Design & Culture
My colleague Sepiedeh Fazlali organised a Voguing workshop – most probably the first of its kind in Köln. It was a great pleasure to support her promoting and documenting the event visually. Voguing is a movement style that emerged from the African and Latin American…
A few months ago, my dear friend Kalbiye Nur Yegnidemir (founder of Zeugen der Zeit) asked me if I would like to support her in an awareness campaign funded by the bpb. Her vision: Creating more visibility for inspiring people during the pandemic by creating…
I was very pleased that I got invited to speak at the DAAD IndiAlumni ConFest again. This year’s topic was „Mindfulness, Wellbeing and Health“. I’ve presented a curated selection of artworks and short films, illustrating the healing impact of transcultural creativity and the connection between…
kaethe:k Kunsthaus is a professional art studio setting for artistically talented persons with disabilities working on visual art forms such as painting, graphics, plastic arts and media arts. The institution is serving the idea of equal opportunity and effective access to the arts and the…
I am very happy that I was assigned to develop the branding for an exceptional management consultancy based out of The Hague. Inclusive Growth is a team of advisers, trainers, coaches, and facilitators that aim to spur a future where inclusion, diversity, and equity (IDE)…
The music producers Sitara (singer-songwriter) and Henning Schmitz (sound and mixing engineer) assigned me to come up with the branding for their new label electromantica. Since the name says a lot already and consists of numerous letters, I focussed on developing a recognisable type logo…
Sepiedeh Fazlali is a media scientist, editor, educator, cultural mediator and of course the programme director of Masala Movement. She is currently setting up her own office for creative communication and project ideation. Sepiedeh critically engages with issues of identity and culture, seeks to make…
CHAKKARs wants to facilitate spaces in which PoC, postmigrant, decolonizing, critical intersectional, anti-racist, and critically white perspectives can be negotiated in and through dance, bodies and physical cultures. The initiators Sandra Chatterjee and Sarah Bergh asked me to come up with a brand idea for…
The previous Todh Teri EP sold so well that he assigned us again to develop the cover art for his upcoming record Deep In India Vol. 7 (vinyl only). The availability of the record can be checked here. Check out this amazing track by guest artist Kone…
The Köln India Week, which takes place for the 12th time in a row this year, deals intensively with the bilateral relations between Germany and India through a variety of high-profile events from culture, business and science. KölnBusiness the main sponsor of the event assigned…
25 years ago my dad and his other friends in Germany who grew up in the same South-Indian village called Edathua started organising an annual function in Köln to pay tribute to their mutual hometown. For the upcoming silver anniversary the organising committee asked me…
My trusted illustrator Costanza Coletti and me had the pleasure to develop the cover art for Todh Teri’s latest release. Deep In India Vol. 6 is a limited and vinyl only edition. The availability of the record can be checked here. This one is my…
My dad always wanted me to be an engineer and I know my mom secretly wishes I would have become a doctor. I told them they can call me whatever they like .. Design Engineer, Dr. Brand or Master of Communication … as long as…
I was very pleased when Kami Mahmoody told me that he is doing his „Meister“ in electrical and medical engineering. I usually get excited when friends are planning to start their own business, especially when they ask me for help regarding the branding. Meister Mahmoody…
AfricaWorks is an impact recruiting and employability agency that want to contribute to a model of sustainable business and link highly qualified African candidates with European companies. My job was to help positioning and designing the brand. Besides the identity I’ve designed the website and several…
Dolff Pyschny Piper is a consultancy firm based in Zurich that stands for excellence in product lifecycle management (PLM). Actually I was just assigned to optimise their corporate design but eventually I was able to do much more. Since I’ve never heard of PLM before…
Cultural anthropologist Prof. Dr. Urmila Goel asked me if I could design the visuals for her upcoming workshop. I always enjoy working on projects that are related to my mother’s migration story. In the 1960s and early 1970s there were not sufficient nurses in Germany.…
My friend and long time client Hans-Jörg Dohrmann has started a venture capital management firm. Its focus will be investing in retail innovation. After working together with him on the positioning I came up with a catchy yet relevant brand name and logo. Designing the…
… is the core message I came up with for the repositioning of m-way. For the past five years I have been working as a freelance brand consultant and designer for Switzerland’s largest e-bike retailer. Here a few kind words of the former marketing director…
In the heart of Ehrenfeld, on the lively Neptune Square, the Masala Empire is an authentic piece of India. All the richness of Indian culinary art merges with exotic interior. But by no means does the ambience reflect the well-known clichés of India; the guest…
A pretty big corporate asked me to come up with a brand idea for their sub division focussing on analytics and tackling big data. Data & Goliath was my favourite suggestion. But of course they went for something less exciting 😉
It’s always nice to create a branding for authentic people who are offering authentic stuff. I came up with the name „Woosch“. It means sausage in the local dialect Kölsch and at the same time it has a very international and contemporary feel and sound.…
My dear friend Vineetha Panalickal is starting a monthly night called Nyx at the legendary Roxy club in Köln. This special event series is named after the Greek goddess of the night and will focus on female DJs and musicians. Of course it was a…
My architect friend Kathrin Seifert who works for Koelnmesse needed me to design an icon for one of their special exhibition areas called Rotes Sofa.
ewz, Touring Club Switzerland and Migros has launched a pilot project in Zurich for sharing state-of-the-art electric vehicles under the leadership of Migros subsidiary m-way and with the support of SwissEnergy. m-way as one of my main clients asked me to come up with a…
During my time at Interbrand in Köln me and four other brand design experts from the London, Zurich, New York and Seoul offices where assigned to come up with a vision for the new website of ABB. ABB is one of the largest engineering companies…
The name of my friend’s restaurant was given and not necessarily easy to read nor to pronounce. On top of that the signage areas on the building’s facade were very narrow. So I decided to focus on the word and letters itself when redesigning the…
I have developed the visual identity for a new nightclub in Köln. The result was not only the title Reineke Fuchs (German fable) in combination with an unmistakable paw print as a logo, but also the following design concept: Twelve months, twelve animals, every year…
Shahira Fahmy Architects (SFA) is an award winning outfit in Cairo that practices design, functionality & sustainability focused urban planning, architecture, interiors and product design. SFA is committed to rethinking the ways in which people interact with spaces, objects and each other. Me and my…
The Dutch Embassy Cairo assigned me and my business partner Sagar Ghoting to design a bi-lingual publication about four Egyptian students who were sent to Holland and the cultural differences they’ve experienced. We came up with a striking cover that defined the bold and playful…
Me and my business partner Sagar Ghoting were assigned to develop the branding for MEAT – an independent art gallery based out of Cairo. We helped MEAT to present a new perspective on art, and on the Middle East. It allows works of art to…
Me and my business partner Sagar Ghoting designed a prototype tracking interface for our development partners Silverkey Technologies and their client Bavarian Auto in Cairo.
TheInder.Net magazine asked me if I could write a review about the India compilation from the Putumayo series. Sorry but there’s only a German version so far: „Wer kennt sie nicht – die tollen Putumayo CDs. Warte, ich helfe Dir auf die Sprünge. Es handelt…
Hi Susheela, I’m Manoj from Masala Movement and I’m a freelance writer for TheInder.Net magazine. How do you like Germany? What’s your personal impression of this country? Well I haven’t been here very much to be honest actually. I mean I’ve played once in Köln about…
At 20:30h Tina, Malik and me arrived in Treptow a very clean and artificial looking suburb compared to rest of Berlin. After a ten minutes walk, we reached the arena Berlin where the popdeurope festival took place and where Nitin Sawhney was to perform. I…