Propeller Island City Lodge

one of the rooms we visited. This is the reading space, bed is above!
Sample this : "A room with a slanted floor which makes grandma's bed seem to fly. The wardrobe comes out of the wall, but table and chair have got to stay straight! In the rustic bathroom of natural stone you will find eggplant-coloured slate."

Sample another one:

"Definitely one of City Lodge's highlights. The diamand-shaped room is completely(!) laid out with mirrors and gives you the impression of living in a kaleidoscope. Caution: Very sexy!"

funky washroom!
The above are descriptions of rooms available in the Propeller Island City Lodge. If you think the above is crazy, then check this out : "In both coffins you can even slumber beneath closed lids! Exclusively connoisseur room for all those "Nosferatus" who cannot wait for that which awaits us all. Whosoever has second thoughts can creep to the bedplace below, safe within the labyrinth. Not only a unique experience for Gothic die-hards...an exquisite location on top of that!".

mood creator in every room. press the button and you are in the company of frogs and rains!

B had some of her friends staying in these lodges and the pictures are from the tour we did of the place. Bizzare is not the word. I could hear friends shouting, 'This is unbelievable!'. Yes it certainly was. Inspired by a book written by Jules Verne at the end of the nineteenth century which describes an artificial island that travels with its inhabitants around the world, German designer Lars Stroschen converted his humble guest rooms into a 'art installation hotel'.

Why waste so much money in the regular hotel rooms of Berlin, when you can sleep in such a place for 60 to 100 euros? Am not sure though, if I would want to sleep in a coffin. For the faint-hearted, there is a chicken curry (India!) inspired room. Check it out here:

Berlin © GP 2008

Foundation logo

The Foundation didn't have a logo at all for quite some time. It was only last year that we started thinking about a logo that represents our thoughts and objectives of the foundation. Instead of approaching a professional graphic designer, we decided to crack it one day while we were in our office in Bangalore. In twenty minutes flat, the scrap book was full of sketches, and we decided to go for the one that we are using now. The idea was to show case the relation of the river with the local language (Malayalam). Considered to be the father of Malayalam literature and author of Ramayanam in Malayalam, Thunjathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan was born on the banks of the river in Tirur.

Many classics came from those writers who were born and brought up here. Many of us literally grew up on classics written by MT Vasudevan Nair and O.V Vijayan. Some of the other luminaries were G Sankara Kurup, Vyloppilli, P Kunhiraman Nair, Olappamanna, Edassery, Balamani Amma and master of sketches "Artist Namboodiri". We decided to show the connection of the river with the language by using calligraphy in Malayalam.

Then we wanted to show case the present status of the river as well as how we dream about it. So we thought of using the three letters to represent the river as if these were islands with no connection to the river it used to be. Without supported by the rich tributaries, our river is no longer showing any sign of a full fledged water source. By extending the river with waves in a single line, we thought this could be our dream. The river that flows as one source which basically came together from its rich tributaries.

By adding a small thoni(country boat) to it, the logo became more lively. For a river that weaves together traditions, culture and people, we couldn't think about any image better than our "thoni".The way we spread the lines and did the calligraphy, it reminded us of the romance that the river was always to us.

Couple of days later, when Anita saw my scrap book in office, she said,"Very simple and full of stories. Like our "puzha" and "thoni", Alley?" ("Isn't it" in Malayalam)

She added the last bit of orange colour to our thoni and it became our logo!

Bangalore © GP 2007

Typo!

The work for an attractive logo was equally exciting.

Once again, it was coordinated between various places, amongst various friends. I had given a brief about the company, what we intend to do and how it should be perceived.

Ideas were shared with some of my friends, sent them various sketches, some pictures that I shot while I stayed in my village and then RJ called me from Dubai and said, "I am going to do it!".

RJ was the one who understood my style, my expectations and kept on sending various designs all of which I refused, mostly for the reason that there was too much of "Kerala" in all of them. RJ was a wonderful artist (he still is!), he brought in many fresh ideas, and looked totally out of place in Tirur, where there was nothing much for him to explore.

I enjoyed working with him, until one day he made me run for cover because of a "typo" in one card he designed for our college chapter of SPICMACAY.

As usual we were the typical lastminute.com's and organised some programs including an inauguration of the regional chapter and we needed our badges at any cost within a day.

It was delivered on time almost two hours before the event!!

The proof I gave read like this:

SPICMACAY
Society for Promotion of India Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth

And, what was printed on the card was this:

SPICMACAY
Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Against Youth!

I still don't know where we got the energy to print the expansion of SPICMACAY on a paper and spent rest of the time pasting it on to all the badges before the inauguration!

© GP 2006