About Le Corbusier

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, famously known as Le Corbusier (1887-1965) was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, and writer. Corbusier is considered the most important architect of the modern age. He shaped the perceptions of modern architecture and of modernity itself. Born in Switzerland and then became a French citizen. In his five-decade-long career, he designed buildings in Europe, Japan, India, and North and South America. Out of 59 projects of different scales and sizes, 17 of them are UNESCO World Heritage List.

What are the 5 points of architecture?

In 1926-27, Le Corbusier developed the five points that would become the foundations for modern architecture. I compare these with Dieter Rams’s Ten principles for good design

Pilotis (Pillars)

Replacement of ground floor supporting walls by a grid of reinforced concrete columns that bears the structural loads is the basis of the new aesthetic. This allows, free ground floor circulation, avoids surface dampness, enables to extend the garden beneath the residence, provides a private outdoor space and a covered parking or host of other activities for the builder or residents to imagine.

A free design of the ground plan

Raised from free-standing columns with absence of supporting walls, means the ground floor is unrestrained in it’s internal use. The space becomes more adaptable to changes, different needs and uses. It also enables an architect to have the freedom to design the outside and inside façade without compromise

A free design of façade

Separating the exterior of the building from it’s structural function sets the façade free from it’s conventional structural constraints. I believe the biggest advantage of free design of façade is that exterior walls can be designed independently from the carrier system. Although this has been contested.

Horizontal windows

The absence of load-bearing walls allow for windows of any size. Large horizontal windows increase the sense of space and lights rooms equally. Horizontal windows also known as ribbon windows are used extensively in his residential buildings to have a better view of outside.

I exist in life only on condition that I see. - Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier uses them as a link between inside and outside, as a vision of the outdoor. He also add colors to natural light, by using different colors around the windows. Here is an interesting article on for and against the long window.

Roof garden

A flat roof can serve a domestic purpose while providing essential protection to the concrete roof. Green roofs provide shade, remove heat from the air, and reduce temperatures of the roof surface and surrounding air. Sound levels are also decreased as per few experts. The main aim and goal behind the rooftop gardens are to lower urban temperatures, improve air quality, and better stormwater management. They can also be put in place to provide shelter or give shade, create play space, grow to produce, or create a green area. I believe the biggest advantage is bringing nature closer to concrete.

There are thousands of articles, Youtube videos to be referenced and understand the great body of work that Le Corbusier did in his life time. This article is just a snapshot to give the larger context of design. If you liked the article, do subscribe and share in your network.

A quick introduction to Prof. M.P. Ranjan

Born in Madras in 1950, M.P. Ranjan joined the NID in 1969 and became a member of its faculty in 1972. He ran the consulting arm of the NID from 1981–1991. During that time he facilitated over 400 collaborative projects between NID faculty and their corporate and government clients. From 1991–1995, he was chair of publications, where he set up a prolific set of design publications. Ranjan was also a prolific writer, publishing in formal publications and via more informal platforms. His two best-known books are Handmade in India: A Geographic Encyclopedia of India Handicrafts and his book analyzing the cultural and material potential of Bamboo - Crafts of India: Handmade in India. He had just begun to teach a new university-wide course on Design Thinking at Ahmedabad University when he left us untimely. Ranjan’s expansive syllabus reflects his deep knowledge of the field of design and his ability to communicate it to students.

Interview

Derek: How do you see the difference between engineering and design?

M.P. Ranjan: Engineering, in my view, represents the technical competence of both the product and the offering. In design, the intention is not only to make the product better but in some cases, to replace the product altogether. The offering may not be a technical solution, it may be a social solution. If the solutions lie outside the engineering realm, engineers will never attempt them. I’m not claiming that designers are doing this, but that is what design is supposed to do. To be able to assess what needs to be brought to bear on the problem and to realize it.

But even designers don’t have the bandwidth to move way outside their own field of expertise to bring in expertise that may be needed to solve some categories of problems. But it is beginning to dawn on us that this capacity is becoming more and more important.

The early goal-setting stages become very critical. Once a goal has been established, we know how to get the hammer and tongs and try to resolve it. But what if the goal is wrong? One goal might be to build a bullet train from Bombay to Ahmedabad. Another is to say that we need improved mobility between these cities, or for the population. So the problem can be defined in a variety of alternate ways. And in alternate definitions, the answer may not involve a train at all!

So, who does this early stage of reckoning? That, I believe, is the domain of design. It is still unacknowledged in our country and in many other places.

My take: “Mobility between the cities” is a remarkable demonstration of ‘first principle thinking,’ a valuable approach for designers when faced with any problem. I strongly recommend employing the ‘5 whys’ technique. These conversations can be challenging and often induce anxiety, as many struggle to grasp the underlying reasons. However, it is in this pursuit that the true essence lies. Allow me to provide an example: a product manager requests a larger AC remote. But before hastily sketching and prototyping a bigger remote, we must first identify the problem rather than focusing solely on the solution. Through discussions and research, we discover that people frequently misplace their AC remotes—finding them under the bed, behind pillows, or, in my case, as a temporary toy for my dog, Mango.

By promptly jumping into the design and production of a larger remote, we reduce the function of the design to mere execution, neglecting the aspect of problem-solving. To address this issue, several potential solutions can be explored. For instance, eliminating the need for a physical remote altogether and utilizing sensors instead. Another option is connecting the AC system to a mobile device, assuming one’s pet is trained not to eat mobile. Alternatively, a small wall-mounted holder for the remote could be considered. By exploring multiple options before committing to execution, we can truly tackle the problem at hand.

We as designers need to build a muscle of “first principle thinking”.

Derek: Would you say that design is a collection of independent fields or an integrated field of study?

M.P. Ranjan: Design, in my view, is a set of related abilities and attitudes that need to be developed. For instance, one attitude is when scientists ask for rigor. On the other hand, when you want to explore, you want to play. That is also an attitude. At an early stage, when you don’t know where to go, I think play is very good. Now, the play seems like a very frivolous way of addressing a very serious problem; but from my experience, many serious problems need playful ways of finding answers. Otherwise, we can remain serious but not get anywhere, because we are still looking within familiar, limited frames. So, changing the frame of reference is a big challenge today. And, I’m not sure which discipline today is able to suggest alternate frames, other than design. Or, what you might call integrated design.

There are different terms being used today. If you go to Carnegie Mellon, they talk of Transitional Design. They are putting together new courses online; if you haven’t seen those, I strongly recommend them ... quite a good line of thinking.

My take: “Play” is such an important concept in any creative field. Creatively solving problems is an outcome of play. Paula Scher in her famous TED talk, “Great design is serious, not solemn“ talks a lot about play. Over-indexing on data, user research makes the design very mecahnical and standardised. You can see the kind of films Netflix is producing, all of them have the same template (especially the documentaries). Play brings in a human connect and possibilities of organically moving towards a better solution.

Derek: Do you think that “design” has potential as an integrated field, or do you think it really makes more sense for design to be treated as a collection of different fields?

M.P. Ranjan: Design skills are important when you are designing. But when you want to talk about design with other people, domain skills are not so important. You need to be convincing, and able to negotiate and build and talk and share and partner with people. So you don’t need to draw specifically from domain knowledge, because it exists outside the collaborative field. But you need the ability to connect to that domain knowledge. Do you understand?

If attitudes of co-creation, collaborative working, and team-building are embedded into a person or a small group of people, then chances are that they will be able to mobilize and bring in the required disciplines from outside.

Another essential skill is the capacity to determine that something is even needed. I am talking about truly transformational work where there is no reference point available for you to say, “Should we do this or not?” when getting close to a breakthrough, for instance.

My take: I deeply resonate with this notion, which was reinforced in my conversations with Itu Chaudhuri and Lisa Rath, and with Sujata Keshavan. Sometimes, the role of a designer is not solely about designing; it’s about being a problem solver, much like a plumber. The key is to identify gaps and creatively, or even smartly, address them.

This principle holds true not only in the realm of service design but also for product designers embedded within organizations. To offer effective solutions, you must adopt a broad perspective that encompasses different business units. For instance, during my time at Jupiter, creating elaborate packaging for debit cards was a significant move. However, when the volume of debit cards to be dispatched increased fourfold, we had to make compromises to ensure delivery within two days instead of ten. This insight was gained through firsthand visits to the debit card departments in Chennai and Mumbai, where I grasped the intricacies of operations and logistics. As the saying goes, “It’s better to be a fighter working in a garden than a gardener working in an army.” Along similar lines, it’s more advantageous to be a problem solver tailored to specific situations than simply a designer in a large organization.

Derek: Are these attitudes common across different fields of design?

M.P. Ranjan: What I am trying to say is that the attitude towards these issues, one facet of which is dealing with other people who have expertise, is critical. So, the question is, how does one embed this kind of capability, quality, or sensibility in a person? Any design program in the future needs to do that.

This means that one of the most important things programs would want to teach (if this can be taught at all), is the importance of building an ethical standard within the person or group going forward. What I mean by an ‘ethical standard’ is the ability to honor the other—which is necessary to get that connection. Also, one needs to believe that the other person also knows something and that there are alternate ways of doing the same thing. One needs to be open enough to look and share. This is not like saying, “I know the answer, and I am going to solve it.” Sometimes, you truly do not know. In brainstorming we defer judgment for a short time; but in design decision-making, are we able to do this? That is where some design attitudes become very critical.

My take: “To lead, you must first serve”. I guess this sums it all.

Frequently, I encounter designers who express discontentment about their exclusion from important discussions or not having a seat at the table. Hear me out: prioritize the resolution of essential business challenges. As Julie Zhuo says, “The quickest way to a PM’s heart is to be reliable”. Establish yourself as a reliable problem solver who tackles critical issues within the organization. Such an approach contributes to the development of designers’ credibility. Engage actively, comprehend the overall context, and subsequently defend your design choices while upholding the company’s values and product principles.

By undertaking these incremental measures, you can equip yourself for success in addressing more significant ethical and moral predicaments stemming from unintended design consequences.

Derek: Patents can be seen as a form of publication. So what is the situation of design publications in India?

M.P. Ranjan: Publications! The situation in one simple word is ... pathetic. Pathetic. There is no better word for it. I’ve written a lot on design publications in India. Look at the latest issue of Pool,8 published last month: I wrote the forward on design publishing in India over the past 40 years and how it stands now. I have not used that word in that article, but I can tell you for the record that the status is pathetic. It can only get better when challenges are set, and when there are platforms that encourage both design schools and design practitioners to write more, share more, debate more, and basically put themselves out there so that third parties can have their say.

Ground-level primary documentation is missing. The secondary level of reflecting on that documentation is missing. The tertiary level of philosophizing and building theory on the first two levels is missing. While there are thousands of design experiences, relatively few people have been through all the many kinds of experience. Design is happening — but there is very little published material that reflects on or shares the experience of design. Only very commercial types of design in corporate India are typically visible. Yet, there is a whole lot of design work happening in the non-corporate space, in the government space, in the non-government space, in the rural sector, and others. It is happening, but it is flying under the radar.

My take: In my observation, the challenge of effective documentation appears to be deeply rooted in India, particularly due to our traditional reliance on oral knowledge transmission.

While I commend the proliferation of numerous design podcasts, YouTube channels, and newsletters, I believe it is essential to gradually shift the focus of their content. Instead of primarily addressing topics like “Using Figma and After Effects for animation” or “Negotiating salary while maintaining work-life balance,” it would be valuable to explore subjects such as “Ethics in digital design” or “Areas of society in need of design intervention.” I am of the opinion that this kind of discourse is not only necessary but also warrants publication if we aspire to build upon the wisdom of influential figures like M.P. Ranjan, whose contributions have shaped our field.

Derek: What do you see as the purpose of design publications?

M.P. Ranjan: There are many levels. They will build awareness and interest in design as a profession, and help design to connect with related disciplines. They will also help change funding patterns, by changing the mindsets in government and business administration vis-à-vis design-related research. Design research is almost non-existent today. Some of us have been working in the field of design research for a fraction of the pay seen in fields of pure scientific research, both in terms of personal remuneration and in terms of facilities we have at our disposal.

At present, there is no platform for recognition. I say that because the Indian government does offer a number of national awards to filmmakers, scientists, artists, and people who contribute to social and economic initiatives, but not a single person in the country has been recognized for anything related to design. How is this possible, when I can list 10,000 things that can and have been done by design? This situation does not bode well for the future. If the opposite were true, we could put into place a better educational system, and attract talent into those institutions and so on. It would have a cascade effect. Both recognition and publication would change that.

Out of the thousands of people who have been trained in design, there are only 10–15 people who have contributed to design publications in this country over the past 50 years. This number has to change; it may change through the new Ph.D. programs. But the problem with these new programs is that they are following the science pattern once again. There is a lot of confusion because a lot of people talk about “design is science” or “design is art”—this needs to be debated. We need to get people to understand that design is not science, nor is it art.

So there is a huge scope for a university program in design that can actually change this situation. If ordinary university programs in design do not create designers, they should at least create design critics. People who are articulating and expounding about design—and raising issues and arguing, to shed light on how the field of design could move forward.

How can we reflect on the issues we face today? For instance, who will take up the case of the bullet train and say whether it is the right thing for India or not? What else could the possibility entail? We leave it to a politician to design a dream, but that dream is only a wish, there are no details in it. When the multinational groups are consulted, they say “Look at Germany: do the same in India.” Is that going to work? Can you imagine the self-driving Google car in Ahmedabad? I’m not challenging India’s ability to do it, but look at our chaotic traffic conditions: there is a long way to go. So, is X the way forward, or is there another way? When considering advanced technology, intermediate technology, and appropriate technologies (these terms have all been used since the 70s, 80s, and 90s) where should we go? How should we grow forward? We also need to understand the ethical parameters; we also need to change a whole host of laws and attitudes in society.

My take: To realize M.P. Ranjan’s visionary goals, I believe we must be prepared to make significant sacrifices. While it is important to cultivate design stars, we must personally take a step back. Engage in discussions, actively participate, and, most importantly, take action. Our focus should be on delivering exceptional products and experiences. Share your work through thoughtful blogging, accompanied by your philosophical insights that complement your creations. It is crucial to showcase your work with unwavering determination. Mere presentations alone will not suffice. Embrace breadth and depth in your endeavors. Venture into uncharted territories and apply your design thinking. Complete your projects and go beyond, contributing further to your field.

During my talk at the Ahmedabad Design Week in March 2022, I noticed a significant number of students aspiring to enter the UI and UX domains. The distinguished guest at ADW was General M. M. Naravane, the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army. He posed an intriguing question, “Why not design insulated pipes capable of transporting drinking water to the mountaintop of Siachen before it turns into ice?” The army, across all sectors, requires substantial design intervention to save lives. This kind of design support is essential throughout India.

Derek: Do you have any further advice for me?

M.P. Ranjan: Your map of design is a worthwhile task. To this end, there are many design summits on record, so you can find out the topics, and learn about the speakers and what they do. You might also consult the journalists who have been covering design. For instance, the Economic Times ran the Design Summit this year in Bombay. Similarly, Mint is a Bombay journal that has been writing about design. Finally, there have been some large individual promoters— large families and industrialists—who have started investing in design because their family members were trained in design. Many of the younger generations see design as a way forward, and I think this is going to change business in our country. At Godrej [a large industrial house] for instance, each of the owner’s family members has a foot in design. One went to IIT Chicago and then came back to build design at Godrej, focusing on developing new products for the bottom of the pyramid market. They have been bringing in IITC professors as their consultants. Godrej is a multi-vertical company, so they can go anywhere on the planet and get people, but I’m not aware of any design school in India that is connecting with them. Similarly, in the Fisher group [a large retail chain], the younger generation is all connected to design. So that is good news for design in the country. But it happens because there are pressures from the outside pushing these companies into design. An example is the new design thinking platform for Infosys, which has announced that they have trained 70,000 engineers in design thinking. Indian industry is under tremendous pressure to put design into their products because global competition is heating up.

My take: Delve into M.P. Ranjan’s illuminating blog post on Design for India, exploring the specific areas where he identifies the need for design intervention—an extensive range of approximately 230 sectors. Immerse yourself in studying his insightful frameworks. Within these vast possibilities lies an abundance of opportunities to employ creative problem-solving through the lens of design.

“Design is a very old human capability that has been forgotten by the mainstream educational systems and the traditionalists alike. Both these streams need to reestablish contact with the discipline if we are to face the vagaries of change that is upon us from all directions.” - M.P. Ranjan

In closing, I express my sincere gratitude to the late M.P. Ranjan for diligently documenting his profound insights throughout his journey. I also extend my appreciation to Derek Lomas for facilitating this interview, allowing it to be accessible to a wide audience. My hope is that these contributions will be of great assistance to designers in their endeavors.

Henry Valentine Miller, an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist devised and adhered to a stringent daily routine to propel his writing. This list of eleven commandments is mentioned Henry Miller on Writing.

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.

2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’

3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, and recklessly on whatever is in hand.

4. Work according to the Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!

5. When you can’t create you can work.

6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.

7. Keep human! See people, go places, and drink if you feel like it.

8. Don’t be a draught horse! Work with pleasure only.

9. Discard the Program when you feel like it, but go back to it the next day. Concentrate, narrow down, and exclude.

10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.

11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterward.

The above points are universal and timeless. They fit in any domain, not just writing. I believe that if one could read between the lines, one would uncover a lot. Following is my commentary on a few of them.

Work according to program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!

Discipline is more important than work. “Work according to program” means following a pre-planned schedule or a system, regardless of fluctuating emotions or moods. “Stop at the appointed time” prevents overworking or burnout. Routine is key to success.

When you can’t create you can work.

There is a difference between work and creation. Working is an action, while creation is an outcome. Work should never stop, while creation has many more moving parts and dependencies.

Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’

Miller felt he was done with Black Spring and only then started Tropic of Capricorn. The theme of the novel “The Black Spring” is freedom and self-expression. Its plot is non-linear, and it has a stream-of-consciousness narrative and experimental style. Perhaps what he wanted to remind himself was that there’s a clear “done” point while you are writing a book. Don’t mix the next book in first even when you see connections. More here.

Discard the Program when you feel like it, but go back to it the next day. Concentrate, narrow down, and exclude.

Great people often contradict themselves and that’s fine. This 9th commandment suggests that while it’s okay to deviate from a structured program when you’re feeling uninspired or need a break, returning to it the next day is crucial to maintaining progress. But as Jodi Picoult (American writer) said “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” So keep writing.

Let me know in the comments sections, which commandment you follow or which resonates with you the most.

The 2026 job market is brutal. Mass layoffs across tech, design and product roles. AI absorbing entry and mid level work. Hundreds of resumes per posting. Recruiters ghosting. ATS filters. Hiring freezes that get announced and then randomly extended. If you are an experienced professional in your late thirties, forties or fifties, you are also competing with younger candidates who cost companies less.

I recently had Joseph Louis Tan on The Gyaan Project. He has seen both sides of the hiring table. He walked away from a 200k role, with a mortgage, two boys under four, and no real backup plan, to coach experienced designers who have hit a wall in their job search. His clients are landing offers for roles that were never even posted.

What he shared reframed how I think about job hunting in this market. So I am putting it down here as ten practical shifts. None of these are hacks.

1. Enter through the backdoor

The traditional job search path looks like this: scroll LinkedIn jobs → upload resume, fill out the same form again → click submit → wait → repeat. Then the silence and doubts creeping your mind.

Joseph calls this the front door. And the front door is broken in 2026.

Picture a club. There are three queues outside.

The first is the main queue.

Hundreds of people, sometimes thousands, all trying to squeeze past the bouncer. In a job hunt, the bouncer is the recruiter or the applicant tracking system. Their job is not to find you. Their job is to filter you out so the hiring manager does not waste time.

The second queue is the VIP line.

The referral queue. Someone inside the company brings you onto the red carpet. Faster response, yes, but you still pass through the same bouncer.

The third entrance is the staff door - ‘the backdoor’.

This is the backdoor. It is how the staff walk in. It is the conversation that happens before a role is posted. It is the coffee chat that becomes “we are about to open a role, you should apply when it goes live.”

Joseph shared a real example. For a lecturer role at NTU in Singapore, the director reached out to him on WhatsApp for a casual chat. By the end of that chat, he had an informal offer. The role was posted online later the same day, purely for compliance. He was already in.

This is not rare. About 70 percent of roles are part of the hidden job market. They either never get advertised, or they get advertised after someone is already shortlisted. The front door is shut for most of the real opportunities in tech, design, product and other senior roles.

2. Know your own archetype

If your job search has stalled, you are probably one of three types. Joseph sees these patterns in every cohort of designers he coaches. He calls himself all three at different points in his 18 year career.

The over applier.

Does everything right on paper. Tailors the resume for every role. Polishes the portfolio. Applies to 100, 200, sometimes a thousand roles. Then doubles down on what is not working. Sends more applications. Tweaks the resume again. The system is selecting against them and they are just adding more fuel to it. Confidence erodes by month four or five. Eventually they start wondering if they should even stay in their field.

The drifter.

They have reinvented themselves multiple times across their career. Opens the job board, scrolls through postings, and nothing pulls them forward. So they wait. Waiting for clarity to arrive on its own. But clarity does not come from thinking. It comes from conversations. Meanwhile the resume gap keeps growing and slowly becomes the story they have to explain to every recruiter.

The veteran.

Fifteen plus years of experience. Hardest time of the three because they never had to sell themselves. Work always spoke for them. Referrals showed up. Then the market shifted and they did not. Their LinkedIn profile reads like a list of job titles, not a story. The depth of their experience is buried.

3. Stop blaming the ATS

The myth that the applicant tracking system is auto rejecting your resume is one of the most damaging beliefs in the modern job search.

Joseph built the workflow for one and has interviewed hundreds of recruiters about how they actually use these tools. The ATS is mostly an organisation system. The only thing that auto rejects you is the knockout questions. Do you have a visa to work here. Yes or no. That is the filter. Beyond that, a human, usually a recruiter, is still reading.

So if you are not getting interview callbacks, the ATS is not the villain. The signal you are sending is unclear. That is fixable. But you have to stop blaming the machine and start auditing what you are actually communicating in your resume, your LinkedIn profile and your portfolio.

4. Get clarity about yourself before you fix your resume or portfolio

Most career advice in 2026 goes straight to the tools. New resume. Better portfolio. Sharper LinkedIn headline. Learn the latest AI tool. None of that moves the needle in your job search if you are not clear about yourself first.

He compares it to fixing your boat when you do not even know where you are going. Maybe you need a different vehicle entirely.

Three questions every job seeker should ask themselves:

1. What problems have you actually solved in your earlier job? What is the common thread across your roles?

2. What are your real strengths? Why does the room shift when you walk in? Not your skill, your judgment.

3. What unique problems are you positioned to solve that someone else cannot?

Once you can answer these 3 questions honestly, the resume, portfolio, LinkedIn profile and outreach all become translations of something you already know.

Joseph’s point was that visual craft and technical skill are now table stakes. Figma themselves shared that 60 plus percent of files on the platform are made by non designers using generative AI. So the differentiator has moved. It is now your ownership, your decision making, the judgment you bring beyond the skillset. The same is true across product management, engineering, marketing and most knowledge work in 2026.

5. Not “I” to but “you”

This is where most cold outreach on LinkedIn dies before it begins.

Look at your last cold message to a hiring manager or recruiter. It probably starts with “I am interested in the role” or “I have five years of experience in” or “I would love to connect because I am exploring opportunities.” Every sentence begins with I.

A hiring manager reads dozens of these LinkedIn messages a week. They all sound the same. They all feel like a pitch from a job seeker to a gatekeeper.

Look at their LinkedIn profile. Did they move from a big agency to an in house role? Did they jump from a large company to a small startup? Did they pivot from consumer to B2B? There is always a story behind those moves. Lead with that. Ask about that. Make the first message about them.

6. Earn the conversation

Even with a thoughtful opener, most job seekers fumble the ask. They end with “Can I get 30 minutes of your time” or “Can I pick your brain” or “Would you mind reviewing my portfolio.” Each of these costs the other person real energy.

Back when Joseph was hiring, he would spend 10 to 30 minutes reviewing portfolios people asked him to look at. Sometimes he would even record a Loom video. What did he get back? Thank you. Or silence. The exchange of value just was not there.

So he recommends - end your LinkedIn message with a multiple choice question. Something the other person can answer in five seconds.

Example. “When you made that shift, was it the mission of the company that pulled you in, or the scope of the work?”

Or. “When you joined that team, was it the people that drew you in, or the problem space that got you excited?”

It is a two hit combo. First you get them to connect. Then you get them to reply. From there, the informational interview breathes on its own.

People are smart. They can spot a “let us grab a coffee so I can pick your brain” message from across the room. You cannot skip to the ask. You have to earn the conversation first.

7. Design the “tell me more” moment

When the relationship works, there comes a moment where the other person turns the conversation around. “Enough about me. Tell me about yourself.”

This is the moment in any informational interview or networking conversation where the dynamic flips. You are no longer a stranger asking for something. You are a peer worth knowing.

But you cannot force this moment. You earn it by listening first. People rarely get asked thoughtful questions about themselves. Not even by their spouse, Joseph said. When you do it, it lands as a gift.

We are hyper connected but not close. Closeness is built one real conversation at a time.

8. Give before you ask. Always.

This is the one piece of career advice almost no career coach gives. Most coaches push you to do more. Better resume. Better portfolio. Learn a new tool. Apply to more roles.

Start by giving.

Go back through every job you have held. Pull up the people you genuinely worked with. The ones who helped you. The ones who shaped how you think. The ones who gave you a chance when you were not ready. The colleague who covered your back when the deadline was coming.

Write each of them an unrequested LinkedIn recommendation. No agenda. No “by the way, I am looking.” Just a note that says, “I was reviewing my career recently and realised I never wrote you one. Here it is.”

No ask. No follow up. Just give.

Joseph has 77 plus recommendations on his LinkedIn profile. What happens next is that conversations restart. Relationships rejuvenate. Goodwill accumulates. And weeks or months later, when you actually need help in your job search, you do not have to ask. People reach out to you. He called it karma. He figured the Indian readers would recognise the word.

In his own career across nine different chapters, the roles that mattered did not come from the strongest portfolio. Sometimes his portfolio was not even ready. They came from relationships he had been building before he knew he needed them. Especially in Asia, in markets like Singapore and India, trust has to come before the ask. You cannot go straight to “let us grab a coffee so I can pick your brain.” It reads wrong and people can feel it.

9. Conversation > Application

Here is the math on job search response rates that should help gain a nuanced perspective.

If you apply through a job board like LinkedIn or Indeed, your callback rate is between 1 and 4% on a good day. So out of 100 job applications, you might hear back from one or two real people.

If you reach out warmly to people inside your target companies, the response rate is 20 to 30%. So out of 10 well chosen LinkedIn messages, you can expect two or three real conversations.

That is five to ten times better. And the conversations are with the actual humans who decide hiring. Not the recruiter. Not the applicant tracking system. Not a black hole.

End of the day, people hire people. They do not hire applications. They do not hire portfolios. They do not hire resumes. They hire people.

10. Depth > Volume of job search

This was the line Joseph closed our conversation on, and it might be the most important one for any job seeker in 2026.

Go for depth over volume. Go for the quality of conversations, not the quantity. You do not need 200 of them. You need three, four, five real ones. That alone can move you further than 100 applications.

His clients typically build a target company map of 10 to 15 companies. Inside each, they identify around 10 people to connect with on LinkedIn. Not to ask for a job. To start a conversation. To be top of mind. To bring an idea or a perspective that is relevant to what those people are dealing with.

This is the bit most people get wrong. They think the backdoor job search means a clever shortcut. It is not a shortcut. It is the longer, slower, more human path. It just happens to also be the one that works.

Build that target company map this week. Ten companies you would love to work at. For each, three people you could reach out to. Start with one.

This conversation with Joseph has many more insights, so do give it a listen. If you wish to get in touch with Joseph, please reach out to him at CareerCreators.com. He has a six week The Backdoor program that help you land the right role paying $30K to $80K, more than you expected. Through direct conversations with hiring managers. Without feeling pushy, applying online, or getting ghosted. Of course, Joseph is on linkedin with 40K+ followers, has helped 50+ Designers land their dream job.

If you know someone navigating layoffs or a long job search, share this with them. Sometimes the most generous thing you can do is hand someone the right door.

Reference links

• Connect with Joseph Louis Tan (Linkedin)

• Career Creators

• Joseph's free 18 question hiring signal quiz

• Joseph Louis Tan Instagram

• Land the next role, faster

• The Gyaan Project Podcast Youtube Channel

• The Gyaan Project Podcast Link

• The Gyaan Project Podcast Instagram

R.K. Joshi

Prof. Raghunath K. Joshi (1936–2008) was a versatile figure—a calligrapher, designer, poet, researcher, and teacher. With 30 years in the mass communication industry, he later taught design courses at IDC/IIT in Mumbai for 15 years. He also contributed to font design software, Indian language word processing packages, and Indic fonts for Windows and Linux. Prof. Joshi organised exhibitions, workshops, and seminars on Indian letterforms, showcased his calligraphic works, and conducted pioneering research on Indian manuscripts and epigraphic writings. He was a renowned speaker on Indian design and calligraphy and received prestigious awards such as the CAG Hall of Fame (1992) and the Ad Club Distinguished Achievement Award (2004). Prof. Joshi passed away in San Francisco on February 5th, 2008, at the age of 72.

Following is a transcript of his 5-part interview on TypeRadio (adapted to reading). This was at ATP 2006 in Lisbon, Portugal. Donald and Liza speak to R.K Joshi.

Part 1

Liza (Host): What sparked your interest in typography?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Actually I was interested in letter forms per se, not so much of typography in my childhood. I saw signboards all around the town. They were really good and I got impressed. I use to wonder who drew these forms? Who are the people? I grew up in this environment. Later in our school, as a part of my higher education, we had this topic called lettering, L E T T E R I N G. No name of typography at the time. And, nothing on calligraphy at the time. We had to do all the Roman alphabet by hand. It was a very tedious job for all students in those days. I’m talking about 1950s’. Yeah. Without understanding the whole historical significance of all these typefaces or the inscriptions or the manuscripts. Great people did contribute to this entire civilisation of humanity. Our teachers didn’t give you any guidance. They just made you practice. They’d say “copy this, copy that and do it correctly”. What is correct and what is not correct. At that time, you had to copy some sheets. We copied them as a teacher would say. But at that time, I was exposed to an interesting article in a book. I forgot the name of the book. There was an article, The Romance of Calligraphy. I didn’t understand at that time - what is this romance of calligraphy. Because that word was unknown at that time.

Donald (Host): Was it a western book?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes. It’s a western book. We had some type of specimen book in our school. We tried to copy them. Millimeter, height, serif, sans-serif, this series and that…

Liza (Host): Were you good? We were you good student?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes. We did this and then I forgot. It was fantastic. All the proportions match and everything is happening. But who does all these things work? You know, still we do not know the type designer, the breed of type designer at that time at all. We thought that we will have an exhibition. So in 1955, I had an exhibition at my art school called, “Know Thy Character”. I thought that each and every typeface has a character. Almost has a life. So the type can talk to me, as I’m talking to you now. That’s how I got interested in this without actually knowing it, but actually feeling it. If I had to use a Bodoni, then I had to be careful. If I had to use Garamond or Gill Sans you know, it’s sans serif. I really got deeper into it and that’s how my interest in, type and typography came up.

Liza (Host): But was there anybody in your family that was also interested in this?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): No, no, no. They say, that you have to have a background in the family or you are an born artist. But, no… I just said that I want to be an artist.

Donald (Host): So was that your conception of your future when you were taking this education? You wanted to be an artist or you wanted to be… (Joshi cuts him)

R.K. Joshi (Guest): See, at that time we didn’t even not know the difference in between art and design. I’m talking about 50s. We called it either commercial arts or fine arts. It came from British to India… So, we also did not know the term called graphic design. In India, after your art school, you go to advertising agency. That’s all.

After my education, I went to an advertising agency and I did my work so well in typography that they said, “Well, you are a typographer”. I said, “Well, thats nice.”

But actually I was really inspired by calligraphy. By great writing masters - Arrighi, Palatino, Tagliente. I saw their work in books and I was very impressed and I tried to copy it.

Donald (Host): I wanted to ask you… there are so many Indian writing systems and very different. How did you try to emanate to these systems?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Good question. Actually, all the time I was exposed to western typography, calligraphy and designs. But, I was always thinking about Indian letter forms. The aesthetics, tradition, cultural importance of Indian letter forms, Indian scripts, Indian languages. All the time I was comparing - “This can happen for Roman script in English, why can’t it happen for my Hindi language in India?” I said, I must know about it. But the answers are not readily available. I had to go to a printing press and do an apprenticeship of composing the Indian alphabets by my own hand for a few years. But it felt complicated and I said, “Why so much of a complication? Why aren’t we able to solve our own issues, our own problems?”

That’s why I always say, “I have inspirations from the West, but something has to happen in the Indian environment.”

Part 2

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Indian sounds, Indian alphabet, visual forms. Such a fantastic treasure is there in India. There are 22 languages about 10+ different scripts, but there is some common thread. I may call it as a phonetics, the utterances. They are planned in some definite way. There are two sounds together, three sounds together, and we have got an entire system in that way. So, the Indian letter forms, from many angles. Aesthetic, historic, calligraphic, typographic, religious, angles. I got involved in so many seminars, exhibitions. Oh, plenty of things to do. And I did it, and still I have to do a lot more, but I get tired these days.

Donald (Host): I understood, it must feel like a struggle to bring all these different languages, cultures, religions together. Are you actually looking for a one singular form in which like the Indian language… (Joshi cuts him)

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Ahhh! You talk to my heart. Because this was the thing I thought in 1968. I said, God, I have to really think of some way. Because these challenges must be there in all Indian languages. I don’t know all languages. I know only a few. So how do I do it? Then, I tried to evolve my own script of that time. You know… if some participant was absent, then I would stand over and read the poem, say in Kannada, which I do not know. So, in 1968, I tried to do a project called Desha Nagari, a common script for all Indian languages. These were exciting moments.

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Of course, you know, the reality on the ground, people always oppose. “No, no. Our language, our script, this common script is no good.” Even you had problems here and in all of Europe. Bernard Shaw said that “Roman script is phonetically absolutely bad, spelling is a problem.” He tried to reform the script himself. Declared a big prize until he was alive. But nobody could get the prize. Afterwards, Kingsley Read, did some work on that and it is based on the Indian phonetics. So, you come back to the same source again. Right? That’s how this whole thing has evolved. In fact, I have some of my type designs done long time back in the 1960s. But at that time, there was no environment. In India, it was hand casting. Who will cut the punches? Who will strike the matrix? Who will cut the type? No real environment was over there. And even people asked. “why do you need new types? We have some types”.

But then I realised, the types are based on calligraphy. Great example was Hermann Zapf in Germany, whom I met and we had long chats that way. So I always felt that unless somebody writes well and appreciates the handwritten forms, no new styles can really come in. Then I plunged like a devil into the area of calligraphy. So my name is always associated with the revival of calligraphy in India. It’s a single man’s work for last 50 years, I’m struggling to reintroduce calligraphy. I mean, Indian calligraphy in India.

Liza (Host): But there are people who will continue the project, no?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Well, I mean, there are now students. Now the students have become teachers, and it’s our third or the fourth generation. All going on. But, look, India is a big country and if I do it in one art school, it does not mean that I have done it in other art schools. You have to go there and talk to them. “Tamil script is so beautiful. Please check your palm leaves and, how nice is your entire calligraphic tradition”... So you have to really move around and do it as a missionary work. This is almost in that way, life’s mission, I could say, that to revive the aesthetics of Indian letter forms.

And, now in context to all the technologies. That’s a more important thing. I did work in hot metal. I did work in prototype setting. Then the digital things is also introduced in seventies there. So immediately I have to check, what can happen to Indian scripts. I worked with few great computer scientist in India. They were happy to see something very interesting is coming up over here. I’m also working epigraphist. I said, look, “Trajan’s Column, Rome’s inscription has inspired hundreds and thousands of type designers in the entire Europe. And we have got thousands and thousands of beautiful inscriptions in each and every Indian script. Why don’t you do something about it?” He said, “What to do? We only can read inscriptions, who donated whom? who killed whom? or, you know, the war details., how will we know?”

I said, “Let’s just appreciate the beauty of these letter forms.” So now I go to epigraphist conferences. And I talk about some of the calligraphy on stones. It is also equally important. I have been involved in this entire research work. I know that who was the first guy in India, in 200BC, who first wrote text on the stone at King Ashoka. His name is “Chapada”. Because he engraved his name by writing, “Chapadena likhitam idam.” Which means, “the great guy called Chapada has written this”. That way I have traced more than 40 names of the calligraphers who wrote on stone, their names are there for the first time in India and it’s whole historical aspect of it.

Part 3

Liza (Host): Also, have you written your name and said, the great calligrapher, Joshi has written this?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. (Laughing out loud). Thats a good one… Actually, in the Indian scene we have no care for our names.

Donald (Host): So you don’t sign your work?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Ha. No. I sign my work. But generally, in Indian Philosophy, you will not see too many people signing their work, because they, really didn’t believe in that in terms of a philosophy itself. Now you may ask, “what is that philosophy?”

You are not a master of your own creative work. It is your assignment. This assignment has come from some unknown source, place or power. You are supposed to do it! You do it and then leave this world. So, you do great things, good things, almost with the sense of responsibility of completing an assignment - given to you by some unknown power.

Donald (Host): And this is like a general Indian notion?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Actually, you’ll find this in so many pockets in India. Faraway places, not in the cities. If you got to Bombay and talk to an industrialists or an artist, they will not agree. They don’t believe in that. They will say, I’m a creator. My name is there and I did this.

One day, I was talking about this with my eye doctor. He was testing my eyes, because I’m almost blind now. He examined me.

Joshi to doctor: Sir, I want to give you a small piece of my work.

Doctor: What is it?

Joshi to doctor: It’s written in Devanagari and it means this

Doctor: Joshi, I don’t agree with you.

Joshi to doctor: Okay sir!

Doctor: When I fix your eyes, I do your entire surgery, with my hands, my skill and I’m doing it.

Joshi to doctor: Sure you are doing it.

(After about six months, in my next visit…)

Doctor: Joshi, in the last visit, you told me something. I thought about it. I talked to my wife and I think we now agree with you. It’s the correct thing.

R.K. Joshi (Guest): So, it’s there and also it’s not there. Right? We can’t say “don’t sign your work or sign your work”. As far as my work, I have treated it as a passion. Mission of my life - on educational front, on professional front, at R&D front, and also on technology front. So it’s there and people can see it. I have many students. They go abroad and then they call me over there, “I’m so happy that you scolded me on that day, etc, etc…”

On the academic side, I’ve introduced calligraphy as part of a syllabus, so few art school in India are now really taking it seriously. A few have not still, so I have to go there and talk to them. (In Hindi, “kuch karo.” - which means, “do something.”) because you are Indians, and you have to care for Indian culture, Indian scripts, Indian language, and Indian aesthetics. So, hopefully things will improve, I’m sure.

Donald (Host): Do you have a favourite dish?

Liza (Host): We’re changing the subject.

R.K. Joshi (Guest): You are asking me all questions (laughs) which are so interesting. You know, I have gone through very, bad patches of hardships. Food was a big problem. I couldn’t get my food. So, now I value it a lot. I enjoy each and every dish. Of course, I don’t eat any meat. But in vegetarian I enjoy all of it. So there is no problem for my wife to cook. My daughters also don’t say that I want this or that.

Liza (Host): Can you cook?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes, I used to cook in twenty minutes back then when I was a bachelor. And, yes, I still cook sometimes. I can do some interesting pickles, you know.

Donald (Host): How long have you been married?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): I got married in, um, sixty four. No sixty six.

Donald (Host): Sixty six, so that makes forty years. Forty four years?

Liza (Host): Forty two? No? Yes. No, forty?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Now you calculate. I’ve lost the track. (laughs aloud)

Donald (Host): You mentioned you had daughters?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes, I have two daughters. Both are good in their studies and they’re quite career oriented.

Liza (Host): Are they interested in calligraphy?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): I have not forced my views on anybody but one is a good poet, and I’m also poet. I’m a concrete poet. All my visual poetry is in archives throughout the world, somewhere in America and in Oxford here. I’m the only guy in India who has done this work in concrete poetry, visual poetry, sound points, typographic poems. So people exclaim, gosh! “here is another experiment by R.K. Joshi”.

So, ya… the younger one writes poems. The elder daughter is good with computers.

Liza (Host): Do you write poems with your daughter? Do you work together?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): No. Her poems are also published. She writes in English. I don’t write in English. I write in my own language.

Donald (Host): Which language is that?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Marathi. It’s a language in Bombay area. I write in Marathi and nowadays I translate them in English also. Few of these poems I have read in conferences in Tokyo, and...

Liza (Host): Could you? That’s it! You know the question!

R.K. Joshi (Guest): (Laughing out loud) This afternoon is really fantastic. I did not know until this morning that I will be revealing my entire life through your great radio to this entire world. Here we are, good friends and we are talking!

Part 4

Donald (Host): Do you have a hero?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): I have two books as my gurus. That’s all. Books are my heroes. I had a teacher who taught me calligraphy, but books taught me more. Ordinary books you know.

First book, when I saw Penguin Type, I said, such work is done by these great people. Who are they? And how did they know about this whole thing? So, that’s book number one. Book number two is more on the Palaeographic study of all ancient inscription by Pandit Ojha. (He was referring to Pandit Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha). He is no longer alive. Oh, yes! I must say that there are three books, instead of two books. The third book is a really the great book called Siddham. S I D D H A M. That’s actually how the Indian script, Devanagari went to China and Japan in about 7th or 8th century AD. Few Hindu priests went with few Buddhist travelers and shared the entire knowledge. That book was entire Sanskrit written by their own tools. You know how Chinese and Japanese are so sensitive to their calligraphic tools. Such a fantastic forms they created and that book was about that. Interestingly this story is written by a Dutch guy. (In Hindi, “Kya hai”, which means “what a wonder”), you know this whole world is just so fascinating.

One Dutch guy, who had gone to China and wrote this in his preface. I really wish and I hope that some day, some Indian artist will see this book, study this whole style and try to bring back the entire beautiful style which has gone from India to China and Japan. That is the book I’m talking about.

Then I fell in love with the whole process of how you concentrate and how you take care of your tools and how they bring the strokes through you. I studied the whole thing and I experienced this great spiritualism of calligraphy which Zen monks have, and India is also spiritual at heart. And, then I tried so many experiments with huge tools which I cut myself. Dipped into bucket full of ink, did some strokes and an interesting exhibition happened in Germany in 1998 with another great calligrapher, Werner Schneider from Wiesbaden Art School. So, three books are my heroes.

Liza (Host): Which is the most beautiful word for you in any language? Not necessarily its meaning, maybe what it sounds like?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): That’s a nice question. You people are really professionals. Yes, I’m interested in the sounds of the words. Meaning is all right but the sound. Sound of the word “OM”. A U M. To chant it… I really love the whole aspect of it. The chanting of the OM. The priest and the yoga people do it, but I have some different take to that in terms of how these variation in sounds can be put in calligraphy.

I always kept my base quite strong all the time. OM is that word. You can call it a word although it is a single syllable but yes, OM is the word to answer your question.

Donald (Host): What profession you would have chosen other than being a calligrapher, poet, whatever, what you’re doing now?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Actually, I would still be born as a teacher if I ever had a second life. It’s because that, it gives me a great satisfaction… not really being a teacher in a normal sense. But a teacher is always a student, in that sense because only then you can study a lot more and impart the things. I always tell my student, I have taken 25 years to think about this, and I’m sharing this to you this afternoon, so that you can use those 25 years of your life in some better ways or advanced thinking. Don’t spend that much of a time on that. That’s a great feeling. You become empty every day and you have to get filled in every day. You come there next day and you are a new man. Last night, you were empty. You had to again face these young people. They are going to ask you hundreds of questions. So, it’s a great challenge. Poorly paid. Poorly looked after. But, money is not the thing. So, I would be a teacher again, so that I can learn and share many more things.

Part 5

Donald (Host): So does money make the world go round?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): No. But actually, I have nothing against money. In fact, I’ve lived a miserable life without money. So I know the value of money. But you know, you don;t have to be after it all the time. It will come to you. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “There is everything plenty in this world for your needs, but not for your greed.”

Obviously one has to travel. Now I’ve come from here, I had to beg, borrow or request someone, or take it off from the kitty, but it’s not a big deal. If you put a price for your knowledge giving activity, you are doomed. I know that people downstairs will not agree with it (Laughs), but that’s okay. They have their views, I have mine.

Liza (Host): Do you have any rituals you do? Is there something that you do every morning before you start work?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes. I think, I haven’t told this to anybody so far; even to my people back home. As soon as I get up, first thing I’ll do is… I will give some water to some plant. Any plant. If there is no plant, I will just say, “this is for the plant”. In Indian systems, there is a provision for this. If there is no plant in the hotel, I don’t open the door and search. Yes. This is the first thing I do it everyday, giving water to a plant.

Then I stand facing to the East. Knowing East is important for me; not for travelling around but for my morning ritual. I stand facing the East, I sip some and sprinkle some water in all ten directions - East, West, North, South, Up, down and so on…

Then, while facing the Sun, I hold some water in my hand. I try to stand on 1 leg and chant the Gayatri Mantra 10 times. Of course, my one leg is stronger than the other, so I switch - 5 times on one leg and 5 times on another, reciting the Gayatri Mantra and then drink the water. This is the ritual for me everyday, anywhere I go, India or abroad.

Donald (Host): We have one more request. Could you recite one of your poems for us?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Actually, I am a very bad poet. I say this because, I don’t have any of poems by heart. You know, in India, especially from the North belt, they recite poems like mad. One page after another page. They don’t look anywhere. It just comes out of their mouth. I say, kya karte hai? Kahan se aata hai? From where did it come? How can they recite their poem about eight pages long without stumbling, or stuttering. But I’m dead opposite. I don’t remember any of my poems. Also, when I write a poem, I can’t find my poems in my house. So I write a new poem.

Liza (Host): That’s a good solution. (All of them laugh)

Donald (Host): I have one last question, which is more powerful, the written word or the spoken word?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Always spoken word. I’m saying this, though I’m attending this conference, who believe in written word.

Yesterday, they asked us, what are the areas you think are important for us to probe into? Few people suggested their things and I said, another area is speech. We really now get our attention to the speech, the spoken word, otherwise we will lag behind.

It takes so many years for calligraphers, typographers, type designers, printers and all those people who have worked so hard to reach here. But spoken word comes first.

To end, I would like to share a Sanskrit line,

“ākāśasya dharmaha śravaṇasya pratītiḥ.” ākāśasya dharmaha means, “the words are everywhere in the sky”. śravaṇasya pratītiḥ means, the experience of listening. It’s the experience of listening to words. So spoken words come first.

Donald & Liza (Host): Which is the point of Type Radio. (All of them laugh out aloud)

Hope you like it? You can tune into the conversation here. Please do share this post with as many people as you can. Especially Designers in India. We are reaping the fruits of all their life long hard work. We are standing on shoulders of giants. A small way to celebrate these giants.

This post is a growing collection of podcast episodes that have stretched my thinking about language, and its capacity to make us more human.

This is a living list. As you remember episodes that moved you, drop them in the comments.

It’s an ongoing list of podcast episodes. Please do comment if you find more.

Today, I am making a small request with a lot of mixed feelings.

The YouTube Partner Program is now turned on. If my work of last 10 years has meant something and added some value in your life, you can now support it.

• Open any of your favourite TGP episode

• Tap the “Thanks” icon (Next to share, like icons with $ symbol)

• Contribute any amount. (Generously 😉)

• You can also consider making a recurring payment of $2/ month to support The Gyaan Project by Joining

Of course, you can do this for upcoming episodes also.

This amount will be used for upcoming book, better quality production, deeper research, and running the project. Hopefully, I do this full time someday.

Thanks for your support!

Kedar.

We discuss four bold initiatives the Maharashtra government to help non-Marathi rickshaw drivers learn to read and speak Marathi.

Recently, Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik announced that starting May 1, 2026 (Maharashtra Day) every licensed rickshaw and taxi driver in the state must be able to read, write, and speak Marathi. If they fail the test at one of the state's 59 Regional Transport Offices, and they will lose their permit.

That’s roughly 5 lakh drivers across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and about 15 lakh permits statewide who now have to demonstrate proficiency in a classical language with gendered nouns, postpositions, and a script.

Here are 4 pillars to make this happen smoothly honouring all rickshaw drivers of our free and independent India. (actually Maharashtra for now)

Pillar 1: A Free Duolingo-for-Drivers Partnership

Every registered non-Marathi rickshaw driver will have Duolingo pre-installed on their device, with the full Marathi course unlocked.

Duolingo doesn’t actually offer a Marathi course. Marathi is the 19th most-spoken language in the world with over 83 million native speakers, but Duolingo shut down its volunteer Incubator program. So there is no course.

But not to worry. Since Marathi was granted Classical Language status by the Union Cabinet on October 3, 2024, the Maharashtra government is just now in “active negotiations” with Duolingo HQ in Pittsburgh to have a full course built, tested, and deployed before May 1, 2026.

Drivers will be required to practice five minutes a day, with compliance monitored via the Sanchar Saathi app — the government’s telecom fraud-tracking platform. This is part of Skill India Mission.

Pillar 2: One Marathi Play Every Weekend, On the House

The average Mumbai rickshaw driver, after CNG and permit fees, takes home roughly ₹500–600 a day for driving ~75 km over a 12-hour shift. A ticket to a any local theatre play costs more than that. So the state will organise 52 free Marathi plays per year.

Drivers must photograph their ticket stubs and upload them to DigiLocker. Twelve plays minimum to qualify as “Marathi-speaking.” This will also boost local culture, and Marathi asmita. A rickshaw driver who works 12-hour shifts will now entertain and learn in one go.

Pillar 3: ₹500 Ladki Bahin Top-Up for Female Drivers Who Pass the Marathi Test

Women rickshaw drivers who clear a basic Marathi examination; conducted weekly at schools and colleges across the state will receive a ₹500 top-up to their existing Ladki Bahin Yojana payout of ₹1,500/month.

The promised hike from ₹1,500 to ₹2,100 announced in the 2025–26 budget still hasn’t materialised as of April 2026. Also nearly 25 lakh women were recently purged from the beneficiary list for being “ineligible.” But I am sure ₹500 more for passing a Marathi promise will be fulfilled. A small price for cultural assimilation.

Pillar 4: AI-Translated IPL Commentary in Marathi

India AI Summit was a roaring success and we are Digital Bharat now. This 4th pillars is called “entertainment as education.” The government has commissioned an AI team to work on auto-translating all IPL commentary and all songs on YouTube, and radio into Marathi for the drivers’ real time on the device. These new SDKs will be installed just like Sanchar Saathi App.

This is not the first time the state has tried this. In early 2016, the government issued an almost identical circular. It was challenged by driver unions. In March 2017, the Bombay High Court quashed it as illegal, noting that Mumbai’s ~2 lakh rickshaw drivers are overwhelmingly migrants from Bihar and UP and that the rule effectively deprived them of a livelihood.

The current attempt is built to strengthened language norms. Worth also noting that the man whose complaint triggered the entire verification drive is BJP MLA Narendra Mehta of Mira-Bhayandar from Pali district, Rajasthan, is demanding stricter scrutiny of migrant rickshaw permits.

He pointed out significant inconsistencies in the issuance of permits, badges, and licences in his Mira-Bhayandar constituency. Newly arrived migrants were allegedly being granted permits too quickly, without proper checks.

Keeping all of that into account, the government decided to not ask the license-issuing authorities any questions, but decided to audit the drivers instead. I think Mr. Mehta is inspired by Albert Einstein’s famous quote:

“We cannot solve problems with the same thinking that created them”

Leaders chosen by the people have to serve the people, and they are doing that most diligently. Please ignore the noise and see the intent of the government, as the Honourable Prime Minister himself reminded us recently. Intent is everything.

I wish all non-Marathi drivers the very best of luck in passing these exams. There are, as we've seen, so many wonderful initiatives rolled out by the government to ensure you learn peacefully, without ever feeling threatened of losing your livelihood. Take it easy. Download that Duolingo course. Book your Marathi play. I'm sure you'll learn Marathi by May 1.

I'm curating 101 questions and answers from over 300 conversations on The Gyaan Project Podcast. It argues to change how you see Design.

What this book hopes to do - Expand your definition of design through a series of 101 questions and answers.

Who this book is for - Curious minds and creative souls from any background. Those who desire to see design in places they’ve never seen before

The book is still taking shape. No launch date yet. But you're seeing this first.

A short survey. Your vote goes directly on the cover. It will take 2 mins and will really mean a lot to me.

The survey has a few more fields if you wish to follow the journey.

More soon. And thank you.

Kedar

P.S. The manuscript is 99% ready. Permissions, typesetting, cover design and more to go. If you have suggestions or feedback, comment below or email me at thegyaanprojectpodcast.

This week’s SamaChar is slightly different. Instead of sharing 4 Q&A from past episodes, I am sharing my 30 learnings from a Poet - Mohammad Muneem Nazir (Alif). We spoke about poetry, pain, philosophy and art in episode 265 (Feb 2023). The episode ends with a beautiful recital from him. Do tune and listen to the amazing conversation.

Mohammad Muneem Nazir (Alif) is a singer, songwriter and poet who sings and writes in the Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi languages.

Micro Gyaan (from a poet to all artists).

1. A poet is anyone who can transport you from one state to another. If a thing has that capacity, it is poetry for you.

2. Ghalib could have gone to a therapist in BKC. What you do with your pain is your choice.

3. If you decode the magic, it is not magic anymore.

4. Do not try to control what your art does to other people. If you try to control that, you will have a lot of anxiety.

5. As a creator, the choice is only yours. You can create to be liked by the audience, to express a piece of yourself, or a bit of both. It is your choice and there is nothing wrong with any of it.

6. It does not give you any high if you cannot take risks.

7. Fans get hooked on a certain version of you. When you change your style, you face rejection. That is the cost of growth.

8. You are not born an artist. You get comfortable in the skin of an artist because you choose it.

9. A prerequisite for any artist is the comfort in wanting to express yourself.

10. Experience is the biggest thing to acquire. Experience of making mistakes, experience of doing things, experience of riyaz.

11. Creativity is a feeling, but there are tangible ways and rules to express it. If you know the rules, you can break them.

12. If you do not know the rules, you are lost. You have to know how to sing in key to be able to sing anything.

13. Even poetry has mathematical balance. If it does not have that balance, it cannot be called a ghazal.

14. Sometimes the masters will not tell you how to crack it. That hustle to figure it out yourself is part of the learning.

15. Music and words are something people can take back home.

16. Presenting your work is like serving a meal. When do you put the dessert cup, when do you put the tea cup. That sense comes from the experience of making mistakes.

17. Sometimes your work makes people uncomfortable. Sometimes people may leave. That is part of sharing what you believe.

18. Ishq-e-Majazi (worldly love) is often the doorway to Ishq-e-Hakiki (love for the divine). Your earthly passions and desires are the path.

19. How you react to things is the most beautiful thing. That comes with training.

20. Be okay with not being okay.

21. If you decide today you are an artist, you are an artist. The journey from one person to 15 lakh people liking your work is a matter of time.

22. You do not know who you are, you decide who you are. You do not have to take permission to be yourself.

23. The greats - Muhammad Ali, Steve Jobs, or Virat Kohli - They were already that thing in their minds before they became it in reality. Identity precedes achievement.

24. We often do not do things because we are scared to fail. Imagine what magic would happen if you and the universe decide to take this decision together.

25. Allow yourself to be nothing and to be everything.

26. Everybody has a different process to find their muse. Some run, some need dim lights. As you grow, you figure out what your muse is.

27. What you think in a language, it is very easy to express in that language. The ring of a language cannot be explained in another language.

28. What you cannot express in words, you show visually. What you cannot express visually, you say in words. Where one stops, the other takes it forward.

29. You aspire to be inspired daily. The day you do not feel like doing your work, force yourself to do five minutes more. That is when you understand your strength and passion.

30. If you cannot explain it simply, you have not understood it enough.

Mohammad Muneem Nazir (Alif) ends by saying, I’m learning from wrongs. What I have to say may not work for you. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.

Do tune into the full conversation:

What do you think of today’s SamaChar? Please let me know in the comments if these takeaway are helpful and please share in your network.

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Welcome to SamaChar - A newsletter from The Gyaan Project podcast that brings you char (4) insightful Q&A from the past episodes. This week we revisit our episode 201 with Architect A Srivathsan released in Nov 2020 - Designing temples.

Dr. A. Srivathsan is an architectural scholar with more than twenty-five years of experience. Before joining his role as the Executive Director of CAU, Srivathsan served as the Academic Director of CEPT University for five years. He holds a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology along with a Master’s degree in Urban Design, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

We spoke about Ram Mandir’s architecture in Ayodhya. There are 2 main issues with it’s architecture. First, it’s more of a political project than a religious project. Thats why we see South Indian, Eastern and Northern styles fused together in the architecture. This is to appeal to larger national group of Hindus - so there is nothing new or inspiring in the design. Second, it’s built on a problematic site where you can not erase the history of demolition and fights. Even if you ignore the politics and look at it purely as design, much better could have to done.

Following are 4 Q&A from my conversation with him around design of contemporary sacred spaces, mainly the Hindu temples. This is a must read for architects and anybody interested in design.

1️⃣ If temples are public spaces, why exclude certain people?

Short answer:
Open doors, closed minds.

Long answer:
Theoretically, all temples are public spaces and open to everyone. That is the common perception. But the reality on the ground is very different. The Travancore temple was among the first to open temples for various castes, and that was only in 1936. In Vaikom (Kerala), it was a struggle to get even the streets around the temple open for people. Gandhi accepted to inaugurate the Lakshmi Narayan temple in Delhi in 1939 on a condition that it will be open to everyone, including Dalits. But the architecture itself didn’t have physical blocks. These prohibitions are social prohibitions, which are far more powerful. The upper castes having complete control on lower castes, men having control on women, that is the most effective restriction. Architecturally speaking, there were no devices. The walls were inside people’s heads. And that struggle continues even today.

Is it good to ban non-Hindus from entering temples? Let me know what do you think in the comments section.

2️⃣ Why are temples so ornamental?

Short answer:
To tell stories.

Long answer:
Ornament is not to be viewed as we now view it, as some extra thing, some excess that is embellished after building and can be removed if you don’t need it. Ornament traditionally is very much part of completion. Without the ornament, a building will not be complete. It plays multiple roles. At a simple level, it helps you tell a story. It is part of the narrative. But at another level, these are not only symbols of prosperity, they are that itself. Even in a traditional residence, at the entrance you would find elements which to an ignorant eye will look like ornamentation. But those are the ones which produce a sense of wellbeing into that house. They are not superfluous. So in traditional temples, ornaments are not decoration. They complete the building. Remove the ornament and the temple is incomplete.

Out of 7,50,000 registered temples in India, which is your favourite?

3️⃣ Which is the most sacred material to build temples?

Short answer:
Stone was for the dead.

Long answer:
There is a very interesting history here. The most preferred material according to traditional texts is not stone as we now think of it as the best and most expensive material. The most preferred material is wood. Then followed by stucco, brick and stucco. Stone comes later. In fact, some archaeologists think stone was actually a taboo. At least in South India (which I am more familiar with), stone was associated with funeral rites. For a long time it was not used. Much later, post sixth or seventh century, stone became a preferred material. Same goes with the deity’s idol as well. So materials have changed over time. This pattern was certainly prevalent in South India, but since some of the original texts trace their origin to Kashmir and the north, it would have had a wider prevalence. Currently, for various reasons, concrete is the most common material in temple construction.

Praveen Mohan’s Youtube Channel is great in decoding ancient religious architecture.

4️⃣ How are contemporary architects innovating in temple design?

Short answer:
Perforated walls, radical temples.

Long answer:
I have looked at eight to nine temples built in recent times and each architect has adopted different strategies. For instance, Sameep Padora (from SPA) designed a Shiva temple where the Shikara and sanctum are fused into one monolithic structure without any ornamentation. Unlike a traditional temple where the top is closed, he opens it out for sunlight. It sits beautifully in the landscape and local citizens have embraced it. Then there is a temple near Hyderabad designed by a young architect S. Krishna. He used long bricks turned around to create a very abstract Shikara. But his most important move is that he perforated the boundary wall. Normally that wall separates sacred space from the outside. You never perforate that. But he did. You can see the temple inside and the village tree outside where people gather. He is redefining the temple as an extended social space.

An amazing talk and list of modern temples from an architecture’s lens at Studio Matter’s Frame 2019

If you wish to listen to more details, here are links to the full 50 minutes conversation with Dr. A. Srivathsan

TGP has been labour of love since 2016 and I would highly appreciate if you can share this to as many people in your network. The subscriber count isn’t increasing and I need your help.

I’ve published a form where design and art students or early career professionals can ask any question they have around career, design philosophy, tools, skills, or anything that’s a creative roadblock in their way. This link will always be open for ongoing questions. I will be answering a few of these in long form episodes in our Off Grid episodes - so please do subscribe to the The Gyaan Project Youtube Channel.

In the first episode, we discussed a question from Bangalore posted on 8th December 2025.

The actual question was,

“We often describe ourselves as “multidisciplinary designers,” but why don’t we see more people actually living multidisciplinary careers? For instance: a product designer who works in tech during the week, and also takes paid furniture commissions or runs a ceramics studio on the side professionally, not as a hobby.”

Umesh and I tried to unpack it and came up with different ways of looking at this. We don’t have much context for the question but still tried to address it to the best of our abilities.

Context switching is tough

When you work deeply on a product, you’re thinking about it even when you’re not at your computer. Walking, taking a shower, everywhere. Only execution happens at the desk, but everything else is in your head constantly. Switching between two serious practices is genuinely hard. It’s not about time but about mental bandwidth.

We don’t see many people living truly multidisciplinary careers because serious work demands deep focus, not just time.

What is being multidisciplinary?

Most people can realistically manage only two or three major buckets in life. Work, family, and one personal pursuit maybe. Doing a job and being a mother, in my opinion, is still being multidisciplinary. We in India still have a lot of responsibilities. Physically we might have moved to become nuclear families, but emotionally we are bound by the society around us.

These days, the third bucket is often consumed by social media or recovery time. Adding a fourth bucket like furniture commissions means something else must be sacrificed. What do you think one should let go? (Let me know in the comments)

Indian economic reality

Money changes the equation. A gig worker juggles three jobs out of necessity, not passion. Artists and poets diversify because one medium rarely pays enough. But a Senior Product Designer in tech is making good money. They don’t have to do screen printing or print wedding cards on weekend.

The financial friction of starting a second professional practice isn’t worth it when one stream is already comfortable. Multidisciplinary drive usually comes from either curiosity (refusing to be boxed in) or necessity (needing multiple income streams to survive).

We see many international artists who work with glass and textile, or UI and LED lamps. That’s because if they fail, their government is not going to let them die of hunger or go without shelter. The ecosystem is designed to support art and design.

They exist. You’re just looking in the wrong places.

It’s not as bad in India as it sounds. There are people actually doing multidisciplinary work. They just aren’t loud or openly talking about it on social media platforms. Because they’re too busy actually doing the work.

Lafa Labs in Goa does material science and stationery. Rock Paper Scissors experiments with materials alongside client work. Ink & Gradient in Koramangala are architects now doing letterpress professionally. There’s a designer from Uber India who runs sold out pop up dining clubs. A guy in Singapore ran a letterpress studio while doing graphic design as his main job.

Once you get into these smaller communities, you will know how deep the rabbit hole goes. Lot of people are doing multidisciplinary work in their own ways.

To summarise

A long LinkedIn bio? Being busy in real action? Taking care of old parents? Helping kids with school assignments? Posting on social media? All are different jobs and according to me all are being multidisciplinary. There are no right answers to what one should prioritise over another or what gives them more joy. It’s best if we define what multidisciplinary means to us and become one. Hope this helps. Please let me know in the comments sections what do you think?

1. Thumbnail → Click Through Rate

Your thumbnail is the billboard. It needs to be impressive, relatable, and click-worthy. YouTube watches whether people click when your video shows up. No clicks, no distribution.

2. Title → Search Discovery

Your title should work like a search engine answer. When someone types something into YouTube’s search box, your title should feel like exactly what they were looking for. Be useful before being clever.

3. First 1–3 Minutes → Retention

YouTube tracks whether people stay after clicking. Did the video deliver on the promise the thumbnail and title made? If yes, it gets pushed to more people. If not, it gets buried. Those opening minutes are your audition, for every single video.

Everything on YouTube is designed to be helpful. We just need to understand the mechanics well enough to make sure our content lands correctly.

Making intros that hold attention

1. Option 1 — Show episode highlights. Pull the best moments from the episode and stack them upfront. Examples: Sunita Williams On 286 Days in Space, NASA Missions & Astronaut Mindset | FO461 Raj Shamani, OR Naravane, Parliament Chaos to Moral Potatoes & Trump’s Monkey to Trade Deals | Teen Taal S2 Ep 142.

2. Option 2 — Host-driven teaser. The host walks through what’s coming, with lots of B-roll. Example: Ep. 313 - The Philosophy of Order in Design with Prof. Kirti Trivedi.

No right answer. Keep experimenting till you hit a sweet spot, then keep inventing as consumption behaviour changes.

The more, the better

Each episode can be sliced into multiple short-form clips that drive traffic back to the main video. Alex Hormozi says, 1 post a day is not enough. 450 posts a month minimum.

Great references

Following videos / channels are master class on understanding Youtube

1. Paddy Galloway

2. Think Media

3. TubeBuddy

4. Alex Hormozi

5. Ali Abdaal

6. How Mr. Beast Get Over 100,000,000 Views Per Video

7. MrBeast Shares His Best YouTube Advice

8. GaryVee is one guy to follow

Where to find B-rolls & audio

1. Pexels Videos

2. Pixabay Videos

3. Paid B-roll: Storyblocks ($21/m, unlimited downloads)

4. Motion Array ($16/m)

5. Personal hack - Screen grabs from YouTube videos work too — just keep any single clip under 6-8 seconds to avoid copyright issues.

6. Royalty-free audio: YouTube’s built-in library + NoCopyrightMusic channel

7. AI-generated stock footage & music:

   1. Suno (music)

   2. Sora (video)

   3. Kling (video)

Where and how to record interview

1. Recording & editing: Riverside — record, edit, and repurpose in one place. Cuts post-production time by 50%.

2. Repurposing: Opus Pro — AI-powered clipping of best moments. Great tutorials on site. You can also try Cast Magic.

3. Descript - AI-editing for every kind of video

There are many good alternatives. These are which I have used and worked fine.

How to distribute

1. Buffer — post to X, IG, YT, LinkedIn with one click.

2. Hootsuite — pricier, but deeper analytics.

Hope this helps. Please let me know in the comments section if you got questions or more things to be added to the cheat sheet.

Dhawal Ashar is a Head of Sustainable Cities & Transport program at WRI, India. His work integrates transport engineering and urban design to improve safety and sustainability in cities. The following SamaChar has 4 interesting questions and answers from the main episode. Know how Mumbai moves, how transport planning process happens, why do we have traffic jams and hopeful future of Mumbai’s transport design.

It’s an essential read for designers, planners, students, and citizens who care about cities. Listen to the full episode and share it with friends, family, and design and art communities.

1️⃣ How does Mumbai travel?

In short

51% on foot.

In detail

First let me explain what a trip is. Assume you are going from your house to office on a train - thats one trip. (your return journey is another trip). This trip has 3 legs. First leg, from your house to station, then your train journey and third is from station to office. You can walk, get an auto, ride a bike - That doesn’t matter.

We are looking at over 15 million trips that the city of Mumbai makes each day. I am quoting this from a study that BMC did in 2014 called the Comprehensive Mobility Plan. About 70%+ commutes by the train. Then you have the BEST, followed by IPTs - taxis, auto rickshaws and now the Ubers and Olas, followed by motorcycle, followed by car. All of this is just the motorised trips. The study estimated that about 51% of all trips in Mumbai happen on foot. Personal automobiles are 5-7% of all trips that happen in Mumbai. So largely this is how Mumbai travels.

2️⃣ How does transport planning process happen?

In short

Surveys, mapping and projections.

In detail

Transport planning is a four step process. Trip generation, trip distribution, mode split and trip assignment. We do surveys, go to households and ask people about their daily trips. This is what we call a trip diary. That becomes our base model of what is happening right now. It tells us how many trips are being made and why they are being made.

Based on that, we do projections based on many scenarios. We then assign trips to every link (road). We know the capacity of that road and we also know the volume on that road. When the volume is more than the capacity, then that is a jam. That is how problems get identified.

For smaller projects, we do a traffic impact assessment. For city level studies, we divide the city into zones. This entire process helps us understand where pressure exists and where interventions are required.

3️⃣ Why is there so much traffic on Indian streets?

In short

We are loosening the belt than becoming healthier.

In detail

First, we put traffic signals. When jams go past the previous signal, we make the road one way. Many roads in Pune and Bangalore became one ways for this reason. When one way gets saturated, we build a flyover. When the flyover gets saturated, we build another flyover on top. But thats not solving the problem. We are worsening it. We are loosening our belt as we keep growing inches. We are not figuring out ways to become healthier. At some point, we need modal shifts.

We have to figure out ways to get people out of their cars, and make them use some form of public transport. Decision making, should be driven by whether we care about moving cars or we care about moving people.

4️⃣ What gives you hope for Mumbai’s transport future?

In short

Walking population.

In detail

One thing that makes me very hopeful is that majority of Mumbaikar’s walk. We will have to transform at some point soon. Every city in Europe has gone through these phases at some point in the fifties and the seventies. It is not like they were pedestrian friendly cities always. Everyone had an automobile peak at some point. But then through well documented strategies and changes, they have become more walking friendly now - the best destinations for travel. It is not uncommon to go to Paris and walk 10KMs a day.

What gives me hope for Mumbai is that we know what the problem is. We have enough experience to provide solutions are fairly low cost. We are seeing a lot of focus on public transport and metro construction. Hopefully, in a decade from now, we should be in a much better place.

If you wish to listen to more details, here are links to the full 60 minutes fun conversation - Youtube | TGP Website | Spotify | Apple Podcast

Let me know what stood out to you the most in the comments section. TGP has been labour of love since 2016 and I would highly appreciate if you can share this to as many people in your network. The subscriber count isn’t increasing and I need your help.

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Stay tuned for more SamaChar and episodes from The Gyaan Project!

Mahendra Patel is a retired senior faculty member of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. Presently, he is a mentor professor at Symbiosis Institute of Design, Pune and mentor consultant at Leaf Design, Mumbai.

Mahendra Bhai (as many call him) has taught at NID, Ahmedabad for a long 39 years and conducted numerous workshops across various institutes across India, USA, Canada, New Zealand, and Pakistan. In 2010 he was awarded the Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz for his contribution to typography.

Today’s Samachar has got some practical answers for Designers and non-designers alike. Regarding Font designers called Authors? Well, it’s mainly about respect and pride. More at the end of this SamaChar.

1️⃣ Is Comic Sans really a bad font?

Short answer: If misused.

Long answer: A font has nothing to do with being good or bad. It is we who make it so. If you use Comic Sans appropriately, for example, for children or handwriting or doodle expressions, it works. I always say a font should be decided by its use, technology, subject, and users. That is what typography is about. The right balance between readability and legibility. Serif or classic fonts are more suitable for day-to-day or heavy reading in print. But on computers or screens, the thick and thin strokes of a serif font can get lost because of pixelation, so a mono-line or sans serif font works better. If you enlarge and manage the weight properly, even a serif can work. I can make any font look good with good typography.

How we made the typeface Comic Sans with Vincent Connare, typographer

2️⃣ Do fonts have emotion?

Short answer: Feeling comes with treatment.

Long answer: A font on its own is seen as black and white. When we talk about emotion or expression, it is not only black and white. There is color, size, alignment, use of capitals or lower case, spacing between letters, and spacing between lines. All these things work together to create the intended impact or expression of a typeface. For example, if you use a sans serif in pink, it feels feminine or soft. If you use the same sans serif in bold steel blue, it becomes industrial. Even among sans serifs, some are more human because they follow handwriting flow and readability, while others are geometric and constructed. So, the feeling comes from both design and treatment.

Know more about The Psychology of Fonts.

3️⃣ Helvetica vs Frutiger vs Futura — how do you choose?

Short answer: Depends on the context.

Long answer: Helvetica and similar newer faces were drawn on vertical and horizontal axes. They are more constructed, less written. Frutiger and Verdana bring in humanistic considerations, so they support reading comfort along with clarity. Futura and other early geometric faces focus on graphic construction. So my choices follow use. For an architect’s building, Futura or a geometric form may fit the visual idea. For a short sign, Helvetica is fine because there are only a few words. For a research paper or a whole city’s signage system, I would go to Frutiger, because it supports many kinds of readers every day. Context, comfort, and intended duration matter. Anything used appropriately can be good, but purpose leads the selection.

Typewolf has been my go to place for Typography. What’s yours? let me know in the comments below.

4️⃣ How do you build hierarchy and pair serif with sans?

Short answer: With trained eyes.

Long answer: It depends on how much differentiation or hierarchy you want to give. If you want a subtle, sophisticated difference, then typographically make it bold, larger, or change the color but keep the same font. If you want further distinction, then go for capitalisation or small caps. When that is still not enough, you can contrast Serif with Sans Serif, or Sans Serif with Serif. There is also something called text gray—when you look at a text column, you feel a certain texture or luster. Some letters, because of their contrast or treatment, look harsh, while some feel smooth. It depends on what texture is pleasing to the eye or suits your text. That can be controlled by using color or tone instead of just black. Typography is different from type design. Letterforms are only raw material; rhythm, balance, and contrast come from typographic decisions

Fontpair is an amazing resource for all Designers.

I hope these questions and answers are interesting and helpful. If you wish to listen to more details, here are links to the full 38 minutes conversation and it’s transcript. Youtube | TGP Website | Spotify | Apple Podcast

The question I began this SamaChar was, Why are font designer called Authors?

Before computers came, it was only hot metal. To design a type and make the master matrices and cast them in particular sizes would take two to three years. It required a lot of precision, mechanical and hand skill, and even metallurgy because it involved casting and cutting. It was a very skilful job, more than just design. The ownership was very high and people like Baskerville, Garamond, Bodoni were proud to have their own fonts, printers, or foundries. These couldn’t be copied easily. Then, with phototypesetting, things became easier; you drew instead of cutting, but it still needed optical understanding and correction. Computers changed everything. With Fontographer and FontLab, drawing became very precise and accessible. People revise old fonts and name them with legends out of respect. Authorship is different today, but the idea of designing a voice remains.

If you are interested in Typography, Calligraphy, Type design, I have created a playlist. Do check it out.

Rajat Kapoor is a celebrated Indian actor-filmmaker and playwright, known for his work since the 1990s. Raghu Romeo, Aankhon Dekhi, RK/RKay and more are all time great watch. We spoke deeply about art, challenges of independent cinema and his films. If you’re a young Indian filmmaker, art-student, designer or creative curious about cinema beyond the mainstream, today’s SamaChar will give you a sneak peak into our long conversation (which I highly recommend listening). But for now, here are 4 Q&A from our talk.

1️⃣ What is independent cinema to you?

Short answer: Honesty and authorship.

Long answer: Independent cinema is independent in thought. It is not defined by money, stars, or distribution but by the filmmaker’s vision. That’s the real mark. You can recognize a Van Gogh painting instantly because it carries his signature. Similarly, when you watch a Coen Brothers film or something by Nolan or Woody Allen, you know it’s theirs. Even if they work within a studio, their authorship remains. That’s independence. If a film feels like anybody could have made it, it has no identity. Independence means the director’s vision shapes every frame, even within constraints. It’s not about scale or glamour but about honesty and authorship. The film should bear the unmistakable stamp of its maker.

2️⃣ Why do we need independent cinema?

Short answer: Rice and Rose.

Long answer: Why does art exist? You can get by without it, but life would be dry. It’s like rice and a rose. Rice keeps you alive, and the rose tells you how to live. You don’t need art for sustenance, but you need it for everything beyond the body and the mind. Why do you look at a tree or the sea for hours? Because beauty enriches you in ways that are not tangible. Art fulfils that spiritual need. If cinema changes people in a short run, it’s propaganda. Good cinema puts you in an universe and enriches your soul in long run giving joy and meaning. Without it, life would be empty.

3️⃣ What has been the biggest challenge for indie cinema in India?

Short answer: Money.

Long answer: Funding has always been the hardest part. In the seventies, NFDC gave independent filmmakers a start to people like Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Govind Nihalani. But when NFDC stopped producing in the mid-eighties, that entire ecosystem collapsed. When liberalisation happened in nineties the state withdrew from supporting art, which was a huge blow. Later, multiplexes revived hope for a few years. Films like Mixed Doubles, Khosla Ka Ghosla, and Bheja Fry found their audience again. But by 2008, mainstream cinema took over even that space. So yes, money is still the biggest challenge. A small, committed audience exists who are exposed to world cinema but reaching them is difficult. Without proper funding, many good stories never get told.

4️⃣ Why is your company called Mithya Talkies?

Short answer: What you see is not what you get.

Long answer: The name came from my film Mithya. It means “what you see is not what you get.” It’s a lie, but a true one. Dreams feel real while you dream them. When you wake up, you realize it was a dream. That is what life is too. It’s real as you live it, but it’s also an illusion. We call it Maya in Indian philosophy. Cinema holds the same paradox. Godard said cinema is truth at 24 frames per second, but he also called it be the biggest fraud. Both are true. That’s the beauty of it.

Should films be planned from a commercial standpoint first? How did multiplexes and OTT change your audience? Can art really change the world? Where do you see the future of indie cinema in India? There are many more questions and even more thought provoking answers in the entire episode. Please do give it a listen on your favourite podcasting apps.

You can find the episode on Youtube, Spotify, TGP Website, and Apple Podcast.

The Gyaan Project has been documenting creative wisdom since 2016. I hope these conversations and their SamaChars’ are helpful. The only way I can know is by you sharing and commenting on these posts. Let me know what do you think.

Leave a comment

If you enjoyed this, there are few more TGP episodes that might interest you.

• Ep. 312 - From Satya to Safar Mein Sheher: Mazhar Kamran on Cinema, Craft, and Culture

• Ep. 311 - Why everyone is both student and teacher with Arunaraje Patil

• Ep. 285 - Censorship in films with Ajit Rai (Hindi)

• Ep. 275 - Documentary making with Jan Schmidt Garre (Part 1)

• Ep. 262 - Production design with Meenal Agarwal

• Ep. 246 - rk/rkay & film making with Rajat Kapoor

• Ep. 222 - A Film Artist with Ashish Avikunthak

• Ep. 208 - Cognitive Gym with Anand Gandhi (4th Anniversary episode)

• Ep. 196 - MUBI - Case study with Svetlana Naudiyal

• Ep. 189 - Satyajit Ray; The Graphic Designer with Pinaki De

• Ep. 187 - What is Posterphilia? with Jahan Singh Bakshi

• Ep. 55 - Exploring Filmosophy with Amrit Gangar

• Ep. 25 - Efforts behind effortless acting with Dilip Prabhavalkar

• Ep. 13 - Last temptations of an actor with Atul Kulkarni

• Ep. 9 - Creative challenges with Varun Grover

This SamaChar is in his memory and wishing him belated happy birthday. Hanif, thanks for inspiring us all designers and artists.

1️⃣ How do you define graffiti and street art? How different are they?

Short Answer: Cousins, not twins.

Long Answer: Graffiti and street art often get confused, but they come from very different places. Graffiti in the West started with writing and tagging. Young people would invent a name or a tag and repeat it on trains, in subways, across the city. It was about rebellion, about being seen. On the other hand, street art grew out of a different culture. It is more visual, more about making something the public can engage with. In India, we always had a culture of painting on walls. From villages where huts are decorated, to public art that people could live with.

Know more as Hanif talks about reclaiming Streets, One Wall at a Time at TEDxIITHyderabad

2️⃣ How do you pick a subject for a mural?

Short Answer: Barber shop philosophy.

Long Answer: Indian streets are full of life. Barbers, shoe polishers, food vendors, families, everything. When picking a subject, the artist spends time around the wall, learns about the people and the local life. We give them freedom but make sure nothing religious or political comes up. The goal is art embedded in the city, not something offensive. Each mural is built from the surrounding context and intended for those living nearby. For eg: Sassoon Dock, Mumbai reflects the fishing community.

Read the back story of 150 ft mural of Mahatma Gandhi at the Police Headquarters in New Delhi

3️⃣ What are the pros and cons when street art reshape places?

Short Answer: Visibility versus gentrification.

Long Answer: A major pro is that people in the localities remember the painted areas. For example, in Shahpur Jat, people started giving directions based on the paintings, like “take a left from the cat”. A con is that if something becomes too popular, it can lead to gentrification, where an area becomes “cool,” prices go up, and low-income groups are forced to move. We are careful and work with government spaces to try and prevent this.

Hanif Kureshi was a saint and bandit of urban Indian street art. Know more at Stirworld. All photos are from https://www.stirworld.com

4️⃣ What’s your message to young artists listening today?

Short Answer: Walls are calling

Long Answer: You don’t have to wait for someone’s permission to start. When I began, nobody invited me or gave me a platform. I just picked up paint and went out on the street. The walls are free and they are always calling. If you feel that urge, pick up a brush or a spray can and go do it. You will learn more by painting one wall than by waiting for the perfect opportunity. The process itself will teach you. That is how street art lives and breathes, by being out there, in the open, for everyone to see.

A One-Man Revolution: The Artistic Legacy Of The Late Hanif Kureshi. Know more on Re-thinkingthefuture.com

Hanif Kureshi’s murals and ideas gives us perspective to see our streets in a different light. His birthday was on 12 October and today he would have tuned 43. This SamaChar is a small tribute to celebrate his vision that continues to inspire us all.

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If you wish to listen to the entire episode, please find all links here: Spotify | YouTube | Website | Apple Podcasts.

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If you enjoyed this post, here are few more on murals, street art that might interest you.

Nand Kishore Chaudhary founded Jaipur Rugs in 1978, working beside nine artisans on two looms. He started his business on the principles of dignity. Today, he is the entrepreneur behind one of the largest manufacturers of hand-knotted rugs and is often referred to as the ‘Gandhi of the Carpet Industry’.

Along with NK Chaudhary we were joined by her daughter Kavita Chaudhary. She is Design Director at Jaipur Rugs & Jaipur Living, where she leads innovation through artisan-led creativity. Trained in the US, she bridges global design thinking with India’s grassroots craftsmanship.

1️⃣ What is the foundation principle of Jaipur Rugs?

Short Answer: Love for weavers and weaving.

Long Answer: When I (said Nand Kishore) started Jaipur Rugs, everyone warned me against working with “untouchable” weavers. But I ignored the caste lines. I shared food with them. I sat beside them as they worked. That love and dignity laid the foundation for Jaipur Rugs. For sustainability to be achieved, it must begin with strong relationships. You cannot treat people like labourers and expect to connect with their craft.

What other handicraft items do you know of? Let us know in the comments 👇

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2️⃣ How does Jaipur Rugs maintain artisan innocence and creativity?

Short Answer: No interference, full freedom.

Long Answer: I (said Nand Kishore) believe that creativity stems from authenticity and innocence. Take the example of our "Manchaha project" artisans. Normally, carpet designs come from a studio and the weavers are told to follow instructions. In the “Manchaha Project” we gave weavers a blank canvas and asked them to design on their own. After some initial hesitation, this led to carpet designs that gained global attention.

Are we taking enough care of our artisans?

3️⃣ What is "Jugaad" in the context of rural artisans?

Short Answer: Spontaneous & innovative solutions.

Long Answer: "Jugaad" is a term often used for hack-like solutions. I (said Kavita) could see it in the spontaneity of rural artisans. Their creativity shows up in both everyday problem-solving and artistic expression. For example, one girl had embroidered her best friend’s name on her dupatta. It wasn’t planned. It was emotional and instinctive. While jugaad typically refers to finding solutions with limited resources, I view it as a form of innovation grounded in real-life experiences.

An interesting read: Jugaad Innovation: A Frugal And Flexible

4️⃣ What makes handmade survive in a tech world?

Short Answer: Present over perfect.

Long Answer : (Kavita said) Rural people live in the present. They don’t think five or ten years ahead. They just do what’s in front of them with full attention. So everything in their life involves the hand. That’s why handwork still exists. It’s not replaced by machines because it was never about speed and was always about presence. That’s why they don’t take easily to cutting-edge tools. It breaks their rhythm.

Is handicraft the new premium?

We believe that love, dignity, and freedom are key to scaling a business rooted in indigenous craft. Jaipur Rugs is living proof of that. What do you think? Let us know in the comments👇

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Tarun Deep Girdher serves as a Principal Faculty in Graphic Design at NID Ahmedabad. He is recognized for designing influential government logos, including the RTI ( Right to Information ) logo and NOTA ( None of the Above ) symbol, and for his extensive contributions to design education.

1️⃣ What's the main difference between designing for a government agency and a commercial company?

Short Answer: Survival.

Long Answer : I have observed that government agencies operate very differently from commercial companies. For a commercial company, a logo is a tool for survival. It needs to remain in the customer’s sight to create brand recall and associate with a product or service. For a government department, a logo is more like a face or an identifier. Whether people recognize a logo or not, doesn't necessarily influence the work of that ministry. Commercial logos work to sell and stay memorable, while government logos serve mainly to identify and represent authority.

What is your favorite GOI logo? Let us know in the comments 👇

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2️⃣ What's the biggest challenge you faced with the RTI logo design?

Short Answer: Avoiding bad interpretations.

Long Answer: The color had to be consistent (Sobre blue, #6A89A7), even when painted by thousands of local sign painters across rural India, so I chose a commonly available blue. The typeface needed clarity and distinctiveness. Bell Gothic gave the capital “I” a serif, improving recognition across scripts. The design had to reproduce well in different formats and contexts, from stickers to walls, without losing meaning. It also had to avoid an authoritative look, staying approachable yet credible, as per the brief. Finally, we conducted field research and public testing to ensure interpretations matched the intent, avoiding undesirable associations and ensuring the logo connected with citizens everywhere.

Do check Project Pratima - I with few other designers designed an icon library for all financial institutions in India (PCI and RBI initiative)

3️⃣ How was it like to design NOTA symbol for ballot paper/EVM?

Short Answer: Paradoxical.

Long Answer: The NOTA option presents a paradox. People take the trouble of voting, but choose "None of the Above." The symbol had to show rejection without disrespecting candidates. We needed to avoid religious or cultural cues and ensure it was instantly understandable for first-time voters. The design would only be seen inside polling booths ( as no one campaigns for NOTA ). So recognition had to happen immediately. To find the final symbol, my team and I explored Indian gestures for "no", studied different cross marks and tested recall from people of various age groups.

Check nuances of Indian symbols - Trinetra by IDC

4️⃣ Apart from designing what is the most important job of a designer?

Short Answer: D2P ( Designer to People )

Long Answer: Most of the designers work with large corporations or government agencies. The symbol they design get used by these firms to approach(or sometimes poach) users. My advice to upcoming designers is to test their design directly with people. Explain your work to your parents, neighbours, or fellow train commuters. Big collaborations start with awareness at the smallest level.

To find out more about Tarun Deep’s work follow his blogs tarunonlife.wordpress.

If you are a designer, here are a few questions to ponder this 🇮🇳 Independence Day:

1. Have you designed anything (process, space, artefact) outside your job that has made life better for you and those around you?

2. Have you taken time to explain to non-designers (family, friends, relatives, co-commuters) what design is and what exactly you do?

3. Have you adapted your work to make it accessible to people from very different backgrounds or with different abilities? How?

4. What is your personal contribution—no matter how small—to shaping the design landscape of independent India?

5. Have you done any design work for social impact in India?

If, yes, please share in the comments and I will post it on TGP social handles as case studies / stories by you.

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If this Samachar intrigued your design thought consider listening to the complete conversation. Link to the full episode - Spotify || Youtube || TGP Website

Sujata Keshavan is the co-founder of Ray+Keshavan and the creative mind behind Varana. She has built some of India’s most iconic visual identities and continues to shape design thinking across industries.

1️⃣ What was it like to introduce design to Indian business in the 90s?

Short Answer: Build a common vocabulary

Long Answer: When I started Ray+Keshavan in 1989, most Indian companies didn’t understand design at all. They thought it was about decoration. I had to explain what design really meant, often to rooms full of engineers and accountants. Sometimes, they even asked their wives to give feedback! It was a different time. But those moments laid the foundation for serious design thinking in Indian business.

Brief History of Design by David Kelly.

2️⃣ How do you separate design from art?

Short Answer: Design solves. Art expresses.

Long Answer: For me, art is fundamentally about self expression but design is not. Design must come from the content. It must solve a problem. When designers impose their own style on everything, it becomes self-indulgent. Good design is functional. It must respond to the brief, to the user, to the world it’s trying to improve.

3️⃣ How undervalued was design when you started out?

Short Answer: I was told to charge per square centimetre.

Long Answer: In advertising, design was priced at 2 rupees 65 paise per square centimetre. That was absurd. A small piece could require just as much thinking as a big one. I decided to charge for the idea, not the size. People saw design as print support but I saw it as Intellectual Property. That was the shift that I wanted to see in industry.

What do you think? Has the industry caught up with the mindset Sujata fought for? Share your take!

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4️⃣ What’s the biggest gap in Indian design today?

Short Answer: We need more designers.

Long Answer : India needs millions of designers. But we simply don’t have enough schools. The ones that exist are mostly urban, expensive, and out of reach for many. And there aren’t enough educators either. Most designers prefer working in the industry. I believe design education should be part of engineering too. We need to embed design thinking across disciplines.

Economic Times had also published an article on the dearth of Designers that India faces.

Do a little wardrobe audit today. How much of your finest clothing is truly made in India? If the answer is very little, it’s time to ask why. Brands like Varana are changing that by blending heritage craft with global design. Next time you buy luxury, consider supporting stories woven at home.

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