Saahas is a Bangalore based NGO which has been striving in recycling waste safely for 9 years now. They contribute in finding solutions to problems related to solid waste and have devised some awareness programmes as well.  Bangalore generates 3,000 tons of household & commercial waste everyday, wherein 70% of is organic and the other balance is accounted by inorganic and hazardous waste. These wastes that we generate everyday can be brought back into our environment and our lives.

Saahas has undertaken many projects and delivered great results. They are currently working on :

• Reduction in  use-and-throw products like plastic carry bags, paper cups and tissues
• Encouraging waste segregation at source and retrieval of recyclable material
• Encouraging  the composting of organic waste
• Introducing safe management of e-Waste in households, companies and school

My role as A designer:

A 9 months internship under Saahas has diversified my way of thinking and my skills. The need to break away from the confined walls of  classrooms and get on the  field was challenging. Everyday facing the client’s need and meeting up deadlines, working round the clock resulted in designing products which are currently being used. I did  a lot of research work for a long period of time before getting to the final product. I realized that what is more important is the concept behind the work, the process which I have been carrying over, back and forth with corrections and changes, shows that there was definitely a problem out there, and designers should get to know how to tackle them.
“Being part of the solution, meant creating them as well.”

We wanted to be globe trotters, we designed a website.

We initiated programmes in schools, we designed game activities.

We started “less plastic campaigns”, we designed cloth bags.

We wanted to use as much of the resources we had in hand to design a product – we designed bins.

It was very important to show the outcomes through my final year project and sustain our credibility vis–a-vis the public.

I have taken up the re-branding aspect of the company and slowly have merged in creating sources of awareness. It was more of a learning process on how to use eco-friendly, recyclable materials and being cost-effective in the designs I intake to carry forward.

Designing the products and delivering them as a real life projects was something I found challenging. This project has made me a versatile designer as I have been able to produce all these designs using waste as my resource and shaped my ideas around them into a product ready to use now.

Medias : Stationery designs, web design, poster, brochure, promotional design, Game design, Bin design, Bag design.

Every company has a corporate identity. It is important in the viewers’ mind to recollect information which has been summarized in just an icon or logo or a range of new product lines which appeal in accordance with the company’s slogan

This is where my role begins.

The brief from the client meant working towards a Re-branding strategy. Saahas had to change its identity into a range of new mature, elaborate services which are still in development. The need for a brand to have a functional and emotional facet was important so that the public could adopt a positive response to the service.

Hence it involved radical changes to the brand’s logo, image, marketing strategy and advertising themes. These changes were necessary for Saahas so as to make a distinction from other companies in the same field.

Saahas’s previous logo was in two parts: SA and ahas in hindi.

After several brainstorming sessions, Saahas portrayed what it meant: achievement, courage, endeavour. These terms were important to scribble ideas.

The logo must be clear, unique, legible, in plastic or fabric – it should be strong enough to stand alone, easy to reproduce on paper and easily placed in the corner of business cards.

Symbols associated with Saahas: Earth, recyclable waste, tools, nature, step, footprints.

Next step was to design poster

Posters created awareness on the different campaigns Saahas is working on. We all have to contribute towards a certain change in our life. Years pass by and things around us are  still not right.

Our Earth is seriously disturbed and we seem to be adjusting so well with all of these: cutting down of trees, horrible traffic jams, pollution, etc. “Our city seems to have won the 1ST PRIZE IN HEALTH NUISANCE”.

Who are we fooling here? We should stop expecting only the kabadiwallah to help. This is it!!

This is a call to you and me, to be part of the

change. Everyone is most welcomed.

These are the ad-campaigns I have worked on to deliver the importance of how our resources are being reused efficiently.

Here are some posters:

No matter what city you live in, Save – YES SAVE RESOURCES!! No!No! Do not turn a blind eye on this situation. Do not help the corrupted minds. Saahas is helping in waste management – locate the bins, segregate your wastes at home, office because waste is a Resource! Our solid waste, once recycled,  bins, books, paper and as many other products which have got such a story, different taste as well are reused. Throw the right things, the right way! Lets call it OFF and motivate ourselves!!

Well next step was to make people aware of what is Saahas working on and how to get a hand on their brochures!!

BEING WASTE SENSITIVE: I mostly wanted to create an awareness on what role Saahas plays in society! The brochure gives a resume and the hand illustration is how I felt about Saahas – various helping hands with different objectives to move ahead for a better tomorrow.

The next brochure is about “LESS PLASTIC FOR ME” which is an awareness programme on using less plastic and implementing cloth bags.

Get on the trend as well.

Since June 2002, Saahas has  been working on a campaign called Less Plastic for Me. The campaign is  focussed  on the need to cut consumption of disposable  plastic products.

Individuals are  encouraged to carry their own shopping bag and refuse use of plastic carry bags and cups. Supermarkets are also encouraged to reduce use of plastic covers. The campaign shows cloth bags, which are supplied to both large and small shops across Bangalore at a minimal cost.

Over the last three years, we have established a  network of volunteers comprising of students, housewives and other professionals who continue to work with various supermarkets and other outlets – Last year the campaign was supported by Wipro Cares during which time we worked in Koramgala together with Namdaris and Safal.

Currently the campaign is working together with various other initiatives  in the city to spread the message of  ‘Less Plastic for Me.’

Remember, this year its YOU who can reduce the usage of plastic bags!! Alone YOU can reduce 30,000 plastic bags. YOU want to BET??

Here are the designs for Less plastic bag covers:

Saahas voted for the hand designs and you can see it on the cloth bag! They are available at Saahas and some retail stores in Koromangla.

Have you seen and been using TETRA PAk Products??

Am sure you did and you must have discarded it. Just imagine the juice you were drinking, the taste remains and Saahas with the help of Daman Ganga have developed some great theories. Lets make paper out of it or better – lets protect ourselves and make sheets for roofing as well. Isn’t that brilliant?

Here are some designs made to create awareness about recycling tetrapak. We made books, pens, bin designs out of them.

and here is also a documentation on the process of recycling tetra pak and how we produce the materials.

tetrapak recycling.

These books and pens are available at Saahas. The promotional designs comprises of a calendar to remind us of our daily mottos towards helping Saahas at work.

Since  Saahas had to promote a little bit their versatility, we decided to use promotional designs to outsource a bit their “role” – TOUCHEE!

We have t-shirt designs here

Web templates were also developed. This was a very important process as Saahas has taken a leap ahead in making it easier to access sponsors, the public and more awareness!! So you can visit the website: www.saahas.org where Sujit, our web programmer has made it very user-friendly.

Here are glimpses of the webtemplates:

E-WASTE SENSITIVE

E-waste sensitive was a field I experimented mostly. I was briefed to firstly: we need an e-Waste bin. A new one!!! Then it just clicked in my mind, let me do it as a final project which will help for my college work. So the bin has to fit in CDs, COMPUTER PARTS, Dry cell batteries, floppies, mouse .. well why another bin if the actual one has the capacity for all these?? What about CFL’S?? They needed a 2-in-1 bin to keep the CFL’S safely. Worked around the design a little bit and here we go:

Oh! before i forget to mention..the new e-waste bin is designed with recycle paper which is used for the solid waste bin, the mix of poly and tetrapak sheet..so we included that on the top of the bin and a drawer was designed especially to keep the CFL’S safely . The drawer will be on top and down all the e-waste stuffs should go.

The e-waste bin is still under development with the help of Rammu..and yes I will upload some pictures!!

Still in the those lines of e-Waste awareness:

Our target audience is now children! Yes GAME!! Saahas and myself came up with a concept of lending the game concerning waste awareness to schools. I found it very interesting – the idea of making it life size and children can actually jump on it. The concept is very simple: You throw 2 dices and the one who gets the highest number on the dice starts tackling the questions. Unfortunately the lifesize game is yet to be printed but I am working on the design part. Here is a glimpse of the game:

I cannot call it as my final year project but rather a journey with Saahas.