Rational modernism · 1961–1990 · South Asia
Indian Institutional Modernism (NID)
Also known as NID modernism, Indian design modernism, Ahmedabad school
The design culture of independent India's public institutions, banks and broadcasters. It was shaped by Charles and Ray Eames's India Report (1958) and by the National Institute of Design (1961), whose Bauhaus- and Ulm-derived teaching drew on visiting designers such as Armin Hofmann, Adrian Frutiger and Ivan Chermayeff. It produced compact geometric symbols, bilingual Latin–Devanagari logotypes and systematic identities that gave the young nation a modern public face drawn from Indian forms.
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01
How it works
- Distil the institution into one compact geometric symbol, often circle-based, that reads at stamp size and on a hoarding.
- Design logotypes in two or more scripts (Latin, Devanagari, regional scripts) with matched weight and rhythm.
- Draw on Indian sources such as the eye, the keyhole or a script letter, but reduce them to modernist geometry.
- Roll the mark out through a standards manual across forms, branches, vehicles and broadcast.
- Give each institution one strong flat colour on white.
Ahmedabad and Bombay (Mumbai), India
02
Its design choices
From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.
- Layout & composition
- Space & hierarchy
- Typography
- Colour
- Form & shape
- Surface & texture
- Medium & production
- Tone & intent
- Avoids
- Abundant decoration, Horror vacui, Painterly illustration, Gloss & highlights, Ornamented display, Naturalistic depiction, Collage & layering
Palette
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Typefaces
Devanagari
modernised display lettering
Gurmukhi and regional-script logotypes
Helvetica
Univers
Known for
Charles & Ray Eames, The India Report
1958
National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad
founded 1961
Devashis Bhattacharyya
Doordarshan eye logo, designed at NID in the early 1970s, on air from 1976
Shekhar Kamat with Vikas Satwalekar under Dashrath Patel
State Bank of India keyhole symbol, 1971; lettering by Mahendra Patel
Benoy Sarkar
Indian Airlines 'IA' symbol, 1967
R.K. Joshi
Punjab National Bank symbol
Sudarshan Dheer
Hindustan Petroleum and IDBI identities
03
Make something in this style
Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from Indian Institutional Modernism (NID)’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.
04
Where it comes from, and what it’s close to
Before it
The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.
After it
The styles that grew out of it.
No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.
Alike in its design choices
Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.
05
Real works
Artefacts in museums, libraries and archives that show the style, linked at their source.
- INDIPEX '73 emblem (commemorative postage stamp, 1.45 rupees)India Post (Posts and Telegraphs Department); designer not recorded · issued 8 January 1973 · India Post; image via Wikimedia Commons (from Colnect 372289)
06
Sources
- Charles & Ray Eames, The India Report (1958)
- AIGA Eye on Design, 'In the 1960s, the National Institute of Design trained India's first design educators' (https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/in-the-1960s-the-national-institute-of-design-trained-indias-first-design-educators/)
- The Better India, on the designers of India's iconic logos (https://thebetterindia.com/192037/iconic-logo-india-designers-amul-girl-sbi-pnb-air-india-maharaja)
How Stylogeny researches and checks a style: where the facts come from.