Book:Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Absolutely essential for anyone dealing with existential angst.

Film: Marooned In Iraq

One of my favourite love stories, directed by Bahman Ghobadi.

TV Series: The Big Bang Theory (Season 6)

Sheldon Cooper cracks me up.

Website: TED – Ideas worth spreading

A truly mentally and emotionally stimulating platform.

Café/Restaurant: 1911, Imperial Hotel, Delhi

One has to visit, if for nothing else, just for the period art.

Fun activity for the weekend: Solo driving trip to a new place . Leave at 5 a.m to miss the heat. If that’s too much, plan a trip to the Vintage Camera Museum, in Gurgaon.

Music: Raqs-E-Bismil

My all time favourite Abida Parveen album composed by Muzaffar Ali.

At what point were you absolutely sure that this was what you want to do?

To be honest I am not sure even today if this is what I want to do. But what I know is I certainly enjoy the experience and will continue to do it till I enjoy it.

Who were your childhood role models and who are your current role models?

When I was growing up I wanted to be a writer, so my role models were writers like Charles Dickens, Saul Bellow, Shakespeare and even Khushwant Singh. As a photographer my role models are still writers.

Describe your work desk in one line. If you had to keep just one single item at your desk, what would that be?

My laptop with an internet connection. That’s all I ever need.

If you had a time machine, where would you be headed?

If I had a time machine I would like to go 200 years in the future. I am sure mankind would have destroyed planet Earth by then so the journey would be just to confirm my suspicion.

What is the most ridiculous question someone has asked you during a job interview and/or during a client meeting?

What camera do you use?

A picture of your favourite work created by you

A picture of your favourite work created by someone else?

 A photo by photographer Steve McCurry.

To read previous Kyoorius Knocks, click here and here.

A weeks ago we invited amateur and budding film makers to share with us some of their creations. We were literally inundated with submissions – work came from the corners of the country – some touching, some hilarious but all carried a beautiful message. The work submitted went a long way in establishing a couple of things – quality is on the rise, storytelling and communications has found an all new expressive and connected medium, but most importantly – film making is no longer a club of the elite. Most of the films we received were from students or fresh out of college graduates where the documentaries cover various issues ranging from the diurnal woes of the cement workers in Maharashtra to the craftsmen specializing in weaving silk in Benaras.

We’ve spent the last couple of nights with buckets of popcorn and a box of tissues to take in the joy and the sorrows these pieces aim to communicate.

Himalay Dave’s To Live With Cement
A short documentary on the diurnal woes of the labourers of the cement industry in Loni, Maharashtra.

Nidhi Kamath & Keya Vaswani’s Threads of Banaras
A neat ten minute short which delves into the hardships and the issues of the traditional silk craft sector of Banaras through the accounts of the traders, artisans and researchers.

Nidhi Kamath & Keya Vaswani’s Thatera Craft
A simple yet wonderful short on the Thatera craftsmen of Jaipur who specialized themselves in making utensils in gold, silver and copper. An oral account of their origin and their endless endeavor in design and innovation.

Kaushik Chakravorty’s Chor Bazaari

A short which encapsulates the rawness and the unique nature of Chor Bazaar through a DSLR with footage and stills.

Here’s a few pages off her sketchbook for your viewing pleasure only.

The dance, visuals and music all fuse so seamlessly which shows us the potential of future music videos and performances. Daito Manabe uses point grey cameras which operate at very high speeds and the projections are coming in from both the front and the rear following the dancers. Manabe has been referred to as a digital artist who uses only cutting edge technology. He also works with older techniques by combining them in different ways.

Go ahead and watch this inspirational and visionary work:

The Creators Project interview with the artists:

Here it is – it’s the big one.

Launched at the Blue Frog in Mumbai, Rajesh Kejriwal (Founder CEO, Kyoorius), Kaushik Roy (Immediate Past-President, IAA – India Chapter) and with Skype appearance by Tim Lindsay (CEO, D&AD) unveiled the Kyoorius Awards to the press.

Together Kyoorius, D&AD and IAA-India Chapter have created a truly principled and ethical platform by setting the highest standard in judging criteria. All winners will receive one free entry to the next D&AD Awards and one free pass to Kyoorius Designyatra 2014. And all finalists will receive 50% off on one entry to the next D&AD Awards.

Go on – get ready to show it off.

http://awards.kyoorius.com/

The best time of the week has come and most of you would be already heading for your favourite weekend spots or activities. If you are up for trying something new, we have Cyrus Daruwala giving us some bright suggestions for a happy weekend. And to begin right here, you can start listening to the song ’Friday’ by Daruwala’s recommended music band, Goldspot.

Book : The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood

Film : Casablanca (for the most quotable dialogues since Shakespeare)

TV Series : Whose Line Is It Anyway? – geniuses at work.

Website : Stumbleupon – a perfect example of all that is awesome about the internet.

Café/Restaurant : Ideal Corner, Fort, Mumbai- the underrated Parsi food joint.

Fun activity for the weekend : Walking through the ghost town that is South Mumbai on Sundays.

Music : Goldspot – some of their songs are as cool as their name.

Cyrus Daruwala is a cartoonist who is in final phase of completing his book on Mumbai Locals, ‘I Take This Train Too‘. You can read more about the the book here.

Also read what Shormistha Mukherjee,partner at Rickshaw, recommends you for the weekend here.

At what point were you absolutely sure that this is what you want to do?

I was 13 years old when I met SM Shah, senior graphic design faculty at NID. I showed him my calligraphy work and told him I wanted to study “commercial art”. He suggested, “why not try graphic design?” That’s when I discovered NID, the world of design and found a profession to channel my creative instincts.

Who were your childhood role models and who are your current role models?

My role models were and continue to be my parents. They are incredibly creative, hard-working people who have never made it easy for me to rest on my laurels. I get my work ethic from them.

Describe your work desk in one line. If you had to keep just one single item at your desk, what would that be?

My work desk is a canvas of organised chaos – only I know why something is where it is. The one thing I couldn’t do without is a sketchbook.

If you had a time machine, where would you be headed?

To the Jardin de Tuileries, Paris at turn-of-the-20th-century

What is the most ridiculous question someone has asked you during a job interview and/or during a client meeting?

“We can’t pay you any fees, but we can pay you in ice cream. Would that be ok?”

A picture of your favourite work created by you

Experience design for spaces inspired by the I Ching

A picture of your favourite work created by someone else

Danseuses bleues by Edgar Degas, 1890, oil on canvas

Here is a glimpse into her sketchbook.

He started off as a graphic designer designing logos with symbols on them for various brands like the AT&T bell logo, United Airlines, Girl Scouts of the USA, Warner Communications etc. As he created those symbols, he also raised the question- Why not make it move? He strongly felt that the film experience for the audience should start from the very first frame and as opposed to leveraging the title sequence for popcorn time. And the opportunity dawned upon him to use that title time to create a climate for the film. Martin Scorsese once described his approach as creating “an emblematic image, instantly recognizable and immediately tied to the film”.

Here are some of his radical pieces of work.

North by Northwest

It’s a Mad Mad Mad World

The Man with the Golden Arm

Grand Prix

Saul Bass on his work:

You can view all of Saul Bass’ work here.