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May 16, 2007
October 16, 2006
September 20, 2006
August 2, 2006
Yahoo Inc & Canaan Partners invests $8.65 Million in BharatMatrimony Group
Canaan Partners, a major international venture capital firm, today announced the funding of BharatMatrimony Group, the leading online matrimonial service in India. This is an exciting new investment by the venture firm’s India office, which opened in June. Canaan is an investor in an $8.6 million A round financing that also includes Yahoo! Inc. The investment will also be used to enhance the entire portfolio of services of BharatMatrimony Group and take them to leadership positions in their respective sectors. The other group businesses of BharatMatrimony include ClickJobs.com, IndiaProperty.com, IndiaAutomobile.com and IndiaList.com.
“The investment underscores Canaan’s ongoing commitment to early-stage Internet-related deals in India,” said Deepak Kamra, a Canaan general partner.
“Canaan was the first investor in Match.com in the United States in 1995, the first dating service in the United States.” Match.com had revenues of $250 million in 2005. Canaan was also an early investor in DoubleClick, a pioneer in Internet banner advertising.
Alok Mittal, executive director of Canaan’s Indian office, noted that BharatMatrimony portals will be supported by offices in nearly 40 Indian cities with personal computers linked to the Internet. “Dating is not a widely accepted custom for most Indians,” Mittal said. “But marriage is extremely important, and we want to help as many brides and grooms get together as possible.” Families will still have enormous sway in the ultimate selection of marriage partners, Mittal said, and parents are very involved in the whole process.
“We are very excited to be an investor in BharatMatrimony,” Mittal added. “The company is very well positioned to continue to grow rapidly and maintain its leadership in the Indian Internet landscape while continuing to be a highly valuable company from a social standpoint. The company’s services truly change the lives of millions of Indians around the world. India is one of the key markets for Canaan Partners and we are looking at creating lasting partnerships in the technology space and generate shareholder wealth over the coming years.”
Other news links:
Reuters
BusinessWire
Economic Times
Content Sutra
The Hindu – Business Line
ZEDnet
The Mercury News
ZEE News
Oh yes, last few days i was into designing the press meet backdrop, media kit, etc…
Webby Certificate
Finally i received my 10th Annual Webby Awards – Certificate from NY which is signed by David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of Webby Awards. ClickJobs.com has recently launched its 2nd phase with lot many added features for Jobseekers & Employers. ClickJobs.com was selected as the Official Honoree 2006 for the 10th Annual Webby Awards.
July 14, 2006
FIFA 2010 official logo
FIFA 2010 official logo
The next country to host FIFA World Cup 2010 is South Africa and they have unveiled the official logo on 7th July 2006 designed by agency named Switch Design.
FIFA 2006 official logo:
There was a lot of discussions & criticism happened for the Germany FIFA logo by the world designers including the top designer Erik Spiekermann from Germany and he says the logo is “Just Embarrassing” and “The logo contains too much info and is badly presented”, “the focus is not german” and such…
And then came 11designers with their own ideas for the FIFA 2006 logo and many acclaimed the concept by Hesse Design.
Ok, for all the design and branding professionals reading this can comment your views on these designs.
July 13, 2006
Fuji Film’s new logo
Fujifilm unveils its new corporate brand. Officialy the logo will be live and public from October 1st 2006.
old 
new 
What FUJIFILM has to say on the new design?
With a sharp accent design in the center of the logo, Fujifilm aims to express its commitment to advanced technologies. The dash of red expresses its determination for continuous innovation. At the same time, Fujifilm will continue to use green as its corporate color, inheriting its established brand assets.
Read more: http://www.fujifilm.com/news/n060712.html
June 26, 2006
BrandReporter Mugshot – Shortlisted
My design for the coffee mug has been shortlisted and is up for individual voting.. you can check all the 12 finalists here:http://www.thebrandreporter.com/mugshot_contest/index.html
If you like my entry then do vote with your name & email provided in the same page (below). Since its not possible for you to read the 'coffee facts' on the design i am writing down here:
The 16 most interesting facts & trivia on coffee written here are:
# It takes five years for a coffee tree to reach maturity.
# A coffee tree has a lifespan of about 50 to 70 years.
# Coffee is consumed in large part not simply because of taste, but because of the effect it has on those who drink it.
# Sprinkle spent coffee grounds around the base of your garden plants and it will stop snails and slugs from munching them.
# Coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum.
# Latte art or coffee art refers to designs created on the tops of espresso based drinks by a barista.
# India on top 10 green coffee producers in the world.
# The world's largest coffee producer is Brazil.
# The word coffee entered English in 1598 via Italian caffe¨, via Turkish kahve, from Arabic qahwa.
# The aromas in coffee develop at the 10th minute of roasting.
# Coffee, the world's second most popular drink after water.
# Vincent Van Gogh was a big frequenter of the cafe society and famously said “I have tried to show the cafe as a place where one can go mad.
# An espresso has less caffeine than a cup of coffee!
# A scientific report found that the steam rising from a cup of coffee holds antioxidants which prevents heart disease.
# Coffee is the seed of a cherry from the tree genus Coffea.
# The coffee cherries turn from yellow to orange and then bright red, 6 – 8 months after flowering.
June 16, 2006
Ah! Take a break
Yes, advertising and humor goes well but this does not mean you go away from the logics. In the recent times we have seen quite a few TVC for job sites from Times Group 'peanut ad' and Naukri.com 'hari sadu' which targets job seekers to log on and post resumes.
Both the above concepts though executed differently but has one message 'not happy with your boss/job? try our job site'. Hmmm.. may be it gives the message and if you like such ads you will end-up with a grin. Fair enough.
In the recent news, we have monster.com TVC with another humor based ad (is it so?)
I was just reading the write-up of this from 'the brand reporter' site…
The creative agency behind monster.com ad JWT, Delhi and the creative director 'Arindam Sengupta' says… "The idea behind the TVC was to dramatise how odd people will look if caught in the wrong profession." If other sites merely 'find a job' for you, with an accurate search engine as a starting point, Monster's opportunity lay in 'finding the right job', something which is a powerful motivator for the target audience.
I dont know about you all but i am not convinced with this Ad or for what he is trying to tell the audience. How can anybody be in a wrong profession? a software engineer by default will be a software engineer and not a lawyer or a fisherman, a crickter will be a crickter and not a laundryman unless he is a 'dhobi' to wash clothes when he is not playing cricket… and why will a Bharatanatyam dancer will be controling traffic if she does not have any shows to perform.
Now, someone please make me understand, i am asking you again how can anybody be in a wrong profession? One can be in a wrong place of work and so you ask him to find a better place. The logic should work foremost. And for all the job sites the logic is as simple as to find a better job with the employers and openings listed there.
Read the full article here: http://www.thebrandreporter.com/perl/tbr/afaqs_link.html
May 31, 2006
Expressions Overruled
I love caricature but i have never learnt the art of how to draw them on paper. In this artwork i had my views on the kind of expressions i was looking for and i produced this with adobe illustrator using mesh controls after breaking the stock image from raster to vector.
If you guys have any links/tutorials/expert advice on how to start working with caricature from step 1 then do share it. thanks in advance.
Would appreciate your feedback on this.
Hitesh Mehta | communication designer 