible, what moves us. In Rainbows is…our classic album – our Transformer, our Revolver, our Hunky Dory”

About a week back, I came across this post at Gizmodo, 1960s Braun Products Hold the Secrets to Apple’s Future. Now, if you search the net, the comparison goes beyond Braun & Apple and it boils down to two designers.

• Dieter Rams, wiki calls him – one of the most influential industrial designers in the 20th century &
• Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Inc. BBC calls him Armani of Apple.

While INSPIRATION is a complex word, it would be wrong to draw parallel. Myself a self confessed dreamer, would like to believe that these two geniuses separated by time & technology are in some way communicating. Don’t blame for drawing parallel to the movie “The Lake House“. But I won’t blame Jon Ive for chrome lining in the latest iPhone/iPOD touch and giving that retro touch in today’s technology.

Talk about Dieter Rams and his 10 Commandments on Design, which equals to usability in all aspect; now that the world web world is waking up to.

Dieter Rams: 10 Commandments on Design

• Good design is innovative.
• Good design makes a product useful.
• Good design is aesthetic.
• Good design helps us to understand a product.
• Good design is unobtrusive.
• Good design is honest.
• Good design is durable.
• Good design is consequent to the last detail.
• Good design is concerned with the environment.
• Good design is as little design as possible.

Devoid of a celebrity designer, Samsung’s product design are a group to be reckon with. Their new range of power pack NV Series cameras with the cool retro touch are simple awesome. I won’t be surprise if someone draws similarity with some 60′s Leica. Well than, Hasselbland following its tradition of quality & design, I bet they’ll be a tough one to crack.

I’ve seen my uncle, an Industrial Designer from NID, work on projects and how he focus on just one purpose – How will it effects the end user. Once I’d interacted on phone with Jhumkee Iyengar, Head, Usability Engineering, Persistent Systems, Pune. Sad that I miss the opportunity to meet her in person when I was in Persistent Pune for a day. But I was pleasantly surprise when I found out after sometime that she use to design products for Phillips, USA.

Now going to person who I’d met & interacted personally was my good friend & ex-colleague Param from Onward Research, who came across as a intense & honest person in following the users need.

Now time to draw the parallel. Drawing attention to Dieter Rams’s commandment. I believe – GOOD DESIGN IS HONEST.

For the current lull period in posting, please bear with me for a while as I’m at present working on fixing this new layout. Well, thanks a lot to all the new visitors, my stats show the new percentage of new visitors have increased many fold. And Thank ArtsWonderland for linking my post.

Of course, many many thanks to everyone at Website Design Awards for the support in hosting this site. Respect!

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.