Our favourite airline turned 5 on August 4th. To celebrate, we brought them a special musical greeting card.

We think they liked it. Happy birthday.

Finally, the long wait has come to an end: Design Indaba special India issue, “Once we were cool” has entered the building. Of course, the arrival of the magazine has been celebrated in perfect Indian style. Which means we had a big launch party.

Design Indaba magazine publisher Ravi Naidoo came all the way from South Africa and Wednesday night we had a beautiful time celebrating India, its culture, its heritage. A good mix of culturalistas, publishers, designers, writers, artists and all sorts of interesting people came out to party with us.

Charming old-school decorations, whiskey cocktails and a good bit of dancing: it was a great night.

Wish you were there.

Once we were cool gift bags with Dewar’s whiskey glasses

V Sunil, Annette Ekin, Mohit Jayal, Annalisa Merelli and Ravi Naidoo

Peter Nagy and Bharat Sikka

Luisa Halle’n, Isaac Vivek and Semaila Khan

A huge thanks to Magique for hosting us, to Dewar’s for the delicious cocktails (the Darjeeling Cooler was a big hit), to Campaign India for all the support and promoting the magazine, and to all the friends who helped out and came to the launch.

“Incredible India” campaign doesn’t need any presentation. What, instead, still deserves a proper one over here is the new book that Amitabh Kant, former joint secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, has written about it.

In “Branding India  – An Incredible Story”, Mr. Kant tells the story of how a country of “twenty-eight states, seven union territories, eighteen official languages and 1.12 billion people” has been brought under one, powerful, and meaningful brand. The book explains everything of the campaign which taught the world that India was Incredible, of how it was conceived, and of the changes it generated (and is still generating) in Indian Tourism.

Sure, Amitabh Kant’s book is a must-read for those who work in tourism and communication business, but its appeal goes beyond: it talks about a great, and great-looking, story of success. Which is why, less than a month after its publication, the book is already in its second edition.

Ex-WK Delhi hands Joe Stamp and Tom Prendergast (of Tom & Joe fame) made a hilarious series of mockumentary videos to promote the National Portrait Gallery recently. Click on the image to view the videos.

Cycle World is the world’s largest circulating motorcycle magazine and it recently did an 8-page story on Royal Enfield. The article is attached.

Download Cycle World Articles

London-based designers Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien of Doshi Levien were in our office on Monday with their bonny infant Rahul. They shared some of their recent work and their illuminating insights and observations on the new India.

Nipa talks about traditional Indian elements and modern design

A photograph taken during a research project in India

Jonathan with their latest creation

www.pocketelectric.in

Last Thursday, W+K Delhi celebrated the launch of the Navigator music video. With a 200-name-long guest list (that kept increasing), 250 litres of alcohol and live performance by Jalebee Cartel, the party went on till 5:00 am. Amazingly, on Friday morning, the attendance in the office was 100%.

Viral (Nokia) and Gunjan (Campaign India)

V. Sunil and Ambrish Arora (Architect)

Amitabh Kant (Joint Secretary of Tourism) and Arun (DLF)

Bombay Electric’s Priya and Deepak

Artist Shanta Rao and her partner

Designers Rohit Bal and Malini Ramani with a tall friend

Model Joey Matthews and hair-stylist Ambika Pillai

Nusrat and photographer Bharat Sikka

V. Sunil and VJ Juhi

Jalebee Cartel doing what they love

Screening of the video