Hello!
Welcome to Ambi's portfolio.
This is a presentation of five selected projects that I have worked on over a few years. The home page of this website has more such projects in better detail. A list of related/similar projects is also given at the end of each section.
My formal education is in engineering and I learned graphic design mostly by myself. I have been practicing design as a profession since 2017 and have worked with some well-known global and local brands. Most of my work is in the digital medium, but I also have some experience with print.
Philosophy is an important field of interest, apart from design. Photography is the hobby. Language is a curiosity. Music is an inspiration.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD/BRANDING
This is a personal brand of clothing intended to advocate philosophical inquiry about the relationship between the Self and the body. I wanted the typeface to be close to Helvetica but more readily available. Acrylic paint is applied on cotton via a simple mask to create the motif and ironed when dry. Handmade. Washable.
Posts from the first promotional campaign which was run in April 2018. Photo of a model wearing the t-shirt is from the first photoshoot.
The region of the spine near the heart holds a strong connection to the Self according to some texts, hence the position of the motif.
Model: Ankur Sharma
These images are from the second campaign which were shot in March 2019. Handmade paper is the packaging material, secured with a cotton thread.
Model: Sourabh Sheelwal
A short film was made (in October 2019) as an advertisement for the brand. Details of the images above are listed below (not in chronological order.)
Image 1: A rough sketch of a prominent frame in the film to help to get the angle right while shooting.
Image 2: This is a poster for the film. A copy was printed first and then xeroxed many times, which gave the characteristic texture to the image.
Image 3: This is a frame directly from the film after post-production, also serves as the thumbnail on Vimeo.
Image 4: A photo from the rehearsal arranged before the shoot. This is where most of the communication between the actor and the director happened.
Image 5: A friend wrote a favourable review and this is a post designed for social media
Image 6: A photo from the second camera while shooting was in progress on-location.
Both parts performed by: Sourabh Kumar Yadav
The short film is called Rhizome and it can be viewed online here (and also embedded above.): https://vimeo.com/367184375
The name 'Rhizome' is a symbol for the subconscious. It explores the theme of redemption, heavily influenced by the myth of Gajendra Moksha, which is visible in the use of lotuses. The letter 'I' makes its appearance in many ways in the film and the two worlds are connected by a long version of it. The two individuals (played by the same actor) occupying these worlds are also representations of a single self, before and after the metamorphosis.
RELATED/SIMILAR PROJECTS
NATURE VALLEY TOOLKIT/GRAPHIC DESIGN
Nature Valley was launching a new series of products in a few markets worldwide and my agency was approached to help design a presentation for internal communication. Textual content was available and it was the look of each slide that was entrusted to me. Photos from my sketchbook, where layout and typography choices were made.
This is me trying to visualise on paper which element should be placed where and what the grid should be like. The deliverables were digital files of slides in its most editable form. Agency is called ODD - Oorna Datta Designs which is in Mumbai and the project was coordinated by Oorna Datta.
Planning of slide sequence and original design of icons. There are 25 slides in the toolkit. This was one of the earliest projects that was assigned to me at ODD, in 2019, within a few months of joining. The successful execution helped the agency to be considered for similar original projects by the client.
More images from my sketchbook.
These are some sample slides from the toolkit. Packaging for the new series was designed at the same agency from which some elements were borrowed, such as the illustration of the valley. Except that, all layouts are original. Tracking and relative sizes of typefaces are original choices.
More slides from this project can be viewed here.
RELATED/SIMILAR PROJECTS
RANI KI VAV/PHOTOGRAPHY
Collecting information about a distant place through media, imagining a mental construct, going to the place, and finally experiencing how close reality is to the construct is a common pattern of many of my travels. Most of the research this time was done through photos posted by visitors on Google Maps.
The structure faces east and slopes towards west. It was my plan to complete shooting early in the morning before sunlight falls directly on sculptures. I arrived at a nearby hotel at midnight the previous day and reached the location before it was opened-the first visitor on that day. The plan was successfully executed.
A little bit of glow is visible in some images such as the ones at the top right corner on this page and the previous, which is a result of zooming in digitally. These sculptures are too high for the maximum optical zoom to capture them in the same detail as the lower ones. The divide between men and gods.
I chose black and white because I believe there is a sense of timelessness in these forms and the palette helps to emphasise that.This personal project was made in January 2020 with a point-and-shoot camera and entirely in natural light. The shoot took about two hours to complete.
COMPOSITES/ILLUSTRATION
First step of the process is to visualise the composite. Then it is roughly transferred to paper with pencil. Detailing, hatching, and finishing are done with pens of various thicknesses. A drawing typically takes 24 hours to complete. All drawings are in A4 size. The first one was made in December 2021.
Early explorations of the idea. The plant element is a symbol for the natural, including the central nervous system. The stone framework surrounding it represents the artificial, for example, language. My earliest work with this theme dates back to 2007, which was published in the children’s section of a national newspaper.
The mind, wandering freely through many primitive species, finally reaches the human. It is there that it encounters language in its most complex form. It knows that there is no escape now. Forever the mind is enclosed by language in all directions, which is rigidly guiding and directing its growth.
I had studied Botany in school and the course involved some illustrations. My formal training in engineering drawing has helped in expressing three-dimensional objects on paper. However, these illustrations are made entirely free-hand, with pencil and pen, with no rulers, set-squares, or any other aides.
JINGLES 4.0/MUSIC VISUALISATION
Basic swaras of ragas were collected and converted to piano notes. I was learning music myself as I was making tracks and this was a good exercise. I have referred to a few websites to find the swaras, the most frequent among them being http://www.tanarang.com
The first visualisation in this series was posted online in August 2021.
With no formal training in music, the notation was hard for me to read and write. To circumvent this problem, I had to make my own visual symbols to write beats. In a way, I'm trying to draw music.
A point-and-shoot camera mounted on a tripod (1) was used to capture movement of clouds. These were then made into time-lapse footage (2). Notes were input to the computer via a digital audio workstation (3). Photographs I had taken earlier, for example, from Delhi (4) and the city of Ajmer (5), were also used as bases for animation.
Given below are the stories behind the images above.
Image 1: The point-and-shoot camera mounted on a tripod that was used to capture movement of clouds for about half an hour each time
Image 2: This is a screen-grab from a time-lapse video of clouds. Typically, the speed is increased about 30 times.
Image 3: The digital audio workstation (DAW) that was used to input notes to the computer.
Image 4: A photograph I had taken a few years ago in Delhi, which was used as a basis for animation.
Image 5: Another photograph, from Ajmer, used for the same purpose. These images are products of wanderings that I undertook just after my graduation.
The top row, from a video called Movement in Time, is based on an image from Rani Ki Vav itself. A photograph from the previous page, the one from Ajmer, is the basis for the bottom row, which is part of a video called One Can Never Have Enough Folded Cities. This series was first posted on Instagram. Each video was of one minute duration and 9:16 aspect ratio.
The video Movement in Time resized for YouTube
The video One Can Never Have Enough Folded Cities resized for YouTube
Travelling through a tunnel is a recurrent theme in many of my other videos too. This is probably an outcome of years of long daily commutes for study and work.
Frames from three videos are shown above and their details are below.
Image 1: Image from the video called Cells, in which clouds are the prime movers.
Image 2: Some frames from the video titled Framework. Traditional local architecture of pools was an inspiration behind these images, with the central rectangle representing the water, reflecting the sky above. Here also, the rising waves of colour are propelled by clouds.
Image 3: Temple architecture from Nashik forms a prominent feature in this video titled Courtyard. Activities of the present are carried out in the courtyard of the past.
These three videos with a different aspect ratio than the original have been embedded below.
Embedded video 1/3: Cells (resized)
Embedded video 2/3: Framework (resized)
Embedded video 3/3: Courtyard (resized)
On the surface, I was trying to develop my skills in motion graphics and learn classical music and these were useful exercises for both. Unknowingly, I now think I was trying to capture the Self itself, with its violent and restless motion that begins at birth.
I had never been able to devote this much time to any project before, when I was working in a city far from home. This is the case with Composites too.
Thank you.