I will post Beyond Normal online to begin with and publish it in a book form later. Please feel free to comment on my work in the meantime.

Stories and graphic design somehow got into me from a very early age. My art education didn’t begin with crayons but with graphite slate and pencils as early as I can remember. Tracing Mandrake the Magician from Malayala Manorama using homemade tracing paper was one of my favorite activities while in primary school. My ability to draw got attention from teachers as well and some of them wanted me to draw Jesus, the pope, and someone else for them.

Homegrown ghost stories were the staple of many a conversation when village folks assembled. Local rivers, tall trees, giant rocks, desolate hilltops etc., found permanent seats in such stories. Nightmares have been a regular interlude for those children who took a liking for such stories!

My interest in art took me to the mother of all art schools in India: the venerable JJ School of Art (read Applied Art) in Bombay (Yes, not Mumbai then). Sequential art even found place in a few adverts I created while working in an ad agency. Comics and graphic novels in those days didn’t go beyond folklores and mythology. An exception was Azad.

A story I wrote in a Malayalam journal a decade ago demanded another reading. As I read it over and over, I saw its potential for a graphic novel and named it Beyond Normal. Because it is.

When Couture Rani approached Pixelbrew for designing a website, their online business was just an idea. An idea with wings but no feather. It took almost a month for us to finalize the concept and strategy. The logo, corporate identity, and mock-ups happened in a matter of days. The concept behind the logo is simple yet emotive. An amalgamation of two language alphabets gives meaning to the logo and Couture Rani’s Indo-Western name.

Another six months went by before a prototype was in place.

In the meantime products were selected from designers, photographed and retouched in Delhi, India; webpages were designed; and site construction began in Scottsdale, Arizona. Couturerani.com was online with a one page announcement. The real thing followed in two weeks. The response was overwhelming.

Of late one hears a lot about branding. Is this a new phenomenon or an old wine with a new label? Branding has a lot to do with human perception than just design. Successful brands ride on the strength of fulfilling consumers’ expectations and occupying a place in their minds.

That’s about products and services.

But what about the brand called “You” (Read  ”Me”) ? Me is a brand that’s as old as Man himself. Which means Man was a brand even before Eve was introduced! Long before all the hype about branding began Me was in vogue.  But the question is, does Me gets branded enough to stand on its own? It’s a question worth asking yourself. “Am I doing everything in my power to brand Me enough?”