ACTSHIFT: SWITCHING ACTIVITY ZONES

Posted by Onio Design on

Onio has been working on the mega-trends for India for almost
6 years now. Yearly research that connects us to more than
200 consumers and trend-hotspots in India culminates into
Trend report and a workshop. Onio’s design research and
innovation strategy practice relies heavily on yearly updates
from this research. Here is a snapshot of what’s new in
India-Working out at gym is nothing new to those connected with IT.

Shifting the activity to break the monotony of break-neck
pace of life is the new mantra that borrows a few hints
from the IT set-ups. It is not a lazy Sunday afternoon
and nor it is a running away to weekend jaunt that is ‘unwinding’.
It is not a seamless switch of activities, change of rhythm,
mix of micro and macro, home and hotel, work and fun that will
create a soothing new energy. Expect hybrid product characters,
mixed zone spatial treatments, advanced versions of quick connect
technologies like QR codes, DIY multi-role products and airport
like accents will dot the design directions or 2012-13.

TEENAGER-IN-TOWN

Posted by Onio Design on

Onio turned 14 on 14th July 2011. Three testing business cycles in the
last fourteen years tested everything from our views on the core of
innovation to our resolve to our business processes to our very approach
to business. In the fast evolving economy bubbling with increasingly
aware consumers, India-centric innovation is just about taking shape.
I remember the very first years of Onio where we were struggling to find
product design assignments and were actually forced to take up
graphic-design assignments for sheer survival. For some time, we had
almost become a dotcom portal design company.

The beginning of design-led innovation renaissance in India started only
in the last 5-6 years. It has happened not because home-grown companies
developed a love for design and innovation; but because the foreign
companies started feeling the need to differentiate their products in
the emerging economies. Everyone is a winner in the scene that is unfolding now.

Innovation frontiers are getting pushed for the better. Keener and deeper
understanding of emerging users is becoming a de facto method for new product
development. Statistics, though being the backbone of any decision, has now
found a competent partner in qualitative research methods. This rapidly
changing scenario affected Onio in many ways. In the world of modern design
and innovation which has luminaries starting from Leonardo da Vinci,
fourteen years are really nothing.

Each day, new start-ups are being born out of new energy and confidence
of emerging India and stories of ‘stay hungry, stay foolish’ are polishing
new beautiful minds. Onio is a small flicker in this illumined new world
of innovation. This small flicker is the marching light for tomorrow. 
We believe in this and strive together with all our clients, suppliers,
partners, remote well-wishers and the families who support us day in and day out.

Manoj Kothari

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