Issue 1: Google, Borat, 118A, this and that
DESIGN: Ever since I saw Michael Bierut's TED talk on 'London Underground Map,' it became my favorite example for the statement 'Design is Problem Solving.' The video mentions three primary principles for solving problems using design - focusing on target user, simplicity, and thinking in a cross-disciplinary way.
REBRAND: Like solving problems, design can bring new issues too—for example, the recent rebranding of Google products, including Gmail. While I understand the intention (and I am sure that we will get used to it), this new branding creates more problems - of being too similar and hard to differentiate, which leads to the What Google See / What I see meme.
POLITICS: Another rebranding story that comes from Kerala is political. The State government just rebranded Section 118(d) of the Kerala Police Act, which was struck down by the Supreme court of India as it violated the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. The newborn version, 118(A), claims to reduce cyber attacks against women but has more chances of being misused. There are some videos (explanation, and from TVDiscussion, both in Malayalam) that explain the issue, and organisations like Internet Freedom Foundation and SFLC ask the government to reconsider this law.
MUSIC: Malayalam music recently saw a wave of experimental, socially-aware music projects. June 2020, we had Vedan's Voice of voiceless. And now we have a Music Video version of Satchidanandan's Kozhi Punk and Aalayal Thara Veno?. Meanwhile, Kerala's favorite metal band, The Down Troddence, shares some titles-for-thought through their Instagram! ;)
MOVIE: Well awaited sequel to Borat, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, released last week, and we were able to watch it without pirating. Thanks to Amazon Prime. It's was a good watch, bold, not as humorous as the prequel (as we already know Kazakh and Borat), and the climax was disturbing. Wait a second - I don't know what was more disturbing, the climax [spoiler warning!] or Rudy Giuliani's explanation?
DESIGN: For interface designers, Figma just introduced the Variants feature, building a design system closer to the coding pattern. I found it simple and powerful, something that brings a lot of clarity to design. (I always doubted how to arrange variants - size, state, type or state, size, style..! this is going to solve that!)
MEDIA: Ending with some happy news, some Indian brands have stood up against hate-mongering and toxic media by not advertising on those channels.
PS: This newsletter's idea is to share random interesting things in an interconnected web of thoughts. While ideating, the first choice of name was 'the links of the links' (a reference to a Malayalam movie scene). ;) | PSS: Any suggestions? You know where to find me!