Graphic Designand Branding

Since its foundation in 1591, Hyderabad has enjoyed global fame for its glorious history, stable economy and consistent commercial contributions towards the prosperity of the state, region, and the country. Pearls, diamonds, fascinating jewellery/workmanship and traditional handicrafts of the state paved way for early trade with Europe and Middle East, putting Hyderabad on the global trade map and thus began the eventful journey of growth and progress. The IT industry of Hyderabad started long after the journey of the city began but has been quick to propel the state to leadership position – it is home to over 1200 IT companies, both large and small, which together employ close to 4.5 Lakh professionals capable of delivering cutting- and leading-edge technologies, besides supporting an indirect employment to over 10 Lakh people. In 2014-15, the total value of software and IT products’ exports accounted for INR 68,232 Crores—about 11% of National IT exports.

Trace the history of the city to put into context the growth and burgeoning of the IT sector of Hyderabad vis-à-vis the city’s unique social, economic and cultural conditions; use photographs from the past to delineate the growth story.

The commemorative book had to capture the famous city’s transformational saga from the early days of its history and for that we had to source and work with photographs from the past; for every part of the whole narrative the right visuals had to be handpicked and that was a challenge when we did not have the leeway that comes from a planned photo shoot; the content strategy should have to make room from the timeline, take the storyline to a logical culmination while also capturing the essence the city; get beneath the superficial layer to truly capture the essence of the unique ‘Deccani’ flavour.

We began by LISTENING to the requirements of the governing council, drawing insights and researching stories associated with the various milestones; each image had a story that had to be unravelled. With the foundational storyline in place, we STRATEGIZED and used our unique position as a dyed in the wool ‘Hyderabadi’ who has had the unique ring side view to the city’s growth over years to map each story with the visual journey, photograph by photograph, page by page. We then used our CREATIVE experience to weave the a nuanced narrative and design content, including artwork, to take the story to its grand culmination.

We managed to successfully give HYSEA a one-of-a-kind commemorative coffee table book that forever connects HYSEA with the grand history of Hyderabad—it has become a timeless piece that will stay for posterity.

Taking a cue from the silver jubilee milestone, we imagined  a unique ‘silvery’ icon for the cover of the book and created an artwork to depict the ‘IT’ character of the growth; the artwork began with our question “what would it be like to have a Char Minar in Cyberabad?’, and that led us to create what has now become so famous an asset—the ‘ IT Minar’ made up of binary codes, bits and all things IT; This design unit is today retained.

Our content strategy to create the narrative had to ensure a fine balance in the layout where we juxtaposed judiciously imagery and copy for the transformative phases of the IT industry and the vibrant Deccani culture.

Launched by the Hon’ble IT Minister of Telangana – Mr. KT Rama Rao to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of HYSEA in 2016, the book became a token of pride for the Association and the IT fraternity.

The Coffee Table Book cover aptly carrying “Making IT Happen” very cleverly alludes to—”if IT is happening, it’s happening here, and Hyderabad is making it happen”

We believe our very authentic depiction of the ‘conducive to growth’  conditions of Hyderabad—a cosmopolitan, melting pot of diverse culture, with both youthful enthusiasm and old world, laid back, charm, was only possible because of us being native to the Hyderabadi way of life; being a part of the milieu—its food, its biker culture, rock bands, theatre, art, blogging and travelling; its workforce, its entrepreneurs, its inspired visionaries—all for over two decades now.