I got into a design institute knowing absolutely nothing about design. The time I got my admission in college, I just thought I would be good at it because I learn fast and I loved each and everything that was happening around me. The foundation classes started on time, and to my dismay, I was a complete newbie. There were people from art backgrounds and some that even had had design thinking as a course in their schools. They painted portraits with perfect semblance of their subject, made lines straight freehand as if with a ruler, while my faculty Mr. J.L.Naik, was teaching me how to hold a pencil. That was my first year. From then till now, at my third year and on the verge of going out for graduation internships, I reminisce and think about the fundamentals of design I learnt. The following topics are academic to design; rules you learn before you break them. Yet, what design has taught me as an individual is a topic that still gets me to introspect from time to time. More on that later. In this series, we will talk about the very basic elements of design as taught in schools all over the world. So, here we go!

Line

Technically, a point is the first element in design, yet line is where we start learning to create multiple meanings out of them. A line is a form with length and width with no depth. It can mean straight as well as curvy lines as long as points are connected. Multiple moods can be conveyed with a single line placed strategically around principal forms.

Kinds of Lines

• Horizontal lines : Often horizontal lines depict a sense of stability, calm and quiet when used with other forms in perspective. The term “horizontal” is derived from the “horizon” which is again a sign of perspective, distance and peace.
• Vertical lines : Vertical lines depict a strong potential for movement. They are in an unstable equilibrium with their mass and give the impression that they might start moving anytime. Vertical lines are often used in conjunction with horizontal lines as lines of reference while creating perspective drawings and scenes.
• Diagonal lines : Diagonal lines depict a strong movement and they are mostly used by graphic designers,illustrators and comic artists to depict all kinds of movement. Diagonal lines also suggest a strong sense of direction unlike vertical and horizontal lines.
• Curvy lines : Curvy lines can hold multiple kinds of meanings depending on their usage and the context they are placed in.

How to understand this

Make lines. Freehand. Get your thickest pencil, crayon, pastel or whatever you like using. Make your hands move. Go wild scribbling. Do this for a set period of time. Then stop and analyse each stroke. Understand how each stroke makes you feel. Does it convey some kind of motion, speed, emotion, mood, occurrence, anything? Once you start finding meanings, flip the paper over and scribble some more. Carefully note how your hand moves when you form each kind of line. As you scribble away, playing with the properties of such lines, you will understand the feel of every stroke you make. You will soon be able to manipulate them in design you create, be it graphic design or something more tangible.

Color

Color is a beauty to all the individuals that can see it. Initially when I was working with colors and gradients, I found it tedious work until the point I mixed the perfect pearly pink using my pot of crimson and white paint. I don’t have an art background and I never did a lot of color mixing. Color theory was a huge eye opener for me. When my faculty talked about tints and shades and color schemes and all the design lingo started to mush together I tried to make them and know it for myself. Here’s what I learnt.

• Primary colors: These colors are the root of all colors. Red, yellow and blue. In theory, these colors alone can give you gazillion colors when mixed right. Sadly pigments in real life don’t work like that. So when you mix yellow and blue to try and get a brilliant green, you are very likely to end up with a murky green. This is because of the components of each individual pot of paint that we use. While they don’t chemically mix, visually the impurities mix to create a lot murkier colors than we expect.
• Secondary colors: Secondary colors are the first 3 colors that can be created using primary colors. In theory. Practically there is a huge variety of secondary colors formed out of primary colors, depending on the warmth of the base colors mixed.
• Tertiary colors: Tertiary colors are the grandchildren of primary and secondary colors. They have again a lot more variety to them when mixed right out of a paint pot.

Uses of colors in design

Colors depict multiple kinds of moods and emotions depending on the usage. Color psychology is a major topic many designers are studying today. This entails understanding the effect of colors on people in terms of its application in space design, graphic design amongst others. For example red is a color traditionally attributed to warm characteristics like passion and anger, while blue relates with social dependability, stability and calm. So when using colors in your design, keep color psychology in mind and experiment a lot of color combinations that convey the right mood and are visually as appealing as you need them to be.

Takeaway

This was my experience as a newbie design kid, learning about lines and colors. Even though it took me time, it helps me a lot even today when I work on different kinds of projects. I am an industrial design student who needs to take into account every little detail of the form I am creating, and lines and colors certainly play a vital role in that, as I mentioned earlier. Next up, in this series is the usage of space and the role of shapes in design. Until then, stay tuned!

With the increased adoption of internet and social media, word of mouth has gotten a digital makeover, otherwise known as “Influencer Marketing”. Influencer Marketing is a hybrid Marketing strategy that marries the idea of celebrity endorsements to contemporary content driven marketing tactics and that brands can use to create highly engageable content through social media ‘influencers’. According to research, there has been 1500% growth in searches for Influencer Marketing over the past 3 years. This is a testament to the fact that influencer marketing is not only here to stay, but to grow.

Since its inception, influencer marketing has rapidly grown into one of the major online customer acquisition methods. Influencers are generally active social media users who have established their credibility in some industry and have access to a large, impressionable audience. They act as mavens in niche categories such as fashion, health, parenting, food and more, and have loyal followers and high engagement. When a brand engages influencers to spread a message about their products, they get access to their vast group of dedicated followers. While industries such as Fashion and health have been churning out highly engageable influencers for quite some time, recent times have seen a growth in the number of influencers in the Healthcare industry, owing its growth largely to ‘mommy bloggers’.

Influencers vs. Celebrities: Why consumers trust influencers

As customers become smarter and more aware of marketing gimmicks, they become less likely to fall for celebrities promoting everyday products. Owing to this transition of consumer mindsets, brands are foregoing the traditional celebrity endorsement route and employing social media influencers to promote their products. Influencers, unlike celebrities, are ‘real’ people who actually use the products they promote and share their experiences with their followers. They not only list the pros, but also disclose the cons of the product.

Examples of this are all around us. An example would be how TRD studios decided to engage new mothers to document their journey- during and post pregnancy, with one of our healthcare clients. Through this campaign we created a community of brand ambassadors for our client while creating trust and disseminating important information to the target audience.

This kind of consumer-to-consumer marketing relies completely on building relationships, credibility and trust. According to research, 56% of consumers are more likely to buy a product or trust a particular service after seeing it in a positive or relatable light on social media.

Raising awareness through influencers

Numerous brands are now engaging bloggers and influencers to spread awareness and enhance the brand recall for their products. This is especially true for innovative technological products and lesser known services. Influencers can document experiences or host events to promote these products and services.

TRD Studios decided to take this trend a step forward and raise awareness around issues that are often not discussed openly. TRD Studios collaborated with a network of prominent Mommy bloggers and Gynaecologists in Vijayawada to organize pre and post natal workshops around Andhra Pradesh. These workshops were designed to shed light on lesser known, sometimes embarrassing, challenges women face during their pregnancy journey.

Using regional languages to reach potential customers

A report by Google-KPMG suggested that 88% of internet users connect more to advertisements in Indian languages rather than those in English. Content generation & curation platforms are working with not just bloggers who write in English but also a host of vernacular language content creators to spread the word about brands in multiple languages. Through regional content, brands are trying to reach out to and connect with the right audience.

The trend shows that the consumption of regional language content is 1.5 times higher than English. Brands are therefore more inclined to tap into the regional language content consumers and Healthcare providers are no exception. Considering the fact that Healthcare providers need to reach out and strike a chord with both urban and rural people, local language content in advertisements and reviews removes any possible language barrier.

TRD Studios, being an expert in micro-market brand management understands this need and designs all communication for our Healthcare clients in vernacular languages as well as in English.

Enhancing sales and recall through influencer marketing

Brands frequently reach out to and collaborate with influencers to review their products and inform potential consumers about their USPs. Brands also sponsor Giveaways and contest prizes with an aim to create Brand ambassadors among the influencers’ network. Brands, at different stages of growth, collaborate with a network of influencers to tap into an otherwise untouched pool of potential consumers.

Social media is a strong driver of sales and profits for brands today. All brands need to do is to look for the right influencers with creative ideas that are aligned with their brand personality. Through carefully-curated content, influencers can help a brand reach unattainable heights, through nothing but likes, shares and comments.

A few supporting statistics for this growth in sales

• Moms are mostly active on Facebook and Whatsapp and on a daily basis spend over 2 hours on Whatsapp and Facebook everyday.
• Moms are well-connected: Digital and social media is all pervasive, almost all moms own a Smartphone
• The innate trust within the Mom community is immeasurable. Banking on the belief that all moms want the best for their children, women joining the community place a lot of trust on the mommy bloggers.
• Reviews on Hospitals, Doctors and Health remedies from Moms are accepted and trusted by other moms and the use of vernacular language helps these reviews to reach a broader audience base.

In the past few weeks, we have been inundated with a crisis of epic proportions because of the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis has not only taken its toll on hundreds of thousands of lives but also had its impact on the economic health of countries pushing us all towards a global recession. At this critical juncture, the dialogue around the economic impact of COVID-19 on businesses and possible actions to be taken to soften the upcoming shocks is gaining force.

Business leaders are looking at different aspects of their businesses and the economy, at large, to decide the next steps and maintain a semblance of normalcy in their businesses. A general consensus across the board is that this is the time to look inwards– a philosophy followed by many leaders to bring about personal and organizational growth. While there are many areas to consider at this time, the four key aspects we need to start with are-

Team:

As the adage says “Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people”, the team is one of the biggest assets a brand has.

Teams can propel a brand towards success or bring them crashing down. This rings especially true in times of crisis and the current pandemic is no exception. The Coronavirus pandemic not only impacted the physical and economic health of nations, it also impacted the mental health of teams across organizations, industries and geographies. Besides being anxious about the safety of their families and themselves, employees are now also perturbed by the security of their livelihood. Though a number of brands are taking a public stance against termination of employment at this time, job security will remain a concern for employees for the foreseeable future.

In view of this situation, it is imperative that leaders emanate an air of reassurance and security. A few things we can do to boost team morale are as follows.

1. Touch base with your team as often as possible
2. Maintain an open and transparent line of communication
3. Encourage feedback and be clear on expectations
4. Focus of performance and give recognition
5. Create a positive company culture

Customers-

“There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. It is the customer who determines what a business is. The customer is the foundation of a business and keeps it in existence.”- Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management.

A brand’s relationship with its customers is central to the purpose of its business and this relationship is facilitated by continuous and consistent communication. Since the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic, a lot of discussions has centred around the question “Is Marketing an essential activity at this time?”. While experts hold diverse views on this, maintaining a reassuring and consistent communication with current and prospective customers seems to be a recurrent theme.

Some steps we can take to ensure consistency in communication are-

1. Look within your brand
2. Understand what your brand stands for
3. Assess customer’s perception of your brand
4. Create high-impact communication regarding your brand’s ideologies
5. Reinforce said ideologies through different communication channels

Finances-

At one point or other, we have all heard the adage “Money is the lifeblood of any business”. It is also one of the most impacted areas of a business during a crisis. Most businesses are predicting a considerable drop in their revenues in the coming months. This has led most businesses to reconsider and review their cost heads.

This reconsideration has, in turn, led to a number of cost-cutting measures such as termination of employment, suspension of hiring, revaluation of contracts etc. Every business is taking a second, even a third, look at all cost heads, starting with the variable costs. In the midst of all this, a school of business leaders have come up with a slightly different solution to this challenge. Following are some of the cost-cutting measures suggested by these business leaders.

1. Take a detailed and discerning look at the Fixed Costs
2. Consider investing in technologies that decrease dependencies
3. Look deeper into technological and other solutions that boost efficiency
4. Invest in complete System Design to get rid of overheads

Investors-

Last but not the least, one of the most important driving forces behind a business is the pool of investors. Benjamin Graham said, “Even the intelligent investor is likely to need considerable will power to keep from following the crowd”. Though investors are adept at managing risks, a global crisis can make them anxious about the health of their investment.

In times like this, it becomes imperative that the leadership team do their best in alleviating as much fear as possible. This can be achieved by taking the following steps.

1. Touch base with your investors as often as possible
2. Apprise your investors of all the cost-cutting measures you are undertaking
3. Share your contingency plan(s)
4. Create a business continuity plan together

While we all are striving our best to ensure efficient business continuity, we have to concede that right now is the time for people over profit. So, let’s take advantage of this opportunity, Go back to the drawing board, Reassess our brands and Come out of this stronger.

REBOOT. RE-EVALUATE. RE-ENERGIZE

At the stroke of midnight on August-15–1947, India regained its political, economic and social freedom. Ever since we have seen every elected government struggling hard to uplift the nation as an economic power. Today, India is the world’s 5th largest economy and it took 72 years to get there. But, with COVID-19 impacting lives and challenging the social lifestyle, both the Indian and the World economy are going to undergo a massive shift. The world is now witnessing Darwin’s principle of evolution. This pandemic will bid goodbye to the existing economic status quo and ensure that survival is the only priority for all.

How do we reform and emerge strong out of this?

You and I have no fool-proof solution to this, but we can minimise the damage if we can predict the possible outcomes and at the same time have a crisp understanding of the emerging journey.

REWINDING THE MERITS AND DEMERITS

The health of any economy can be measured based on factors like GDP, unemployment rate, inflation rate, repo rate and more. In the past couple of years, inflation in India, by and large, remained stable with 2019 recording the lowest inflation rate. After 2014, price stability was attained to a great extent for which the subdued crude oil prices deserve significant credit. The price stability, measured by inflation, is evident by the contained CPI-based inflation rate that hovered closely around RBI’s target of 4% (±2%). With this achievement, the last 5 years witnessed a couple of major reforms with mixed responses across domestic and international policymakers and economists. We intend to further discuss a few of such impactful reforms.

Demonetisation

On the 8th of November, 2016, the Indian government announced demonetisation. A decision that is still not appreciated by a majority of Indians. 66% see it as a factor that had a negative impact. The decision was taken to counter corruption, terror funding and hoarding of black money. After the implementation, the unorganised sectors that were mainly driven by cash had seen a tremendous blow. This sector contributes ~92% to employment, ~40% to GDP and thus, cannot be ignored. The economies of scale and operational efficiency were disturbed due to the lack of cash availability. Price instability, rise in inflation, were the by-products of this event. This later affected the organised sector and led to a slowdown in the Indian economy. Demonetisation had a major contribution towards the fall of GDP and the effects are faced till today.

In contrast to the disadvantages, there are some lesser-known facts of Demonetisation. It enabled the economy to shift towards a Digital or Cashless economy. Money flow has become more transparent and accountability of all stakeholders have increased. This can help the government to come up with well-informed policies that can benefit the country.

Goods and Service Tax

The Goods and Service Tax (GST) is considered to be one of the biggest tax reforms of the country. This was started to subdue many indirect taxes, benefit small scale business, and benefit e-commerce. The unorganised sectors are now regulated under GST. With GST, the VAT for companies with an annual turnover of more than 5 Lakhs got eliminated and the margin changed to 20 Lakhs. Despite its advantages, GST paved the path to many operational challenges. Most of the firms were not compliant and they had shut down due to mishandling of GST. This, in turn, contributed to the economic slowdown.

Price Stability

Price stability, Economic growth, employment are the key indicators of a prosperous and stable nation. India is heading to join the 5 Trillion U.S Dollar club. Increase in inflation leads to a reduction in demand which then facilitates unemployment due to lack of production. Proper measures should be taken to prevent this vicious cycle. Agriculture, Industry and Services are interdependent and downfall in one among these could easily affect the other two. Service Industry contributes more than 50% to the Indian Economy. Instability in the service Sector can cause a disturbance in the Industrial sector and this will damage the Production/ Agriculture sector. Fortunately, India has had a stable price index from 2018 to until recent.

AFTER THE PANDEMIC

How puzzled are you about the situations that will be created after the pandemic? How many of us are not worried about the bills that are to be paid after 3 months? Have no clue about your personal finance? We are all together in these worries.

But we might also have something big that is still unforeseen. What could it be? Well, the focus is still on survival and winning over COVID-19. The time period of this virus, the exact number of the lives in danger, the lockdown period and the relapse of the disease are all still a mystery and it is not astonishing for the experts and the major sectors to be uncertain.

On studying the present situation, one can clearly analyze the rise in panic buying. This will lead to an increase in the price index. When the crisis is on a huge scale and the duration is unpredictable, the consumer becomes conscious of their expenditure and immediately eliminates or postpones the spend on non-essential items. Electronics, auto spares, logistics, constructions, industries or sectors that need large capital and can generate significant revenue are at a halt and the repercussions are expected to be very much unfavourable. As per IMF prediction, the Indian economic growth can reduce to 2%. The government buckled up for the next three months. A moratorium of credit instruments including EMI and loans for the next three months happens to be a bold move. The decision is absolutely best for the current situation as it helps to keep the demand and consumption alive. For a nation to sustain after this crisis, the demand shouldn’t dry out and consumerism should be seen as the topmost concern. The small sectors shouldn’t be permanently affected and this is one way to give a ray of hope. The schemes like Gareeb Kalyaan, Free cylinder distribution and direct cash transfers to farmers are all evidence of reforms for survival. The government is working hard for the benefit of affected individuals, frontline workers, doctors with insurance coverage of 50 Lakh. But, how efficient can the country be after 3 months? Can this end within 3 months? If the situation doesn’t improve, can the moratorium continue after 3 months are questions that will keep haunting us? So, what next?

FOCUSING ON THE UNORGANISED

Monitoring and stabilising this sector can be of great help to the nation. As this always contributed a huge percentage to GDP, it would be better if the government can overcome the three lags- Recognition lag, Administrative lag, Implementation Lag. The recognition lag is the time it takes for the authorities to discover the need to make a change in economic policy. Administration lag can be filled by identifying required skill sets, providing adequate resources, funds and having an alternative backup if needed. The ideas or strategies must be properly executed. Else, it can lead to Implementation lag.

CONCLUSION

After the survival phase, the growth phase begins. The government has to make sure that we aren’t growing jobless. A dearth of jobs in the market will become a huge hindrance to India actually entering the growth phase. Unemployment opens the door to chaos and poverty. The government has to ensure that the jobs are generated and economic growth happens hand in hand. A special committee can be assigned to minimise unemployment and create new jobs for various classes. Inflation is expected but would be advisable if it is at its minimal. It is time for organisations or brands to pivot, give a new identity, get innovative and reshape accordingly. At this point of social breakdown, a control on misinformation, education of the public on the economy and special shows on economic structures can help prepare the population to face the new reality post-pandemic.