Great design is one of the interesting side-effects of massive social change. When people start rediscovering their identities or defining new ones, they need symbols. That is exactly what’s happening in India, and we are happy to be contributing our One Rupee’s worth to the effort. Here are some of the symbols we’ve designed recently for various projects. Some of them are available in sticker form at our gallery www.wkexp.com. If you have any new Indian symbols of your own, mail us some and we’ll display them here (only if they’re nice, of course).

New take on the Azad Hind Fauj’s ‘Jai Hind’ symbol.

Leopards still roam the hill state of Uttarakhand. Grrr.

Badging that we created for the A1 Team India Grand Prix car.

‘Thambi’, designed by us for HCL technologies. The ancient Indian symbol of enlightenment, combined with the symbol for everyman. Represents the transformation of Indian IT from commodity trader to enlightened enterprise (apologies for the pretentious rationale, couldn’t help it).

When we set up our office in a run-down shopping complex, we had to choose between using the scary public toilets, or building a private loo. We decided to rebuild the toxic public toilet, and hoped that outsiders would appreciate the effort rather than abuse the premises (as is the norm). Interestingly, the general public are treating the toilets with respect – which means it is possible to have a nice community toilet in Delhi. Now we’re rebuilding the one on the floor above us, because it’s not expensive or difficult to do (it takes approx. Rs 2.75L/US$6,000 and 21 days to completely renovate two toilets). The prosperous-looking companies on that floor don’t seem to share our enthusiasm for toilet-building.

Before.

‘Drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden in this area – by order, S.H.O. (police).’

After.

The solar eclipse of 15th January, 2010 will be the century’s longest eclipse, having a totality duration of 11 minutes, 8 seconds (visible in India for 10 minutes, 24 seconds). It starts at 10:44 AM IST (5:14 AM GMT) and ends at 2:29 PM IST (8:59 AM GMT). This is an annular eclipse, that is the apparent diameter of the Moon is slightly smaller than the apparent size of the Sun. Thus at totality (when the entire disc of the Moon covers the Sun), the Sun forms a bright ring (or “annulus”, hence the name) around the Moon.

The eclipse can be best seen in India in the town of Dhanushkodi at the southern tip of Rameshwaram.

Here is how the eclipse will look at totality near Dhanushkodi:

Following this are the scenes of maxima in the major cities of India:

Delhi

Bombay

Calcutta

Bangalore

Chennai

Do not stare at the sun during the eclipse. This is not granny wisdom. It is science.

via techie-buzz.com

The e-bay campaign is a parody of state-run 80’s television in India which often featured sombre, distinguished presenters droning on about such fascinating and diverse subjects as vasectomies, fertilizers, news and world sport. The e-bay TV campaign created by W+K sabotages the same dry tone and delivery within an advice show format where callers seek solutions to their problems. The print campaign is similarly retro in its execution.

Typodarium is a tear-off calendar showcasing 365 different fonts. You can discover a new font everyday, learn the background behind its creation and several other interesting details. Foundries and designers from all over the world were asked to contribute with their favorite fonts. Two fonts created by our resident type geek, Hanif, were selected to appear in this calendar.

The results of the Worldwide W+K Moustache Competition are in. It comes as absolutely no surprise to us that the last man standing is our very own Rajesh Bhargava, who has been cultivating his soup strainer for as long as he could grow one. Here are the results.

THE BIG WINNERS

LOCAL RESULTS

W+K Amsterdam:

Best Moustache – Barney Hobson

Best Tom Selleck – Jonas Vail

Best Woustache – Wendy Richardson

W+K Delhi:

Best Moustache – Rajesh Bhargava

Best Tom Selleck – Kishore

Best Woustache – (There were no entries in this category).

W+K London:

Best Moustache – James Guy

Best Tom Selleck – Pat Mckay

Best Woustache – The twins – Jacqueline Hall and Teresa Bailey

W+K New York:

Best Moustache – Seth Gaffney

Best Tom Selleck – Kurt ‘Reynolds’ Lenard

Best Woustache – Cat

W+K Portland:

Best Moustache – Evan Dumas

Best Tom Selleck – Chris Thurman

Best Woustache – Jess Price – Steel Wool Stache

W+K Shanghai:

Best Moustache – Andrew Wilcox

Best Tom Selleck – Robert Danino

Best Woustache – Anne Halvorson

W+K Tokyo:

Best Moustache – Akio Ida

Best Tom Selleck – (There was no-one to note in this category).

Best Woustache – Tomoko

W+K Exp celebrated its opening with “Skinny Legs and All” – an exhibition of fashion photographs by photographer Bharat Sikka. With great music by DJ Matt, impressive personalities like Manish Arora, dramatic and vibrant photographs and – equally – eye-catching fashion, it was an awesome night. The exhibition will be open from 1st November to 28th November from 10am to 7pm daily, except Sunday. So drop in anytime you are in the neighbourhood.