Kyoorius Designyatra 2014: Of great ideas and branding principles

Jonathon Ford, Simon Manchipp, David Berman and Natasha Jen, some of the speakers on the first day of Designyatra, touched upon varied topics in the realm of design and branding

Sarmistha Neogy | Goa | September 15, 2014

Friday, September 12, day one of Kyoorius 2014 Designyatra, held in Goa, saw speakers enlightening the audience through their presentations, highlighting creativity, the power of good ideas and design. The theme for both Digiyatra and Designyatra was 'What If?'

The first speaker, Jonathan Ford, Founding Creative Partner & CCO, London Pearlfish, emphasised on building challenger brands and icons. His topic of presentation was 'Power of good ideas'. Ford stressed on the importance of design as a medium to communicate a message. He hailed it as a great way to connect people and make things better by transforming them. “It is very important to identify an idea, no matter in which colour it is. There are a few designs which come out extremely well, even in one colour,” he said.

Simon Manchipp and David Law, Executive Creative Directors & Co-founders, SomeOne, shared their views on 'What if every brand wants to become a super brand'. They highlighted the need for brands to be playful and 'liminal' – exploring the opportunities at the edges of design, and talked about building 'Brand Worlds' – extensive kits that brands can adapt and apply to a multitude of applications, rather than creating brand manuals. They said, “Brands today are more interested in reaching out to the finishing line as quick as possible, this affects their results. Therefore, enjoy the journey; it is, after all, the journey which is more interesting than the destination.”

David Berman of David Berman Communications emphasised on the need for designers to not just do good design, but to do it good – being honest about their work and creating design that is sustainable, ethical and doesn't harm the planet. Through his presentation, titled 'Making the planet your client', Berman inspired the audience to be the person “who is remembered as the one who left things a little better than what he/she started with.”

Natasha Jen, Partner, Pentagram, focussed on the 'Price of Creativity' and Pentagram's pro bono work, highlighting that a big design fee doesn't necessarily imply better design. She said, “Money can never buy you happiness. Branding is a very difficult business, so keep calm and stay bustling. When you are very passionate about something, you got to do it till you achieve it.”

“I get my source of inspiration from LEGO. These simple pieces of toy are like pixels. We push and pull them to design. Creative projects are very unpredictable and the outcome is really not in our hands,” she added.

Rajesh Kejriwal

Rajesh Kejriwal, CEO & Founder, Kyoorius, shared the process of selecting the speaker and session line-up. He said, “We first decide a theme, then based on it we decide on the speakers. We always try and see that in a day there are at least two or three speakers who have embraced the theme. They are usually very radical people, have taken risks, and then there are those who fit diversion because the audience will get bored if they are given too much of the same thing. This year we started off with shortlisting 68 speakers, and then it is a game of ticking the right boxes.”

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