Graphic Design in India: A brief analysis of bullshit

In one single post it would be hard to talk about everything that has been developing in India in graphic design. It has certainly grown over the past 10 years, especially more so in the last 5 years. The quality and variety of work has gotten better. But is it really getting much much better? Not really, unfortunately.

Designers here in India are quick to jump and say that the clients are conservative, the public is uneducated and that they cannot express their creativity in such a stifling environment. However, a lot of fault lies with the designers themselves that they do not want to admit.

I will be a bit too broad in my generalizations but it doesnt make it untrue. Here are the facts as I have seen over the last few years since 2006 when I started to really understand design in India. There are very few design schools in India. Most of the graduates tend to have the same style and seem to be lacking originality or the "thinking out of the box" mentality, even in explorations. Noone seems to be trying to push the client much because they are afraid of losing them.

However the biggest fault of Indian designers, especially the senior onces is the way they go about designing. Concept comes second to the beauty. They are too busy emphasizing on making something pretty and agreeable to the client rather than something conceptual. Most believe that they can plug a concept after they have churned out something "pretty". When senior designers give this brief to their juniors, the latter get influenced in the way they design then and in the future. This is more so because the levels of hierarchy in any office (even a design studio!) are too stark and people are too drunk on their position of authority. Designers have egos yes, but good designers are those who do not let egos come in the way of great work. And I have hardly met anyone in India like that while in New York I worked with really successful and talented people who could push aside their pride to push someone to do something amazing even if it went against what they believe in. And it shows in the work that comes out from the two countries.

The problem is that there is too much bullshit here. Sure, bullshitting our way through a presentation happens everywhere but I am not cool with backward thinking-" make something pretty and we will plug a concept later on"! That's absolutely horseshit. Everyone knows that once you have a concept, the possibilities are endless- even the pretty design will come out! Senior designers in India have to stop making their juniors design in this way because they are the future of Indian design. And this is why design hasn't yet matured yet. Sure, clients can be conservative but not as much as we think. The most successful businesses are those who have taken risks. If the concept is really strong and you believe in it, the client will believe in it too. That's where you really use your bullshitting powers! Bullshitting logical and valid arguments is a true art. And to dismiss our large population as "stupid" or "uneducate" is just making an excuse. If liberalization has shown anything, Indians have the capacity to take anything new, however bad or good, whole heartedly. Taste is acquired. You feed them your bullshit, they will be used to bullshit. So if they stupid, it is probably because you have made them stupid with your bullshit!

This mentality of "my way or the highway" when it comes to senior designers is highly negative. Junior designers, fresh out of school or those toiling under boring bread & butter work, need real leadership not dictatorship. A true leader will tell them it is imperative that they do one thing that has great concept rather than 10 pretty things with no concept. If the leaders are unable to think of the concepts (due to actual inability, lack of time due to other responsibilities etc) the least they can do is not stifle those who can. Or better, promote this thought process aggressively. Even if the juniors havent met the client (which ideally, they should to start work on the project), it doesnt make their points irrelevant. The doctor doesn't always know best.

Right now the youngsters have anyway come from a very guided design program and now their seniors tell them to design only pretty things. They all look at great designs in great books and just wish and dream that they could do the same things. These books become "inspirations" for their pretty designs and this is what they believe to be the only way to design in India. When they become seniors, they will thrust this belief on their juniors to maintain the status quo of crappiness in the thought process- without having contributed a iota of something fresh or revolutionary in it. All those years of work cited as experience amounts to nothing if one cannot sustain modesty, humility or even the basic romantic idea of free thought.

Perfection comes with practice. Indians love to show off their knowledge of the English language or just what they consider "knowledge" inculcated through their love of books which they believe makes them superior to anyone on earth who doesn't indulge in it. They will go around town quoting inspirational quotes by famous people but one wonders if they really believe in what they are quoting. Because, Indian graphic design, the babies of these very "intellectualised" designers doesn't seem to reflect that. Only when they come around, will the clients come around. Only when they push for concept out of their juniors, will really great work come out. Till then, blaming people is the easiest thing that they can do. We will always stay a nation of artists with work that have hollow souls and generic visual imagery borne out of some lame-ass bullshit shroud under the garb of "pretty design".

Wherever I am, I will keep fighting this mentality and I sure hope I am not alone.

Burnt toasts and favorite seats

A few of us may have received one of those forwards about life's unsolved mysteries which actually asks some interesting questions like "Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?" or "Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there isn't enough?" or "Why do they used sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?" or what I am going to answer here- "Why do toasters always have setting so high that could burn a toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?" Why indeed? And one day at the labs, while I was mulling on this idiosyncrasy of all toaster companies, I saw a bunch of new students troop into class and I wondered about how often it has happened that we sit on the one seat on the first day of class and that seat becomes 'our seat' for the rest of the semester from that moment on. Why do we do that I asked myself. The answer led me back to the toaster!

In middle school, some teachers implemented the policy of seat-rotation where every week, students on each row would move back one row and the one in the last row would have to come up front. This basically meant that noone could change their seats (the row or the columns) or their seat partners no matter how obnoxious they may have been. Plus, the future 'back-benchers" would always dread the week that they would have to come to the front- right in the line of fire of the teacher! What was worse that sometimes, people were actually assigned seat partners by the teacher and in the event of any indiscipline, only she/he had the authority to change the seats!
The situation got better in higher grades as there was no seat roattion and students could change seats and partners - somewhat like the first experiment with promiscuity. However, it did not mean that everyone did it. Me, and almost everyone else, had their "reserved" seats- and quite often people would guard their seats fiercely and any encroachment was not taken kindly. I did not really face this problem as my seat was right upfront (though with the quickest exit to the door in the unlikely event of a fire or natural disaster inside class). The whole idea of back-benchers came about eveolving through college. However, loyalties to seats were less intense in college as students realized that they could get by with coming in late into class. The loyalties were directed more to the side of the room and a certain group of seats which were automatcally cycled between the group.

It's kind of the same in design school as well- where even if students cannot manage the same seat, it will be more or less on the same side of the room with the same group of people around them. Unless ofcourse the teacher kept changing her seat every class- but it was rare. I have sometimes been in the need to venture to new sides of the room if someone took away my seat or there wasn't any space left on my side. The experience can be a mix of anxiety and isolation- to talk to my new neighbors meant that I would have to know what they were talking about or start a whole new conversation- otherwise it is akin to becoming a social outcast (which could also be 'cos of other reasons like my personality! :P).
All said and done, I think it is a experience which serves well in the long run- one gets to know a different bunch of people and realize that the air on the other side of the room is not all that different. We can learn how to adapt to diferent people or better still, which people we do not have to adapt to - you know, people who gel with our personalities, people who we would like to hang out with. Its a good exercise but an excess could mean that you end up not hanging out with anyone and you feel like you really are a outcast and cannot fit anywhere and want to go commit suicide. Okay, not so extreme but I hope you get my point- if you drink too much water and just sit in a cold room, you will want to pee all the time.

So anyway, what does a toaster have to do with all this? Everything. I don't know anyone who really tried the highest setting but I am guessing the result would be a waste of some valuable source of fatty carbs. One could always try it but I am guessing everyone becomes aware of the consequences once they reach near-burnt status on the toaster while testing it out for the first few times. It is after that they end up having a favorite setting - 2 or 3 or even 4 in some toasters. But I doubt anyone will go for 'max'. Different toasters have different heat values- plus a toast is not the same everytime as it depends on other actors like how fresh the bread is and how hot the toaster-coils are. But it takes a bit of experimentation to know what suits us best. I hope you are getting my point. Like on a new toaster we need to find which setting suits our tastes best, we need to move around in the four walls on life and find out if there is a corner we belong to- otherwise, if we don't, there are chances that we may miss our chance to get that perfect crust.