22 June 2025. 3:43 pm

I write this as I sit in the Redemption Roasters cafe, which is a nice place to work. I would have never known about this place if it wasn’t for us exploring Picadilly by foot. They have an amazing backstory. I wonder if I can make my MA project about amplifying founder/personal stories for places. I realise that I can narrow down on places like parks and cafes instead of taking up huge spaces of areas like nation and countries. I love the idea of branding a borough or a street. I have been collecting the blue stamps of heritage placed around London. My project can also be about community-building experiences. I could handout postcards for London or maps with heritage places that are underrated.

Important insight by Neha: Where do I go after 5 pm?

I would’ve loved community spaces in India but I realise that they are not a thing because India has families. I still would not mind taking a break from them, once in a while.

In another conversation with Neha, we talked about the Mumbai coastal forest project. We also talked about diversity of a region and the future of place-branding with respect to real estate. I realise the possibility of my FMP taking a direction in the colonial history of London. I was also informed on how my take on these issues is valid because of my experiences as a post-graduate Indian student in the UK.

Schematic maps allow personal experiences to seep into a place. I could do something with tailored tours of a city that could elevate the experience. However this is completely opposite to what branding stands for- appeal to the major public.

The next step for me, I guess is my tutorial with Rob. After that I need to finalise names for interviews.

All my academic life, starting from nursery school my mother and my grandfather have begged for me to study in the early hours of the day. It is my tendency to stay up in the night, panic and not get work done anyway. How ironic is it that I understand the truth behind their appeals in the last unit of my post-graduate studies. I cannot see myself doing a PHD in the next few years but when I decide on embarking on that journey. I will wake up early in the morning and do my reading.

I have had a very interesting day today. I would go even as far as to say that my entire Spring holiday has been eventful. This was absolutely the time I was waiting to experience. When I imagined what it would be like to live in London, these were the days that I was visualising. I have just finished watching the last season of ‘The Crown’ and all of the seasons of Sherlock for the millionth time. The experience of watching London on the screen and then stepping out to see the landmarks in real time is unreal.

To talk about today, I was wanting to visit the Blank Street pop up at Charlotte street. I was a bit apprehensive about getting into the line because I did not want to be seen as pitiful and unemployed. My destiny never lets me experience anything for free, it does not believe in luck. Keeping that in mind, I just wanted to look at the picnic pop-up in terms of it being a branded experience.

I reached there fifteen minutes before the event began. I realised that I was too self-respecting of an adult to be doing this and decided to just buy a matcha. I then decided to buy a large matcha after all and walk back home. There was a line even for the normal orders now. Turns out, people who did not get to participate in the free pop-up event had decided to get a drink for themselves anyway. I was one of them. I felt like a guinea pig but I will give them the credit of getting their creative strategy to do good business for their store. I wondered how such decisions require collaboration from all of the departments at Blank Street to persuade me to just buy the drink at their shop.

I got my matcha and walked outside of the shop. Someone in the line had just received a Blank Street picnic blanket from the pop-up. Other people in the line clapped and hooted, I felt second hand embarrassment. Another person on the street in front of the pop-up line then shouted “we are going through a world crisis and look at these people standing outside a shop for free drinks” He said this just as I was stepping out. I practically ran at this point to get away from the shop. I really had nothing to do, I had stepped out of my home with no agenda so I decided to walk home gawking at the landmarks that would come along my way and boy was it a surreal experience. I passed along Leicester square, China town, Trafalgar square, Victoria Embankment gardens, London eye and BFI Southbank on my way home. I have decided that I will do this walk again on a sunny day with my camera.

This is an experiential video depicting the narrative of a square being just as adorable and fun as other shapes. This task was a part of our experiments in PlayLab.

I was not very happy with the narrative that all of us subconsciously kept assigning to the form of a square. Initially we ended up thinking of square to be a boring and restrictive shape, someone who does not like to experiment, socialise and leads a lonely life. I do not blame us, that is a thought that every designer has come across at least once. Why do you think the ‘anger’ in Inside Out is square in shape? Even the phrase ‘don’t be a square’ means to not be a conventional, old-fashioned person. I knew that this narrative needed to change.

My introverted temperament helps me empathise with squares. Some of us like to know people better in order to know if they truly deserve to experience our personality and our presence. So we came up with a story that shows how interesting squares can be. They might look boring on the outside, but what if they are always having a little party of theirs in their head?