MTV

A collaborative project with Graphic designers tsk Design, the MTV’s South India office was a ripe opportunity for cross cultural exploration on our home turf.

We chose to deliver the diametric opposite of the modern corporate interior. Instead of muting the space to promote serious business we created a visually busy environment that affectionately pokes fun at regional clichés.

Brilliant tropical colours predominate, inspired by south Indian textiles and vernacular architecture. The reception area features larger than life hand painted portraits by a local film poster artist , hand drawn to the graphic teams’ small computer generated sketches. These are references to the movie star billboards that proliferate the urban streetscape.

A shocking pink mustachioed male face fills the room’s corner , camouflaging closet doors and dwarfing a barbers chair, one of the many props that serve as furniture. His female companion, displaying an MTV bindi on her forehead looms over an autorickshaw transformed into a fully functional reception table. The chair and the table both features of daily life in the region seem joyfully anachronistic in the space .

We tried to reflect MTV’s repackaging of the ‘everyday and ordinary’ to give back to the masses a new, sometimes humorous or exotic perception of their own culture.