Shaastra Logo is finally taking shape and the funny thing is that it is none from the list of logos that I threw in here. Thanks for all the comments anyway.

Once the logo is really really final, I would write the story behind it. By the way yesterday I realized that it indeed was a good thing that the spanner-making-an-S logo was not liked by many. I realized it when Sofie messaged to tell me that she had noticed that the Suzuki Service center had a very similar logo with two spanners making an S. Ouch! What a disaster it would have been, had that one gone ahead as the logo!

Tomorrow I shall write my last exam in IIT. On text, it appears very appealing but frankly my dear, there’s nothing very exciting about it. On an unrelated note, life sure has become exciting recently. A quick toast to life. Gulp!

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Retell was a play of six short stories performed by different actors. Here’s a quick review of all six of them.

1. Patol Babu – Film Star: The story was okay and Bala was good. Not a bad start but not too impressive. Bala can, and has, done way better things before. I would give this piece an overall rating of 4/10.

2. Bhuto: Avoidable. No one liked it for sure. I would give it 2/10. By the time this one ended, everyone’s expectations went down quite a bit.

3. The Pterodactyl’s egg: Very funny and entertaining story about a freaky guy who carried with him a small portable time machine. Naresh did a wonderful job. I would give it 5/10.

4. The Shemiran bus: Bad boring and irritating. Everyone lost track of the story. 2/10.

5. Pomegranate lady and her sons’: The 100 bucks that I paid to watch Retell was worth it all just for this single story. Sumukhi who played the old lady played it so well that you almost felt like going to the stage and hugging her. Lovely. Loved it. Everyone loved it. Straight 8/10.

6. The Encounter: Fairly good given that it was a very serious play. This probably had the maximum scope for direction because it had maximum number of actors, and this definitely was the best directed story. 5/10.

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I am going to watch this play by Bala tomorrow evening at 7. Bala runs Theatre Nisha and he helped me find script for a friend and myself for Saarang 2008 Monoacting (not that both of us got anything ). Today was the first show of his play and I hear that the response was good. I hope I like at least 4 of the 6 stories tomorrow. And yayy, I have company. But if you wanna join, you are welcome.

By the way, DC ran an article on the making of this play or something like that. Do you see any of your friends in the cast? I see two. Bhaju is missing in this pic.

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Love is like TV. Loving is like watching TV. Being loved is when the TV automatically starts showing the best shows on the best channels by sensing your mood, every time you sit in front of it.

When you are woken up in the evening, just after the sun has set, turning your unlit room into a black box, by a dream which you don’t remember, but you are very sure was a bad dream, you realize that you had been missing something all this while. You never really were happy all this while. All this while.

After having worked on more number of logos than I initially planned to or imagined, I am creatively exhausted. After not having worked enough for my project or assignments, I am academically frustrated. Sometimes, life appears to be a 3d version of Shitoon.

Reading blogs is still better than watching TV. Feel good about yourself. Now, go do something productive till I throw things again at you.

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If you have an opinion, please share it with me. All you have to do is to let me know which are the two best logos from amongst the ones shown below, and if possible, you reason for picking them over others. Go ahead, leave comments.

Note, that in all the logos below, if you spot an S, it stands for Shaastra and the ’spirit’ of engineering.

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Update 10: (7:40 PM, 25 April 2008) Adding another variation of –E. I have this feeling, most will like it. It’s too the point and stands out.

Update 9: (12:43 PM, 24 April 2008) Added one more variation of –D (refer update 8). Also, presenting below a simplistic version of the combined spirit of various branches of engineering (–E), which together look like S. The red colored propeller can also be taken for red spirit. I have removed the DNA because a beaker at some level represents BioTechnology as well.

Update 8: (11:55 PM, 23 April 2008) Adding a new logo (–D) which represents the combined spirit of the various branches of engineering. Spot a gear (mechanical, nevarch), two airplanes (aero), two beakers (chem, meta), two capacitors (elec, CS), DNA cum bridge (Biotech, Civil). The overall image depicts force and spirit. The color scheme could be varied.

Update 7: (5:15 PM, 23 April 2008) blu) Adding two more designs (–C i, ii). Both have shaastra written in full. (ii) also has the reflection. As an overall image both depict the ’spirit’ of engineering.

Update 6: (12:45 PM, 23 April 2008): Another version of (–A) added (refer update 4)

Update 5 (11:55 AM, 23 April 2008): Adding a logo submitted by Anuj (–B). Several shapes are making a Pyramid.

Update 4 (11:30 AM, 23 April 2008): Adding a look-alike of the original logo (–A) because there seems to be no consensus on the new ones proposed. This one is inspired from the escher knot, the original logo, and yet it is different enough to be registered as a new logo. It represents everything that J represents (symmetry, convergence etc.) but the best thing about this would be that, branding wise, everyone should find it easier to associate it to Shaastra.

UPDATE 3 (10: 20 PM, 22 April 2008): A (ii) added based on S’s suggestion.

UPDATE 2 (10:20 PM, 22 April 2008): Why is the logo being changed? Ans: We do not have copyright over the one we had been using so far (remember Shaastra started as an amateur event?). Now that Shaastra has become truly professional, we cannot afford, either ethically or by law to continue using a logo for which we don’t have further rights.

UPDATE 1 (10 PM, 22 April 2008): E(iii) and H (ii) added. (H (ii) added based on Sania’s comment)

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Here is the list of logos, browse through them:

A. Three different forces have been shown to create S. The forces could be engineering, science, and passion.

B. Spot the red S in the tilted symbol of infinity. It also represents an endless loop.

C (i), C (ii) : This is what it is and is supposed to look geeky.

D(i), D(ii), D(iii): Any engineering involves building solutions, block by block. Also, all three are supposed to resemble the shape of letter S.

E (i, ii, iii): Two spanners meet together to create the S.

F. It’s a cube with wings of desire. The overall look is supposed to depict loads of passion.

G. Plain, neat S on flames.

H(i,ii). H (i) is totally abstract. H (ii) includes the concept of E (spanners joining to form S)

I. This is again an S. The upper black sphere contains inside it red and white spheres, which represent various streams and ideas of engineering. These small spheres roll down the red tube, get refined and enter back the black sphere from the other end.

J (i, ii, iii): Symbol of symmetry, creation, convergence of ideas. (iii) also has two spanners creating an S in the center while (ii) has two rings in the center.

K (i, ii, iii): All of them show a spanner and an arrow, trying to tell that engineering gives direction to our lives.

L. A nut-bolt combo.

M. It’s a heart that loves engineering (notice the eagle’s view of a pyramid)

That’s it. Please go ahead and let me know which is your top two, and if you can, also tell why. Thanks in advance!

PS: I have made only some of the above logos.

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