A YEAR IN DESIGN SCHOOL

Rupesh Tripathi

Good ideas realized in a mediocre way

are still better than mundane ideas
executed with technical skill

Acknowledgements
A year in design school can do much more than just teach you design. It can
change how you look at life and its deep rooted meanings through exploration,
arts and crafts, design education, innovation and much more.
The year I spent in Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology has by far been
the best year of my life in terms of educational and personal experiences.
This e-book is my attempt to give back to the temple of education as it has given
to me. These chosen few articles are my critical reflections on subjects that I
studied in the advanced diploma programme with advertising as my major subject.
I offer my thanks to Mr. G. Pandrang Row who always gives me valuable insights
to conduct my profession better with every step I take, I hope you keep shining
like the diamond you are Pandi! And to my mother, who has given me an
opportunity to serve humanity as much as my life would allow me and for
supporting me when I needed her the most.

Rupesh R. Tripathi

All about legibility

Typographic clarity refers to legibility and readability. While legibility is a function of typeface design, an
informal measure of how easy it is to differentiate between one letter from another in any one particular
typeface, Readability is dependent upon how the typeface is used. It is about typography. How easily can
words, phrases and blocks of copy can be read.
What must be kept in mind is that not all Typefaces are created with legibility as their primary attribute
of design. Many faces are created for typographic statement or to provide a definitive spirit to any form
of graphic communication effort. There are some forms of design which needs to have a distinctive
personality and needs to stand out from the others. However, these typefaces suffer from not being
legible to a more general crowd.
There are three aspects of legibility that are known to exist currently. Therefore, when we ask the
question what makes a typeface legible? we come up with the answer that legible typefaces are those
which are transparent to any reader and do not call for any attention that it does not wish to perceive &
attract, most legible typefaces have big features and restrained design features. By big features it wishes to
refer to:

Large open counters

Ample lower case X heights

Character shapes that are easy to recognize

Most legible typefaces are restrained, not excessively light or bold. Weight changes within character
strokes are very refined and subtle and do not stand out too often. Counters help give recognition to
characters. The by-product of open counters is a large lower case x-height. As long as the x-height is not
excessively large, this can improve the amount of legibility in a typeface design. Since 95% of the letters
we read are lowercase, any large face can benefit from open counters. Some good examples of this
phenomenon would be Nimrod, Scherzo which are contemporary interpretations of Old Style designs
like Monotype bambo & ITC Weldeman.
Individual Shapes also affect Typeface legibility. For example, a two storey a such as found in Stellar is
more legible than a single storey a found in Futura. Lowercase g based on roman letter shapes is more
legible than the simple g found in Helvetica. Old style typefaces like Monotype plantin, Galena & ITC
Barkley Old Style are other good examples; Individual characters have more personality than those in the
traditional legibility typeform.

An argument continues between designers and folk of similar discourse whether sans-serifs are easier to
read than serif in text copy, sans-serif typefaces have simpler letter shapes and have been proven to be
lightly more legible than their serif cousin typefaces. Following are the drawbacks of Serif typefaces:

Legibility of individual letters suffers when they have exaggerated shapes

Long serifs are heavy & have unusual shapes to reduce legibility

Ideal serifs though, are short and have light brackets. Light typefaces are more legible than heavier
weight typefaces. Light typefaces have open counters & unmodified character shapes. The best decided
character stroke weight is 18% of the x height. Typefaces like ITC Officiana Sans book & Cartier book
belong to this broad & general category.
Transparent Type a term coined by Beatrice Warde who was an addition to Monotype Imaging from
1930 1940. Warde compared a good type to a crystal goblet. It allows content to be more important
than the container. Best types do not get in the way of communication process. It allows words to make
the statement and not the type itself. Though if we do follow this menial process we wouldnt have the
interesting and engaging typefaces that are known to us.
Though legibility plays a major role in typographic aspects, specific contexts can affect typography and its
use. If copy has many numerical sans-serif is a better option because numerals are simple and have
recognizable shapes than the roman types. So when we have a lot to say, but the layout or space we are
using does not allow room for much, condensed typefaces are best suited for this sort of modus operandi.
Sans serif typefaces are always the better choice because individual typefaces are more legible. Serif
typefaces like ITC Garamond & Galena condensed can be used at 8pt for a more subtle serif based copy
but overall Sans serif would still undeniably be on the forefront.

A study of colour
Substantial amount of research shows that colour plays a major part in all visual experiences. The Seoul
international colour expo has shown the following relationships between colour & marketing.

92.6% say that they put the most amount of importance on visual factors when purchasing any
commodity & goods.

Only 5.6% believe that physical feel via the sense of touch is important when buying. Hearing
and smell have a meagre percentage of 0.9%

Importance of colour when buying products:84.7% believe that colour accounts for more than half among important visual phenomenon when
buying products.
People make subconscious judgements about a person, environment and product within 90 seconds of
initial viewing and 62% to 90% is based on colour. Research by the Henley centre states that 73% of
purchase decisions are made in store. Hence catching shoppers eye and conveying information
effectively are critical to successful sales.
Colour and brand identity have a symbiotic relationship. A case study shows that Apple Computer
bought colour into the market strategically by introducing colourful iMac computers. First among the
many computer giants to say does not have to be beige. With the iMac Apple bought back a brand that
had prior suffered a substantial $1.8 Billion loss in two years.
Colour also helps to increase memory:Psychologists have revealed that colour does more than appeal to the senses, it also boosts memory for
scenes in the natural world. It helps to process & store images more efficiently than colourless (Black &
White) scenes, and as a result it helps in remembering them better to.
It (Colour) engages the viewer and permits participation in any activity. Ads in colour are read up to 42%
more often than those in black and white. Colour can also inform about a certain happening. It improves
readability by 40%, learning from 55% to 78% and comprehension by 73%.
Black and white images sustain interest for less than two-thirds of a second, whereas a coloured image
may hold the attention for 2 seconds or more. People cannot process every object within one view of it,
hence colour can be used as a tool to emphasize or deemphasize areas.

FORM & FUNCTION

According to Paul Rand beauty is Separation of form & function, of concept & execution in objects not likely
to produce objects of aesthetic value. Though the efforts of others may contrast this certain belief. A fine
example would be the work done by the students of Cranbrook academy of art. They layered letters on
top of random patterns and shape, to challenge the aspects of form without function. Alas, those who
favoured simplicity & function found Cranbrooks work relatively ugly compared to the other work
being produced parallel to theirs. The design by Cranbrook academy lacked explanation of the elements
in place which is why it left any reader confused regarding the meaning of their interpretation, it left the
viewer with a conclusion that it was just another design experiment, and it cannot be taken seriously.
Due to the increase in the amount of design schools experimentation with design has to justify the issue
being addressed in the experiment, otherwise it would not do justice to effort involved.

Although, a design experiment should not be measured just in its form of success ratio but also of its
failure since it often leads to new discoveries. Certain graphic design experiments that have emanated
from graduate schools in USA & Europe in the recent years was driven by instinct and made somewhat
incorrigible by theory. Ugly design as opposed to classical design (where references to the golden mean &
a preference for balance between all elements of the composition) is perhaps layering of disharmonious
graphic elements in a way that results in a confusing the viewer. A prime example of design experiment
would not be intended for function in the commercial world.
The output of communication rebels such as the futurists and the psychedelic artists of 1960s also
experimented with communication design. The reasons behind these experiments were the then current
social & cultural conditions. The wave for experimentation of form & function went on to resonate in
the 1970s Punk scene. This was a raw manifestation of youth frustration through music, art & sense of
clothing. Punks nave sense of art was what drove their graphic language that rejected rational
typography and influenced many designers. Punks violent form passed on to the Swiss, American, Dutch
& French design and spread into mainstream as new wave design
Experimentation with form & function can be an attempt to create and define alternate standards. It is
meant to encourage new reading and viewing patterns. The work of American designer Art Chantry
incorporates the shock and awe education approach. Chantry makes low budget graphics for the
Seattle punk scene. His designs are functional within its own context though unconventional it proves
that experimental ugly design can be good design. Another good example for this scenario would be the
work of Edward Fella. Fella used highly personal art based imagery and typography in his design for the
public.

According to Lorraine Wild, Fellas work was Vernacular, the impure, the incorrect and all the other
forbidden excesses. Similar forms of experimentation were used in 1980 as well but in a cleaner prospect
by Phil Gips. Novelty job printers type faces and rules were not used as additions but as proper working
elements with the layouts. Free from conventionally used typefaces these types were somewhat cleaner
and accessible. Hence these werent experiments rather solutions to design problems.
Two decades later, Fella re-incorporated these (supposed) ugly typefaces which he edited in multitudes
for displaying in galleries and exhibitions. Unlike Gips and Fietlers work these typefaces were quite
unconventional. According to The Cranbrook Design: The new discourse, it describes Fellas work as
Low parody to high seriousness but the line that separates them is very thin. Hence, Fellas work is not
without its own shortcomings and acerbity.
So to sum up, experimentation with form & function may or may not pay off depending on a plethora of
reasons. In words of Lorraine Wild Given the structures of the marketplace it is hard to break meaningful
ground while serving a clients needs & wants nevertheless the market provides important safeguards

ORGANIC GRID
A designers sense to create something new comes from his/hers intuition. It is what has driven designers
from prior past to the glorious tomorrow. This sense for design has its roots deep within the rules for
art, composition and layout. The design movements that we know of all revolve around these rules and
how they were challenged or bent to modification in order to suit the scenario or time period. One such
outcome was the grid principle borne out of the Swiss design movement.
Layouts and design compositions are still based on the grid system. The grid system is the best
sustainable option to show how designers organize their visualized data to make it functional and
appealing. The grid was also used in the past; the Gutenberg bible of 1455 had a very simple and linear
grid system. Since then it has moved forward to another design theory known as the Organic grid.
The word grid originates from the word gradation, a series of gradual successive stages; a systematic
progression of any degree or relative position in a order of series. The combination of a grid based layout
and non-grid based elements or organic based shapes is a culmination of an organic grid. The resulting
design has a tension between chaos and structure that is visually exciting yet orderly.
To understand how the definition of Organic grid works, we must first focus our attention to the
internet and address how the world is constantly evolving and the demands of design along with it. Over
the years the internet has become a source of more visually appealing and pleasing elements for
displaying in formation in the web. Many new technologies have advanced how information can be
displayed upon screen; artists have changed the internet into a user friendly experience which was earlier
only a place for data. The advancement in the ability to present data to the viewer is faster friendlier and
visually pleasing. The basis of internet is data presentation usually data is presented in grid format for
easier reading. Most web navigation is based on a grid system. Grid system is not as visually exciting tit
used to be when it was first implemented by the Swiss design movement. Users and designers want
more; this is where the Organic Grid principle comes in.
The presentation of data and imagery can be displayed differently than it used to be. The placement of
visuals and textual information supplies the page with an organic overview. Efficient navigation system
should not be in the way of letting other aspects to rule out the grid. It is out of this that the organic grid
is born. So, to classify it we can say that The combination of a grid based structure for presentation of data
and layout with free form or organic shaped objects or imagery

There are several benefits from the application of the organic grid principle upon ones own work. It
creates a design that engages the user while creating a understandable environment to present the
information in. It is due to this principle that people are slowly going to start experimenting with the
organic substances on print or screen, to bring real life aspects to the virtual world. The main objective
of the organic grid lies in bringing life to a monotonous grid system while preserving the original
structure that the design is based upon.
One of the most prominent and well known designers to implement the organic grid is Wolfgang
Weingart. Weingart was known for discarding the Swiss design principles from his work for something
new and appealing. Majority of his work shows the elements of bended lines, getting rid of negative
white space, layering, texture and montage. Rosemarie Tissi followed similar principles as Weingart
though she was renown more for her typography. Todays magazines, advertisements and other graphic
communication have taken on a new avatar. Major ground in this was broken by David Carson, who
revolutionized how design was used and relatively how the organic grid was bought to the forefront.
The future of design is based on trends, the then current environment and happenings and sometimes a
design movement. After reaching ground with the Swiss design movement and then later challenging its
rigid rules of grid has caused the implementation of several other aspects such as layering, texture and
montage in compositions. The world is constantly seeing the ever evolving face of design and on its
forefront has always been the work of David Carson. The World Wide Web offers more than many
pathways and challenges to designers. Based upon usability, presentation and use of other elements it has
become the new design movement.
The path ahead of organic grid lies open and the future of design is based upon data presentation and
ease of navigation tools to display information effectively. The need for organic grid will be that of
creating outstanding graphics and positive response from the viewers.

TYPE OF OUR TIME

th

The 20 Century led to type developments that could not be achieved prior the changes in consumerism
& Industrialization. Advertising & different products led to increase in demand for new types. Despite
these changes, movements in type were the on the forefront that led to a true revolution in typography.
One such movement was achieved by William Morris.
The movement was a huge influence on Edward Johnston & Eric Gill. The duo met in 1902, Gill became
apprentice of Johnston to study Calligraphy. Gills fonts perpetua and gill sans appeared to be cut from
stone rather than drawn. It came forward in a saturated environment where everyone else relied on the
old style fonts for their need.
th

Mainland Europe saw the most far reaching development in typography during the 20 Century. The
Italian futurist movement initiated by Fillipo Marinetti in 1909 was a platform for typefaces to break free
of its old bonds and leap into an unknown environment. The movement set its thinking towards the
future and how it would arrive sooner than expected. Set in a world driven by machinery and electricity,
it would lead to a new way of thinking. The principles of the movement were such that it encouraged the
destruction of archival data preserved in Libraries and museums. Marinetti believed that Except in
struggle there is no more beauty, nothing can be a masterpiece without aggression.
The Dadaism movement challenged the existing, the previous or current state of affairs as well.
Traditionally, letters were set in grids/blocks of text. Dadaists mixed up these traditional forms and made
the contradictory. It was a massive influence on designers, followed by the 1917 Russian revolution gave
birth to constructivism. On its vanguard was Alexander Rodchenko & El Lizzidzky.
Their work wasnt self-expression but about the revolution. It was designed to change the viewers
perception with a mere glance of their work and to get them to join the revolution. It incorporated
various art forms such as typography & photography. The constructivist movement reverberated
through the century and inspired the Bauhaus movement of 1920 and the work of Neville Brody in the
1980s.
Bauhaus sought the perfection of form without the flourish. They believed that Typography is an
instrument of communication. It must present precise information in a suggestive form. Legibility must not
suffer from aesthetics

Herbert Bayer designed the Universal font based on these principles which is a curved sans serif font
with no upper case. Later on, Josef Albers experimented with the universal typeface which had no upper
case and bought forward a refined version which had perfect harmony of circles, squares and rectangles.
Though much could still be put into work by the Bauhaus movement, sadly their school was shut down
in 1933 by Nazi Germany, which declared it to be Too Jewish

Typography evolved during and after the War eras and boiled down to a period where USA was a
leading nation in terms of Economy as well as Typography assessments and experimentation. Paul Rand
USA based designer said in his essay that USA no longer needs to look at Europe for inspiration, because the
Capitalist state of America will provide the fuel required to further the typographic movement
Typography was used in various movies such as The man with the golden arm, Vertigo and Anatomy of
a murder. These movies stated that type wasnt there to just give the viewer information about whos in
the movie; cleverly animated designs gave the viewer a chance to engage with the cinema which was
designed by Saul Bass.
Rand & Bass designed some of the leading and enduring corporate identities. Including UPS,
Westinghouse, United Airlines & Minolta.

Although USA was now on the forefront of various graphic Design phenomenons, Europe still had a
large role to play. And it provided a substantial amount of typography related work post world war.
Herman Zapf designed Optima in 1948 and Palatino in 1950. Europe was all about sans serif now,
Akzidenz Gothic & Franklin gothic were the most known and most used fonts at that point of time.
In 1956 Haas Type foundry commissioned Max Meidinger to redesign Akzidenz Grotesk, to make it
more legible to modern applications. The outcome was Neue Grotesk which was recoined to Helvetica in
1960 by the foundry. Helvetica became the most in demand font for nearly two decades following its
redesign.
Technology has advanced typography in all of its aspects. From the printing press to the linotype &
Monotype processes, the world has seen many such dealings that led to type evolution. This
advancement was furthered by Apple computers who announced the launch of the Macintosh computer
and declared that Type will never be the same ever again.
This technological evolution was completed (or nearly completed) by Adobe. In 1984, Adobe revealed
the post-script which is a software language for printers that enabled a printer to draw letters as precise
vector shapes and accurately rendering every font, including classics such as Garamond and Bodoni.
The invention of the Macintosh & Fontographer democratised font design industry for better or worse.
Seeing these advancements, typographers throughout have come to believe that Open type is the future
of typography. It is one of the most significant and recent changes in Typography. It allows advanced
typesetting the limited postscript & true type font formats. Open type enables designers to create
thousands of glyphs per font which is a substantial amount to achieve looking at the history that it comes
from. Open type will bring about unlimited characteristics per font, types that reflect hand writing and so
on. Typography will evolve co-currently with the world and Open type will be its path to tread upon.

Nextvertising
When you ask the question, "what does advertising mean to you?" you get a lot of varied responses of
which the prominent ones include words like 'disgusting, boring, unnecessary, wastage of money, noise,
medium of manipulation, creation of vile social representations' etc.
But while its subjective meaning remains largely at question, none can question its objective meaning.
Advertising, by large, is essentially a paid media transaction in the process of creating, publishing and
reviewing advertisements on media platforms that allow businesses to communicate with existing or
potential customers by highlighting either a product feature, a working philosophy of the brand, special
discounts and offers, features and sponsorships in big events and luckily at times also discuss about the
massive changes the product is bringing to a human being's life.
Although, advertising is not limited to products and services but also extends itself to various other
forms of businesses and craftsmanship's including political propaganda.
If I were to connote my own subjective meaning I would have to rely on something what Ada Lovelace,
the prodigious countess and first ever programmer once said "The more I study, the more insatiable do I feel my genius for it to be."
My first formal encounter with an advertising agency was when I was working in a studio where I had to
provide my expertise as a 3D & VFX artist for a project undertaken by a renowned agency. I'll give you a
hint, it's one of the largest ones.
My studio was hired for making a virtual reality jungle for a client whose name I cannot disclose in this
paper due to mutual professional understanding of the phenomenon that took place which resulted in
the project being shelved.
Although I am prohibited from leaking information related to the contents of the produced experience I
can tell you, the reader, more about what caused the shelving - money and production time. Some of the
biggest (not in all cases but relatively the biggest) factors that affect how effective an ad can be and
whether it can lead to actual conversions for a brand.
When the project got shelved I had mixed feelings regarding how it turned out because it was my first
ever professional project and my first ever work experience with an agency.
In my state of not knowing that the agency had to do this because the client the agency was working for
would not procure the required funds to make sure the project saw the light of the day, I cursed the
agency and thought wrong of advertising as whole when the prototype couldn't make it.
"Never again will I work with Admen," I told myself as I continued to serve the studio for the time being
until finally I was selected for the ADP programme here at Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology.

The path for me at Srishti was clearly cut out for me in the beginning but soon I realised that there's
more to what meets the eye. I wasn't living in a void where I could just create art and people would start
linking my work to their lives without forming connections via communication, which is essentially
what advertising does.
What really caught my attention though and has stayed on as one of the best ad's I have seen till date is
the one I saw that converted me to a practitioner of advertising. Quite the magical prowess one poster
could accumulate, yes?
It was produced and published by my mentor and strongest critic of my work, Mr. Pandrang Row, an ex
- creative director who has served the hotshot's of the industry.
The A4 poster was stuck on the 'important news & updates' notice board at the N2 campus of Srishti. It
flaunted a dog, a baby, and a few lines of copy inquiring whether the reader of the ad
could keep up with a man who taught at a laboratory known as 'Pandimonium'.
The very name of the class was a pun which was represented with odd blips and symbols that made up
the letters of the logo. I was both puzzled and amused, the writer and agent of brand awareness
had struck the right chord in my mind which led to an enquiry at the administration's office at Srishti.
Prior to joining Pandimonium, I was working on a different project that revolved around making a book
for audiences in Andaman & Nicobar islands. Call me two minded, perplexed or just selfish but I took the
decision of not continuing this project and jumped boats instead.
At this point, you're probably wondering that what does that even have to do with the title of this paper
and what does it want to accomplish.
Quite simple, if you haven't caught it already.
Advertising has the innate ability to let people find meaning and relate to a piece of information that
enhances or disillusions the experiences of life for the consumer of the ad's content.
For me, it was gaining clarity about what should be the most apt direction for my career, for other
brands and consumers there's a different if not completely similar use case of a product or service that
surrounds our daily life.
But for purpose of explanation let's hold on to the story that Pandimonium had to say. And through
Pandimonium, I.

This article highlights the following points:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Is advertising really necessary?

Science in advertising
Art in advertising
Content marketing - what one needs to know
Advertising & User Experience
Nextvertising - Thinking beyond the marketing mix
The art of servicing

Is advertising really necessary?

Advertising is a benefit rich field of work that employs some of the greatest creative minds by giving
them a playground to make our world and interpretation of media, rich with content that has multiple
layers of contextual information and dictions about the modern society.
Although the landscape of media is largely fractured, it is necessary to understand that advertising as a
school of thought does not constrain itself to any medium whatsoever. The most successful media
theorists and explorers have used their passion of exploring media platforms to fulfil the needs of
repeated and sustained exposure for the brands they work for.
It is an intrinsic human tendency of wanting to feel connected and appreciated (at times, shunned) for
your professional conduct. The tone of voice on the other hand in which anyone communicates the
expression is what makes a successful ad.
For example, let's take LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or any other online platform that allows anyone to
"make an impression" on the internet without being charged a single penny for it. We are all advertising
on the go today.
We use Facebook to feel akin to the local communities we are a part of. We use Twitter to spread ideas
immediately. We use LinkedIn to build a personal brand for ourselves that we can utilize in the process
of generating a greater professional success ratio by publishing research papers, whiteboards, getting
recommended for the skills one possess, ex work projects put up for display etc.
Today almost every professional wants to make it big in their field and wants to flaunt off the work they
accomplish in their discourse. Advertising helps them to find space in the ever-growing digital economy
by allotting profiles to them where they can create content and publish it to grow their network and start
collecting & interpreting much larger chunks of information via their connections.
Apart from generating employment opportunities for those who work in the field and allowing web
presence for individuals, advertising is necessary in our society to let audiences know about products and
services that have ability to boost their lifestyle.
To say that 'advertising's purpose is only this, and this alone' would be to undermine the authoritative
power it has in today's modern society. It feeds us on a daily basis with ideas that can change how we
think. (When executed well. And that is a condition put to question at all times by agencies who want to
improve the quality of their work.)
Advertising works differently for different people and hence has different purposes. For a creative
person advertising is an opportunity to produce art and design that reflects the thoughts of viewers of the
produced artwork. For a communication strategist, advertising allows him or her to reach out to newer
audiences that may be for a brand the strategist is working for or for their own personal purposes. For
businesses, advertising is an opportunity to improve their bottom lines by introducing new products to
the market. On the digital front, publishers can help advertisers and make revenue by displaying their
ad's on the content inventory they own.

There are many people who are sceptical about advertising's presence in their lives and often term it as
nuisance and say things like 'advertising costs a fortune and at its best is just a joust to manipulate the
crowd into buying products just to look 'hip' and has no real place in the economy of the future.'
Although some of the con's pointed out are valid it cannot be argued that advertising is necessary.
Advertising is persuasion incarnate with manifestations that surround us daily. It is necessary for any
business to make an impact and survive the ever-changing market. One may call it the 'necessary evil' in
case they feel that advertising holds no real importance in their lives but they need it to help their
business.
Advertising is essential for businesses young and new in order to ensure that they are stimulating growth
& innovation and embracing the challenge of competition from rival brands by providing their brand
the positioning it deserves and help channel their desire for sales which is attuned to a user's wants and
needs. But all of this applies only when advertising as an element is produced legally, honestly and speaks
truthfully about a product.
Lies, deception and false promises in advertising will only make a product fail faster. Hence honesty must
always be embraced while producing ad's to prevent undermining a consumer's trust in the brand.
Situations where a brand has failed to deliver upon the promises is an ugly situation that does not end
well for brands who overpromise and under deliver.
This brings up the question 'If force as strong as advertising can change how we think, how can we
regulate advertising and ensure that brands do not fall out-of-place by showcasing false ideas and
perceptions?' There are in fact two ways of doing so. One is detailed legislation and the other is selfregulation.
Advertising regulation refers to the laws and rules that define which products can be advertised in a
particular region. Advertising regulation standards must be revised in regular periods to ensure that the
production of advertisements is in line with the society's perception of advertising as whole.
Some of the advertising regulation entities in the world include Advertising Standards Council of India
(ASCI), Federal Trade Commission For United States, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
These regulation entities ensure that no falsehood is spread amongst the masses and provide strict
guidelines to both account management and creative professionals who need to embrace the fact that not
everything they produce meets the quality standards set by the industry. Hence they must rise up to the
challenge and start empathizing deeply with both Individuals and organizations if they are to make a
strong foundation in their careers and produce ad's that truly set them and their clients apart from the
rest.
J Walter Thompson, founder and namesake of JWT once said "Advertising is a non-moral force, like
electricity, which not only illuminates but also electrocutes. It's worth to civilization depends on how it
is used." Hence, advertising is necessary, but it needs to be regulated at the same time.

Science in advertising
"The time has come when advertising in some hands has reached the status of a science."
-Claude C. Hopkins
Advertising is synonymous to capitalism in a way it is hard to put a foot on. But if one is to explain the
science of advertising, one has to look at the development of the phenomenon over time and how
practitioners of the field have set up branches of practice and study who help cater advertising as socially
accepted business practice that does not intimidate people from approaching it.
Advertising is a part of the marketing efforts put in by an organization to ensure that they follow a
pattern of focusing on customer needs and wants with assorted creative communication. The key players
involved in the production and publication of advertisements include advertisers, advertising agencies,
mass media, vendors and the target audience for whom the advertisement in produced that caters to the
development of a brand image and generating brand equity over time.
Hence it is safe to reinforce that advertising is a paid persuasive communication that uses non-personal
mass media and forms of interactive communication to reach broad audiences to connect an identified
sponsor with a target audience.
World-renowned creative director and founding father of the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather once
said that "I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form. But as a medium of information. When I
write an advertisement, I don't want you to tell me that you find it 'creative'. I want you to find it so interesting that
you buy the product."
But that is not the only role advertising fulfils. Advertising also plays the role of a communicator and an
agent of innovation in a world that functions largely on visual appearances and an audience that is
constantly asking the question, "okay, what's next?"

Knowledge allocation
We are living in a time where we technology is being constantly challenged to procure benefits for
mankind and its disposal of nature via services and products. Advertising evolves as time passes on and
fills in the treasure troves of 5 forms of knowledge according to John Philip Jones. These forms of
knowledge are expanded by gaining empirical evidence of advertising working in favour of the
advertiser.
For remembering them easily, they are divided in the form of Knowledge types A, B, C, D, E

Knowledge Type A states the things we know about advertising with a reasonable degree of
certainty. Knowledge Type A expands itself as Type A -1 that includes all things we know parts
of. For example, one does not know how an ad is going to interpreted by the viewer but it will
lead to an impression which may just be negative and not in favour of the advertised brand.

While Type A -2 deals with things that we do know. For example we know that using white
backgrounds with black type works in the favour of making one's ad decipherable.
Knowledge Type B does not steer far away from Type A -2. It states the things we know in an
incomplete impressionistic way and which we ought to be anxious to know more about. For
example, the click-through rate of a display ad on the internet. Unlike Type A -2, Type B deals
with larger pieces of knowledge which are partly understood and occasionally also large complex
matters some parts of which we can understand better than others. For example, we know that
nobody pays attention to ad's, people pay interest to what they find interesting, sometimes it's an
ad.
Knowledge Type C refers to lack of knowledge in general. i.e. Terra Incognita. i.e. advertising in
environments with little or no background research of the target audience or how an individual
outside of the chosen target audience reacts to the ad.
Knowledge Type D deals with things we think we know, which are probably wrong. This
category encompasses marketing myths, instinctive beliefs and wisdom that surpasses the entire
body of knowledge that fills up the codex of advertising. For example, religious beliefs that are
unique to every individual and how they choose to practice it.
Knowledge Type E deals with things which many people know, but which many (not necessarily
the same) people commonly ignore. For example, advertising is largely a commercial entity
practiced for profit. People already know this, yet choose to ignore it largely because of the
repeated exposures by multiple brands who've already made an impression on the viewer of the
ad and has become a part of the person's cultural background.

Relationship between marketing and advertising

The world of marketing is large and has a symbiotic relationship with markets who have either a local or
global outreach. Players in the market are on the move to expand their foothold with daily ad
expenditures that will make you question capitalism.
Jokes apart, understanding under what pretence advertising fits in the marketing strategy is important
for any advertiser or advertising professional. The success of marketing depends on whether a business
can create a competitive advantage that results in a monetary exchange and advertising showcases those
advantages with a streamlined process brand managers provide as reports of week over week or month
over month progress of the process of brand building. Reports vary from agency to agency who take up
the client's cause and are generally not shared with audiences apart from the client and the account
management team along with the finance team of an agency.
There are six steps involved in the marketing process which include

Researching the consumer market and the competition and developing a situation analysis
Setting the objectives of the marketing procedures which are expressed in the terms of sales and
market share, assessing consumer needs and wants and using that information to segment the
market into groups who are likely to purchase the product or service and then targeting specific
markets that are most likely to be profitable
Differentiating and positioning the product taking the current or future competition into
consideration

Developing the marketing mix strategy in terms of product design and performance, pricing,
distribution, and promotion
Evaluating the effectiveness of the marketing strategy.

Once the marketer has decided on his positioning statement, the marketing mix and persona designs of
the audience he or she wants to target, the individual then contacts the agency in charge for production
of the communication material to decide on timelines, production and media budgets and the agency's
fee. The agency fee structure since old times had been based on a commission rate. Traditionally,
advertisers helped businesses by pulling in their media contacts and selling spaces to businessmen and
charging a 15% commission for doing so.
Soon, this fee structure was put under evaluation because of agencies abusing this industry standard by
manipulating an advertiser to opt for expensive media slots thereby increasing the revenue an agency
made. This was replaced by service to fee structures and monthly retainers.
Although, newer digital marketing models have replaced the traditional structures and payment options
have extended themselves to include PPC (Pay Per Click), CPL (Cost Per Lead) etc.

Advertising Research
Advertising research focuses on all the elements of advertising including message development research,
media planning research and evaluation as well information about competitor's media strategy in order
to develop a countering campaign.
The research methodologies include 1. Secondary Research
Typically when once the marketer has decided on his integrated marketing communication
(IMC) plan, the agency takes hold of the research available from the marketer in the form of
secondary research that sheds more light on the product to be advertised, the company
producing the product to be sold, its media history, the industry it functions in and the most
recent developments. An agency is looking for facts and to highlight key insights. It is called
secondary research because the published data is not attained by the agency and usually gotten
from secondary research suppliers which can include entities such as the Dialog Information
Services, Inc. and the Market Analysis Information Database.
2. Primary Research
Information collected for the first time by an agency while pursuiting a campaign is called
primary research. Many companies do their own tracking and monitoring of their customers'
behaviour and they also hire research firms to provide them the required data points
.

3. Qualitative Research
Qualitative research provides insight into the underlying reasons for how consumers behave and
why. Common qualitative research methods include continued observation, ethnography, oneon-one interviews and reviewing case studies to gain insight and probing information.
4. Quantitative Research
Quantitative research offers numerical evidence such as the number of impressions and
exposures made by the brand in general, number of users and purchase history, their attitudes
and bodies of knowledge, their exposure to ads, and other market related information. It also
provides information on reactions to advertising and motivation to purchase known as the
purchase intent.
Amongst the many in the arsenal of research tools an ad agency or a specialized research provider puts in
to exercise, the above are a crucial few that help in analyzing the market and developing tangible insights.
The ones stated above are used more or less by every agency to a degree that can help them unearth
mysteries revolving around a brand.

Advertising Strategy & Planning

Writing a well-articulated strategy for advertising operates with the same concern for objectives,
strategies and tactics that has been outlined for business and marketing plans. An agency may operate
with an annual advertising plan or develop a campaign plan which will focus on the messages to be
produced and displayed in the campaign. A typical IMC plan looks like 1. Situation Analysis

Background Research
SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Key advertising problems to be solved

2. Key Strategic Decisions

Advertising / IMC Objectives and Strategies

Target audience (or stakeholder targets in an IMC plan)
Brand position: Product features and competitive advantage
Brand image and personality
Budget

3. Media strategy

Media Objectives
Vehicle selection and budget allocation
Scheduling

4. Message Strategy

Key consumer insight

Selling Premise
Big idea
Execution schedule

5. Other tools

Sales Promotion
Public Relations
Direct Marketing
Personal Selling
Sponsorships, merchandising, packaging, point-of-purchase
Integration Strategy
Digital Marketing

6. Evaluation of effectiveness
When advertising took off as a mainstream practice in India, strategy was written rather loosely due to
lack of expertise. But over a period of time and developing our own repositories of advertising
knowledge, India has embarked on a journey to evolve the science in advertising.
When one talks of advertising strategy it is important to distinguish it from the word objectives which
some believe is the advertising strategy in its entirety. An objective is a goal to be accomplished while a
strategy is the means, the design, the plan by which the objective is accomplished. An effective strategy
helps fight the number one issue today in the world of advertising i.e. wastage of advertising. A good
strategy also helps spares the misuse of expensive and very scarce creative resources. J. Walter
Thompson, one of the largest advertising firms added in a statistical and investigation department and
two planning departments for both male and female markets. It mirrored the structure of the
corporations such that agencies helped build the image of advertising as a science.
Perhaps the easiest and way to study how ad campaigns are developed is to the planning cycle conceived
by Stephen King of JWT, London. The planning tool is world-renowned for establishing ground
realities when initiating the process of writing a sound strategy.
The 5 questions in the planning cycle 1. Where are we. 2. Why are we there? 3. Where could we be? 4.
How could we get there? 5. Are we getting there?
A strategy should be written with knowledge of a brand's competitive position. The brand's situation
within its market substantially governs its target group and proposition, as well as the role of its
advertising. For manufacturers who have a number of sub-brands, a strategic differentiation is vital to
avoid brand cannibalization.
Once the strategist has filled off the planning cycle he or she should refer to the pre-campaign research
provided by the client or by the agency's research team which includes documentation of product

development process, samples or prototypes of products, pre-launch focus group discussion insights,
market analysis, target user personas, surveys & questionnaires, competition strategy documentation etc.
It is agreed by many strategists in the field that an advertising strategy does need to be aggressive in order
to make sure the advertised brand gains maximum benefits when the campaign goes live.
An impressive ad strategy is a positive addition to the brand personality of the advertised company or
organization and helps to build positive communication channels with prospective users of the product.
The work of the strategist does not stop there. The strategist has to then analyse pre-campaign and postcampaign research to find insights that can help to reduce advertising wastage and precious budgets of ad
production.
Digital advertising strategies are written taking the brand's online ad expenditure budget into
consideration and this varies by large amongst brands who have adopted the community management
model or those which are still persistent on older models of their approach to digital marketing. When
the internet was first taken as a serious medium to advertise products, the then devised marketing tool,
the inbound marketing funnel was thought of the only approach towards web-based transactions. But
overtime this has been challenged and newer patterns have emerged amongst communities who have
challenged how the funnel works and approach products of their choice at any point of time. According
to a study by Google, 87% of web content consumers now travel a less non-linear pattern and have taken
a complex pathway towards final purchase.
This can be broken down into the following 1. Openness - Consumers experience receptiveness to new or better experiences which results
from pre-existing interest or curiosity about a category or topic area. At this stage it can be an
unconscious desire for a brand that the user has not yet put his final thumb on.
2. Realised Want Or Need - A piece of information or a news story, an article or a friend's
recommendation acts as a catalyst giving the consumer a reason to start looking into things the
he or she needs / wants. I write more on the subject of content marketing later in this article.
3. Learning & Education - At this stage, the consumer moves from initial interest to a research
mentality to gain an understanding of the broad fundamentals in order to make a purchase the
consumer can feel good about.
4. Seeking Ideas & Inspiration - Here, the consumer seeks a solid reason to look for, notice, and
keep a track of examples, thought-starters and motivators surrounding the product in question
in order to take the next step.
5. Research & Vetting - Here the consumer gathers information to support his core feelings of the
purchase intent. Options are compared, ideas and discounts are sought, prices are compared and
review are read to determine personal associations and product usage emulation of the brand.
As a digital marketing strategist, one needs to understand every stage of the buyer cycle very well and
strategize with either the chief experience officer or the creative director in order to plan the website &

app interactions with user. It is recommended that the digital marketing strategist starts gaining interest
in developing a strong content strategy that treats content as an engine and craft compelling messages
that can result in good fulfilment rates for the brand.
Startups are advised to keep their marketing manager well-informed with fundamentals of user
experience & information architecture.
In this heavily competitive environment, we are going to see new products & services line up every day
to make a mark in their respective markets and in order to survive, advertising strategists will need to
evolve to accommodate these changes and continue building innovative ways of communicating with
consumers.

Brand Building
A brand is not the product, a brand is not the hard aspects of the product such as its special features, its
price or its logo and customer care executives. A brand is the entire personality of the business and is
constantly put to question by new or existing customers who are agreeing to include the brand into their
lives. As the world population scales and products compete to take the crown of the ruler in counties
worldwide, the importance of having brands help recall the necessity of products of daily usage only
grows larger every day.
Brand building is a process which is both fun and challenging for those have taken up the cause and can
build perceptions and large levels of trust between users and the brand which is a very fulfilling feeling
for all brand managers.
Whenever anyone needs to look at where their brand is and how they can help themselves to accomplish
brand building targets and fight the brand graveyard, I point them towards the managing brand equity
model by David A. Aaker.
To have a successful brand, one needs to break out of the brand image traps by practicing strict brand
positioning guidelines and think of extended brand relationships with a customer. These include
emotional and self - expressive benefits, organizational attributes, brand personalities and brand symbols.
For large corporations who have multiple operations set across several business categories a brand
system consisting of intertwined and overlapping brands and sub-brands can create clarity and synergies
or it can generate confusion and inconsistency. Hence developing brand guidelines and unique tone of
voices for every sub brand is important. For example one can take the case of Toyota and it's sub brands
Lexus and Scion. While Toyota is positioned as the affordable quality sedan, it's child brands Lexus and
Scion are positioned against high quality sports cars such as Ferrari, Maserati etc. Hence by extending
itself as a brand horizontally and vertically, Toyota is creating a range of products that vary according to
usage.
Any brand who is looking to sustain itself in the long run is looking to generate brand equity. Brand
equity is a set of assets (and liabilities) linked to a brand's name and symbol that adds to (or subtracts

from) the value provided by a product or service to a firm and / or that firm's customers. The asset
categories include the following

Brand Name Awareness - How many consumers are aware of the name of the brand
Brand Loyalty - A brand's most sought repeat purchase customers who have developed a bond
and usage history with the brand
Perceived Quality - How a brand is perceived on the surface by everyone
Brand Associations - Factorships & Sponsorships a brand extends to organizations and
committees that are functioning on the same brand philosophy.

Brand equity asset creates value for both customers and brand managers in a variety of unique ways. In
order to regulate & manage brand equity effectively and to make informed decisions about brand
building activities, it is important to be sensitive to the ways in which a strong brand creates value for the
customer.
For assets or liabilities to underlie brand equity they must be linked to the name and the symbol of the
brand. If the brand's name or symbols should change, some or all of the assets or liabilities could be
affected and even lost. Although some might be shifted to the name and symbol.
Perceived quality is often the single most important determinant of the strategic thrust of a business.
Perceived quality is linked to and often drives other aspects of how a brand is perceived. It is a
phenomenon located at the heart of what customers are buying and in that sense can be regarded as a
bottom line tool to measure the impact of the brand identity.
A brand manager needs to think that consumers rarely have all the information necessary to make a
rational purchasing decision when it comes to quality and even if they do posses that information, then
in most cases they do not have the time or motivation to process and reflect on it. And as a result they
rely on visual cues and other one or two cues to come to decision about the quality of the product.
The key to influencing a product's perceived quality is to take these cues into consideration and plan for
communication that persuades the user about the quality of the brand. It is important to understand that
it is virtually impossible to do so unless the claim of quality is actually supported by substance. Procuring
high-quality and representing the same requires an understanding of what high quality means to
different user segments and it supported by a culture that reflects these values.
Having a higher level of perceived quality enables a clear brand identity. Therefore, one should
remember that it is one thing to be remembered and quite another to be remembered for the right
reasons. So avoid being making claims that cannot be supported through mass media.
The future of branding is very bright. The modern dynamics of marketing changes to accommodate
technology as its driver and has led to the development of the integrated marketing communication,
which is the practice of unifying all marketing communication tools so they send a consistent, persuasive
message to audiences. Smartphone's being one of the latest developments in content delivery technology,
advertising has established its foothold strongly on the digital landscape and with globalization one can
soon expect robot UPS delivery boys still carrying the renowned golden and black proudly and deliver
goods to people as they click selfies as memoirs for UPS's digital social presence.

ART & COPY IN ADVERTISING

Copywriting
The fundamental requirement that copywriting fulfils in advertising is that is built to be persuasive. Not
too long ago, brands relied on a strategy known as interruption marketing where the user of a television
was interrupted from viewing the T.V programme and bombarded with commercials.
Viewers today have shut themselves off from viewing commercials on the television and are no longer
interested in knowing whether a brand of packaged water "refreshes them" or in a condom brand that
can make them go "the extra mile".
As creative directors scurry to find meaningful creative solutions for the clients of agencies and clients
losing patience faster every day, it becomes difficult for those working in the creative department to
solve issues related to both quality and frequency.
A common mistake that brands are committing is latching on to trends and basing off all communication
on it and leave out the core message and value proposition that brand represents. In her book What
Great Brands Do Denise Lee Yohn iterates the above by saying that great brands don't follow trends but
create them.
I would highly suggest copywriters to start thinking bigger than the T.V and start thinking of campaigns
that can extend themselves to not just offline but online as well, where audiences are ready to consume
content unless and until it fulfils their primary requirement of content to be engaging.
For copywriters both new and old, it is necessary to keep embracing challenges and develop a progressive
ideology to understand consumer markets deeply by using products that they are chosen to write
advertisements for. Apart from being a loyal customer of the brand a copywriter is selling, the
copywriter needs to develop strong bonds of empathy with users of products to find a common
connection between the users and the brand to know how a story can represent it in order to sell.
Writing for different mediums of approach can be a task that is both time-consuming and a serious
challenge to produce for copywriters and hence should practicing in their off-time by developing their
own brand and finding patterns in what the people liked about their style of writing.
Copywriters used to bend down to interruption marketing as a process laid down in front of them. But
since the dawn of permission marketing as Seth Godin puts it in his book Permission Marketing has
taken its roots, copywriters are now evolving from a non-creative state of writing commercials that
followed a monotonous pattern, to a more active state of interaction with consumers.
Permission marketing is a more effective marketing technique where consumers volunteer their
attention. As active members in the process, consumers are more likely to pay attention to the marketing
message than uninteresting and lack lustre television commercials that lack the incentive that one needs
on their marketing investments. Since consumers are not commit to a product or service; they are simply
asked to give some of their attention to learn more about it.

For example: When a user has subscribed to your newsletter and hasn't made a purchase yet, perhaps
that user needs to make up his mind about the product and needs to be convinced with a piece of content
that highlights his usage of the product and how it can help him accomplish a goal.
By inviting a person to view that certain piece of content, the copywriter is being successful in telling the
viewer of the content that it's alright to be in the position he is and provides additional information that
might lead to the user believing that the brand cares for his interest in the product and the brand gets to
play the role of being a problem solver rather than intrusive entity that is forcing a user to buy a product.
Easier said than done, but it helps to remember if you're a copywriter that you are not writing for 100%
of the people who are going to viewing that piece of content but instead for the 30% - 45% of people who
are looking forward to making a purchase and are stuck between choices.
Our shortcuts in judgements may be used against us. Hence a copywriter needs to constantly read up on
the business he is writing content for.
Copywriters working for start-ups need to understand this especially. As a business startup, the brand of
the business holds little or no importance in the lives of the people who are trying out your product for
the first time so copywriters better get off on their best act and write content that converts by helping a
customer to make a choice and not make click baits for your marketing manager. Perhaps Joanna from
Copyhackers explains it better "Youre not selling a product.
Youre not selling a service.
Youre not selling a solution. An app. A pair of shoes. A device. A SaaS plan. An upgrade.
Heres the only thing youre selling, no matter what business youre in and what you ship:
youre selling your prospects a better version of themselves.
When you do that effectively, you sell better. Your conversion rate increases. People share
stories about you and their experiences with your solution. Life gets easier. For everyone."
Writing persuasive copy can be a challenge better left to writers who have taken the art of
communication as a serious matter and want to help improve communicative environments by
producing messages that are relevant to the ones who read and want to make meaning from it. If the
viewer of this document is looking for more inspiration and tips, he or she may find the same on many
copywriting related web portals and commercial entities like the following. I would also recommend all
copywriters to read "Writing That Works" by Kenneth Roman & Joel Raphaelson to continue their
education in copywriting.

Design
The requirement and use of design to produce interactive and convincing marketing messages has always
been a dominating requirement of the advertising industry that needs to be fulfilled by designers old and
new.
Even though my own practice of graphic design has been rugged and uneven in its development, I hope
that the following write-up can help a designer working in both digital and offline spaces make the best
decisions on their projects.
Good design solves problems and this is a universal law that applies in the design universe and outside
for a common person who is engaging with human produce every single day. But when the same design
starts creating a organizational havoc and disintegrate the ideology a brand stands for, you know you are
in trouble.
During the boom of the advertising trade, designers experimented with typefaces and layouts that varied
according the product category. Design flourished and designers took a piece of this cake home to usher
in the era of structuralism and renowned names such as Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes who
deconstructed the meaning and representations in the works of famous designers both in and out of the
advertising world.
Although from a business perspective this does not matter much to say someone like a media manager or
a client who was willing to vet his money on the kind of work that was being produced in the agency he
hired, it mattered to those who wished to make meaning and decipher the multiple layers of information
in every graphic reproduction displayed in the then society of United States and countries in Europe.
Often judged as someone who ''dances to the will of money and fame'' famous designers like Saul Bass,
Neville Brody and Paul Rand received mixed feedback for their work and negative publicity for their
graphical representations.
But their work did not stop there and soon we received industry classics like the IBM, UPS and ABC
logo's by Paul Rand which are still being used by these brands who have been largely successful in
retaining audience retention for their product.
Historically, the commercial design community has attempted to define illustration as a legitimate form
of "art" that happens to be in the service of commerce. Since a very long time, illustrators have looked to
fine art as a stylistic source of inspiration, particularly for market categories such as luxury products,
fashion design, travel & lifestyle etc.
Design as a discourse has evolved at each interval advertising demanded better and superior ways of
expressing information. While Cubism and Purism influenced the advertising and poster art of 1920s,
Expressionism and Surrealism replaced a geometric machine aesthetic with organic, gestural, "naive" and
playful styles n the 1940s and 1950s.
Ever since, design has played a crucial role in development of ad's that have been truly iconic and help set
brands set attune their approach to very crucial issues in the brand development process.

The evolution of design in advertising can be explained better when one reflects on the development of
the phenomenon post world war era. Designers such as Bradbury Thompson, Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig
and Ladislav Sutnar bought a new form of expression and sensibility of the then modern artist to
advertising and graphic design. In his book Thoughts on Design (1947), Paul Rand defined the designer as a
professional who tempers the instinct of the artist with the functional requirements of advertising. The
designer's role is to "restate his problem in terms of ideas, pictures, forms and shapes. He unifies,
simplifies, eliminates superfluities. He... abstracts from his material by association and analogy."
Art direction as a subsequent field grew in the 1920's to become the figure of influence it is in advertising
today. The Art Directors Club was founded as an annual exhibition that catalogued advertising art and
was exhibited to garner publicity for the club. The artistic status of advertising art and
professionalization of the art director were part of a larger expansion of advertising in the 1920's and as
market grew so did the need for researching these markets for newer openings for brands to advertise
efficiently.
In 1959, a writer for the publication house Advertising Age wrote that business is subject to
psychoanalysis just like any other person. "A business is just as subject to neuroses and inner searching
and optimism and depression just as any single person is."
He wrote this to reflect the development of corporate identities as the next big step towards establishing
brands as a lifelong presence in any person's life. The CBS "eye" is one such prominent development in a
company's design program and since its conception has appeared almost everywhere CBS has picked a
medium to advertise itself such as television screens, print ads, matchbooks, wallpapers and even paper
napkins.
In recent times, flat design & material design principles have taken to the market and graphical assets
produced for brands everywhere are resolving to minimalism as the primary language as the methods for
depiction. The rapid reproduction of factory made assets for audiences everywhere is constricting
graphics as a language to evolve and recreate newer patterns of being a problem solver.
Clients are repeatedly asking for flat design reproductions for their projects and this creates a rift
between users who are used to flat design as a language and those who find it difficult to comprehend.
There's that and the fact that all reproductions of flat design look the same with long shadows
overflowing out of the object highlighted in the final layout.
In an argument on Quora I once read the following "I'm of the opinion that when we talk about skeuomorphic vs. flat we are talking about a superficial
spectrum. The real spectrum is relevance."
So if you are an art director or a creative director who has a client that cannot stop going about on "how
great flat design graphics look " make sure the client is aware of the kind of damage that flat design can
do to the brand as flat design & material design are forms of design largely meant for the screen not print.

Regarding Creativity & Big Ideas

Creativity is a trait that everyone possess but not everyone is able to harness it to its full potential.
Campaign managers argue that it is usually the timelines of the project that prohibits free movement and
experimentation. Is that really the case or just what it appears on the surface? Let's look at creativity
from a very zoomed out perspective. Creativity is a link between two or more old ideas connected,
mixed, amalgamated, edited or intertwined to create a new entity or idea. This brings the question, how
can one be creative at all times? Is it possible to have creative ideas all the time or does it need to follow a
pattern?
Perhaps this is better explained by Pareto's principle who stated that there are two kinds of people, the
speculator or the speculative person who is constantly looking at the possibilities of new combinations he
or she can try out to meet their objectives. Then there is the rentier, which means "stockholder" when
translated to English. The rentier is a routine, unimaginative, steady going naturally conservative person
whom the speculator manipulates with his ideas to achieve his or her goals. But does this mean that we
are naturally distinguishable in only two classes? Not necessarily, the speculator and the rentier are roles
that an individual plays actively or passively. For example, you are playing the role of the speculator
when you are at your workplace trying to tackle a problem that is prohibiting you from having your
success. At the same time, you play the role of a rentier, who is part of a much larger society, who is
being manipulated on the go.
Thus, if a man is fascinated by advertising, it is possibly because the person has tapped into his or her
creative powers to find that it needs to be nourished by making a deliberate attempt to do so. Just like
any other form of art, generating ideas is an art that takes time to master. What's more important to
know is how one can train the mind in a method by which by which all ideas are produced and how you
can grasp these principles to make it the source of all ideas that stem out of one person. The second most
important principle involved is the capacity of a person to bring old elements into new combination
which is largely dependent on the ability of being able to see relationships. Some consider each fact as a
separate bit of knowledge while others link to think of it as a link between two or more subjects.
When psychiatrists studied and discovered the profound influence words have in the lives of their
patients, words were treated as symbols to represent emotional experiences and a person who is able to
quickly scan relationships and experiences, several ideas will come to him or her. When you look at it,
it's not fiction that advertising can perform up to 50% percent better just by changing the headline or
shifting a graphic element on the layout. Point being that when relationships of this kind are seen they
lead to form new ideas and the mind follows a method for how ideas are produced.
This method of the mind follows a few steps that are stated below. It is essential for every creative
individual to grasp on this and the process does not follow a definite order necessarily and anyone can
start including it as a habit in their lives.
The first step of creating something is to gather raw material. A simple truth that has situated itself right
beneath our noses but not everyone wishes to practice due the high input it takes. But then again, as
David Ogilvy puts it, "What distinguishes a great surgeon is that he knows more than other surgeons.
The same is true for advertising agents. The good ones know more." So start studying and don't look

back. Information can be of 2 types when it falls under this umbrella. It can be general information or
specific information. In terms of advertising, specific information can be everything about the product
and how it appeases to the 6 senses of the target market. Be specific about everything. If your product is a
fruit flavoured cold drink, what kind of flavour is it? what does the flavour represent? What are its
cultural associations? Is it a readily accepted phenomenon? Are there any negative influences around the
associations and so on. On the other hand, gathering general information about everything that makes
up our world is needed to fit into this piece as well. Amongst the greatest creative minds in history, the
ones that are truly remembered are the ones who were greatly moved by the world and had the
everlasting hunger to keep exploring the unknown to form newer patterns of thinking which has made
up the world as it is today.
Assembling information both specific and general is a mandate to affirm the previously stated principle
that an idea is a new combination of old elements. In advertising, a new combination results from
specific tomes of knowledge about the product combined with general knowledge about life and events.
The process is something similar to that of a kaleidoscope where a new pattern emerges each time you
use it. The mathematical possibilities of forming new possibilities grow each time the pieces of glass
become greater. So is the same with production of ideas for advertising or anything else. You can gather
information from now till the end of your existence and still not come up with a big idea until you cross examine every piece of information that you have gathered and put it up together to assess its links.
What someone does at this point is that you look for a relationship, a synthesis where the left oriented
thinking of evaluating a brand in terms of numbers vs. right oriented thinking of more abstract
connections with the brand and bring them both to the centre form a marketing message befit your
strategy. If you are to compare it something, then you can find many references both manmade and
natural such a jigsaw puzzle or a line of domino's aligned perfectly against each other. The construction
of an advertisement is the construction of a new pattern in this kaleidoscopic world of ours.

Content Marketing - What one needs to know

Content authority and expert Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as
"A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent
content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer
action."
Simply put, it is the art and science of communicating with customers and prospects without resolving to
hard selling. It takes its roots in permission and non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching a
product or service, content marketing delivers meaningful experiences for communities globally.
Marketing thought leaders and seasoned veterans believe content marketing to be the future of all
marketing. Its practice is being highly encouraged in both B2C and B2B organizations.
Content marketing is not dependent on the internet, unlike what the usual belief that surrounds the
idea. Content marketing is being practiced by brands globally. For example, Lego the giant that builds
interactive building blocks for kids used content marketing as early as 1997 where they utilised their
publication to issue magazines for children who had subscribed to Lego for updates and ideas on how
they can build newer things using their Lego pieces.
Although content marketing isn't confined to a single medium, it is largely practiced on the internet by
brands who function according to a content strategy. A content strategy is the guiding principle that
fulfils one of the two requirements of creating a digital experience for customers. In an article written in
the year 2007 called Content Strategy: The Philosophy Of Data, Content strategy expert Rachel Lovinger
said this of content strategy - Content Strategy is to copywriting as information architecture is to design.
Any organization who wishes to make a mark on the digital landscape first has to decide on the content
strategy before they start their journey. A content strategy gives published content its purpose and helps
brands to associate themselves with a user's needs and wants. The strategy is devised in ways that befits
the brand and helps in building bridges for open communication throughout a customer's buying
journey. A well framed content strategy helps to bring together content, context and users and form a
complex relationship that can be analysed for insights upon deployment. A 6 step process is applied to
procure the documentation required by a content strategist. These 5 steps include Step1: Define your story
Step2: Keyword research
Step3: Find patterns and categories
Step4: Information architecture
Step5: Write targeted content
Step6: Measure and analyze
Content created and nested under a resourceful strategy is useful, findable, valuable, credible, accessible
and desirable. A content strategy helps to revoke many emotions by framing the content with words that
help push 6 buttons that are placed within our conscience, namely taboo, unusuality, outrageousness,
hilariousness, remarkability and secret exposal that evoke emotions such as awe, anger, surprise, anxiety,
fear, hunger or even lust.

A content strategist has to work on components of content modelling and content management
procedures such as Business requirements matrix, Content inventory, Governance Plan, Metadata
Strategy, Content Audit, Gap Analysis, Localization planning, Search Engine Optimization, Lead
Creation & Nurturing, Content Planning, Content Matrix, Process models, Custom personal
interviews, Content models, User research, Personas, Scenarios, Flow Diagrams, Content migration,
Industry Standards & Guidelines, Wireframing, Template creation & management, delivery design and
publication. A content matrix helps a content strategist or content marketer to assign work to creative
resources of the organization based on the kind of content being produced. A content matrix is divided
into 4 equal parts where the intensity of content is measured in terms of it being emotional or rational
and its extension as a part of awareness programs or purchase persuasion programs. The 4 parts of the
matrix are -

Entertain - Viral campaigns, Quizzes, video games, puzzles, competitions and videos.
Educate - Guides, Trends, reports & whitepapers, press releases, infographics, demo videos, enews,
ebooks, articles etc.

Inspire - Widgets for a dedicated purpose, celebrity endorsements, community forums, product
reviews, customer feedback.

Convince - price lists, calculations, checklists, interactive product demos, product features, product
engineering, case studies, event, product ratings on the internet.
Although on the surface publishing content on digital channels is relatively easy and anyone can do it.
For example a person with a is creating content for his Facebook profile by hosting pictures with relative
tags. Similarly, brands are working in the favour of documenting their storytelling process by
introducing stellar messages that is worthwhile viewing for audiences.
Content marketing efforts are calculated differently for different brands and organizations. For example,
a celebrity needs to measure his engagement index regularly to see that people who are following the
celebrity receive correct information regarding his or her lifestyle and their position in the market as an
authority on a subject, such as Daler Mehndi for music, Barack Obama for being the president of the
united states. While a more specific content publisher like Indian startup Chumbak has to ensure a good
lead fulfilment ratio and lower costs to acquire a customer with their content efforts. No matter the goal
brands have with content marketing, the practice of the phenomenon has grasped the attention of both
brands and consumers who are producing more content than ever with the digital age allowing them to
explore multiple content publishing platforms. Due to this, trends in content marketing shift very fast for
both B2B and B2C entities. Although, e-mail is one channel that has been reliable for everyone. In a
video called 'We sell or else' David Ogilvy compared general advertising to direct advertising and
predicted that direct advertising will lay the foundation of marketing in the future due to its flexibility
regardless of markets and the freedom it offers in terms of advertising success measurement. Content
marketing is a reflection of just that thought.

Advertising & User Experience Design

Users of Smartphones in India is predicted to grow as much as 39% by the year 2019 according to
statistics and data web portal Statista. With growing use of Smartphones, it's become increasingly
necessary to deliver experiences to people who are meaningful and share worthy. User experience design
professionals work in collaboration with digital marketers and content strategists to devise content
inventories that consist of interactions meant for their product's target audiences.
In today's digital world if brands are to survive then they need to interact with audiences who are
demanding amazing content experiences from brands and if they don't get delivered they will move on to
the next authority who serves their needs. Content as a word is not limited to written matter on a
webpage, it extends itself to include everything that is visible on the webpage its affiliation to the
backend engine.
Before an advertiser is ready to spend the advertising budget, he or she needs to consider the experience
of the product and evaluate possibilities for storytelling using its features and usage patterns. For
example, many standalone apps and websites offer quick training in advertisements regarding their
product that eases out the difficulty in using the app for most. Brand marketers need to understand that
an advertisement might be the only singular source of finding information about their product and need
to curate their media projections and budgets accordingly.
A good digital marketer understands the need for specific user personas in the process of producing
advertisements that connect to audiences and produce a long-lasting effect on the viewer of the content
of the ad. Empathy is the prime mediator of both advertising and user experience design and the line
between the two is blurring out as both marketers and user experience professionals need to look at their
approach to build a digital community as a whole and their approach in co-ordination.
Some tips for ensuring good interactions with viewers of digital advertisements include making sure that
a pop up ad does not ruin the experience of website navigation, avoiding ads that have a larger file size
and hence load slowly. Ads that have content which is hard to read or even ads that don't state clearly
what they are meant for. Although, the inter connected roles of marketers and user experience designers
does not stop there. Markets are becoming increasingly technology oriented a brands need to embrace
the digital as means for reaching out to newer audiences and engage with existing ones in a new format.
Traditional marketing is under attack by innovation and minds are coming together to undersee this
change among communities everywhere. Creating a meaningful experience for a brand's core audience
should be its main objective while approaching marketing and not spending large budgets to gain
impressions that do not serve the brand's reason for existence.

Nextvertising - Thinking beyond the marketing

mix
Marketing is evolving so fast that if you consider what was valid as a marketing norm just a few months
ago will appear obsolete. Marketing trends are shifting towards extremes as technology carves out a
different, less explored path for marketers everywhere. Marketing automation is the next advancement
in the field of marketing where technology drives marketing efforts and allows a marketer to make a
central marketing database to analyze engagement patterns of brands with automation tools.
Marketing software developer Marketo defines marketing automation as a category of technology that
allows companies to streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks and workflows, so they can
increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster. And marketo is one player among the many who
are in the space of marketing automation and are trying to revolutionize content marketing. Other
advancements include mobile marketing platforms, display & programmatic advertising platforms,
search & social advertising platforms, native & contextual advertising, digital video advertising, digital
PR, content experience optimization platforms, interactive content platforms, DAM & MRM, one stop
SEO, Campaign & lead management software's, CMS & Web experience platforms, Call analytics &
management, ABM, digital events meetings & seminars, digital advocacy loyalty & referral program
platforms, retail and proximity marketing, channel partner and local marketing, sales automation,
enablement and intelligence, e-commerce marketing etc.
The industry is evolving very fast due to the advantages machine learning provides to marketing
professionals. With it, we are moving ever so fast towards a world where a customer can be analyzed by
a computer to produce predictive analytics and encourage viewers of advertisements to buy a product
and then track its usage patterns and report back to the advertiser. Some of the key roles machine
learning plays in next gen marketing is marketing segmentation - where algorithms written are used to
predict what spectrum of the audience does the website visitor falls under. Machine learning also helps in
predicting consumer preferences so brands can produce custom tailored content for individuals who
have a different approach towards their interactions with brands. Machine learning also helps in
targeting advertisements and report statistics such as click trough ratio, ad view time, audience retention
etc.
It is highly recommended for all businesses big or small to start thinking about marketing automation as
a serious matter in the coming financial years and be rid of many loopholes in the process of creating
meaningful relationships with customers.

The art of servicing

It has often happened that advertisers have been looked down upon. A very strong reason for this is
because of the relationships agencies builds with clients.
Advertising that is rememberable and truly 'creative' are the ones that are produced on the basis of great
relationships between clients and their agencies. When an advertising service professional takes up the
role of being the mediator between the agency and the client, he is assuming the role of a brand steward
who needs to ensure not just daily functioning but also commit themselves to becoming a representative
of the brand's intention to exist in people's lives and its reason for continued existence that can be boosted
by communicating with the right intention and material.
It is a way of thinking that connects everything about a brand to the user and this can be manipulated to
form new patterns. This philosophy allows an account person to become larger than he is and think
ambitiously about the brand he is servicing and ensures daily routine goes by smoothly.
Some of the key responsibilities an account manager needs to fulfil in an agency include doing marketing
visits, managing vendors & printers, doing ground research and studying research produced or bought by
the agency, writing advertising strategies & creative briefs and debriefs, conduct product tests as well as
pre&post advertising tests, handling billing & estimation, monitoring content production & publication,
managing media budgeting and buying, attending client meetings and finally evaluating agency
performance and develop strategies for nurturing creativity and resourcefulness.
An account manager does all of this and more. He provides invaluable insights and advice to clients that
can push the needle on the speed dial of the client's business towards the positive or if it's a good cause
that needs to be communicated, then ensure that the communication served by the agency is convincing
enough for audiences to take the right decision and change their attitudes towards a subject.
A valued account manager is the one who is able to serve the role of being an advisor and not just do the
job of taking advertisements from point A to point B. He or she becomes a part of the client's life and
dreams and helps the client to answer questions related to both business and otherwise. He must develop
empathetic bonds with the client to ensure that the relationship between the client and agency is by large
sustained for a large period of time.
When I took the mantle of being the 'service guy' in Pandimonium, I knew I was exposing myself to an
element I had little or no expertise in. But this element starting posing little by little lesser threat as
compared to my earlier disposition with it.

Multidisciplinary Innovation
Innovation is widely considered as the lifeblood of corporate survival and growth. Innovation is
recognised to play a central role in creating value and sustaining competitive advantage. In 2003, John
Bessant had this to regarding innovation - "Innovation represents the core renewal process in any organization.
Unless it changes what it offers the world and the way in which it creates and delivers those offerings it risks its
survival and growth prospects."
In 2004, the US National Initiative declared that 'Innovation is multidisciplinary' and in April 2007 The
Council of Graduate Schools declared that 'Interdisciplinary research preparation and education are
central to future competitiveness, because knowledge creation and innovation frequently occur at the
interface of disciplines." Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach of innovation
have been utilised by business & academic organizations to generate valuable insights, research
methodologies and of course products and services which have entered (and exited) the market. While
multidisciplinary innovation houses individual scholars from different disciplines who share common
facilities and research approach for a common environment but works to solve the problem through his
or her own discipline, whereas interdisciplinary innovation places individual scholars according to the
problem it is solving.
As the world moves towards newer technology platforms and applications, product life cycles are
decreasing everyday as marketplaces become more dynamic and companies are facing both internal and
external pressure to be market leaders in almost every segment by responding to changing customer
demands and lifestyles in order to capitalise on opportunities and are expected to do this by producing
newer and more innovative products in a short duration of production time. This has increased the
requirement for faster solutions from both men and machines to keep up with these phenomenal
changes by validating their market tests, faster prototyping, leaner product testing and of course product
launches and sales management.
For purposes of this particular article on innovation, I will talk more about multidisciplinary innovation
and research as it was this methodology which was exposed to me in my year at Srishti Institute of Art,
Design & Technology. Multidisciplinary research involves more than a single discipline in which each
discipline makes a separate contribution. Investigators and contributors share their version of a solution
depending on their research methodologies. For example, during an expedition to unearth mysteries of
old civilizations, Archaeologists and Geologists may join hands to form an alliance that is pursuiting a
common goal to generate more information about particular remains of an ancient dynasty and how this
'supposed' piece of ancient construct had symbolical references which can be reflected upon by the
Archaeologist whereas it is the nature of the earth and its adaptation to survive which is of more concern
to the geologist.
Another example is that in the field of aviation or nuclear power management. At a nuclear power
station, a radiologist helps in the production of the actual energy while a seismologist has to make sure
that the nuclear power station can adopt preventive measures to avoid nuclear spillage and mishaps in
case of an earthquake. While in the field of aviation, the captain of the ship, the pilot will direct the

plane towards it destined location while the cabin crew will make sure that the people on board are
taken care of.
For a marketing & UX professional like me, a multidisciplinary approach towards my discourse is
important to make sure that I am paying equal attention to things such as business analytics and
designing the interface of the website I am contracted for. Or even deciding the production pipelines for
content engines to keep audiences engaged. Innovation is a multi-stage process whereby organizations
transform ideas into new or improved products and services and having a multidisciplinary approach
towards solving business problems allows me to explore newer possibilities on every project I take.
There are others like me who also wish to serve agencies by adopting the multidisciplinary route. This
gives us the allowance to think freely and segment our work inputs according to each subject and
improve our efficiency with each project with streamlined processes and creative problem solving. And
since groups are often the units where modern innovation occurs, a multidisciplinary approach towards
problem solving is becoming more and more effective in today's world. Collaborative problem solving
techniques must be used for gaining diversity in knowledge and to lead to successful scientific
discoveries, but usually the problems researchers have discussed is cognitive rather than social.
To solve this problem, the shared mental model comes into the picture where the model is either
adopted or developed that takes into consideration many accounts of team co-ordination and
performance especially in the conditions of a high workload. The organization of knowledge into
structured patterns enables people to process information faster and helps highlight underlying cognitive
functioning. They provide a heuristic function by allowing information about situations, objects and
environments to be classified and retrieved in accordance to their most important features. This is useful
when faster comprehension and response are required.
In short, the mental model is used to explain human cognitive functioning and human system
performance on a project. A shared mental model explains the results of an investigation, providing a
common view of the environment that can lead to improved communication and coordination amongst
individuals who are working collaboratively. A shared mental model refers to common models of the
problem or the situation. Team members participating in the shared mental model develop a shared
understanding of the problem to be solved including definition of the problem, plans and strategies for
solving problem, interpretation of cues and information, roles and responsibilities of participants.
Thus in the light of this situation, one might pose the question "How do we promote the development of
SMMS in teams? The answer might be in the planning behaviours of a team that can potentially lead to
the development of a new SMM. In light of this evidence, one might pose the question, "How do we
foster the development of SMMs in teams?" The current study is an initial attempt to answer this
question. Specifically, we examined the extent to which planning behaviours in a team can foster SMMs.
In order to set the stage, we first briefly review general findings from the literature in three major areas:
team communication, and planning. SMMs provide an explanation of how effective teams are able to
utilize this efficient communication strategy whereas ineffective teams are not.
One other definition of SMMs is that they are socially constructed cognitive structures that represent
shared knowledge or beliefs about an environment (physical or digital) that can influence a team
members behaviour to produce and improve coordination by enabling the team to anticipate and alter

the team's collective steps. By altering how teams communicate with each other, one can embed an
SMM without having to resolve to a different solution. One of the most prominent products to do this
effectively is Slack, a communication tool meant for teams to integrate their active learning from the web
in group chat and form delivery schedules and pipelines within teams and set deadlines that need to be
achieved.
There is no absolute way to develop an SMM as different discourses require a different methodology or
approach towards building one. But one such development has caught my eye which has been
represented in the figure on the next page. I encourage readers do their own research on shared meaning
models and go one step further by developing their own version that solves problems team
communication, asset building and deployment. There is always space for development of newer models
of interaction, Slack is one such example. Products in the market are trying to achieve the digital edge
and multidisciplinary innovation is only one such route that they adopt to gain results.

Figure 1A Shared Mental Model developed by researchers at learning research and development center, University of Pittsburgh,
USA

Above is an example of a shared mental model developed by researchers at the learning research and
development center in University of Pittsburgh, USA. The model uses a 2 part framework to decode
multidisciplinary innovation in accordance to cognitive processes based on convergence and divergence.
The most commonly studied aspect of creativity is divergent thinking: the generation of many ideas
(better written as fluency in this case), that are relative to prior solutions (originality) and the depth and
richness with which each idea is explored. The goal of such thinking is to generate a wide variety of
possibilities like brainstorming. Although, most real world problems require both types of thinking but
the requirement varies project to project.

Similarly, most teams use both types of thinking, usually in an iterative process as divergent thinking by
itself is not a self sustained principle that can work outside the realms of convergence, also because of the
fact that innovation has a focus on implementation and just a good idea will not see it through. A team
will also have to execute the idea to its fullest potential and achieve quality results as depicted in the
figure above.
For this paper, I will cover task performance outcomes (team innovation) and not the social outcomes to
highlight steps in this framework that one can apply on their own projects. I hope readers find the
breakdown both useful and insightful and can apply the same in their own projects.
1.1 Social/ Cognitive Framework - Divergent Path
When a project begins, it usually starts by adopting divergent thinking and producing ideas that are
deconstructed and analysed from different angles using convergent thinking.
1.2 Knowledge Diversity
It is considered a good practice amongst innovators and researchers to have diversity and complex
understanding of different knowledge bodies. The more knowledge structures are available to members
of the group, more ideas can generate. However, these different knowledge bodies need to be
communicated across the group via participation and information sharing which is vital for all group
members. Groups where individuals do not share unique information suffer from poorer decision
making. Studies indicate that broad participation is a necessary condition for knowledge or disciplinary
diversity to be innovative. Even a moderate level of background multidisciplinary can lead to additional
and deeper understanding.
1.3 Task conflicts
Just sharing knowledge is not sufficient in manipulating opinions using the hidden profile paradigm.
Knowledge diversity increases performance via task confliction and disagreements about ideas. A task
conflict must be carefully managed as hypotheses developed need to signify positive effects of the model
both socially and psychologically. In the context of a group discussion, minority dissent occurs when
majority of the team members have one opinion and one (or more than one) members of the team argues
on a different position altogether. Group disagreement causes cognitive dissonance which can be
reduced through the means of persuasion or joining a like minded opinion. Although, it is good to note
that minority dissent has a positive effect on the team but only when participation is high. A minority
dissenter has the ability to look at the scenario from a different perspective altogether and promote
original solutions.
1.4 Formal Roles
Here complex and challenging tasks are assigned to teams where the mission statement becomes more
clearly defined, specialized in order to address the complexity of the problem. Formal roles are necessary
to organize a functioning multidisciplinary team. Roles may emphasize either expertise of power

structures that enable transactive memory. Formal roles influence group decisions with associated
communication norms that add a positive effect on task conflict and lessen potential relationship conflict.
1.5 Communication Norms
Norms and expectations, implicit rules regarding communication behaviours fall under communication
norms. If the norm is that individuals in certain roles are both respected in those roles as experts and are
expected to share their expertise, both the individual and the team would encourage sharing of unique
information.
1.6 Cognitive Processes
Many cognitive processes have been implicated in creativity related to both science and design. BY
developing useful analogies, the cognitive literature has found that the most difficult step in retrieving
the right analogy from memory and once the right case is retrieved the analogical mapping and
productive interference becomes easy. As information search and analogy are associated with divergent
thinking, they assume the role of problem solvers and dissolve mental blocks regarding a particular
problem and therefore lead to newer ideas. In groups, knowledge diversity is known to generate useful
analogies.
2.1 Social/Cognitive Framework - Convergent Path
Convergent thinking narrows down on the insights developed by divergent thinking and helps in
narrowing and selecting options which often involve much different social and cognitive processes
compared to divergent thinking. When you peer down and narrow the set of options in front of you, you
tend to focus on the criteria for success and weed out inappropriate responses.
2.2 Shared Mental Models
As discussed earlier, social and organizational psychologists have discussed the importance of a shared
vision in the convergent aspect of team innovation. Mental models can be easily shared . Team members
use shared mental models to interact and integrate information about team tasks and problem situations.
It helps teams to guide their functions and plan execution.
2.3 Knowledge Diversity
Members of diverse groups agree on a simplified framework of a problem but because of differences in
focus and background knowledge, still have gaps in how the problem is represented. Knowledge
diversity is not just an asset but can also be a threat here on shared mental models that are relevant to
innovative teamwork. Sufficient participation and information sharing via communication norms is an
important mediator. Participation and information sharing also leads to greater sharing of mental
models.
2.4 Formal Roles and communication norms
Formal roles are a type of shared model that can drive communication and established other bodies of

knowledge. These communication norms should include broad participation as mentioned above rather
than function in isolation.
2.5 Cognitive Processes
If mental models are shared they can positively influence evaluative cognitive processes , which are useful
for innovation quality. Evaluation here is defined as reasoning about constraints of the problems the be
solved. Evaluation is by its nature a convergent thinking cognitive process. Evaluation is critical for
selecting the best options in generated ideas.
Thus, the above highlights the critical requirements that need to be fulfilled in creating a shared meaning
model that can assume the role of the mediator between individuals with diverse knowledge
backgrounds and provide them a common platform to ideate and derive crucial insights for the
development of newer methodologies and products.
But, multidisciplinary innovation comes with its own set of problems that it needs to solve by addressing
multiple issues that can prevent it from becoming the highlighted method of working the 21st century.
Because of the last 2000 years spent by humanity in developing areas of knowledge specialization, most
of our understanding of the world exists by deconstructing it into smaller fragments to create these
disciplines and sub-disciplines in order to explain nature and how we have manipulated it to form and
design our world as it is. Academic institutions are organized in a way that promotes the advancement of
individual disciplines or sub-disciplines. Policies that govern the educational institute usually work
against multidisciplinary research.
If the practice of multidisciplinary research is to flourish then the reward systems affiliated to individual
contributions need to recognize the value and potential of multidisciplinary innovation and how it
proceeds to make meaning in an increasingly chaotic environment.
In today's world the landscape for multidisciplinary innovation is increasing manifold due to many
drivers present in the society.MDI allows collaboration amongst researchers from different walks of the
world in order to advance the need to aggregate data that can solve real world problems. The potential of
MDI hangs on the thread of being wanted or unwanted by individuals who want to engage in it.
Academic institutions and laboratories need to create opportunities that can replace the traditional model
with MDI and form a complex body of knowledge that can be easily interpreted by any team member
associated with the project. Social scientists need to fight out regulations and principles that governs
successful multidisciplinary innovation and create teams that are high on performance factors and low on
demotivation and arbitrary movement in a professional sphere thus breaking down the barriers created
by the yesteryears and drive knowledge that can burn the fuel of innovation brightly for generations
ahead.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Semiotics
Semiotics is a field of linguistics that studies signs and symbols the society of human beings interprets and
represents via different mediums to satisfy the human tendency of producing shared and interpersonal
meaning of spaces and ideas which form the cultural roots of a particular sect of society through the
representation. On the surface, semiotics seems like a practice that everyone undergoes today and that is
partly true. We are interpreting texts every day set on different mediums to make meaning of the things
and people who surround us.
In 1964, celebrated author and father of structuralism, Roland Barthes declared that Semiology aims to
take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits, images, gestures, musical sounds,
objects, and the complex associations of all of these, which form the content of ritual, convention or
public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification' which means
that any form of human interpretation is a part of a particular language or is the language.
Today, visual storytelling is evolving to incorporate technology as the driver to represent a plethora of
signs that are being interpreted on a global level. For example, when an individual is interacting with a
brand in an online space, he or she is partaking in the language of the brand because the person feels or
interprets the sign as a part of his own sign which in turn is a part of an even bigger sign. Human beings
are attracted to visual narratives and this has been long since established as a fact with multiple levels of
data interpretations that lead to this being readily accepted. It has become a potent requirement and force
in the field of content marketing. Brands have realised that including visual content and narratives to
their marketing efforts has shown to increase the engagement factor and likability amongst the brand's
followers and new traffic and the brands who are doing this effectively are able to persuade viewers of
the advertisements about their product or service and its level of quality to produce a strong relationship
with its interpreter.
The most popular forms of visual storytelling today include images, videos, infographics, and charts.
When powerful visuals are created, engagement is expected to increase. Compelling and captivating
visual content that is able to evoke emotions results in deeper engagement with the audience and drives
prospective consumers to a decision buying a product or service. As an advertising professional you just
need to make sure the ad's you produce are seen. Everything a person perceives is a sign, a symbol that
signifies a complex body of knowledge which has led to the development of shared meaning of things
and people around us. Every successful product being marketed today provides the ability to be a part of
a ritual, a gathering of sorts for the user of a product.
In 1974, Claude Levi Strauss declared that the process of creating is not the matter of calculated choice
and use of materials that are technically best adapted to a clear defined and predetermined purpose but it
also include having a dialogue with the materials and means of execution. In this dialogue it is the
materials that suggest the best adaptive course of action. Thus, acts of creation are not purely
instrumental, the bricoleur 'speaks' not only with things but also through the medium of things and the
use of this medium can be expressive. Hence, it is safe to assume that a person is in dialogue with the

environment constantly as our innate ability of making meaning drives us to find out more about what
surrounds us both individually and as a collective race of living creatures.
The study of semiotics is a rather large field of study with subsequent additions in the last decade itself.
For example, the study of life sciences is known as biosemiotics which also includes zoosemiotics. When
one thinks of the ecological aspect of semiotics and interactions the Russian cultural semiotician Yuri
Lotman comes to mind who coined the term 'semiosphere' to refer to the whole semiotic space of the
culture put into question. The concept borrows the reference from the biosphere which is a collection of
elements that make up a habitat for a living organism. While Lotman referred to semiosphere as
governors of the functions of languages within cultures, John Hartley commented that there are more
than one level at which one can identify a semiosphere at the level of a single, national or linguistic
culture, for instance or a larger unity such as the 'Asian world' or 'the species of human beings'
There are other fields of study and analyses in the field of semiotics which include textual analysis,
rhetorical analysis, discourse analysis and content analysis. For an advertiser and media person like
myself, content analysis is a useful tool to find out loopholes in the process of building brand perceptions
and solving brand related problems such as a brand shifting towards the graveyard by doing a semiotic
analysis of the brand and its market space. Although semiotics is closely affiliated to content analysis, its
discourse is considered as a rival of semiotics as a method of textual analysis. Where semiotics is a closely
knit association with cultural studies, content analysis is embedded in the mainstream social science
research. Content analysis involves a quantitative approach to the analysis, semiotics considers media
texts as structured wholes to investigate connotative meanings. It is rarely a quantitative force if at all and
is often subject to disapproval because of signs having the ability to be interpreted differently by different
people. A structuralist semiotician is concerned with the relation of elements to each other whereas a
social semiotician emphasises on the relation of elements with each other through social mapping and
contextual analysis. On the other hand, content analysis is focused on content explicitly and suggests that
it represents a single fixed meaning. Some researchers combine both to arrive at conclusions fitting their
discourse. Some researchers have adopted CW Morris's definition of semiotics while those set by the
founding fathers of semiotics Ferdinand Saussure and Charles Sanders Pierce are the more largely
accepted notions.
Pierce and Saussure were both concerned with the fundamental definition of the sign. While Pierce
developed logical taxonomies of the types of signs Saussure on the other hand developed methodologies
and theories that served as the starting point for the development of structuralist ways of analysing texts
and social practises. We will be looking at Saussure's model of representation via this article which has
been widely employed in the analysis of a large number of cultural phenomena. However, it is good to
note that these methods are not globally accepted as theorists have often criticized on the focus on
structure and no other methodology has been widely accepted thus leaving Saussure's theory open for
interpretation and modification. Infact, in 1974 and 1983 he was cited when he quoted that 'nothing is
more appropriate than the study of languages to bring out the nature of the semiological problem.
Semiotics relies on linguistic concepts and this partly because of Saussure's influences are more
established as field of study than any other study of sign systems. He referred to language as the most
important of all systems of signs and is variably regarded as the most powerful communication system.
This article highlights only some of the basic key concepts in semiotics that are relevant to any reader
who is interested in the study of semiotics. But before we expand further on Saussure's model, lets
answer the question why does one need to study semiotics. Today when the landscape of media is changing
at an alarming rate, semiotics helps in identifying cultural patterns that are unique for different user

groups. Perhaps the critic Paddy Whannel can explain this better when he said 'Semiotics can tell us things
we already know in a language we may just not understand'. Semiotics as a discourse is important because it
tells us that we should not take the concept of 'reality' for granted and it to exist objectively, independent
of human interpretation. It teaches that the world as we see it is a system of signs. The study of semiotics
can help an individual to think of reality and be aware of its construction of roles played by ourselves and
those who live on this planet by constructing it. It helps un realizing that information or meaning is not
contained in the world or in any modern media such as magazines, newspapers, internet etc. and neither
is meaning transmitted to us.
We are creating meaning actively according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions that we are
normally unaware of. And the process of becoming aware of such codes and conventions is fascinating
and empowering. Through the study of semiotics we understand that this world is made of signs and that
there is no way of understanding anything without the use of signs and codes as they are organized.
When we study semiotics we begin to understand that signs and codes are normally transparent and
have to be 'read'.
As we are living in a world surrounded by visual signs, we need to learn that signs that appear to be the
most realistic may just not be so. We 'denaturalize' signs by interpreting them to perform the valuable
semiotic function. Deconstruction of the realities of signs can reveal whose realities are privileged or
suppressed. Thus studying signs help to understand the construction and maintenance of reality.
Globalisation is a phenomenon in which different societies will proclaim to have the same technology
and similar habits. For example eating a pizza in China is not so farfetched from eating rice noodles in
San Francisco. The aims and methodologies of anthropology has changed. Hence to presume changes in
the world of Semiotics is to overplay your hand But we can make some remarks on what has happened,
what is currently happenings and a few forecasts regarding the future. A few studies undertaken under
the field of semiotics include Metatheory, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Sciences, Analysis of Political
Discourses, Temporality, Japanese Pragmatics, Semiotics of Silence, Semiotics of Death, Cyberspace,
Legal Semiotics, Media, Body, Religion, Marketing, Calligraphy, Humour, Education, Sign Processes in
Human-Computer Interaction, Post Modern, Library and Information Science, Other Sexuality, Analysis
of the Cold War, Medical semiotics etc.
As a species who is driven to make meaning through our creation and interpretation of signs, the
signatory influencers that surround us take the form of images, sounds, odours & smells, flavours, acts in
plays, advertisements, movies, video games, dance routines, fitness programs etc. Almost everything can
be seen as a sign as long an individual interprets it as a signifier i.e. it (the sign) referring or standing for
something else other than its own physical form and function. We largely interpret signs unconsciously
relating them to familiar systems of conventions and practices which is at the heart of semiotics.
To explain how the sign system works, Saussure created a dyadic or a two part model of the sign.
According to him, the sign is comprised of two parts, namely, the signifier or the form the sign takes and
the signified or the concept the sign is representing and together the sign is the whole that combines both
the signifier and the signified and this relationship between the signifier and the signified is known as
signification. For the purpose of explanation, lets deconstruct the word 'Shop', in this word the signifier is
the word shop and the signified concept can perhaps be a donut shop! According to Saussure, a sign
must have both the signifier and the signified in order to be a complete sign. He suggested that sound and
thought are inseparable, like two sides of the same coin, they are 'intimately linked' in the mind of the
meaning maker by an 'associative link' that triggers both the signified and the signifier. He presented

these elements as interdependent entities that exist in co-relation to each other and cannot pre-exist
without the other half.
This theory is often criticized by poststructuralists due to the clear distinction provided by Saussure.
They argue that the signifier is always separated from the signified and has real autonomy. Louis Hjelslev
used the terms 'expression' and 'content' to refer to the signifier and the signified and said that the
distinction between the signifier and the signified has been equated to the familiarities of 'form and
content.' While Saussure's model does not refer to reality directly, Fredric Jameson read the features of
Saussure's model as something that is not just an individual word or an enterprise but what the word
stands for or reflects in the entire field or langue which lies parallel to the reality or the parole.
His procured conception of meaning was differential, i.e. he emphasized the differences between signs. For
him, language was a system of functional differences and oppositions. Saussure once said that 'In a
language, as in every other semiological system, what distinguishes a sign is what constitutes it.'
Although Saussure's remarks that both the signifier and the signified are purely differential and negative
when considered separately, together in a sign both the signified and the signifier undergo a
transformation to become a positive term. He also added that two signs are not different from each other
but only distinct. They are simply portrayed in opposition to each other and that the entire mechanism of
language is based on oppositions of this kind and upon the phonic and conceptual differences they
emanate through various representations.
Saussure noted that 'If words had the job of representing concepts fixed in advance, one would be able to
find exact equivalents for them as between one language and another. But this is not the case' since
reality is made up of arbitrary categories created by every language and concept in this world and as a
budding semiotician myself, I agree to this whole heartedly that no two languages can represent reality
the same way since there are no 'natural' concepts which are simply reflected in a particular language and
language is constricted by playing a role in 'constructing reality'.
Linguistic categories are not simply a consequence of some predefined structure in the world. There are
no 'natural' concepts or categories which are simply 'reflected' in language. Language plays a crucial role.
But according to Saussure, this is not a bad thing as the entire linguistic system is founded upon the
irrational principle that the sign is arbitrary. He concludes that 'There exists no language in which
nothing all is motivated. Language is not completely arbitrary for the system it functions in will have
some supposed degrees of rationality applied to the discourse of the language.' The functions of a
language requires the scope of reference to move beyond an individual's capability of interpreting as an
element of deconstruction. For example you can point out to physical entities as signs like clouds, trees,
doors etc. but cannot physically point out to things such as 'mind space' 'cognition' 'history' and so on
because they are not 'things' that are real.
This brings the question to one's mind that ''What is recognized as a realistic style of representation?"
The answer is that realistic styles of representation follow an aesthetic code. Over time, certain content

production methods within a medium become affiliated to being naturally accepted as a reflection of
reality.
We can put this belief into questioning by implementing sets of deconstructive meaning making on the
kind of content being aired on popular television and film. According to John Tagg, In 'realistic' texts
what is foregrounded is the 'content' rather than the 'form' or style of production. As in the dominant
mode of 'scientific' discourse, the medium and codes are discounted as neutral and transparent and the
makers of the text retreat to invisibility. Consequently, 'reality' seems to pre-exist its representation and
to 'speak for itself'; what is said thus has the aura of 'truth'. The signifier is treated as if it were identical
with a pre-existent signified and... the reader's role is purely that of a consumer... Signifier and signified
appear not only to unite, but the signifier seems to become transparent so that the concept seems to
present itself, and the arbitrary sign is naturalized by a spurious identity between reference and referents,
between the text and the world.
When the Belgian surrealist painter Ren Magritte painted the La Trahison Des Images in 1936, she
depicted the side on view of a smoker's pipe with the text 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' which means that 'This
is not a pipe' in English. To think that first the painter provides a visual cue in the painting by depicting a
pipe and later laying down type that says the image is not a pipe would seem perverse on the first
impression. But as we go deeper, we find out that as our minds struggle to find a meaningful
interpretation to the painting, the indexical word 'this' according to Anthony Wilden suggests ulterior
interpretations such as

this [pipe] is not a pipe;

this [image of a pipe] is not a pipe;
this [painting] is not a pipe;
this [sentence] is not a pipe;
[this] this is not a pipe;
[this] is not a pipe.

Thus, any representation is not just a reproduction of the object it represents, the representation is also
contributing t the construction of reality. A photorealist depiction cannot be counted as reality as the
representation may also symbolically or metaphorically stand for something else entirely. The depiction
of a pipe is no guarantee of a specific pipe in the physical or the metaphysical world where this is an
accurate depiction of a pipe. It is thus a fairly generalized pipe and serves the purpose of the 'concept' of a
pipe and not that of a specific pipe, the words are merely trying to anchor the viewer's interpretation.
An object of perception can be categorised in many ways rather than in a objective hierarchy. These
categories depend highly on factors such as experiences catered to, roles and purposes of the sign and so
on. For example, when one looks at an advertisement in which the content showcases a female, many
would assume that the image stood for women in general, others would think that she represented a
particular type of woman belonging to a group whose role the subject in the advertisement was

portraying to help recognize her as particular individual or a school of thought to induce familiarity in
relevant cultural codes.
Many postmodern theories suggest a complete disconnection of the signifier from the signified. An
empty signifier is defined as a signer which has a high variable and an unspecifiable or nonexistent
signified. Such signifiers (If existent at all) mean different things to different people. They may even
stand for many signified to form a chain of signifieds. One such reference in found in Roland Barthes
Mythologies where he defines an empty signified with no definite signified. Amongst the other popular
theories, Jacques Derrida, who coined the term 'deconstruction' refers to the freeplay of signifiers as well
and that they are not fixed to signifieds but point beyond themselves to other signifiers in an indefinite
reference pattern to signified. But for Saussure, writing related to speech as signifier to signified and
most theorists who have adopted Saussure's model are content to refer linguistic signs as either spoken
or written.
An expert semiologist's view on different languages might differ, but that of an advertising professional
relies on making sure that the image created for the brand under work realises full potential of selling a
concept that buyers may find useful in their purchasing decision. As John Sturrock once said 'a one-term
language is an impossibility because its single term could be applied to everything and differentiate
nothing; it requires at least one other term to give it definition' and advertising represents this notion
because what matters to a brand is the 'positioning' of the brand's product and not the relationship of
advertising signifiers to real world referents but how each sign differs from the others to which it is
related. Structuralist analysis focuses on the structural relations which are functional in the system being
signified at the particular moment. According to Jonathan Cutler, 'Relations are important for what they
can explain: meaningful contrasts and permitted or forbidden combinations'
Semiotics is interpreted differently in the field of marketing and advertising due to financial
responsibilities riding on the shoulders of semiology. Many classic theorists will disagree whole heartedly
with the kind of work a semiotician accomplishes in the field of marketing. Many would
call it 'grotesque' but its requirement to decipher the many codes that surround the marketplace and
audiences for whom the brand is pouring in their marketing efforts.
Semiotics helps to solve real world identity problems for brands who are shifting towards the brand
graveyard readily and need to combat it with effective communication that can help arouse customer
interest and sell their product or service. There is a strong need for semiotics to be present in the world
of marketing and advertising because of audiences gotten used to prefabricated solutions that continue to
work in a loop which has become largely uninteresting for most audiences. Hence if brands need
optimum solutions they need to look elsewhere and not rely on numerical marketing research to satisfy
their thirst to know their markets better. Because semiotics goes beyond the traditional market research,
it does not ask people questions and instead attacks the source of all interpretation, codes & signs to
interact with culture and extract meaning of things and ideas which consumers cannot tell a researcher
openly because they are not consciously aware of what influences his or her culture such as beliefs,

values, mindsets and behaviour. The study of semiotics in business can lead to innovations that are
largely invisible through other form of analysis. Semiotics leads to innovations that are rooted in living
experiences of people. For example, let's consider the development factors of world renowned video
gaming system, the Nintendo Wii. When we consider the semiotics of video gaming, we find that the
myths that surround the phenomenon include the ideas that gaming is synonymous to youth culture,
masculinity and alienation of the regular norm. Gaming, thus became the 'sign' of the ever famous
metaphor 'The Couch Potato'.
Nintendo challenged this idea by introducing a interactive control system and games that would
revolutionize a video game console forever. The company recognized the growing problem of gamers
spending too much time on the couch playing video games and avoiding physical exercise and the
solution Nintendo came up for this was quite remarkable. A control system for games that would keep
you physically active, up and running. Known as the Wii Fit, it took the market by a storm to create a
new sub - culture in gaming known as 'Fit gaming' thus highlighting the idea that 'Brands can (and need to)
create a new culture instead of gelling into the existing ones.' In marketing semiotics, the traditional system of
interpreting a sign as first discovered by Saussure is put to challenge by altering the signifier and the
signified as context and text. It is an approach which can help us interpret the cultural contexts of a
brand. Contexts have the power to overrule the text to give it meaning. For example, a glass of wine
which is empty is the text and when the glass of wine is filled with wine and served to a gentleman who
is finely dressed for an evening dinner, would be the context of the wine glass. No matter what field of
study semiotics is stretched to, it is important to understand that language as a whole makes the web of
our thought and structures our way of thinking.

NIMHANS
The first account I served in my life was NIMHANS ( National Institute For Mental Health And
Neurosciences) where the client Dr. Benegal was in search for interesting creative ideas that could
change the attitude of people who were inclined towards binge drinking and as well as produce
interesting infographics for challenging attitudes towards several other addictions that can thwart human
productivity such as workaholism and gambling.
My role and responsibility in producing the advertising campaigns 'Saku Machaa' and 'Young Not Stupid'
were helping in conducting research in the form of focused discussion groups and collect data via
recording the conversation to develop qualitative insights that formed the basis of addressing a person on
the individualistic level and then proceeding to revaluate the insight via collecting qualitative
information via surveys.
The qualitative insight we gained from the FGD was that nobody likes a bad drunk, including the alcohol
consumer. While the quantitative insights declared a more open end perception of the phenomenon
where people said they did not care whether they were caught in the act and no amount of
communication could change their decision.

IFB - Aqua Energie

My 2nd campaign was IFB where we were briefed from Mr. Subhabrata Ghosh, Founder and managing
director of Celsius100, a brand consultancy firm, about IFB's latest innovation known as the Aqua
Energie which can convert hard water into soft water. A blessing in disguise for both existing IFB
customers and those looking for a new option. The selling point for the campaign was that existing users
could Rs. 50,000 off on for turning in their existing IFB front load washing machine or get Rs. 20,000 off
for topload customers.
This needed to be represented via a campaign that was to be projected via TV commercials that ran on
TV and on YouTube, print ads, interactive display ads for search engine marketing, a Facebook Ad
campaign and page setup, emailers to be sent to potential customers, a print media campaign with half
and quarter page ads for newspaper and full page magazine ads, a hoarding campaign, in store point of
purchase and merchandise and stickers for washing machine that can seek the attention of potential
buyers at a retail store.
After conducting research and fixing on the strategy the classroom developed 11 highly intriguing
campaign that the reader can view from the link below
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CAMPAIGN

TRUE LEGACY
Here is where I put my study of account planning and servicing into use by producing advertising briefs
to be utilised by the 11 students of art team of Pandimonium to produce some really interesting which
the reader can find in the following pages.

NIMHANS

in teaching us the fundamentals of advertising every day and

helping us to take the initiative and venture beyond the classroom. We also thank our fellow students of Pandimonium labs,
who have been both friendly and fun to work with.

We thank Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology for giving us this platform to portray our talents and work. We thank

Acknowledgement

if you drink in moderation, you can still have fun without embarrassing yourself.

Advertising Promise

Almost everyone in the research audience agreed that nobody likes a

bad drunk.

Unique Insight from research

2. People dont like bad drunks.

3. the overnight consequences of drinking are not about
ones health but about ones social reputation.
conducted a qualitative research upon 104 individuals ranging from
the age group of 18 to 23 Out of which 49% were male and 51% were
female.
1. Humor is the best way to achieve our target
2. People agreed that fear doesnt work.
3. People feel there should be illustrations and more graphic material in our communication
4. People tend to justify their drinking even if the reason is as meager as to have fun

we conducted focus group discussions with an audience of

5 people respectively of both sexes.
1. If they have decided to drink a lot, no communication

Research

18 to 25 year old young individuals who indulge in binge drinking

and have unstable alcohol behavioural patterns.

Target Audience

45% of the sample audience owned

an IFB washing machine while 55%
owned other brands in a descending order. LG being the 2nd pre-

clothes and washing machine.

Unique insight from research

free.

IFBs promise to its customer is to give freedom from the drudgery

of having to deal with hard water and daily chores. IFB, Sets you

Advertising promise

phenomenon.

When asked if they are aware of the side effects of hard-water

has on their washing machines and clothes 55% replied they didnt,

own Borewell.

65% were supplied water

by their local corporation

water has on their washing machines and clothes 55%

replied they didnt, while 45% had a rough idea but not

Vero Sangue is an high end authentic brand bought to you by Armani, its class apart and is Armanis true legacy.

Advertising Promise

People do not want to buy Armani sunglasses because they fear its a
fake and this is diminishing its market presence.

Unique Insight

its sales regulation.

100% of the spectrum knew of IFB.

Of the 25 families 69%, majority of

the lot had bought a washing machine 1-3 years ago while the lowest
was 8% who had bought it 5-10 years
ago. Another 8% and 15% respectively for 3-5 years ago and 10 years plus.

brand. When we approached the store managers we found out that it

was a genuine issue that required our attention that Armani faced in

We questioned 25 male Individuals on ground zero who were looking better options when it came to sunglasses. Upon questioning we
found out that none of them wanted to buy an Armani because they

Research

21 to 35 year old young male individuals who want high end options
for their lifestyle choices that set them apart from the crowd.

Target Audience

an healthy competition with rival brands and increase their sales of

aviators and wayfarer sunglasses.

To increase the overall brand awareness of Giorgio Armani and de-

Campaign Objectives

Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni and Emporio Armani.

brand markets these products under several sub-labels, including

Vero Sangue was the result of our constant articulation on behalf of Italian
designer and fashion colossus Giorgio
Armani. Giorgio Armani is on the fore-

Client Description

Vero Sangue Sunglasses

We conducted qualitative research upon a sample size of 25 families

that belonged in the spectrum of the target audience

Research

conveniences in their home that makes life easier and adds a touch
of style.

28-35 year old working women, smart phone and net savvy. Women

Target Audience

tomers.

technology, across the top range products i.e. Senator

and elite washing machines known as AQUA ENER-

their washing machine and also to keep the IFB brand

Campaign Objectives

To educate and recommend moderation in alcohol consumption and

to promote concepts of positive drinking habits.

Campaign Objectives

IFB is the pioneer of innovation and technology, they keep ahead of

competition by introducing products that enable a better everyday
life for women by letting them live life on their own terms, with the
help of their range of home appliances and kitchen solutions that
manage all their chores.

Client description

IFB Aqua Energie

National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) is a multidisciplinary Institute forr patient care and academic pursuit in the frontier area of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences.

Client Description

below.

have addressed the issue of binge drinking amongst the youth and have also undertaken commercial projects which are aimed towards increasing the

Overview

Hard Water Blues, Alcohol Woes and True Legacy

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6V3VdguwB-

Client:

Virola
International
wsYXZ5d3NuVVoxb2s

servicing team :

brand :

Alberto Toressi

agency :

PROCUCT :

Alberto Torresis Stressless range of formal shoes

focus on the combination of comfort and style by introducing yoga inspired designs.

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

Yoga is seen as calming, restorative, pure and relaxing.

Perfect for people who lead a stressful lifestyle.

advertising promise :

De-stress even when you have to be formal. Extremely

stylish western designer shoes for Indian feet based on
an Indian art/exercise form Yoga.

consumer response :

Torressis shoes are an intelligent blend of both feature

and price.

tone of voice :

Chilled out and mildly comical.

creative units required :

TVC, Magazine ads, Facebook page, Newspaper ads

Facebook page.

Adversiting promise support :

Limelight product features and price.

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

Gitanjali group

servicing team :

brand :

Asmi Jewelry

agency :

PROCUCT :

Asmi Gold and diamond Jewelry.

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

Jewelry is seen as a style statement, more like part of

your personal identity.

advertising promise :

Asmi jewelry is designed to emphasize your personality

without drawing attention to itself.

consumer response :

Everybodys going to look at me!

(the focus is not my jewelry its me.)

tone of voice :

Stylish and compelling while trying to establish

a personal connection with the viewer.

creative units required :

Posters, hoardings, collaterals, TVCs, Facebook page

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

Paper Stacks Pvt. Ltd

servicing team :

brand :

Belle Scented Tissues

agency :

PROCUCT :

Belle is a brand that sells paper napkins, the limelight

of the product is that the napkins are scented.

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

People think that India and Indians smell bad.

advertising promise :

Smell right when it matters.

consumer response :

Looks like this can save me from being in a embarassing

situation and i can use itwhen I really need it.

tone of voice :

Extremely sardonic and mocking the viewer.

creative units required :

Posters, Hoardings, YouTube Ads, Facebook Page

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

Mother dairy

servicing team :

brand :

Dhara cooking oil

agency :

PROCUCT :

Dhara is a refined vegetable sunflower oil

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

Our target audience is more interested in the food

tasting good rather than the health benefits that it
has to offer.

advertising promise :

Dhara wont make you healthier or smarter but the

purity of our oil will lead to a tasty, home cooked satisfy
ing meal.Its the tastiest oil that makes the tastiest meals.

consumer response :

Oh golly! finally a cooking oil that guarantees purity

and taste!

tone of voice :

Straightforward but humble.

creative units required :

TVC, hoardings, newspaper ads.

mandatory :

DHARA DHARA, SHUDH DHARA!

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

HTC (High Tech Computer, Corp.)

servicing team :

brand :

HTC

agency :

PROCUCT :

Smartphones with high end quality features.

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

Core consumers of the tech industry always demand

more! And are in search of something new and revolutionary.

advertising promise :

htc delivers to you smartphones that will inspire.

consumer response :

I didnt know htc were such innovators! I should keep

an eye on new products launched by them.

tone of voice :

Confident and eloquent, something that inspires people.

creative units required :

Posters, hoardings, collaterals, TVCs, Facebook page,

PR Campaign, Ads on all print mediums available.

Adversiting promise support :

We need to bring to focus HTCs history of research in

the phone department.

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

Pacific Sunwear of California,

Inc.,

servicing team :

brand :

Pacsun

agency :

PROCUCT :

T- Shirts

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

California is the Mecca for techies and geeks!

advertising promise :

Pacsun lets you put on the California lifestyle along with

their clothes.

consumer response :

Who knew that wearing a t-shirt could be so much fun?

tone of voice :

Quirky, Smart and superior sounding.

Mimical and comical situation.

creative units required :

Posters, hoardings, collaterals, TVCs, Facebook page.

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

Colgate Palmolive Pvt. Ltd.

servicing team :

brand :

Palmolive Bathing Soaps.

agency :

PROCUCT :

Palmolive Bathing Soap with olive oil extracts.

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

People are genuinely worried about protecting their

skin against dirt and the harsh sun rather than believing that a soap could change their appearance.

advertising promise :

Palmolive soaps with olive oil extracts will protect your

precious smooth skin against the harsh sun.

consumer response :

I can walk freely on a hot day without having to worry

about my skin!

tone of voice :

Direct and informative but warm with a feminine

approach.

creative units required :

Posters, hoardings, TVC, Facebook Page, Distributable

Collaterals.

Adversiting promise support :

Olive oil is the best available natural shield against the

harmful harsh sun and Palmolive incorporates it, keeping your skin smooth and young at all times.

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

Revlon Modi

servicing team :

brand :

Revlon

agency :

PROCUCT :

Revlon scented nail enamel with a fruity fragrance is

their new scented nail polish priced at Rs. 120.

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

Women feel they no longer have the time to put on

nail polish, and if they do they like to ensure their
shade is the most unique and blends with all other
accessories.

advertising promise :

Revlon scented, because your hands will look naked

without it.

consumer response :

OOHH!! Are my fingers really looking as good

as they could?

tone of voice :

Seductive & Classy, but with some spunk.

creative units required :

TVC, Collaterals, Hoardings, magazine ads & Facebook page.

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

Sennheiser electronic
GmbH & Co. KG

servicing team :

brand :

Sennheiser Headphones

agency :

PROCUCT :

Sennheiser headphones, is a line of high end headphones that give the listener the ultimate sound experience.

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

People believe that headphones are a way to hear every

nuance of music and technicians understand the necessity of pure and perfect sound.

advertising promise :

If you really are serious about your music and love it,
Sennheiser is the answer.

consumer response :

Ill hear every note my favorite musicians play!

tone of voice :

Straightforward but mildly comical. Embracing

competiton.

creative units required :

Posters, hoardings, collaterals, TVCs, Facebook page,

Extensive PR campaign.

Adversiting promise support :

Sennheiser is the headphone most commonly used by

audio technicians in studios to catch every notch and
detail of the recording.

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

Nivedhya Homeopathies Pvt. Ltd.

servicing team :

brand :

Spring

agency :

PROCUCT :

Spring is an aloe vera and arnica based transparent

herbal shampoo.

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

People believe herbal shampoos are too gentle and take

too long to work.

advertising promise :

Spring is so gentle on your hair that it allows you to

wash your hair every day! (But you need to be patient.)

consumer response :

Wow if thats case, it would feel so fresh all day long!

tone of voice :

Should be emphasizing the freshness associated with

springtime. (Young & New)

creative units required :

Posters, Hoardings, TVC, Facebook Page, Distributable

Collaterals.

Adversiting promise support :

Arnica protects and repairs damaged hair while AloeVerarejuvenates it and protects the sheen.

ADVERTISING AND DESIGN STRATEGY

advertising lab

Client:

Armani

servicing team :

brand :

Vero Sangue

agency :

PROCUCT :

Aviators and Wayfarer sunglasses

UNIQUE INSIGHT :

People dont want to buy Armani anymore because of

too many fake copies available in the market for a cheaper price therefore diminishing the brands presence .

advertising promise :

Vero Sangue is an authentic high profile brand by

Giorgio Armani.

consumer response :

Finally some high profile competition to Rayban in the

market, sounds pretty cool to me.

tone of voice :

High profile and stylized, extremely royal and rich.

creative units required :

Posters, Hoardings, Magazine Ads, TVC.

References:
Ogilvy on advertising - David Ogilvy
My life in advertising & science of advertising - Claude C. Hopkins
Building Strong Brands - David Aaker
24 Strong Brand Mantras - Jagdish Kapoor
Truth, lies and advertising, the art of account planning - Jon Steel
The art of client service - Robert Solomon
Producing Ideas - James Webb Young
What Great Brands Do - Denise Leohn
Permission Marketing - Seth Godin
Where good ideas come from (The natural history of innovation) - Steven Johnson
Creativity inc. Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace
Design Writing Research - Ellon Lupton
Pandimonium Classroom Lectures
Elements of design classroom lectures
https://www.copyblogger.com
https://www.copyhackers.com
https://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com
http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2013/10/08/how-advertisements-can-affect-ux/#gref
https://boagworld.com/marketing/the-fall-of-mass-marketing-and-the-rise-of-user-experience-design/
http://www.adageindia.in/digital/digitalnext/storytelling-and-user-experience-are-on-a-collisioncourse/articleshow/45690256.cms\
https://www.marketo.com/marketing-automation/
http://chiefmartec.com/2014/02/1000-marketing-technology-vendors-new-normal/
http://bostinno.streetwise.co/channels/machine-learning-marketing/
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-machine-learning-drives-ad-performance-2014-2?IR=T
Planning, Shared Mental Models, and Coordinated Performance: An Empirical Link Is Established By Stout,
Renee J.; Cannon-Bowers, Janis A.; Salas, Eduardo; Milanovich, Dana M.
Featured Research Industrial & Management Engineering - IIT Kanpur
Towards a multidisciplinary definition of: Innovation Jennifer Rowley, Sally Sambrook, Anahita Baregheh
Multidisciplinary research an essential driver for innovation: GlobalHigherEd, Professor Jill Trewhell,
Deputy Vice Chancellor Research, University of Sydney, Australia.
A Social-Cognitive Framework of Multidisciplinary Team Innovation: Susannah B. F. Paletz, Christian D. Schunn
- Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh
Shared Mental Models on the Performance of e-Learning Content Development Team: Il-Hyun Jo
Why Multidisciplinary Marketers are in High Demand (and How to Become one) - Zack Davis | Terakeet
Some thoughts on multidisciplinary innovation - Irving Wladawsky-Berger
The Savage Mind. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Claude Lvi-Strauss
Popular Reality: Journalism, Modernity, Popular Culture. John Hartley
Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture: Yuri Lottman
More Bad News. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Glasgow University Media Group
'On Resonance: A Critical Pluralistic Inquiry into Advertising Rhetoric', Journal of Consumer Research:
McQuarrie, Edward F & David Glen Mick

Course in General Linguistics: Ferdinand de Saussure

Mythologies: Roland Barthes
Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices: Stuart Hall
Prolegomena to a Theory of Language: Louis Hjelmslev
The Act of Writing: A Media Theory Approach., Daniel Chandler University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Semitica para Principiantes: Daniel Chandler trans.: Vanessa Hogan Vega & Ivn Rodrigo Mendizba.
Escuela de Comunicacin Social de la Universidad Politchnica Salesiana)
Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature, Jonathan Culler
The Burden of Representation - Essays on Photographies and Histories: John Tagg
The Rules Are No Game: The Strategy of Communication: Routledge & Kegan Paul Wilden, Anthony
http://www.slideshare.net/martinaolbertova/a-complete-guide-to-commercial-semiotics-how-to-usesemiotics-in-marketing-to-unlock-hidden-potential-of-your-brand-28705443
http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/articles/marketing-advice/the-importance-semiotics-branding

This e-book is a series of reflections the author has

written to recall his experiences and learnings at the Srishti
Institute ofArt, Design & Technology. These rieflections cover
subjects such as Advertising, Graphic Design, Creative Writing,
Multidisciplinary Innovation and Philosophy.