Sunil Kathare

I had a chance to design and build  David Jensen photography’s new website, which showcases his professional and personal assignments, specialising in Interior Design Photography, Celebrity Party/Event photography and Animal photography.

The  website has been built in JQuery, XHTML and CSS  to make it more accessible and SEO friendly. Initially, we were planning to use flash for the home page with a slide show of panning and zooming images. Then from the user’s point of view we thought it would be better to keep the interactive user interface consistent. So, the way,  they interact with website would be seem less and the users would find it easier to browse through all of David’s superb photographic galleries. David is one of the best in class photographer with a variety of photographic expertise.

His work has been featured in homes and Gardens, IDFX, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and Grove magazines. With syndication through Empics Entertainment (Press Association) photos have appeared in Time Out, The Independent, Guardian Guide, Evening Standard, Hello and Grazia.

Please click here to browse through his excellent portfolio of wok and book him for Interior Design Photography, Celebrity Party/Event photography or Animal photography.

http://www.davidjensen.co.uk/

Designing Christmas e-cards is so much fun! Here is link to an e-card, I’m designing for Black Sun.http://homepage.mac.com/sunilkathare/Black_Sun_christmas_card.html

Here are some of the designs I did for a folded Leaflet.

 Here is the deisgn I did for Thomas Cook, which will be handed out  in airports when peopel exchange money with Thomas Cook.

Above is a design that I did for a prepaid card the is coming out soon. We went through many designs before the above one was selected. Designing  a credit/debit card is complex process and there a lot of factors that have to be taken into acocunt. Below is another design design that I presented and before the above card  was selected. I have learnt a lot in the process of working on the designs for the prepaid card, which will save me time, when I do a similar project the next time around.

It took us months to get the crad approved from the MasterCard team and we learnt a so much in the process. The card is due to be out in the month of September and I will post a few photos when a final card printed on a matte.

Here is the design I did for HTML welcome email this sent out to cutomers when they sign with Moneybookers, designed specfically to increase conversion and get people to start making deposits.

To be one of the best wedding photographers in London you must be masterful at shooting portraits, architecture, still life, macros and, people. So, the wedding day is captured beautifully, in all its glory. Helen Maybanks is one of best wedding photographers in London because of her ability to capture stunning photos that have an immediate impact, that can grab attention, make you think, wonder, smile and to be able get an emotional response.  All the while making people feel relaxed and dealing calmly with anxious brides, grooms, parents and the extended family. Wedding photographers have an enormous responsibility to capture key moments in people’s life as most people will just have one wedding in a life time. From looking at photos taken by Helen you can see she has so much experience in being at the place at the right time, knowing exactly when and how to get the perfect shot.

Getting the timing right is very important and knowledge of the ceremonies is crucial to get best wedding photos. Helen Maybanks has loads of experience of shooting weddings from various faiths, including Christian, Muslim, & Jewish ceremonies, featuring couples from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Helen also has shot many gay and lesbian weddings 

making her one of the most experienced photogrpahers to shoot Civil Partnerships.

Here is a link to the wedding photography section on Helen Maybanks phootography website. From looking at her work you can see why Helen Maybanks is the top wedding photographer in london.

http://www.helenmaybanks.com/weddingphotography.html

I had a chance to design the new website for Helen Maybanks Photography and here is link to the home page:

http://www.helenmaybanks.com/

When you browse through the website you can see Helen has versatile skill sets and a great portfolio of photography work, including  Corporate, Theatre, Actor Headshots, Press and PR and Events and Conferences.

The website has a been built with a hybrid of flash and HTML to achieve a balance, blending visual stimulation with usability and branding with functionality, to create a superior user experience, yet keep the content accessible on platforms and devices like iPhone and Blackberry.

The user can also choose a theme they want to view the website in by choosing the boxes from “Set style” menu.

Enjoy the website and hire Helen if you want your wedding day to be recorded in style.

 Now a days it has become common practise to create vidoes that users can what and how to do things on your website. I spent over a month sortyboarding, capturing and building a video demo in flash to make it easy for users to under how to transfer money and send money using the website. Please click on the below links to view the demos.

Link to How to Transfer Money Demo:
http://www.moneybookers.com/creatives/demo/transfer_money.html

Here is the link to the demo that show how easy it is to send money:

http://www.moneybookers.com/creatives/demo/send_money_demo.html

Here is a link to the brand new look for the UNICEF Shop, which I got to design after doing extensive research.  For now we have updated the homepage and soon we will be looking to carry the design through to the rest of the site. The new design is beneficial in more than a few ways. It is not only more user friendly, but also gives visitors a better idea of the variety of products on offer on the shop.  Here is a preview at the design of the proposed internal page which allows for cross promotion of products from other categories of the shop. Also, makes them more easily accessible. 

Here is a link to new Shop Home page, which now has more real estate, better search engine visibility as each Category has speach bubble explaining more about products are offered under each category.

http://www.unicef.org.uk/store/

Anniek Verholt recently set up my private practise at the Hampstead in London as a Dutch qualified artistic therapist.

In practice Anniek works with patients that are coping with a long term illness and in particular with cancer patients, ex-cancer patients and family of cancer patients but also with a wider range of health issues. After qualifying (2000) she worked on several locations in Greece, the Netherlands and the UK as both artistic therapist and artist.

Here is a link to Anniek’s  new Art and Health website, which I got to design and build.  I also took photos of the artist whilst she was having a play with colours and paints. We ended up using the above photo for the home page, which was simple yet showed the artist at work.

www.artandwellbeing.com

What is Artistic Therapy?

Artistic Therapy was first developed by Dr Margarethe Hauschka in the 1960’s, based on the therapeutic philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, founder of Anthroposophy. Through the use of different art materials and techniques the client goes on a creative and personal journey discovering more about oneself and one’s health situation. It is utilized as a vehicle for healing and fostering personal growth. Through artistic expression, colour experience, reflection, and discussion of the artwork with an artistic therapist, patients are able to tap into their unconscious, stimulate their senses and develop a fuller awareness of their illness, their lives and them selves.   Read more about it on http://artandwellbeing.com/artistictherapy.html

Anniek  talented artistic and has had many exhibitions with glass work, paintings and jewellery work.

Above are a few photos I took of the an exhibition of some of her fantastic  glass work in London.

After having used Helvetica it some many of my projects I wanted to understand why a font, designed 50 years ago is one of the most loved and widely used font by designer worldwide.

These quotes from the movie sum up the take on Helvetica in the best possible way:

“Helvetica is something that is designed to stand the test of stand.”
“It seems like air! ”
“It is a beautiful timeless thing”
“Life of a designer is fight angainst the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease”
“Making something beautiful out of something ordinary”

“It is just a beautiful font!”

I would definately recommend the movie, especially if you’re a designer.  Time out says

“This is one of the wittiest, most diligently researched, slyly intelligent and quietly captivating documentaries of the year.”

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which recently celebrated its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. Helvetica has been shown at over 200 film festivals, museums, design conferences, and cinemas worldwide.

Here is a link to a dedicated website about the movie:

http://www.helveticafilm.com/

Here is the deisgn for welcome email that was sent out the customers how signed up for cash back promo.

Here is photo I took as I was coming into work today at 5:30 am with my new 14-24mm  F2.8 wide angle lens. I have being trying to get a shot of the escalators without any people for so long and all I had to do was get up early

From 18 July until 13 September, Royal Albert Hall is going to be host to BBC Proms. I highly recommend going to watch the Proms as there are absolutely fabulous!

My friend Arkadiusz managed to get three tickets to go and watch the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at Royal Albert Hall.

This was the first time I had been inside of Royal Albert Hall and I was spellbound by the architecture and superb performance of the Orchestra.

The Orchestra performance of Debussy’s Nocturnes was outstanding!

I had a great evening as the musical performance was sublime!

Here are details for the terrific performance.

Presented by Sarah Walker,

Colour, both orchestral and visual, is at the heart of this concert which incorporates the first Proms premiere of 2008, by Simon Holt, recently appointed Composer in Association with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. This is preceded by Debussy’s Nocturnes, his impressionist response to paintings by Whistler, portraying sky, sea and dazzling festivities.

Cantamus Girls’ Choir
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thierry Fischer (conductor)

Debussy: Nocturnes
Simon Holt: Troubled Light (BBC commission; world premiere).

Here is link to the BBC Proms website where you get all the information you need about the Concerts and more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2008/

I just bought a new pair of Reebok trainers and I love them.

Here is a screen shot of a web design I did for Barnardo’s Seen and Heard website.

A little about What Barnardo’s Sean and heard is?

Barnardo’s Seen and Heard run participation projects that help to position looked-after kids at the heart of decision making about how they are looked after. The purpose of this site is to provide an online resource for practitioners to enable them to run their individual projects more effectively.
 

Rational behind the design:
As the Seen and Heard website is all about learning from experiences of others and sharing useful experiences with the community I thought it would make sense to use the shape of speech bubble to frame the site and hold the banners. we even manged to create an identity by putting the words “seen and heard” in flying speech bubbles. We also did a lot of reseach to help them identify the kind of content that will useful to have on website and help acheive their objectives. They were espcially excited about having Pod casts from
Young People on the new site.

This is one of projects where we will be just doing the web design and handing it over to their IT team who will be implementing it with their CMS system. Currently, I am in the process to building the HTML and CSS before we hand it over them. It will be a few weeks till the site goes live. Till then here is a link to view the signed of design of the website.

http://www.chameleonnet.co.uk/download/seen_and_heard/mock.html

I had an opportunity to work on a poster and flyer design for Fear of Projection, a one man romantic comedy, which will be premiering at Brighton Fringe Festival.  Above is the design we came up with, working together. It is so much fun to work with talented artists like Andrew, with loads of energy.

Here is a little about Fear of Projection by Andrew Davies.

Andrew Davies’s new play Fear of Projection will be premiering at the Brighton Fringe Festival and running for seven nights between Saturday 3 – Friday 9 May (starting at 6pm).

Here’s the premise: “One man. One machine. A love that dare not speak its name… Edward’s desperate to impress his girlfriend, but will getting “amorous” with the flirty PowerPoint projector ruin everything?”

Here is link to Brighton Fringe Festival website where you can buy tickets:

http://www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk/listings/comedy/listing.asp?ev=1352&ed=8579

Here is a link to Drew’s blog, where you get the latest comments on Fear of Pojections, a comedy. Don’t miss it if you will be in Brighton this Bank holiday weekend.

http://theinfamists.tumblr.com/

 http://www.deafchildworldwide.org/

For months, we experimented with various combinations, to find ways to design and build a website, which is both visual stimulating and more effective in raising funds for the charity’s projects in aid of deaf children and their parents, carers, families and professionals all around the world.

Deaf Child Worldwide is the only UK-based international development agency dedicated to enabling deaf children to overcome poverty and isolation

Formerly the International Deaf Children’s Society, Deaf Child Worldwide is a newly-launched charity, which had just been through a rebranding process. As well as supporting the charity’s rebranding, we designed and built a unique new site, targeting high-value donors (HVDs)  and larger one-off donations to support the charity’s projects.

On the homepage we wanted to create a sensory interactive online experience with focus on prompting action by engaging with the visitor and creating an initial awareness of the brand.

We used the primary and secondary brand colours to highlights each sections, without clutter.

“Powerful ideas have simple solution”

We kept things simple by focusing on one thing at a time, with aim of creating an aesthetically compelling interface, seeking an ideal balance in graphics, engaging content and interactive motion. The idea behind the slider mechanism, on the home page and projects pages, is to welcome the visitor and promote action, by building up curiosity, for more information.

Here is a little about why Deaf Child Worldwide was formed.

There are around 12 million deaf children in the developing world, of these, a staggering 98% will never go to school.

This is not right and this has to change!

Visit Deaf Child Worldwide http://www.deafchildworldwide.org/ to find how we can work together to change it. By supporting Deaf Child Worldwide, you will receive a high level of up-to-date information on the progress of their chosen projects, with exclusive members-only web pages and email updates.

The projects section has a list of projects that they are rasing funds for. Hope you find it in your hearts to support a project that you think will make a difference.

http://www.deafchildworldwide.org/projects.aspx

Find the perfect Valentine’s card, form a selection of cute and romantic greetings for Valentine’s day, on UNICEF egreetings site. 

Link to Valentine’s Day egreetings :

http://www.unicef.org.uk/store/group_display.aspx?grp=3AEBD85A-E6C7-4C79-9D2E-8F30DEF88BCD

By sending an egreeting through the UNICEF eGreetings website, this Valentine’s day you can show you loved one, how much you care and also bring smiles to many children around the world, at the same time. UNICEF adds new ecards to its collection every year. Here is a link to the new “Rain or shine” Valentine’s day animated greeting, which I got to design, this year.

http://www.unicef.org.uk/store/ecarddetails.aspx?id=9E0DA90E-69C2-4766-8F9B-4F65D74E39BC

We used the following greeting message in the ecard:

“Be it Night or Day,
Rain or Shine,
With every twist and turn, in life
You will always be in my heart.
Happy Valentine’s Day.” 

UNICEF has a good variety or e-greetings for Valentine’s day. Click on the link below for more ecards for Valentines’s day.

http://www.unicef.org.uk/store/group_display.aspx?grp=3AEBD85A-E6C7-4C79-9D2E-8F30DEF88BCD

Just for Valentine’s Day UNICEF is also running a SPECIAL OFFER of 10 eGreetings for the price of 7. Take advantage of the offer! People show your partners, you care and send a UNICEF egreetings this Valentine’s Day!

http://www.unicef.org.uk/store/eGreetings.aspx

This weekend, I had been to Soho, to watch the fire works display for the chinese new year. On my way to china town  I popped into into The Photographers Gallery  and my visual senses were treated to splendid protaits by Fazal Sheikh, form the book “Ladli” and black and white panoramic photographs of Bristish Landscape by John Davies.

Fazal Sheikh is one for the four finalists for the Photography Prize, which was founded in  1996 ans has become one of the most prestigious international arts awards. Fazal Sheikh born in 1965, in USA, has been nominated for his publication Ladli, published by Steidl, Germany (2007). Sheikh is an talented artist-activist who uses photography to create sustained portraits of different communities around the world.

The other finalists are John Davies form UK, Jacob Holdt form Denmark, Esko Männikkö and from Finland.

The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize is worth £30,000/- is awarded annually to an international photographer who is judged to have made the greatest contribution to photography over the previous year.

Photographers Gallery  will be showing the four artist’s works from 8th Feburary to 6th April. It definately worth visting to see their  photograhs and try to undertand how they have contributed, their work. On Sunday, I spent some time reading Fazal Sheikh book “ladli” and was turly moved by the strong protaits in the book.  

Anyone who wants to learn how to take documentary portaits should check out Fazal Sheikh work.

Here is a link to the online version of Fazal Sheikh book Ladli.

http://www.fazalsheikh.org/11_ladli/online_edition_en/start.php

Persepolis (the Story of a Childhood) and Persepolis 2 (The Story of a Return)
reviewed by Sunil Kathare

Persepolis is a beautifully illustrated, funny, moving graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, which is educational, heartbreaking and filled with warm humour. She has used powerful black-and-white drawings to illustrate her story, of growing in revolutionary and wartime Iran. Her work is nothing short of art and I predict, it will become iconic for it’s uniqueness and for what it represents. Satrapi refers to this style as “stylized realism,life-like, not like a cartoon”. The new animated feature directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud has the same style and if you look at the movie trailer below, you can see why it is so touching and lovable.

I had read an extract from the Persepolis - the Story of a Childhood  in Nick Hornby’s “The complete polysyllabic spree” and found it very interesting and funny. Then, I picked it up, when I was browsing and read the following review on-line.

Persepolis critical review “Austere as it may look, is full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.”

In one evening, I have learnt so much about life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions/contrast between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and “the Marty’s,” the heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, heartwarmingly genuine and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. Apart form being illuminating about life in Iran there are instants of profound wisdom in both  Persepolis - the Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2 - The Story of a Return, the sequel.

For example, in Persepolis, the Story of a Childhood, the night before Marjane’s is sent off to Europe, her grandmother tells her:
“In life, you’ll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it’s because they’re stupid. That will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty. Because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance . . . always keep your dignity and be true to yourself.”

And, in the second volume, Persepolis 2, The story of a return, when Marjane’s lies and gets another man arrested, to divert the “committee” guards attention from her makeup, her grandmother, gets angry and later, while reconciling, tells her:
” It’s fear that makes us lose our conscience. It’s also what transforms  us into cowards. “

Marjane learns from her mistakes and makes her grandmother proud by standing up for herself and others. She recovers her self-esteem and dignity and transforms her life.

There are lot of things I could relate to, in these two graphic novels. I especially, level with her account of how it is for someone, moving to a new country and how it feels to be miles away from your families comfort and warmth. This is a rare book, which I whole heartedly recommend! Especially, to any one, who wants to, better understand other cultures and what life is like for people, in other parts of the world.

I am soooo… looking forward Persepolis - the movie directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud.

Here is a link to watch more, high quality, movie trailers, of Persepolis - the movie. The second trailer is even better.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/persepolis/

And, link to the official site of Persepolis, the movie:
http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/

If you are looking for stand out photography, be it a striking portrait, a bold corporate image, an enduring record of your wedding day. Look no further. London’s top  photographer Helen Maybanks will capture the perfect picture, you want.

Link to Helen Maybanks Photography: http://www.helenmaybanks.com/

I had the chance to work on the flash site, which houses some of Helen’s excellent work. The site works like a photographer’s gallery exhibit, where you can move from room to room, to view Helen’s fantastic photographs, in different sections, such as wedding, corporate or headshots. You can also choose from four different site skins to experience the feeling of being in a gallery, based on your preference.

Helen is a superbly talented photographer with an excellent eye for a great shot. I have tremendous respect for Helen’s exceptional skill in photography. Also, check out Helen’s blog to see her latest works: http://www.helenmaybanks.com/blog/

“Every dawn welcomes you to bring your dreams to reality” So, when you wake up in the morning, remind yourself that everyday, is an opportunity, to do all that you wanted to do.

Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

The above is one of the post cards that I designed for this New year. I came up with the words too. he he he…

Wish you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Here is link to an interactive greeting card for you all:
http://www.art-nature.co.uk/christmas/northpole.html