Internship Document - Idiom Design & Consulting Ltd

Internship at
Idiom Design & Consulting
An Internship report submitted to
Department of Fashion Communication
NIFT-Bengaluru
In partial fulfillment of the degree of
Bachelor’s of design in Fashion Communication
Guided By
Prof. Vibhavari Kumar, PhD
Dept. Of Fashion Communication
Submitted by
Kokkadan Ashwin | FC - 7
BD/16/1041
Department of Fashion Communication
National Institute of Fashion Technology
Bengaluru - 560102
1

INTERNSHIP REPORT
Kokkadan Ashwin
3

Declaration
I Kokkadan Ashwin hereby declare that the Project, titled ‘Internship at Idiom Design &
Consultants’ is a record of original work undertaken by me for the award of the degree
of B.Des in Fashion Communication. I have completed this study under the supervision
of Dr. Vibhavari Kumar, Department of Fashion Communication.
I also declare that this project thesis has not been submitted for the award of any
degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or other title. I hereby confirm the originality
of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation.
Place: Bengaluru
Date:
Signature of the candidate
Kokkadan Ashwin
BD/16/1041
5

Certificate
This is to certify that the Industry Internship titled ‘Internship at Idiom Design & Consultants’
is a record of work done by the student, Kokkadan Ashwin - BD/16/1041 as
a regular student for the degree of B.Des Fashion Communication during the period of
01/06/19 to 31/07/19, which represents as independent work and does not form the
base for any previous work.
Place: Bengaluru
Date:
Under the Guidance
Prof. Vibhavari Kumar, PhD
Chair Person - Foundation Programme
Department Of Fashion Communication
National Institute of Fashion Technology
Bengaluru - 560102.
____________________
(External Jury Member)
____________________
(External Jury Member)
____________________
(External Jury Member)
____________________
(External Jury Member)
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Acknowledgment
The completion of my industry internship could not have been
possible without the participation and assistance of so many people
whose names may not all be enumerated but their contributions are
sincerely appreciated and gratefully acknowledged.
I would like to express my deep appreciation and indebtness
particularly to the following:
My college mentor, Prof. Vibhavari Kumar, my industry mentors Ms.
Madhulika Umapathy & Nidhi Isaac for their endless support and
guidance in helping me finish my internship brief and giving me a
good idea about how the professional world works. I’d also like to
thank my family and friends who in one way or another offered their
support, and above all, to the almighty, the author of knowledge and
wisdom for his immense love.
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Joining Letter
Internship
Agreement
7 th May 2019
Ashwin
C/O: NIFT
Bangalore
Mr.
Kokkadan
Dear Ashwin,
We are pleased to offer you an opportunity of internship at Idiom Design and Consulting
Limited, on the following terms and condition:
Duration of this internship will be 8 weeks commencing from 1st June 2019, comprising 40
hours a week. You will abide by all the general rules and regulations relating to working
hours, attendance, etc. as applicable to interns/trainees at Idiom.
You will be attached to one or more of our design teams at Idiom and will work on projects
as may be assigned to you from time to time by your Supervisor under whom you are
placed.
The entire work done by you during the period of this internship will be the property of
Idiom Design and Consulting Ltd.
During the period of your internship you may be required to have knowledge of or may have
access to certain documents, processes, information, data etc. related to the project
assigned to you or otherwise. You must maintain strict confidentiality on all such matters
and should not divulge the content of any such documents, processes, information, data
etc. to anyone during the period of your internship or thereafter. You will be required to
sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement.
The company will pay you a monthly stipend of Rs. 8000/- (Rupees Eight Thousand).

Relieving Letter
11

Content
01 02
Company Profile Organisational Structure
03 04
Departments
Information Flow
05 06
Clients
Internship Project
07 08
Learning Experience Bibliography

01
Company Profile
Name:
Idiom Design & Consulting
Legacy
Founded:
Address:
Website:
5th October 2005
Joseph Chemmanur Hall, 1st Cross Rd,
Kalyan Nagar, Indira Nagar 1st Stage,
H Colony, Indiranagar, Bengaluru,
Karnataka 560038
www.idiom.co.in
Idiom was founded in 2005, to make design
thinking in India an integral part of business and
society. We’re a young, multidisciplinary design
company with experience across categories.
A design ecosystem of diverse professionals, with
an extended network of industry veterans and
mentors.
Phone:
080 4174 4700
We believe in solving complex business and brand
problems through simple, intuitive, integrated and
honest design solutions.

OUR SERVICES
Brand Design
The brand lies at the heart of the consumer
experience, while also being the heart of any
organization. We design brands that embody
organizational vision and values, and connect
intimately with the consumer.
Culture Design
We apply principles of design thinking to help
organizations achieve cultural alignment by
actively practicing desired behaviors, leading to
internalization of values and beliefs.
Experience Design
We design spaces that impact behavior, combining
people needs, brand beliefs and business
objectives, across workspace, retail, institutions
and the community space.
Packaging Design
We leverage our understanding of the retail
environment, consumer behavior, sanctity of
brand & how it is expressed on the shelf, to design
packaging that marries system creation, visual
design & material innovation.
Service Design
We design services and systems that evolve
customer relationships from being functionally
satisfactory, to being emotionally fulfilling and
memorable.
Design Thinking Programs
Design thinking is for everyone. We work to create
design thinkers, and design thinking capability
within organizations, through tailor made
engagements.
15

Structure02
Organizational
Jacob Mathew
Founder
Jacob, a product designer trained at NID, works at
the intersection of Design, Business, Sustainability,
Capital and social Impact.
He co-founded consulting companies Tessaract and
Idiom Design, Dovetail Furniture in manufacturing,
The Design Store in retailing and Spring Health in
BOP services. Jacob worked with the first wave
of retailers like Levi’s, Weekender, Titan etc, and
continued to help create big organized retail
businesses like Big Bazaar, Central, Brand Factory
and Hometown too. As CEO of Industree Foundation,
Jacob leads the Creative Million mission to bring
a million women artisans into producer owned
enterprises over the next 10 years, building a multi
billion dollar “AMUL” of Creative Manufacturing. At
Srishti he leads the Impact Edge Lab which works
with students in their thesis projects and Impact
Entrepreneurship programs in Bangalore and Pune
bringing live projects and enterprise building into
the academic environment. Jacob continues to play
a mentoring role at Idiom and also advises several
start-up companies in addition to being a design
mentor to the Future Group.

Runjhun Pancholi
CEO
Nidhi Isaac
Design Director
Madhu Umapathy
Graphic Design Head
Nishant Wazir
Space Design Head
Design & Research
Design Studio
Space Design
Vasav Varun
Designer
Sreenivasan A
Studio team
Sreenivasan A
Studio team
Pooja Muguraya
Designer
Santosh M
Studio Team
Santosh M
Studio Team
Ashwin Kokkadan
Design Intern
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03
Departments
Graphics & Branding
This department handles majority of the work in
Idiom. All the branding/rebranding, packaging,
design thinking, and other similar projects falls
under this department
Space Design
This department handles all the space design
projects that comes to Idiom. This majorly comprises
of designing space & experience. In bigger projects
both the departments in Idiom work together on
developing service designs or rebranding the store
designs.
Design Studio
This departments handles any labor intensive
design work while the rest of the team moves
forward with strategical and research oriented
work.

04
Information Flow
Client
Design Director
Budget planning
with the team
First Milestone
Payment (50%)
Project Approval
Client Meeting
Creative Brief
Research
Designs
(Concepts & Variations)
Iterations on
selected concepts
Feedback
Client Meeting
(Design Presentation)
Client Meeting
(Design Presentation)
Approval
No
Yes
FInal Payment
(100%)
Design Handover
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Clients05
BMTC
BMTC
TVS
Pantaloons
Nilgiris
Brand Factory
Central
Kochi Metro
YLG

Big Bazaar
Commonwealth Games
Godrej
0Cochin International
Airport
MANIPAMAP
L MUSEUM OF ANATOMY & PATHOLOGY
Uninor
Manipal Museum of Anatomy
& pathology
Creaticity
21

06
Internship Projects
01 Rebranding Project
Competitor Analysis Consumer Analysis Developing Persona Naming workshop
Visual Identity Interviews
Motivation Generating Keywords
Brand culture Surveys
Aspiration Word coining
Communication
Frustration
Fear
02 Repositioning & UIUX
Market Analysis Repositioning Redesigning Future Pay
Visual Identity
Brand culture
Communication
Loyalty Programs
UIUX
Brand Culture
Developing strategies
Redesigning service
Proposing designs

03 Package design
Market Analysis Brand Values Information Design Visual Design
Visual Identity
Package Design
User Experience of
Box & pouch
Placing information
Colors
Illustrations
Icons
04 Other Projects
Service Design Designing Diary Designing Animated
infographics
23

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing
noise they make as they go by.
-Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

01 Re-branding Project
Brief
This project was about re-branding 3 different
brands acquired by Future Groups under its
brand ‘Tathastu’. We were to do consumer
research, competitor analysis, develop persona
for the brand and then rename it. This was the
initial stage before they begin they begin the
complete redesigning of the brand. It was very
crucial for the inital stage of the rebranding to
be approved by Mr. Kishor Byani, founder of
Future Groups.
25

Competitor Analysis
• This is the competitor analysis we did for major competitor brands like
Paytm, PayU, Adyen, PineLabs, Paypal, Ola Money.
• We did an extensive amount of research on these visual identity,
communication strategy, brand architecture and their major touchpoint
• Right after finishing off with The competitor analysis we decoded the
major findings and commonalities between all these brands to draw a
pattern from their identity and communication strategies.
• After this we moved on to the consumer analysis section.

Research on Apple Pay & Google Pay
27

Research on PayTM

Research on other similar brands
29

Consumer Analysis
• After understanding the competitors we started researching the potential users and
trying to figure out their pain points and needs.
• So we interviewed people of specific target age group based on a questionnaire we
prepared. Then I made a transcript of the interview.
• This led us to develop insights from multiple personas so that we can compile them
to build our brand persona.
• Then we went ahead to decode some of the key insights that we got from the
people we interviewed. These insights tell us a lot about various parts of their
characteristics like their aspirations, frustrations, fear, motivation, etc.

Consumer Analysis: Ekta
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Consumer Analysis: Nandini

Other Consumer Analysis
33

We also sent out fun questions throughout our office and then cluster
them into different groups based on the nature of the response.

Developing Persona
Based on all the insights we got from the interviews and consumer
needs we started brainstorming and developing our brand persona
whom our brand will cater to.
35

These are the basic structure and qualities of the persona we
built. These set of qualities and characteristics will be taken into
consideration when we design further for the brand.

Naamkaran (Naming Workshop)
Once the basic structure of the brand was
ready we began the naming workshop. The
naming exercise started from collecting
name themes from the extensive research we
did the previous week. Then we developed
words from those theme which then was
translated into multiple different languages.
At this point we had a lot of words. We did a
team voting session to pick interesting words
from the large list. The selected words were
then were added and subtracted with each
other to produce names of coined meanings.
Finally the list of names that we generated
was again presented for a team voting. The
selected ones gets presented to the client
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We were researching on possible names in different context that we came up from the brand persona

This was from one of the naming sessions
Conclusion
• This was arguably the major project I worked on during the span of my internship. I
learned a whole variety of research techniques and the efforts that goes into building
a brand in its design aspect from scratch.
• The research phase was gave us some really interesting facts and topics to further
dig into. This resulted in developing deeper insights to keep in mind while developing
our brand.
• The naming process took a while to get approved since there were some difference
of interest between partners of the aquired brands. After approval of the names
Idiom is supposed to move further down on the brand design process and complete
the process.
39

“We often miss opportunity because it’s
dressed in overalls and looks like work
- Thomas A Edison

02 UI/UX Project for Future Pay
Brief
We pitched some UIUX ideas for the Future Pay
app and got a complete project to reposition
the brand and redesign the service ideas for the
3 year old mobile app. The brief was to research
about the competitors and analyse the current
functional aspect of the app to the user and to
propose how to reposition the brand to make
it more user centric and provide improved
functional benefits rather than just an offercentric
app.
41

Market Analysis
We started off with researching on competitor brands in terms of visual identity,
brand culture, communication strategies, loyalty programs ,their product user
interface and app structure.
Here are few snippets from the research:
Studying the brand culture and loyalty program

Studying the Product structure and offerings
43

Repositioning
‘Siri for Future Group’
This was what we came up with after the brand design. We wanted to reposition Future
Pay from an offer only app to an advisor role for the customers. We wanted to bring in
more loyalty from the customer side and we knew that providing offers just not do that
job. We needed the app to have more of a functional value to the customer.
We developed a brand star as
part of repositioning the brand

Then we developed a Hoffstede’s cultural dimension
model for our brand.
45

Redesigning Future Pay
We started with understanding the current app and then comparing it with the
studies we did previously to develop strategies for the new design and service
ideas. Then we started placing things into the user interface and experimenting with
information design. Then we proposed the wireframes to the client for approval.
We divided the user journey into 4 sections:
Discover: The app helps you discover upcoming
events, offers, cash-backs, etc. in the store. We also
proposed the idea to bring in product availability
and map into the discover section.
Plan: This is the new and main section where we
are changing/upgrading the functionality of the
app. We wanted to introduce features like keeping
track of monthly expense and showing a detailed
view of how much the customer has spent in what
all categories throughout the future retail stores.
We also wanted to allow them the flexibility to set
expense limits etc. to help them keep a check on the
buying behaviour and limit them. Apart from that
features like linking family members and viewing the
overall expense, sharing money, etc. was discussed
Shop: This is about how the app can be beneficial
to the users during shopping. We proposed plans
about how the app can show where a particular
product/brand is located in the store so as to allow
more time efficient shopping. Along with this users
could scan a product to show more details and
offers linked to that particular product.
Pay: This is where the user loads money, checks
wallet balance and cash-backs, sends gift cards, etc.

47

These are all services that we proposed the app
can deliver to the user to improve its functional
benefit to the user at all stage of useage and not
just during the billing stage

Conclusion
• This project helped me learn about new brand design tools like
the brand star and Hoffstede’s brand culture rings.
• The project is supposed to go on along with an other UIUX design
agency we partnered with to parallely complete the branding,
service design and the redesigning of the app.
• My journey witht eh project ended here with the approval of many
of the service ideas by the client and some further iterations on a
few of them.
49

“That’s when I first learned that it wasn’t enough to
just do your job, you had to have an interest in it,
even a passion for it.
- Charles Bukowski

Current product packaging sold in the rural market
03 Packaging Design
Brief
This project was about designing package for a
start up selling natural bio degradable sanitary
napkins. The brand until now was functioning in
the rural market and wanted to enter the urban
cities and hence required a new look for their
product packaging. I did this project along with
my design mentor and the studio team.
ANANDI
Anandi, is India’s first Govt. of India Lab certified
100% compostable, high quality sanitary napkin
available in the low-cost market which provides
women and girls in rural villages and urban slums
a more environmentally sustainable solution.
Currently, the compostable Anandi pads sell for INR
40 for a pack of eight.
The use of sterilized, disposable sanitary napkins,
such as Anandi, prevents infections, illnesses, the
spread of diseases such as cervical cancer, and
labor complications, all of which claim thousands of
lives each year.
Anandi is a registered brand name of Aakar
Innovations Pvt Ltd.
51

Market Analysis
We studied the current market of natural/biodegradable sanitary napkins. Brands
like Carmesi, Nua, Rael, etc. were on our list. To our surprise we found a strong
pattern in the packaging style of these product - Luxury & Minimal.
Most of these products positioned themselves for an upper middle class and
above working women. The problem was that they all look fairly similar with the
all minimal white luxury look. Anandi didn’t want to position them in that class. We
rather wanted it to stand out from this crowd and do something to maintain a good
recall value.

Brand Values
Anandi promoted themselves with 3 key points:
Affordable
Accessible
~100% Compostable
Many women are not able to use
sanitary napkins due to the high
costs of commercial brands. One
pack of 8 compostable Anandi
pads sells for INR 30 and the
profit margin is returned to our
women entrepreneur
Due to Aakar’s mission to set up
production units in rural villages
and urban slums, Aakar’s dedicated
workers and women entrepreneur
are able to produce and
distribute Anandi pads throughout
their own villages and homes
breaking the accessibility barrier.
The compostable Anandi pad is
produced with locally sourced
agriwastes. It is fully compostable
and aimed at solving
rural and urban disposal issues
all while ensuring environmental
sustainability.
Information Design
We started off with designing and prototyping the package.
Anandi strongly stood for sustainability. And we wanted it to reflect on the packaging as well. We realised
that most of these cases are thrown away after use and hence we wanted to push people to use the case.
This bought us with the challenge of how to make the product case still useful even after the product has
been used.
So we came up with the idea of dividing the packaging into an inner case and outer case/lid. The outer
case essentially involves all the product details and graphics while the inner case can simply box with a
beautiful print on it.
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After this my mentor along with the client and the studio team designed and
developed the content. This content was placed on the package while I was assigned
to work on the graphics and icons required for the packaging.
Prototype of the packaging

Vector infographics I developed to
instruct the user about the cycle of
the product. The design was made in
a silhouette of the pad.
This is a vector illustration made by me
for the product feature description.
This is a icon graphics I made for the
front cover of the product.
55

Here’s a structure of the package and rendered sample of how
the product will look like.

Got a little extra appreciation
for my efforts from the team.
Conclusion
• This was a really interesting project and a collaborative effort of
Idiom’s Design Director - Nidhi, Design Head - Madhu, Me, our in
house Illustration Studio artist Santosh and Srinivas.
• The project was completed in a single working day and we all
got appreciated for the efforts as the client really appreciated our
work.
• The product was launched in Mumbai on 16th June 2019 with Miss
World and Miss India as the chief guests
57

“Perfectionism is self-abuse of the highest
order.
-Anne Wilson Schaef

04 Other Projects
Service Design
Idiom designs conducted a design workshop with Mahindra groups and came up with 3 service ideas. We
were further asked to develop the ideas into a practical and viable business plan for them.
I was part of this project for a short duration where I helped in the market analysis and service idea planning.
59

I also joined in the project during the
naming workshop.
61

Designing Diary
This was another small project I did with the Design-Head of Idiom to design
a note-taking diary for the guests of an upcoming event. The challenge was to
make the layout as minimal and clean as possible and understanding the user
and how the will be using the material. The cover design was inspired form the
logo of Learning Cafe (The event organiser) which was two talk bubbles intertwined
to each other.
Inner Pages

Designing Animated infographics
I was assigned to develop a short mailer/social media animation for the company’s
previous projects.
The project I worked on was about Idiom’s service
design project for BB Genxt. The process started
with initially understanding the whole project and
how it happened. The whole process was noted and
then simplified down because the message had to
be short and simple. Once the information was prepared
I started working on Adobe XD to design and
animate it.
63

This is some frames from the infographics
65

07
Learning Experience
Summer Internship at Idiom was something
that sadly had to end. I loved everything
about the company. I respect the fact that
although there is a hierarchy of position everyone
works together next to each other. Lunchtime was a
favorite part of my day where we all sit together and
discuss politics, science, and philosophy. I realized
how it is important to share and communicate
information with your coworkers. Apart from work
we also had a short evening game session where we
would go and play foosball. It takes away all that
sleepiness that comes from rigorous work.
After working here for 2 months I discovered newer
area of interest apart from UI/UX. I learned that I
was more inclined towards the research aspect of
design and I do well at it. Yet I got to learn a lot
from the team about how a particular project is
handled and about the most efficient design tools
that we use on a daily basis. Working with people
that have been in the industry for many years was
an amazing opportunity for me to network. They’ve
already been offering me projects to take care of. I
believe these contacts will be really useful for me
in the future. Time management would be another
important learning experience for me. Every week
was scheduled and deadlines were set. With proper
efficiency and time management, I was surprised
how much more productive I was while working in
an actual work atmosphere.
Some might think it’s crazy but if there’s one
thing I’d like to remind myself is that money is not
everything. I learned a lot here, I made a really
good network, had a loving group of coworkers
including our founder, had interesting activities and
discussions throughout the internship. And I now
know for sure that I would never have missed out on
this for a higher paycheck. I’d like to prioritize the
work environment before the pay because in the
long run, having a good lifestyle, work habits and
people around you is more important.

08
Bibliography
Idiom Design Imagery
www.idiom.co.in/about
www.idiom.co.in/work
Anandi product Imagery
www.aakarinnovations.com/anandi/rsz_1_88/
Quotes
www.goodreads.com
67

Department of Fashion Communication
National Institute of Fashion Technology
Bengaluru - 560102