VGC DESIGNOMICS

Foster's Brand Iconography Refreshed | VGC Delivers Holistic Brand Solutions

2012-02-02T04:14:00.000-08:00

Miller High Life - Space Design

2012-01-17T02:38:00.000-08:00

Miller High Life - Space Design

The Miller High Life brand internationally represents the “Work Hard. Party Harder” principle of American living. The brand stands for freedom of expression, the recognition of a need to maintain a work life balance and to enjoy the fruits of corporate success after sundown or over weekends when beer and good times are experienced with merry abandon. These American values of working and partying with equal passion have found acceptance among an increasingly social Indian audience. In design too, it has found vibrant expression in retail and ambient spaces, energizing the entire experience of the Miller High Life brand.

Puri Constructions | Diplomatic Greens

2012-01-04T23:55:00.000-08:00

Diplomatic Greens is located near an Expressway with easy access to schools, hospitals and the International Airport. It is near the Embassy enclave, providing the right lifestyle cues of power and prestige. Asian sculpture gardens and water bodies afford an exclusive aesthetic ambience to the property and intelligent technology facilitates seamless living and comfort. All of which make Diplomatic Greens a private, self-contained abode of fine living, beauty and harmony. The image that comes to mind from this cluster of features is OASIS offering both seclusion and connectivity. Diplomatic Greens is your Oasis in the City.

To view the full brochure click here

Santa at VGC

2011-12-23T03:55:00.000-08:00

Look what Santa has been up to at VGC

2011-12-07T03:44:00.001-08:00

DESIGNOMICS AWARDS 2011 on Logo, Bloomberg

2011-11-28T22:22:00.001-08:00

DESIGNOMICS AWARDS | Events Photos

DESIGNOMICS AWARDS OPENING SPEECH: Preeti Vyas

2011-11-28T21:25:00.001-08:00

Welcome to thefirst edition of the Designomics Awards.

A wordor two about Designomics and the awards.

Designomics isan initiative launched by VGC, the Design Agency I head, to further theunderstanding of Design and its importance to the economy of the country. Thusfar, Designomics has been a segment on Bloomberg-UTV, wherein I haveinterviewed several Indian Industry heads about their belief in the valueof Design as well how they have benefited form Design strategies and drawn ROIfrom investing in Design expertise. And some of them are clearly DesignEvangelists themselves!

Going a stepfurther, this year, the World Brand Congress hosted the Designomics Event andAwards, and invited me to chair the event. The Award recognizes Design, buteven more so it applauds the Business houses who have employed Design processesand skill-sets and prospered from it. So its a Design Award for Businesses. Andof course the award recognizes the client and design partnership so it as aresult also recognizes the Design house at the same time.

This year,primarily the recognition is for corporates who have embraced andinstitutionalized Design within their organizations. These even have robust inhouse Design teams which work sometimes with external Design expertise. Theother set of awards are for specific Design intervention to address a businessneed.

Being the inauguralyear for the Awards, and due to the close association of VGC with Designomics,my team and I have decided that VGC will abstain from nominating our ownclients this year, in the interest of ensuring that Designomics is perceived tobeing agnostic and for the larger interest of the Design Industry,Business houses and the economy at large.

2011-11-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

DESIGNOMICS AWARDS - CALL FOR ENTRIES

The rebrand and relaunch of a Heritage Brand - Hiranandani

2011-11-03T04:42:00.000-07:00

With a vision of taking forward the values of the legacy of New Urbanism vested in the name- Hiranandani, Surendra Hiranandani and his daughter Neha, have crafted a new Brand; HOUSE OF HIRANANDANI, which was earlier known as Hiranandani Upscale.

It was an absolute pleasure for VGC to work for this Brand of impeccable legacy and help craft a new strategy and Design a Mark along with a whole new Brand Architecture, to encompass their visionary aspirations. Neha and Surendra are both inspiring individuals and it was wonderful being part of the team that gave the Brand its new avatar. In order to create a larger-than-life imagery, VGC has rolled out a cohesive campaign across both traditional and digital communication touch points.

Says Surendra “The logo reflects our enterprising spirit that embraces the challenges of creating new and flourishing communities that will last for generations.”
Neha says "I received accolades for the quality and content of the communication and the newly crafted brand name, for which the real credit goes to team VGC”

Old Logo

VGC Newsletter

2011-09-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Vijay Raheja Design Construction | Property Brochure

2011-08-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

78 W. Expressway is the latest addition to the already expansive list of VRDC properties that would become an iconic part of the Mumbai skyline. VGC has designed the property brochure for this landmark project. Clean layout, beautiful pictures, precise text and clever icons and a bold usage a silver foil stamping come together to form a beautifully efficent corporate property brochure for VRDC.

To view the full brochure click here

2011-08-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

Fosters | Rebranding Art of chilling

Foster's is a uniquely Australian beer and is still recognized as one of the world's best beers even after 100 years. VGC was given the opportunity to design Foster’s lounges around the theme of the Foster’s brand proposition,
‘
The Art
of Chilling’.
While internationally, The Art of Chilling is usually synonymous with beach, surf
etc, we thought that the Indian idea of The Art of Chilling was completely different. A quick
survey
suggested that a negligible number of Indian consumers equated chilling to surfing. Hence, the
entire
Art of Chilling concept had to be localized to appeal to Indian consumers.

Click here to view the case study.

Nitesh Fisher Island Brochure

2010-12-30T01:48:00.000-08:00

Your Peace of an island...

Turning new pages of luxury, VGC created a coffee table book for Nitesh Estates. An ultra luxurious property for holiday homes in Goa, the book ties in the essence of comfort, sophistication and pure indulgent bliss.

To view the full brochure click here

Preeti Vyas Curates and Presents Designomics, a series on Logo for Bloomberg UTV

2010-10-18T02:20:00.000-07:00

Designomics is a series on Logo for Bloomberg UTV, which I will curate and present from the vantage point of Indian businesses that have understood Design and its various disciplines as a vital business tool and integrated it in their growth stories.

The Design Industry is fast graduating from a boutique cottage Industry to a strategic and savvy activity, aiming to create a robust ROI for businesses through what I call, Designomics.

The Universe of Design specializations is growing vastly. It ranges from Branding to packaging, to Digital, to Furniture, Automobile, environmental and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Design as a profession is increasingly emerging out of being the afterthought, only to be brought in at the end for cosmetic beautification to being integrated into the very inception of the business process.

This is because enlightened companies have realized that strategic Design has the power to partner them in their growth and profitability.
Of course, there are innumerable international case studies, which show the success of integrating Design across key business interfaces.
But what is truly heartening is that within India too there are many illustrations of how businesses have prospered by using intelligent design in a rapidly crowded and complex marketplace.

The sheer volume of products and services operating in a single domain has risen rapidly and exponentially. As has new categories of businesses. Added to that, India has embraced scale almost overnight. Take retail for example; it went from the local Kirana to the Mall model almost overnight. Business ambitions are no longer shy. Thinking big and thinking Global is the mantra of all Indian businesses.

Against this backdrop, Designomics will bring to you vibrant stories of how diversified conglomerates, Business to business, or consumer facing companies, have added value through Design by integrating different Design specializations into key stages of their business ecology. We will track companies like Mahindra and Mahindra, Titan, and Godrej in the coming segments and see how they have practiced Designomics.

Here is a quick glimpse of what’s coming up next week. You know him as the Chairman of a large Indian multinational. Now meet Kumar Mangalam Birla as an early believer in strategic Brand Design who united a diversified conglomerate under the umbrella of a single power brand

So whether you represent a business, or are an entrepreneur, or of course are a Designer, come watch Designomics and see how you can profit from Design.

- Preeti Vyas

you can have look at the Curtain Raiser which premiered on Bloomberg UTV. here is the link to that. >>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx2NBvqycdo

Cheers!

VGC launches a new Design Destination in Bengaluru with four clients.

2010-09-06T01:40:00.000-07:00

We are happy to announce that Vyas Giannetti Creative has recently opened its offices in Bengaluru with assignments from clients like Fosters, Madura, Nitesh Estates and Park Hotel, Bengaluru. It is headed by Neha Tulsian who has been with VGC Mumbai since early 2009.Having studied at the London College of Communications she enjoyed the opportunity of working with some wonderful design studios in London like SAS Design, Johnson Banks, Radford Wallis, Together Design, Un-real design and Williams Murray Hamm amongst others.VGC has constantly looked for ways to create robust ROI for their clients through cutting edge Design solutions. Our Bengaluru office is one more step in that direction.Our extensive Design expertise, combined with our association with globally renowned specialists in diverse domains like Structural product design, Brand Environment and Retail Space Design, Online and New media Design to name a few, VGC brings local-global design solutions for a discerning clientele in India.

Clients Speak

Pranab Barua CEO, Madura Fashion & Lifestyle
‘VGC’s reputation for Branding Services is very strong. Their long-term association with our Mother Brand- Aditya Birla Group, also gave us the confidence in their understanding the culture and ethos of the group. VGC Bengaluru has done an impressive job of creating a Brand Design Portfolio for the transition of Madura Garments to Madura Fashion and Lifestyle.’

Derek Hugh Jones, Director Marketing, SabMiller India
‘We commenced a project for Fosters with VGC recently. In the eighteen months I have spent in this country I have not come across as many good ideas and fresh thinking as I saw in 30 minutes of their presentation. I wish VGC’s Bangalore operations well in its new journey.’

Ashwini Kumar CEO, Nitesh Estate
‘Based on VGC’s past portfolio of a specialized design house, we recently mandated them to work on a very exclusive, high end project of ours. The interactions we have had with the team thus far, give us the confidence that they will be able to meet our expectations.’

Deepak Nath, Category Head, SabMiller India
‘With their first strategy presentation VGC has kept their promise of fresh out of box creative thinking, firmly rooted in sound strategy. We were impressed with their process, research and ideation to deliver quality solutions at this stage, whichotherwise might have taken three stagesto achieve.’

Subrata Majumder, Area General Manager, Park Hotels
‘We have been working with VGC for a while now, they have a unique and multi layered approach to communicating various concepts and are bang on for most of the briefs from the word go. Neha Tulsian heading the Bengaluru office has been a fabulous person to engage with. We wish their Bengaluru office lots of success.’

An iconic brand gets refreshed, repositioned and revitalized.

2010-07-28T23:44:00.000-07:00

Aditya Birla Group, has recently launched its refreshed Logo and comprehensive Brand Architecture for its various group companies designed by Vyas Giannetti Creative.

It is in many ways a historic moment for us, as Aditya Birla Group was VGC’s first and continuing client over a decade ago, when we had created the branding and group architecture which was relevant for that time. In keeping with the changing times VGC, as ABG’s brand custodian, were asked to refresh the brand Identity.

In a recent study conducted by the Aditya Birla Group, the group has been named as India’s second most trusted brand. The logo refreshment was of immense importance as it is in keeping pace with the growing brand equity of Aditya Birla Group. Considering Aditya Birla is merely a 12 year old brand, it is indeed a commendable achievement and the new identity needed to reflect that.

As the fundamentals of the logo design were sound, VGC retaining the existing form & structure, proceeded to only graphically refine the logo. The colours were brightened and the name made bigger, bolder and complimented a robust visual language and architecture. However this small graphic step reflects the giant strides made by the group; which is to move the name Aditya Birla into a prominent position. Enhanced vibrancy of the colours and bold typography enunciates the mother brand’s leadership position.

VGC ranked amongst India's Greatest Brand Builders by CMO Asia

2010-04-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

Recognition is always good to have, but this one is rather special and we are happy to share with you that CMO Asia ranks VGC’s Preeti Vyas amongst India’s Greatest Brand Builders, in its third and latest edition. This book has been conceived, researched and documented by Dr. R L Bhatia, a familiar figure in the knowledge space of the world of branding. The recognition is for the entire team who has always wanted to push the envelope further and certainly for all our clients who have seen and acknowledged the strategic and qualitative benchmarks we have always delivered.

Cheers! :)

VGC Annual Awards..!!

2010-04-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

This years ceremony took place on a warm barmy barbeque evening at a downtown haunt in Worli. The salubrious venue near the seaface on the opposite side of the Arabian Sea was selected for this gala event.

Most notable VGC staff and local celebs were present. Some looking cool, others not so, some there to network but most anticipating an award of somekind therefore came dressed for auditions for Saturday Night Fever.

The atmosphere was tension filled with anticipation. People showed great patience sitting around waiting for the proceedings to commence. But some nerves did get frayed so they hit the bottle and helped themselves pushing the barmen out of their way. It was every man, women and dog for himself.

After filling their glasses, they all calmed down.. Then it was the mens turn to get some drinks. Some seemed to have had a barrel full even before the first award was announced. 3 guesses are not needed, but here is a clue, look into my eyes, I am fit to drive!

The dessert was dead good and left a smile on most diners faces!

On with the awards ceremony. The comperes for the evening were Devi and Gary assisted by Kanti.

Here some of the highlights

RAJU: Best floor painter humbly accepted

KESHAW: Best kept mustache Keshaw, the comb is for the tache, not to shove in and rake your ear out!

RUMEENA: Most talkative does a little Ali shuffle in accepting her award.

SHANKER: Managed to walk in a straight line to collect Fastest Driver

SACHIN: Munched the Biscuit Eater Award

DEVI: won What does Devi need? We are still trying to work that on out!

GARY: collected, If it fits, wear it!

There was a minor contra-temp when a delegate who hadnt won an award mis-behaved. The judges must have penalised him for making a beeline for the chicken kebabs! A court injunction means his name and identity can not be revealed to the public but the 4-legged furry thing from the Reception department took his protest onto the stage. He had to be escorted off by the security staff. LUCKily, he didnt put up much of a fight though some were aghast at him loosing his cool.

Whilst the awards were taking place, our resident Snapper of the Year winner was busy clicking away to show the true spirit (as well as the vodka) of the occasion which put most delegated in a 'good mood'.

An epic commercial backed by an epic team!

2010-03-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

Aditya Birla Group launched its third corporate campaign under the title ' Let's Reach For the Sun'.

Our task was to incorporate the shift of strategy into a superlative creative language which whilst maintaining the thematic visual continuity with the previous films, yet had to speak a fresh story. Using music as a metaphor we created a board that brought to life the essence of the brief.

VGC scouted for the right director around the globe and eventually Mathias Zentner, a Graphic Designer turned into an acclaimed Director.

Zentner has many awards under his belt, like, The New York Festivals, London International Advertising Awards, Saatchi and Saatchi Young Guns Award, Cannes Lions, ADC Germany, ADC New York, Promax & BDA to name few.

True to the global theme of the film, the entire talent pool of over 200 people came together from all parts of the world. Whilst the director was German, the cast was from China, India, Thailand, Europe and United States.

The key piece of the film; the spell binding musical orchestra, was composed by Adelphoi Music – a London based music and sound design production company. Their body of work has ensured them awards from D&Ad, Clio, Promax, Emmy, NY Festivals and Mobius, to name a few.The film was shot in various locations in remote parts of Thailand recreating geographic diversities representing different cultures. The sets were designed by Suchartanun 'Kai' Kuladee – a Hollywood based Art Director who has earned the distinction of working on two Oscar nominated films – Rocky and The Beach.

The costumes were styled by Daniela Benzalla of Italy, OMG the production Design Company was Indian along with a team of designers from Singapore, rigs and specialized equipment from China and a German post production company made the film truly a multinational creative expression.

VGC working under works!...

2010-02-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

We packed and we moved. So, here we are bag and baggage, temporarily settled on a roof-top. Sitting amidst books and wires, interaction and working as a team now have been redefined in our minds. We face chair jams quiet frequently, yet ideas keep flying from one chair to the next at the speed of light.

Settled in a line like an army, we march forward towards our daily tasks with a new zest and zeal. Preeti shares the same space with a cubby little cabin that also doubles up as a conference room on Monday Mornings.

Well, well that’s not it… things are changing steadily. As the floor beneath us is going through a metamorphosis, we look forward to soon shift our abode to another terrain. So while we proceed in our journey to the next level (the level below the roof-top) of getting to that perfect work place, you can keep checking us out on how we are at work and play. Wait and watch for what’s happening at VGC!

How design language can foil counterfeiters

2009-11-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, I bought a lamitube of sunscreen. It bore the name of a famous brand which we will refer to as XYZ. The sunscreen turned out to be gloopy, and it smelt unusual. And this aroused my suspicions- was it a fake?

I took a closer look at the packaging. The font was the typeface the company always uses. But the colour of the graphics on my lamitube made me really suspicious. They were a jolly kerry green and not the milky pastels that XYZ brand is known for.

Now brands that are processionally branded like XYZ, follow the design language generated for them, to the T. So if their brand colours are milky pastels, they don’t get radical and change to a kerry green.

Pretty miserable I had been conned, I emailed the company about my suspicions. It seems I was right; they don’t even have a sunscreen!

Moral of the story: if you are a brand looking to make a mark, hire branding experts to create a design language for you. Then stick with it. It’s a great way to protect yourself from cheap counterfeiters!

Check out some copycats - http://freshpics.blogspot.com/2007/11/chinese-fake-brands.html

VGC Bangalore: Stage One

2009-10-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

Neha Tulsian moved to set up VGC Bangalore, carting with her the tools of her trade: PC (oh sorry… MAC), portfolios of aspiring designers, a design book that cost her Rs. 10000, her boom-boom voice and her ego (swathed in bubble wrap of course). In the process of moving into the VGC office, one of the movers dropped a giant crate on her head. Thus trepanned, her creativity began to flow fast and furious. The result is these Pantone swatch curtains with typography. If you like them, she will gladly sell you some. And if you totally hate them, grab a kitchen knife and take inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

2012 Olympics icons launched!

2009-10-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

Icons

Applications

To read more: Creative Review Blog

Preeti Vyas at FICCI-Design Conclave 2009

2009-10-15T01:45:00.000-07:00

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) recently invited Preeti Vyas, CEO of VGC, to speak at a panel discussion on how Businesses can be transformed through Design at the Fourth FICCI – Design Conclave 2009 in Mumbai.

Preeti Vyas spoke of how strategic design has empowered key players in the Indian industry; also as India Inc. is discovering brand building through design, she illustrated how design can provide a viable roadmap in a brand’s journey. Additionally she presented a case study to demonstrate how brand building can be achieved through focused strategic design initiatives.

About FICCI– Design Conclave:
It is a unique business facilitation forum. Its aim is to network with Indian industry and the design community to chart a future course of action in the area of Design Policy and Business Promotion.

VGC paints a picture of Shantaram’s mind for Elle Decor

2009-10-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

Elle Décor magazine ran an essay about what ‘Home’ meant to Gregory David Roberts author of the famous book Shantaram. And Preeti Vyas and team VGC were invited to create a typographic sketch inspired by his essay.

Having lived all over the world from a prison in Australia to New Zealand, a slum in India, the battlefields of Afghanistan, Germany and now Switzerland, the famed writer had evolved a very unique concept of ‘home’. So Preeti Vyas and VGC took words and sentences from Gregory's essay and put them in a compass, as he refers to ‘the needle of his mind's compass’.

The typography reflects his own character that has attained a kind of ruggedness, having being wrought by every place he has visited and been influenced by.

Which brings us to Typography and how it may be used as a strategic tool in emotional branding

Typography conveys a cogent portrait of a brand’s personality. Some people proclaim typography to be an emphatic, distinct and powerful Visual Voice. Still others liken it to garments that words wear. Typography analyst Caroline Archer once said “just as we make judgments about people by the clothes they wear, so we make judgments about the information we're reading by the typefaces."

In branding, the way letters are designed to convey a message, can bring important emotional connotations to the fore. This appeals to that part of people’s brains, that decode typography on a subliminal level, picking out nuances that would otherwise entail lengthy explanations. So, in other words, typography can be the most concise way to tell the story of your brand.

Let us pretend we are trying to brand the city of Rome. Now which stands out as most likely?

If you chose the second option, you are not alone. For the font is consistent with the image we have of Rome as being an ancient city full of art, history and culture.

The first option is very modern and edgy for such a historic city, and the third option is clearly too blithe and inconsistent with our image of Rome as being the cradle of one of the world’s oldest civilizations. As you can see the word is the same, but it is the typography that made all the difference.

Many brands have been built using Typography. CASIO uses a very electronic digital font that immediately conjures up images of what the brand sells. IBM’s thick font and soothing blue and white stripes conveyed its dependability and consistency. Sharp, Lego, Hitachi, Sunkist are just some famous brands that have used typography to convey their brand essence.

Even magazines convey their brand essence through typography. For instance Vogue’s Bodnoni serif font conveys style and elegance. The Time magazine’s font conveys its authority as the disseminator of latest news. And National Geographic’s font expresses its pioneering spirit and responsibility towards the world's cultural, historical, and natural resources.

As you can see, Typography is a powerful tool in branding, and some of the worlds most famous brands have recognised this, and used it to their advantage.

VGC is blogging!

2009-10-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

After months of talking about it, we're finally writing. We started this blog because we wanted to create a space where we could discuss Design with you. If you want to see what moves, excites and inspires us, check out the interesting articles and anecdotes we’ll post. We’ll also keep you updated on all the events at VGC. So look us up often!