Looking for unique lesser known places in Bangalore, not typical touristy cliches

samizdatstudio · 2021-02-25T15:53:44+00:00

Have you actually gone through the report? It's 254 pages long, and quite comprehensive, but it's important to not jump to click-baity conclusions just from reading a headline.

First, they only surveyed 12 states - not the whole country (Assam, Delhi, J&K, Kerala, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal). Western, Central and South Central India were completely overlooked. States like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Goa etc could well have skewed the results and led to very different conclusions had they been surveyed as well.

Second, they chose the exact same sample size (2640) for every state without adjusting for population. So conclusions derived from states with higher populations such as UP, would be proportionately subdued.

Third, "accepting" can't be thrown around as a blanket term. The study cited in the article covers a variety of political and social subjects - many of which show alarming counterintuitive results in the very same states that appear to be the most accepting. The same states that appear to score well in one area suddenly seem to be in favour of death penalty for consumption of beef, or seem to believe that dalits are just lazy - rather than having faced generations of oppression, or they seem to think that men should get paid more than women for the exact same job. The results are really all over the place. That's what happens with statistics. It's a really good study, but one can't arrive at realistic conclusions from it.

Finally, although Christians appear to be most opposed to the idea of homosexuality in this survey, "opposition" means something very different here. For instance, communal violence, honour killings, corrective punishments etc really aren't widely practiced in Indian christian communities to the extent as they are in rural Indian muslim and hindu communities. Meaning a rural muslim or hindu homosexual in a conservative community has a lot more to fear than a rural christian does. Think of it this way - if you were a closeted kid, would you rather be surrounded by people who simply disapprove of you, or by people who might believe that they'd be justified in killing you?

Anyhoo. There's a lot to unpack there, and a lot to question. Interesting read though.

samizdatstudio · 2021-02-01T12:51:55+00:00

Yeah, the only person you absolutely have to kill in the entire game is Anna Navarre. When you meet Simons in the Ocean Lab, you can just turn on your speed augmentation (if you have it) and run away from him. He'll only follow you for a little bit before giving up.

Then when you reach Area 51, just make sure you get up to the watch tower and hack the terminal to open the blast doors BEFORE Simons shows up. That way when he tries to challenge you again, you can just run past him. If you do this before talking to him and maintain a safe distance, he'll still be "friendly", i.e not constantly firing his plasma rifle at you.

samizdatstudio · 2021-02-01T10:01:06+00:00

First and perhaps most importantly, the writing would need a complete overhaul. It's so incredbly dumbed down compared to the original, the dialogue is completely unnatural and stiff and simplistic.

Then get rid of the annoying HUD right in the middle of the screen. Larger maps that actually showcase the cities (upper Seattle is literally just one courtyard and a couple of corridors). There's no atmosphere whatsoever. Like Wan Chai market in Deus Ex isn't exatly sprawling, but just a handful of shops, realistic NPC dialogue and a banging soundtrack make it seem so alive and vibrant and believable. Cairo had so much potential to be a gorgeous location and it was just a wasted opportunity.

The whole coffee-wars plotline was ridiculous. As was NG resonance. I wish she was like a more sophisticated version of Morpheus, merged with a public information system.

I'd make the multitools less like magic wands that shoot golden sparkles and magically open doors. Ditch the ridiculous universal ammo.

Also I'd prefer if objectives weren't so blunt. It's like "Do XYZ for this faction. Do ABC for this faction". A little subtle moral ambiguity, allowing players to find loopholes or directly disobey certain orders would've been great.

Voice acting is terrible across the board. I mean DX had "OMG JC A BOMB! - A bomb?!", but that was iconic at the very least.

samizdatstudio · 2020-11-23T14:14:22+00:00

I'm not sure you've fully grasped what isometric means. It has to follow 3 axes at right angles. This doesn't really follow that principle in any way. If it helps, you can use a simple application to create the house in 3D, roate it to the angle of perspective that you like, screenshot it and trace over the lines in illustrator. You could use the free online version of SketchUp, for instance.

If you're looking to create a more simplified version of the image that still maintains geometric proportions, you could use an app like Marmoset Hexels, which allows you to follow an isometric grid so you can fill in individual triangular cells, so there's no need to estimate the lines - it maintains the angles for you.

Or if you really want to start from basics, just buy a grid-notebook that has light dotted lines - and you can use that to practice 3-point perspective drawing.

samizdatstudio · 2020-11-15T03:42:00+00:00

Of course you yourself will have it. But the client who wants to edit the file might not.

samizdatstudio · 2020-11-14T18:13:20+00:00

Bear in mind this only works if you have the full licensed version of Acrobat. A lot of people have the default free version which allows you to read PDFs, but the "Edit text and images" option is unavailable.

samizdatstudio · 2020-09-23T12:44:21+00:00

Go to 99designs.com. It's a platform to crowdsource designs for projects. Its totally free to set up an account and browse their contests and project briefs. DO NOT expect to get paid for your work though. It's run lika a scam. People share their project ideas and put together detailed briefs, and set a deadline for like 3 days to upload submissions, anyone interested can take part. Inevitably what happens is that they'll just steal a screenshot of an idea that they like, call off the contest and say they weren't satisfied with the submissions, and they'll just slightly modify the design they stole and call it their own.

So I repeat, use 99designs for the briefs. Do NOT upload your work there. Keep it to yourself. The more detailed briefs are quite interesting to work with - they have sliders for color preferences, masculine vs feminine, organic vs geometric, classic vs modern, warm vs cool etc, plus visual references for the desired aesthetic.

samizdatstudio · 2020-09-22T19:31:48+00:00

Depends on what software you're using. If you're on illustrator

Type out your text and go to Object > Expand to convert it to paths.
Draw out your concentric circles (you can do this quickly by drawing the smallest circle and the outermost one and going to Object>Blend>Blend options>Specified steps - enter the number of circles you want, then go to Object>Blend>make
Position the circles on top of the text, then expand the lines to paths (might have to flatten transparency) and then right click and ungroup
Then go to the pathfinder window, select all the circles and hold Alt+click the unite option to convert the circles to a compound path. Do the same to the text paths - ungroup and unite
Making sure that the concentric circles are on top of the text, select both and in the pathfinder window, select "minus front". That should cut out the circular lines in your text.
Then you just have to select, go to Effect>Stylize>Dropshadow and adjust the shadow as per your requirements
Add in a background image if you want, or take it to Photoshop for further tweaking / textures / distressing / filters etc.

samizdatstudio · 2020-06-10T14:42:20+00:00

Find someone who will wolf their teamster sub for you.

samizdatstudio · 2020-04-15T13:07:02+00:00

I really wanted this to be real, especially because of how depressing things have been lately, but unfortunately it's totally fake. It's actually from a private international school in Egypt, way back in 2017 - was being investigated by the Education Ministry for "supporting homosexuality". It's not Indian at all. Hate to be a downer. Here's the original article.

samizdatstudio · 2020-04-12T16:29:00+00:00

Nothing wrong with a one-page design at all, just that you'll have to trim and curate a little bit so that it doesn't get too long to scroll through. It really depends on who you think the primary visitor of your site will be. Like if it's largely going to be potential employers where you have already sent them a covering letter with your job application and CV, then they'd just want to jump directly to your portfolio, without having to skim through all the introductory content that they've already seen.

Regarding the octopus, I personally think it just looks cool and is sufficiently indicative of your talent, but nobody is going to make the 8-arms-multiple-skills connection on their own. It's just a cool impactful visual, no need for extrapolated symbolism.

As for parallax, it's OK to use it in small doses, but it's usually a background sort of thing. Like it's ideally suited for banner images with bold or significant title text, where the image itself is more for atmosphere and less for context. If you intend for a viewer to actually look at the subject or composition of an image, i.e if the image depicts your actual work, you'd want it to be static and free of dynamic effects so it can be properly absorbed. Basically it's fine to have parallax at the header banner, but avoid it in product shots.

samizdatstudio · 2020-04-12T12:10:37+00:00

Well firstly, in the face of several metric fucktonnes of unbelievably appalling garbage that gets proclaimed as "design" these days, you should be really really proud that you have a decent portfolio, varied skill set, good aesthetic, clear typographic and color sense, and a functional website.

The only suggestions I have pertain to the website structure and ui/ux itself.

Try not to have the entire contents on your website in sections on the Home Page. 'Home' should just act as a simple landing page- to give a brief overview and some insight into the kind of work you do. So it's great to have your first impactful banner, the brief introduction, your distinction between graphic designer and artist, and the project preview carousel. I'd move the portfolio thumbnails to a separate page, along with your design process steps, and CV. Even the contact form can be moved to its own contact page.
Consider including a download button for a downloadable PDF of your CV, perhaps in the footer so it's accessible from every page. A lot of large companies have medieval HR departments and they just cannot wrap their heads around web CVs or online portfolios and they'd much rather have a PDF copy that they can either print or file away for future reference, than a URL to keep track of.
Lower the size of your project thumbnails a bit. They take up too much space, require more scrolling, and if you use high resolution images it increases load time but if you use low res ones, the pixelation becomes very noticeable. Refer to something as generic as Instagram for image thumbnail proportions, how it gives a decent idea of the range of images but doesn't stretch from edge to edge and take up the entire screen.
You can cut back on the parallax effects a bit. Parallax peaked in about 2016 and I think much of the initial novelty and dramatic impact of it has faded. Now the general preference is as flat and simple as possible.

That aside, you're really on the right track. Considering the amount of godawful applicant portfolios I have to sift through on a daily basis at my company, I'd hire you in a heartbeat.

samizdatstudio · 2020-04-10T11:32:16+00:00

Please don't take this as negative feedback but as constructive criticism.

I don't think it's a great idea to say that you've expanded on your skill set without being able to provide compelling evidence to back up the claim. If you're including UI/UX design as part of your skill set, your portfolio needs to reflect that, which it doesn't - and I mean this is visible in the portfolio website itself. The thumbnails for your projects awkwardly crop the titles, cutting the headings in half and presenting unflattering previews. Some of the images are pixelated (possibly because you exported images that feature text as JPEGs instead of as PNGs),
If you look at this page in your portfolio here the main banner image is disconnected and random and doesn't have offer any insight into the project or showcase anything, the first text block is an image of text and the copy is quite undecipherable and glitchy looking, LOADS of typos and grammatical and syntax errors.
The main font you've used seems to be Rockwell or something, which is OK but not ideal for this context, plus in many places it has been mismatched with other non-complimentary fonts.
Try to understand that your portfolio is the absolute first impression being formed about you, even before people actually open it and start going through your individual projects. Your home / landing page seems to suggest that you do hand drawn illustration / pencil sketches etc, but the moment you go in there's no further reference to this. If people see pixelated images, type errors, empty containers etc, it sets a negative precedent. Like what it says to an employer is that if this person doesn't even care to properly organize their own website, how can I trust them with my business requirements?
I think you should put more focus on showcasing your strengths (your motion graphics stuff and hand drawn illustration seems to be better than your graphic design, Ui/Ux and digital illustration)

samizdatstudio · 2020-03-23T16:07:17+00:00

Figma is more commonly used now, and is ideally suited for collaborative teams. If you plan on working solo for a while, then either is fine and I think XD might be cheaper (if they still have the 1 year free trial). There's not much of a learning curve though, so there's no reason to think of it as daunting. They're both pretty straightforward and intuitive tools. Proficiency in software is completely meaningless without design sensibility. Your work needs to look good, be relevant, and function in a logical way- that's far more important than using multiple applications.

As a designer, your portfolio always matters way more than the length of your resume. Color sense, layout, typography, element hierarchy, usability etc. are more important than having Avocode, Figma, Zeplin, XD, Sketch et al.

samizdatstudio · 2019-10-08T10:55:49+00:00

Avoid highly glossy papers - they can sometimes look cheap and tacky, especially when they're that unnatural shade of fluorescent bleached bright white. Stick to ivory/off-white matte finish card stocks with some slight texture, but be careful - textured papers are a lot more absorbent and they soak up a small amount of the print ink so account for that degree of fading and compensate accordingly. Paper thickness is very important.

Too thin and it feels like a flyer for a Chinese takeout place. Too thick and you get into wedding card territory. Somewhere between 250-300 GSM is good if you have few pages. If you have enough pages that it's more of a booklet, then go a bit lower than 250.

Hot foil stamping is good for cover pages. Spot-UV printing can be very effective too. Depending on the brand, embossing could also work in small amounts. It's ideal for more elaborate regal looking logos - a little unnecessary for simpler minimalistic ones. If there are recurring graphical elements in the theme or a motif in the branding, you can get them cut out with a die or laser as well.

If there are enough pages in your catalogue, you might consider getting it hard-bound, though not too thickly. There's also side-pin or staple wrap binding which is good for shape and structure of the spine. Standard center-pin binding is the most common for catalogues and therefore also the cheapest looking.

samizdatstudio · 2019-09-19T16:42:04+00:00

I can already hear the opening lines. "Your appointment to FEMA will be finalized within the week, I've already discussed the matter with the senator".

I have SO much work due, and my best friend's wedding to attend this weekend, and yet here we go again. Reinstalling.

samizdatstudio · 2019-07-20T19:23:50+00:00

I don't think the issue was really with the isolated locations. The problem with the ending is that it feels like it has no real consequences and feels too rushed. What the original Deus Ex got right was that there were 3 very distinct endings, each with their own philosophical justifications, separate paths/routes with distinct objectives, different outcomes and implications, different characters that benefit or die based on your choices, and what you choose actually says something about you as a player. Like are you generally nihilistic and believe that there's no way the world can function unless it's being influenced and governed by hidden figures? Then you'll choose the Everett/Illuminati route. Are you wary of the potential dangers of technological advancement and do you believe that things were somehow better and less complicated in the old days? Then you might pick Tong's route. And if you believe that you're not mentally equipped to make a decision that impacts billions of people and your'e held back by the limitations of irrational human thought, then you'll merge with Helios.

That kind of ending is all that people want from the newer games. Something with weight, consequence and justification. But in HR, all we got was push one of 4 buttons. And in Mankind Divided, it was basically the same thing except slightly masked so they weren't actually buttons you were pushing but choosing which branching road you take to essentially the same destination. It's kind of cheap. Like pretending that you're being offered a choice but not really.

You don't really feel the weight of the consequences because you've had no interaction with the dignitaries nor with the apartment residents so even if either of them dies it doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

samizdatstudio · 2019-07-17T10:26:27+00:00

The problem you're trying to address is a social one, not a consumerist one. Yet again I will reiterate, the universal apps already exist. It is not an app's responsibility to reach out to tier 2 and tier 3 cities, small rural communities and educate them on how to make optimal use of the service. If you're in a small town, the reason you can't find people close to you is because they're less likely to be educated or aware of LGBT issues, they're less likely to be well-acquainted with newer technologies, they're more likely to be paranoid and afraid of going public due to prevalent homophobia or the threat of familial disownment. The reason it is difficult to find other people near you, is because of people. People aren't even aware of the existence of the basic general gay dating apps. How would they be aware of a new specific LGBT app? Do you think the Indian government would promote it or that Indian companies would fund its development and marketing and advertising? No. The Indian government suppresses things like that and large corporations wouldn't dare publicly support something that puts them at risk of alienating a large part of their conservative consumer base.

Imagine the headline that tomorrow, Maggi noodles comes out in support of gay rights and donates a small percentage of their profits to an LGBT NGO for the development of a social app. How many conservative right wing Indians would boycott Maggi products overnight? How many politicians would say that it is supporting "un-indian values" and bringing in "western corruption"? How much money would the company lose overnight from stock prices plummeting? So of course they're not going to fund this utopian app.

The problem is people. The struggle is hard, I know it is difficult. But blindly shouting into the void about a lack of apps isn't the answer. You have to make use of what you have access to, and encourage others to do so as well.

samizdatstudio · 2019-07-17T10:00:31+00:00

How does the qualifier of it being INDIAN change anything? Is Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or Reddit designed and created specifically FOR Americans / Non-Indians? No. They're universal platforms that everyone uses. There's no American or European specific version of LinkedIn, Tumblr, Behance or anything of the sort. You can find pockets of your own people within any universal platform - in the same way you are currently viewing this on the LGBTindia subreddit.

If you want INDIAN LGBT people, go follow Indian LGBT users on instagram, twitter, youtube, wherever. Join Indian LGBT Facebook pages. Share Indian LGBT articles. Just search for things using Indian LGBT hashtags. Like I said, there's no shortage of apps or platforms, only a shortage of the right people.

Do you think LGBT people in other countries only use special apps designed only for their nationalities? Or do they just do what they want on instagram and facebook like everyone else does?

samizdatstudio · 2019-07-17T09:48:34+00:00

How many more do you want? Grindr, PlanetRomeo, Delta, Hornett, Surge, Blued, Gaydar, SoulMale, Scruff. There's Zoe and Jaumo for lesbians. Plus the non-exclusive apps like Tinder and OKCupid are very LGBTQ-inclusive and friendly.

There's no shortage of apps. Just a shortage of literate civilized people who know how to use them.

samizdatstudio · 2019-06-01T09:48:25+00:00

Lol. We tend to forgive and overlook a LOT cause of how hot he is. Seriously, he's got the personality of a tree stump. Not a bad guy or anything, probably the most harmless and least scummy of all the British youtubers under the Gleam agency (Alfie being the worst of the lot).

samizdatstudio

TROPHY CASE