Posts Tagged ‘creative’

Bag of the Year

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

We’re delighted to introduce ‘Bag of the Year’ by Clean Planet .

This is a super cool , functional , stylish , eco bag that helps you organize in style . The 2011 calendar is printed on both the outer faces of the bag. Hang it at home to plan your year . Store all incoming mail in it so that you never miss any mail. The stylish calendar doubles up as wall art that adds a dash of joy to any space. Carry the bag around when going shopping.

At the end of the year how do you part with a bag you’ve  grown to love ? You don’t !

Reverse the bag and use for years !:) There’s a cool message on the inside of the bag that inspires joy and reflection.

Truly ‘BAG OF THE YEAR‘.

p.s – the pic above shows the 2 outer sides and 1 inner side of the same bag !:)

Interested to buy the ‘Bag of the Year’ ? Email us at bagoftheyear@cleanplanet.in

Bamboo grandeur

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Bamboo is the stuff of green dreams these days. Not only is it a winning combination of strong, lightweight and flexible; it also scores highly in the sustainable stakes, being super fast growing and easy to harvest locally in many parts of the world. What’s more, it is increasingly being lauded for its aesthetic qualities. None of this is news to any architect worth their salt – but one in particular, Vietnamese virtuoso Vo Trong Nghia, stands out for his exceptional bamboo designs.

The cafe’s frame measures 30 feet high and features an opening at the very top of the dome that allows daylight to stream inside. Like many other Vietnamese structures, it is covered in a local bush plant, which evokes an African-esque aesthetic. And contrary to what you might think about building with natural, local materials, the end result is not “homemade” looking at all and is actually rather streamlined and majestic.

This is a trail blazer in several ways-

- It’s possible to design large structures with natural , renewable , biodegradable materials

- It is possible to design something this huge without a nail

- The structure built can look awesome and inspiring

- The wisdom of a culture can find new and beautiful expression while creating a sustainable world

Each industry is plagued with self and world limiting beliefs . Creations such as these jolt , delight , inspire us to look afresh and create anew.

A huge gift

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

Wipro Ltd chairman Azim Premji has transferred 213 million shares, equal to an 8.7% stake in the company in which he held 79.5% at the end of September, and valued at Rs8,846 crore to an eponymous trust as an endowment, to fund the development activities of the Azim Premji Foundation.

In a statement issued by the foundation, Azim Premji said: “We believe that good education is crucial to building a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society. All our efforts, including the university that we are setting up, are focused on the underprivileged and disadvantaged sections of our society.”

Based on the 300% dividend Wipro declared in 2009-10, the 213 million shares would have earned Rs127.8 crore.

The irrevocability of the trust means that its mandate and terms of creation cannot be changed, even by Premji.

Powerful , inspiring action by Azim Premji. Ripples of this action will be felt by multitude of individuals , families , communities,India and the planet.

Green School

Saturday, November 20th, 2010

John Hardy says that he was inspired to create the Green School after he watched ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘. It’s amazing what you can create and catalyze when you allow yourself to be inspired and follow it up with substantive action. Contrast that with watching something , getting all fired up for a while and then going back to life as usual.

It’s an interesting model that can be adapted in creative forms by educational institutes , communities and companies across the world – adapted for local environment , needs and culture.

Gift Green

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

GIFTS now have a new color – GREEN !

At Clean Planet we are committed to creative solutions for a joyous , sustainable world. A step in that direction is GIFT GREEN - fun , green gifting ideas. A space where you can get inspired and inspire others with your ideas for cool , green gifts.

The joy of creating something yourself is indescribable. In that sense a green gift is first and foremost a gift you give to yourself. To the recipient it’s an honor that you took the time and effort to create something. Besides the joy it brings – a green gift is planet friendly.

Welcome to Gift Green.

I will not die an unlived life

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

Dawna Markova

Triple gift

Sunday, October 17th, 2010

Can you remember the gifts (including cards) you gave in the past year . Or the gifts received in the past year . A few perhaps. One possible reason is that the process of buying the gift was one of the countless trips to retail stores. Contrast that with the experience of a gift you made or the gift someone specially made for you. Doesn’t that bring back a huge smile and plenty of memories ?

Birthday coming up ? Search stores for some cool cards . Larger , pop up type cards stand a good chance of being purchased. Or search the net for some equally impressive online cards complete with animation , music. In all of this the best you feel you can do is to make a trade off among available options based on -

- What you feel the recipient would appreciate

- What you find acceptable to give

- Price of the product

In the modern day urban world most things are bought (v/s created yourself). Most things have gotten complex (some unnecessarily so). Ads pop up everywhere we go creating expectations and aesthetic standards that need a whole eco system of companies to create.

Now , let’s explore creativity. Many people still associate and confuse creativity with the ability to draw. If you did not do well in art class you probably labelled youself as ‘not creative’. Nothing could be further from the truth. You ARE creative.

Time constraints coupled with unrealistic aesthetic standards can cause most of us to shy away from expressing their creativity and love by way of hand-crafted gifts.

The next time you want to give a gift consider making something. Build up muscle . If the idea of making a gift sounds daunting start with a card and the packaging. You’ll enjoy making it. The persons you give it to will LOVE it.

A gift you make would be a gift thrice over – it’s a gift to be recipient , a gift to yourself and a gift to the planet.

Nutrition is a bigger problem than hunger

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Incisive article by Swaminathan Aiyer.

…The big problem is malnutrition, not hunger. A recent survey revealed anaemia rates of 51-74% in women and small children. Of children under three, 47% were underweight and 45% stunted by global standards. Protein deficiency is a culprit.

How do we focus on nutrition rather than presumed hunger? Not through ever-rising subsidies on food. Sonia Gandhi wants subsidized grain even for better-off folk. This aims to provide electoral security for Sonia. Don’t confuse it with food security..

..Ajai Shankar, former industry secretary, has an excellent suggestion for self-targeting in food — mix wheat flour (atta) with soya flour, raising its protein content but making it less palatable. Richer folk will not eat this, but poor people will. Such protein fortification of atta could help reduce protein deficiency in pregnant women and children. Ajai Shankar also suggests offering brown, unpolished rice, which has more nutrition but is less palatable than white rice, and so will be self-targeted at the poor.

I would fortify atta with not only soya but iron (to combat anaemia), iodine (to combat goitre) and Vitamin A (to combat night blindness). This will cost very little extra, yet combat serious nutritional deficiencies. It’s not a silver bullet: other nutritional programmes need overhaul and strengthening too.

Brown rice has two drawbacks. First, it can be resold by shopkeepers to mills at a huge profit, so the PDS incentive for massive diversion will remain. Atta mixed with soya cannot be unmixed, and so eliminates diversion.

A bigger objection should be to rice in any form. Rice is the most expensive cereal, and guzzles the most water. It requires 22 irrigations per crop against eight for wheat. Rice cultivation is sustainable in high rainfall areas, but is environmentally disastrous in moderate-rainfall areas (Punjab, Haryana). It lowers the water table precipitously, so drinking-water wells and shallow tubewells of small farmers run dry, and some of them commit suicide.

Any food entitlements should be for basic food, not for the most expensive cereal. A right to rice is conceptually like Marie Antoinette’s right to cake. For centuries, poor Indians have eaten coarse grain (bajra, jowar) costing half as much as rice. If necessary, India can export rice to finance imports of twice as much coarse grain, which can then be fortified with nutritional supplements for the PDS. It will be self-targeting: richer folk will not buy it..

Sound suggestions . Will a govt that allows millions of tonnes of food grains to rot have the will to do something meaningful for the poor ?

Past and future of a product

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Interesting chair by Scott Garcia that serves as a reminder of the origin of the chair.

Awareness of the origin and the future of a product may enable more thought in purchases ? More thoughtful

purchases ?

DIY CD cover

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

Few days ago we had to include a CD in a courier to a client . We normally buy the CD packs i.e without individual covers because the cover is normally plastic besides being rather uninspiring.

Inspiration and enthusiasm came together to create a CD cover from wood free paper . On which a print of the SoulQuest Tree was pasted on one side . The other side was adorned by a hand embroidered paisley. After seeing the end result we solemnly swear to always make customized CD covers.

This idea can be adapted creatively on a variety of packaging – envelopes , gift packs. You can paint them , use cut outs from magazines , add cloth cut to shapes , buttons , lace . A whole range of items in your home and office can be used for it.

Ingredients for DIY -

- desire to create something unique

- willingness to experiment

- imagination

- glue (hey you need something to stick the desire , willingness and imagination together )

- odds n ends

Do experiment n share your ideas with us.

Have a creative week-end

(via SoulQuest)