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Niranjan Das Sharma: An architect who hesitates to build — because to build some thing is to destroy some thing — should it be always like that? This is the dilemma Niranjan is trying to figure out. Graduating from TKM College of Engineering Quilon in 1997, Niranjan did a Postgraduate Diploma course in Traditional Architecture of Kerala later. Before starting on his own, he worked with Architect Gerard D'Cunha in Goa, Prof Eugine Pandala at Quilon, Architect Jacob George and Architect Ramesh Tharakan at Cochin. He now heads an Architecture firm 'The Design Tree', which he established in 2000, taking on projects ranging from residences to institutions. The Design Tree also volunteers for organisations in designing and executing housing projects for lesser-privileged people.

niranjan.sharma@designandpeople.org

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Bina Nayak: A graduate of Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art of Bombay, Bina has 13 yrs experience of selling her soul to big fat multinational advertising agencies in Bombay, Madras and Bangalore. She has since given up selling out to just one agency at a time and now sells out piecemeal to several agencies at any given time — as a freelance Creative Consultant. Born and brought up in Bombay, she spent 7 yrs in Goa where she did odd jobs for a living — from writing editorials in newspapers to organising Rock shows to curating photography exhibitions to actually doing some advertising design. In her dark, shady past, she has done the advertising for the Coca-Cola Company and its various registered Indian trademarks — namely Thumbs-Up and Limca. But Design & People has been kind enough to give her a chance to redeem herself. Bina has now returned to Bombay. She has a 15-yr-old daughter, Niharika.

bina.nayak@designandpeople.org

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Ravindra Ranasinha: Dramatist, journalist, sociologist, educationist and social worker, Ravindra Ranasinha writes profusely on the current political situation in Sri Lanka. He concentrates widely on multicultural aspect of Sri Lankan society in order to reconcile the conflicting ethnic groups in the country and focuses his post-modernist thoughts on making school education a multicultural sphere enabling children to accept and appreciate diversity in the social environment. Ravindra's thinking on cultural politics has made him to write on the influence of media on shaping the minds of the people in the current political context and he continuously queries whether Sri Lanka could survive in a mono-cultural sphere. These thoughts on ideology extends to the views of Louise Althusser, a post-modern Marxist critique and Ravindra is much influenced by the Frankfurt school. Walter Benjamin's lectures on 'Author as Producer' and 'Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' have influenced Ravindra heavily and he has translated and published these texts enriching the Sinhala literature on art criticism. He has translated texts from Michel Foucault (History of Sexuality) and Simone de Beauvoir (Second Sex). He is also a social activist attached to the Friends of Tibet supporting the cause of the Tibetans and the activities of Design & People in Sri Lanka.

'Creative Resistance' writings by Ravindra Ranasinha / ravindra.ranasinha@designandpeople.org

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Katharina Jourdan: is a graphic designer, currently studying at the HAWK University for Applied Sciences and Art in Hildeshiem Germany. Her focus, besides graphic and web design, is illustration. She recently completed an internship with a design agency in India and an exchange semester in the United States. Born in Germany, her passion is to travel the world in order to experience life in different cultural contexts. Passionate about making a difference to this world we live in, Katharina has joined Design & People, to help design a better world!

katharina.jourdan@designandpeople.org

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Mathewkutty J Mattom: Mathew has over 8 years of experience as an Internet and Print designer. Like all good and efficient Malayalis — he has Gulf experience, having worked with some leading Design and Multimedia organisations in the Middle East. Adept in various software packages like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash etc, he has handled major projects like the designing and software development of www.netpiper.com, www.keliindia.org, www.visualpossibility.com etc. Mathew's other big passion is films. During the last one year, he has been involved with a movie titled "Manasarovar". He is the Co-Producer, Art Director and the Publicity Designer of the movie. Mansarovar has won 2 major awards at a National level competition.

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Carolina Montesinos: A graphic designer who is passionate about the development and communication of concepts and graphics. Born in Spain, her studies and work projects have taken her all over the world. Carolina is quite a maverick; in life and in her work. It is very difficult to slot her work — she has worked for Pop stars like Britney Spears and NSYNC and for NGOs like Friends of Tibet, Pratyasha: Cancer Children's Welfare Society and Kudumbashree. She can design Music Cover Art and Posters of protest with equal ease. The common denominator that you can find in her vast and diverse work is the mastery to create very provocative images and concepts.

carolina.montesinos@designandpeople.org

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Aravind Parvatikar: An avid trivia collector, Aravind Parvatikar was born and brought up in Bijapur, Karnataka. He currently lives and works from Mumbai. Aravind has over 9 years experience in client servicing, pre-sales and business development with outsourcing companies. He has worked with big names like Reliance Infocom, eClerx and Cross-Tab. In 2009, he followed his heart and started his own company — Presentit, and as the name suggests he can do almost anything with presentations. A big fan of open-source and Web 2.0 technologies, when not surfing the net for latest developments, Aravind can be found horsing around with his 2 kids — Abhimanyu and Devyani. He has high hopes for his other baby — www.presentit.co.cc, and so do we, at Design & People.

aravind.parvatikar@designandpeople.org

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Nisha Poulose: Nisha Mary Poulose is an architect, who grew up in Kottayam, Kerala and is currently based in Bangalore. The influences of her formative years and her own life experiences have instilled in her mind a deep respect for the environment, traditional practices and cultural values, which reflects in her architectural outlook as well. Her academic and professional journey led her to understand the various forces, both built and unbuilt, that shape an environment and she perceives her role as an architect to be one that decompartmentalizes the various disciplines that governs human habitation. She loves to read, write and talk and is ready to fight for her convictions. She believes that sensitive, smart design can change the world.

nisha.poulose@designandpeople.org

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Nishant Pagare: Nishant is a Master of Advertising and Marketing from Xaviers Institute of Communications, Mumbai. After a brief fling with Advertising as a Visualiser, he shifted to a more satisfying tryst with the production of Wildlife Documentaries. He is largely associated with the production of non-fiction television programming and Audio Visual Communication for international broadcast. He is involved with acquisition and distribution of documentary films made in India through an online film store. Nishant's early experience as a visualiser and his inborn talent as a graphic designer sees him designing communication material, press kits, and packaging for documentaries and films festivals. Besides his designing and television work, he also serve as a Trustee for the Academy of Electronic Arts, New Delhi, a learning, sharing, mentoring, networking, benchmarking and empowering institution that evolves continuously to inclusively address all e-Creative Practices & Practitioners. Nishant is also an active member of Organisation for Awareness of Integrated Social Security, an NGO focusing on Social Innovations in India.

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Raquel Anadón: Raquel Anadón is an Art Director from Barcelona. She has a Foundation degree in Art & Design (HND) from the London College of Printing, and a Bachelors in Graphic Design from Central St. Martins, London, UK. These past few years, Raquel has been involved in creating Advertising Campaigns for well known companies like Canon, Philips, Keen and many more. By her own admission, she is a very positive, cheerful, co-operative, creative person — just the kind of people we like! Her approach to work is very precise and professional. Travel is one of her passions. We hope her passion will bring her to India someday soon, and her creativity benefits the work at Design & People.

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Harsh Mistry: Harsh is a young architect who works with Abhimanyu Dalal Architects, New Delhi. Prior to this, he has worked for a short while in Mumbai with Talati & Panthaky Associates. Harsh Mistry studied architecture from Dr DY Patil College of Architecture, Pune. As part of our younger tribe of contributors, Harsh is just waiting to energise Design & People with his fresh perspective on the filed of Architecture.

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Shehla Hussain: Shehla, a fresh-off-the-boat architect, is completing her master's degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is an undergraduate in Architecture from Chennai. Her goal is to successfully design development for the rehabilitation of populations displaced by disasters, man made or otherwise, in India. In researching this, she has come to understand the nuances of a holistic approach to design. One which encapsulates all areas of development — be it in health care, education, architectural design, communications or graphic media, leading to a truly successful design. Shehla currently works at the Center for Knowledge Societies in Bangalore as a Design Researcher, learning varied sociological and anthropological approaches to design and service development.

shehla.hussain@designandpeople.org

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Ann-Christin Moellecken: Ann-Christin Moellecken has done her Bachelors in Graphic Design, Color Design and Corporate Identity from the University of Applied Sciences and Art, Hildesheim, Germany. During the course of her studies, she spent time as an exchange student at Kyamk University of Applied Sciences, Kuuvola, Finland and the University of Wisconsin, Stout, Menomonie, USA. Ann-Cristin has two passions — Communication Design and Travelling. She has joined Design and People in the hope of combining the two passions for the benifit of the world community.

annchristin.moellecken@designandpeople.org