Our very first cohort began in January 2025, and it exceeded our expectations in every way. We explored amazing briefs, read innovative responses, and spoke to hungry young designers. We learnt a lot about what it means to create an internship that is equal parts mentorship, provocation and an experimental playground.

The Monsoon Cohort 2025 was built on these learnings and experiences. This time around, we created an extensive sub brand for the cohort. With crayon textured illustrations, this cohort was meant to evoke emotions of play, joy and nostalgia.

For this cohort, we wanted to test for more than just design ability. We wanted to find emotional imagination. That’s how we landed onto the primary theme for this cohort:

In Between Feels: Designing for Emotional Complexity in the Age of Disconnection

As the world around us becomes faster, noisier and more digital, we wanted to pause and ask, “How do we design for increasing negative emotions in the current world?”

“How do we solve our growing social anxiety?”

“How can we better manage our shortening attention spans?”

“What does it mean to belong to a community?

That’s how we came up with the three sub-challenges for this cohort:

1. Social Disconnect — Design for awkwardness
2. Temporal Disconnect — Design for impatience
3. Communal Disconnect — Design for belonging

With this theme, we wanted to make the application process interesting and challenging, while also giving the participants an opportunity to try out something new, something that they usually don’t get to work on.

Another major change we made for the Monsoon Cohort was decoupling the sub-challenges from the design disciplines. Unlike the previous cohort, where you were pre-assigned a challenge based on which discipline you were applying for, this time we kept it pretty open ended. You could pick any challenge and solve for it using any design skillset.

Over the next few weeks, we received several submissions. Some were raw and generic, others were structured, creative and invited wild discussions. A few such submissions challenged our perspectives and did justice to the challenge and the theme that was posed to them.

In this section, we will go through these top submissions and the people behind them. We will also talk about the aspects in their submission that we liked.

Communication Design

Let’s kick things off by showcasing some of the standout entries we received in Communication Design. Applicants in this discipline explored all three sub-challenges, translating themes like social awkwardness, fragmented attention and belonging into compelling visual narratives. Here are a few entries that left a lasting impression.

Freya Vora

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freya-vora-239539308

Challenge: Communal Disconnect

Concept: Mere Jaisa Koi

Mere Jaisa Koi is an indie magazine concept for teens and young adults seeking genuine connection. It features surreal art, journaling prompts, and QR codes linking to an interactive space for sharing music, writing, or art. It offers a quiet alternative to social media-one built on emotion, reflection and the comfort of being understood.

What we liked:

Freya’s submission was a well-crafted submission with a strong sense of purpose. Her idea of building connection through shared personal stories was both relevant and contextual to the theme. We found that the visual style she chose supported the tone well, and it was easy to imagine the print and digital versions of the magazine.

We would have loved to see how people engaged with the platform, maybe a validation of the idea with real users as a quick test. But we think the concept has a strong potential, and with a bit more focus on user experience, it could truly grow into something meaningful.

Parv Pandey

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parvp/

Challenge: Temporal Disconnect

Concept: #Holdthatmoment

#HoldThatMoment is a visual campaign that reimagines everyday delays, like red lights or waiting in queues, as chances to pause and reconnect. Through a short film and contextual posters in public spaces, the campaign invites viewers to shift their perspective and to notice the moments we often overlook in our rush.

What we liked:

Parv’s submission presented a well thought concept in an engaging manner. The cinematic approach of the video was compelling. The core message could have been reinforced with more deliberate visuals, but we thought that with proper execution of the concept, this could be a powerful campaign towards temporal disconnect.

Vaibhav Singh

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaibhav-singh-ab1757281/

Challenge: Social Disconnect

Concept: Ajeeb hai to kya?

Ajeeb Hai Toh Kya? is a campaign that encourages people to own their awkwardness and wear it like a badge of honor. It challenges the pressure to be perfect by celebrating vulnerability, uncertainty and emotional honesty. By speaking to the hidden, in-between spaces people often occupy, the campaign offers permission to show up fully as one’s authentic self, regardless of judgment.

What we liked:

Vaibhav’s submission was a refreshing take on awkwardness. We liked that the tone was consistent across various collaterals and carried a quite confidence.

We think the visual structure of the campaign could’ve been sharper, and would help the message come through more clearly, but it was a distinct idea with good potential nonetheless. Being the only person in this list to have tackled the tricky theme of social disconnect, we think he handled it with honesty and a clear point of view.

Bhawanjot Kaur

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhawanjot-kaur11/

Challenge: Temporal Disconnect

Concept: LookOut

LookOut is a visual initiative that encourages people to rediscover patience and presence in today’s fast-paced world. With posters, activities and a gentle mascot named Iffy, who is bold, fierce and gentle, it offers playful reminders to slow down, appreciate everyday moments and reconnect with the joy of simply being. LookOut helps counter impatience with stillness, creativity and small acts of mindfulness.

What we liked:

Bhawanjot’s hand-drawn style really brings warmth and approachability to this campaign, with a sense of delight for the viewers. It makes us recall the spontaneity of childhood scribbles, making the piece feel both personal and relatable.

The narrative could’ve been more concise and clear, helping the visuals land with more intent, but with a little refinement, we think this charming direction has the potential to change our relationship with time.

Industrial Design

From tactile interactions to speculative objects, applicants in industrial design brought their chosen themes to life in imaginative ways. With thoughtful, creative and often times provocative concepts, they made us pause and reconsider the role of objects in our lives.

Veda Shetye

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vedashetye/

Challenge: Temporal disconnect

Concept: Wave

Wave is an alarm clock that challenges the urgency-driven design of traditional mornings.

By introducing intentional friction and interactive pixel visuals, it transforms waking up into a mindful ritual. Instead of rewarding instant reactions, Wave encourages presence and patience, helping users shift from rushed awakenings to conscious starts, thus reducing anxiety.

What we liked:

Veda’s submission was thorough and exciting to read. The effort in shaping the experience & interactions for the clock was admirable and has overall shaped the solution as a compelling package.

Although we would have loved to see a prelude to the project, in terms of research and synthesis of the chosen topic, we found it to be a refreshing submission.

Shashwati Kashyap

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shashwati-kashyap-2043a3259/

Challenge: Temporal disconnect

Concept: Antaral

Antaral is a bathroom mirror concept that activates only when the user remains still and focused for a minute. Using motion and eye-tracking, it transforms reflection into a daily ritual of patience and self-awareness. Once activated, it stays visible throughout the day, encouraging a mindful start and reinforcing the idea, that stillness is a strength.

What we liked:

Shashwati’s submission was gripping to read. The combination of well structured narratives and breakdown of the problem statement set the right tone for the context. We found the point of intervention, the mirror to be a refreshing and smart take.

While the detailing and execution of the concept could have been given more thought, the overall process and approach was commendable. We also liked how well made the presentation was.

Angel Jain

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angel-jain/

Challenge: Communal disconnect

Concept: Innr

Innr is a guided journaling and meditation pod that uses Al-facilitated voice journaling, chakra-based meditation and immersive sensory cues to help users reconnect with themselves. It bridges gaps in traditional journaling by offering secure and adaptive emotional support. Innr transforms passive reflection into an active healing ritual, leading to stillness, self-awareness and emotional clarity in a fast-paced world.

What we liked:

Angel’s submission was well thought through and a pleaseure to read. The research and narrative captures and perfectly communicates her analysis of the system. We found that her insights and their translation into the final outcome was a commendable effort.

The attention to details of both the presentation and the concept was note-worthy as well.

Pranav Vyas

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranav-vyas-68106b334/

Challenge: Temporal disconnect

Concept: Fidgy

Fidgy is a compact companion designed to help young adults practice mindfulness in a fast-paced world. Featuring a multi-functional dial, intuitive fidget loop, mood-responsive lighting, soft sound playback and an emergency light, Fidgy supports focus, calm and presence, wherever you are. Scroll it. Tap it. Fidget it.

What we liked:

Pranav’s mix of storytelling and his finesse in presentation made skimming through the submission a pleasure. The submission showed a lot of intent and care. The research & synthesis was well represented and the transition between the design stages was seamless.

We felt the concept ideation stage could’ve been better. The transition to the final concept was a bit abrupt in an otherwise seamless narrative. Still, the final concept was intriguing we are sure it could have worked well with further detailing.

UI/UX Design

Finally, we close with the digital lens of UI/UX Design. These submissions explored how interfaces could acknowledge, evoke and even counter various emotional disconnects. Some focused on smaller interventions, while others created entire ecosystems. Here are the ones that caught our eye.

Rishita Baghel

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishitabaghel/

Challenge: Temporal disconnect

Concept: Loiter

Loiter is an app concept designed for botanical gardens in India. It features a dynamic, seasonal tree map that responds to the user’s location and time of the year. By highlighting nearby species and sensory cues, such as sights, smells and sounds, it encourages deeper presence, observation and connect with nature.

What we liked:

Rishita took a simple idea and executed it well. We liked the calm and observational tone of the app, and how it encouraged mindful presence in a subtle way.

Conceptually, the idea could have been pushed further, but it was a well thought out attempt and a well grounded response to the challenge of temporal disconnect.

Kanishk Ghonsikar

Profile: https://www.behance.net/gallery/210848251/UIUX-Portfolio-2025

Challenge: Temporal disconnect

Concept: Moments in motion

This concept reimagines traditional traffic lights as calming visual experiences that encourage mindfulness in urban spaces.
Instead of abrupt signals, the lights display slow natural visuals, like blooming plants. The aim is to reduce stress, promote stillness, and transform wait times into peaceful moments. It highlights our innate patience when observing nature and applies that insight to city life.

What we liked:

We found Kanishk’s choice of problem statement and his approach to solving it to be quite unique and interesting. His presentation of the solution, along with his reflective take on the challenge of temporal disconnect was commendable.

We think the idea was under explored and could have been executed well, but it was still a strong idea with immense potential.

Yashasvi Rao

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yashasvi-rao-6553ba5b/

Challenge: Communal disconnect

Concept: Imbue

Imbue is a digital self-help experience designed to support individuals dealing with anxiety through playful daily rituals. Drawing on therapeutic techniques, it uses distraction, contemplation and co-regulation to foster presence and emotional regulation. Fully DIY and stigma-free, the app encourages users, especially youth aged 14–24, to reconnect with the moment without relying on constant digital support.

What we liked:

Yashasvi presented a novel approach to the challenge of communal disconnect, with a simple but intentional execution of the idea. We found some very interesting thoughts presented in the submission as well.

Although the concept could have been pushed further, we found her submission to be thought provoking, her process to be refined and her communication skills to be engaging.

Malika Bansal

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malika-bansal-0a08062ab/

Challenge: Temporal disconnect

Concept: Echoes

Echoes is a mobile application concept designed to counter digital overstimulation by gently encouraging presence and introspection.

Unlike typical fast-paced apps, it offers slow, calming mini-games that guide users to reflect and journal. Visually inspired by roots growing through the soil, Echoes turns everyday digital pauses into mindful moments, thus leading to inner calm and self-awareness.

What we liked:

Malika’s nature inspired concept and her visual metaphors for the user journey is what stood out to us. While the concept was not entirely new, its execution offered a new, reflective take on temporal disconnect.

She showed good implementation of her idea and her thoughtful prototyping helped us imagine what it would look and feel like to experience her concept in reality.

What Were We Looking For?

By now, you probably have a sense of what we appreciated in each of the featured submissions. But we also wanted to make our evaluation criteria transparent. For those curious, and for those applying in the future.

The selection process unfolded in two stages:

1. Shortlisting based on task submissions and portfolios
2. Interviews focused on soft skills and studio fit

Here’s what we looked for in each stage:

Shortlisting Stage:

• Application Form: The clarity and thoughtfulness of your responses. Your attitude towards design and the way you approached the prompt.
• Contextual Relevance: How closely your submission responded to the chosen theme and sub-challenge. Did it feel intentional?
• Design Excellence: The depth of your design process. Your research, ideation, execution, storytelling and visual style.
• Innovative Thinking: Was the idea novel, unexpected, or emotionally insightful? Did it go beyond the obvious?

Interview Stage:

• Communication Skills: Could you clearly articulate your thinking? Were you confident in presenting and defending your work?
• Team Value: Would your skillset and approach add something meaningful to the studio team? Could you collaborate well?
• Culture Fit: Are you the kind of person who thrives in an open, curious, and slightly chaotic creative environment? In other words, would you make a good Carbon?

The final 12 submissions were selected based on these simple but essential parameters. We hope this gives you clarity. Not just about the decisions we made, but also about the kind of designers we look forward to working with.

What Next?

Reading through the submissions for this cohort was truly a joy. We came across ideas that made us smile, pause and sometimes question and argue. We hope the participants had as much fun working on the brief as we did while drafting it.

The Monsoon Cohort was, in many ways, an experiment. We poured a lot into it, right from designing the central theme, creating the sub-challenges, and building the visual identity, to updating the website, running socials, and conducting interviews. Every bit of it took time, care and intention. And while the spirit of the cohort was deeply fulfilling, the process showed us a few hard truths as well.

The timing didn’t align well with most undergraduate internship calendars. While we did receive some wonderful applications from master’s students, many of them were understandably looking for full-time opportunities rather than mentorship and training, the original intent behind the cohort. This mismatch, among a few other operational challenges, made it clear to us that a bi-annual format might not be the most effective way forward.

So we arrived at the unfortunate decision that this would be our first and last Monsoon Cohort.

From here on, the Carbon Cohort will be a once-a-year program, running from January to June. A single, focused window where we can give it everything — time, energy and intent.

We still believe deeply in the value of this platform. For us, it’s more than just an internship. It’s an opportunity to invite wild ideas, speculate freely and get inspired by fresh new perspectives in design. That is why, we hope that with each passing year, the Carbon Cohort continues to evolve, inspire and attract young designers who are looking for a challenge, and an experience to grow in a supportive environment.

Applications to the next cohort open in October 2025. Until then, stay weird and keep creating!

Monsoon Reflections was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For as long as we’ve walked this earth, two things have set us apart from other species.

1. We are Makers
2. We are Storytellers

From the first spark of fire to the first word etched on a cave wall, we’ve been shaping the world around us, and giving it meaning. We built tools to survive, machines to thrive and societies to dream together.

The hammer gave us homes.
The pen gave us history.
The printing press gave us knowledge.

With each invention, we’ve painted the skies with stories, and passed them down generations. Whether it was folklore, legends, paintings or films, we’ve always needed more than just survival. We’ve needed expression. A way to make sense of the chaos.

Today, not much has changed. We’re still those tool-making, story-weaving creatures.

But something has shifted. Something substantial.

For the first time in our long, winding tale, we find ourselves staring at a tool so powerful, it might just be the last invention we ever need to make.

Artificial Intelligence.

The Birth of an Intelligence

Machine Learning as a concept was first born in 1950s, when Alan Turing posing the famous question “Can machines think?”. With it came the idea of the Turing Test, a way to judge whether a machine could imitate human intelligence well enough to fool another human. Not long after, the term Artificial Intelligence was coined at the Dartmouth Conference.

But AI as we know today, Generative AI started making waves only in 2020, when tools like ChatGPT, DALL·E and Claude exploded into public use. Suddenly, people had access to deep learning tools that were only confined to labs.

The early days of AI were clumsy, fascinating and weirdly beautiful. AI Dungeon, based on GPT-2, let people roleplay with a text AI. It was chaotic, unpredictable, and fun. DALL·E 1 could generate images from prompts like “an armchair in the shape of an avocado”. Quirky stuff, more art project than product.

But then came the explosion. DALL·E 2, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion turned text-to-image into an art movement overnight. GPT-3.5 and then GPT-4 could write essays, poems, code and whole websites. Suddenly, everyone, from designers and coders to your uncle on WhatsApp was dabbling in generative AI.

And so a new age was born.

The Camps

Right now, AI feels a lot like the early internet. Full of excitement, fear, confusion and limitless potential. Nothing is set in stone and everything seems possible. Key players in the sector, like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta are still oscillating between being cautious idealists or breakneck capitalists.

And the rest of us? We’ve split into camps. Three to be precise:

The Hype: “This Changes Everything”

This camp sees AI as the new electricity. The steam engine of the digital age. It’s comprised of tech bros building 5 startups a week using the same API, designers creating entire brands in an afternoon and teachers rethinking pedagogy overnight.

These are people who are curious, experimental and beautifully optimistic. They ask questions such as, What if we can use this for good? What if this finally levels the playing field? What if this is our renaissance?

The Panic: “We Are Doomed”

Fuelled by years of dystopian sci-fi movies, the panic camp believes that AI is a disaster waiting to happen. They look at the same tech demos and see broken systems, stolen art, misinformation, surveillance capitalism, job loss, algorithmic bias and an accelerating sense of “we are not ready for this.”

Some express it through policies and protests. Others through poetry and art. But at its core, this camp simply asks, Why is no one putting on the brakes?

The Nonchalance: “What’s for Lunch?”

The third camp might be the most fascinating , because they barely react at all. To them, AI is another buzzword in a long line of tech trends. Blockchain, crypto, NFTs, the metaverse. Remember those?

Call it digital fatigue. Or call it a survival mechanism.

They’ll use AI if it helps. Maybe to generate an email or do a quick search. But they’re not philosophizing. They’re not scared. They’re not impressed. They’re just… busy. Paying bills. Making lunch. Living.

But this blog isn’t for the enthusiasts or the skeptics.
It’s for those standing in the middle.

For the hopefuls in the panic camp, trying to believe.
For the realists in the hype camp, starting to wonder.

For anyone asking the quieter, harder question: Where is the line between good AI and bad AI?

Let’s walk toward it. Together.

The Great Unreality

There was a time when the Internet felt like a vast, living city. Each corner, market, post, photo created by people. You could trace a photo back to its camera. A story back to its voice. A recipe back to a grandmother somewhere.

It felt… human.

But now, it’s starting to feel like a simulation. Full of echo chambers. Devoid of humans. A beautifully rendered illusion.

Some have even floated the eerie conspiracy theory: The Dead Internet Theory.

That everything we read, watch or engage with is no longer made by humans. That we’re browsing a ghost town animated by algorithms.

For years, it was just that. A conspiracy. But today, it’s not so easy to dismiss.

Twitter and YouTube are flooded with bot armies, pushing spam and agendas for the highest payer. Faceless websites churn out content by the second, not for humans, but for search engines.

Pinterest, once a gallery of human creativity, is now riddled with images of things that never existed. Chairs never touched by a carpenter, gardens that were never watered and illustrations that had no messy sketches to begin with.

When you saw a dish online, you used to wonder who made it. Now you wonder if it was made at all.

The internet was supposed to be a hopeful place, where messy, imperfect people could meet and make things together. But somewhere down the line, we traded soul for scale. Connection for content. Meaning for metrics.

Let’s take a closer look at 6 challenges that AI has introduced, and attempt to make sense of a new world.

1. The AI Slop

Pick any social media. Any corner of the internet where you once gathered to be inspired, entertained and informed. Have you noticed something different?

You’re not alone.

Social feeds that once reflected slices of real life now feel like conveyor belts of something else entirely.

This is AI Slop — a term used to describe the digital equivalent of junk food. Mass produced and nutritionally void. Mindless attention grabbing content made with AI with the sole purpose of maximizing interactions. Videos of cats doing human work, of pizzas turning into humans and clickbaity “life stories” that never actually happened.

This is content that is very obviously AI, but it just needs to feel engaging enough to trap your scroll. And it works, because our attention, fragmented and fatigued, doesn’t always pause to ask if what we’re watching was made with care or just optimised for attention.

Recently, Youtube had to step in, tightening its creator policies to push back against the growing flood of creators looking for “easy money”.

It’s not just video. Even image search is slowly being overrun.

Try Googling “baby peacock.”

Nearly half of the images are AI generated. In fact, to find something real, we have to time travel — to set our search filters to 2022 or earlier.

2. Misinformation

When fake videos first entered the public eye, experts warned about the dangers they posed for society. As political philosopher Hannah Arendt cautioned:

“The biggest danger may not be that people believe false information, but rather that they stop believing anything at all.”

Because once you can fake a video perfectly, truth itself becomes negotiable.

And now, with generative AI, we’ve stepped squarely into that danger zone. Misinformation is being spread at a much larger scale. Fake videos of political leaders saying things they never said. AI generated recipes that look mouth watering but are nutritionally dangerous. Fitness hacks, crisis footage, deepfakes designed to spread confusion.

While some of us are used to spot the tells, but most aren’t.

Our parents.
Our grandparents.
Even our more trusting friends.

Like the viral video of a kangaroo holding a boarding pass, being denied entry into a flight as someone’s “emotional support animal”. It made the rounds, it got laughs, and it fooled more people than it should have.

In the age of virality, that’s all it takes.

The recent Iran-Israel conflict became a disturbing milestone. Perhaps the first war where AI warfare played a starring role. Fake bombings and propaganda videos created with the intent to falsely justify actions and to rile up populations and governments.

We’re still at a point where we can recognise AI content. How hands have too many fingers, gymnasts have too many legs, and how clocks stubbornly default to 10:10, because that’s the data models were trained on.

But that window is closing.

The big players, OpenAI, Meta, Google are all sprinting towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). As models improve by the week, we inch closer to a time where fake and real is indistinguishable.

AI is changing the understanding of “objective reality” for many of us. Because if any video could be fake, what becomes of evidence? When any voice can be cloned, what becomes of trust?

And when we reach a point where any and all reality is possible, what will be the truth then?

3. Unemployment

First it was a few job titles.
Copywriters. Coders. Illustrators.

Then it was whole departments.
Photography, CGI, Research, Legal, HR.

The changes came quietly at first. A tool here and a shortcut there. But looking back at the past 5 years, it’s not hard to see the pattern.

Social media now brims with influencers who don’t eat, sleep or age. They never have days off. They never ask for raises. They model, promote and travel the world in pixel perfect sunsets, all from a server room. And brands are lining up, because why pay for a plane ticket, when you can license a fantasy?

Speaking at the Milken Insitute’s Global Conference 2025, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia said,

“You are not going to lose your job to AI, but you are going to lose your job to somebody who uses AI”

But is it even possible to compete in this race and remain human?

Even companies that once celebrated human creativity are now shifting gears.

Duolingo, in a recent announcement, said that it would be “AI first” to produce more language learning content. All the while, the company quietly laid off hundreds of writers and contract story creators last year. The math is simple. More content, less cost.

Even Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke sent a memo to employees saying that before they ask for more resources, teams must show why they “cannot get what they want done using AI.”

Across industries, this is becoming the new normal.

Take film. What once took teams of writers, designers, directors, crew members, editors, actors, costume designers and months of coordination, can now be simulated in a fraction of time, and budget.

The same goes for music. Lyrics, melodies, even voices to sing them can all be generated with a prompt. Spotify and YouTube are now filled with AI albums that sound good enough, and cheap enough to scale endlessly.

And while some argue that AI will “create new jobs,” the transition isn’t symmetrical.

We’re losing careers in weeks.
We might gain new ones over years.

If machines can do what we do, faster, cheaper, and without complaint…
Then what exactly is the value of human work?

And more hauntingly, what happens to us when we no longer feel needed?

4. Art

This quote by the author Joanna Maciejewska has been going viral for quite some time now:

“I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.”

It’s simple. But it hits deep. Because that’s the hope, isn’t it? That technology would free us, not replace us.

This sentiment has seen lot of support from the art community recently after seeing how many Language and Image generation models were found to be trained on centuries worth of human literation and art. Without credit or consent.

A joint lawsuit, Disney and Universal are suing Midjourney accusing it of mass copyright infringement. Their image results contained recognizable characters. Shrek, Minions and characters from Star Wars. Clear violations of intellectual property.

But what about the artists who aren’t backed by big studios or legal teams?

What happens to the small creators whose work gets absorbed, unnoticed into these models? What happens when someone generates a fake wood carving based on data trained on a real wood carver’s work, and then gets all the likes, shares and recognition?

We are in an age of quick fixes and shortcuts. We are valuing speed more than hard work. Always in pursuit of the next big AI tool.

There was a case where Sarah Snow, a content creator known for her beautiful video captions, shared how people often ask her: “Which App she uses to do the captions on her videos?”

They assume it’s automated. What they don’t see is the hours spent choosing fonts, refining layout and crafting words that actually mean something. Real art, she reminds us, takes time. Effort. Heart.

But we’re living in an era that values convenient art more than real art or artist. Nothing reveals this more than the recent “Ghibli trend”.

After OpenAI’s GPT4 image gen model dropped, timelines flooded with Ghibli-fied portraits. At first glance, it felt charming. Nostalgic. But if you give it a thought, the irony stings.

Studio Ghibli was built on slowness. On detail. On Hayao Miyazaki’s painstaking devotion to storytelling. Drawing thousands of frames by hand, creating entire worlds with care and refusing to rush even a single second of animation.

The Wind Rises, a fictional biography film by the Studio Ghibli features a four-second crowd scene that took animator Eiji Yamamori 1 year and 3 months to complete.

Sakuga 作画 on X (formerly Twitter): "This four second crowd scene from Studio Ghibli's The Wind Rises (2013) took animator Eiji Yamamori 1 year and 3 months to complete. pic.twitter.com/49UjMf5NcI / X"

This four second crowd scene from Studio Ghibli's The Wind Rises (2013) took animator Eiji Yamamori 1 year and 3 months to complete. pic.twitter.com/49UjMf5NcI

Rather than a tribute to Ghibli films, these AI images are against the very philosophy that Hayao Miyazaki lived by.

And so we ask.

If art becomes effortless, do we still value it? If beauty comes instantly, do we still respect what it took to achieve it?

5. Crime

The digital world was already haunted by demons.

Deepfakes.
Revenge porn.
Stolen Identities.

But with AI models, miscreants now have renewed tools and powers. Anyone with a few clicks and a prompt can replace a face. Generate explicit images without consent, without trace and without remorse.

This raises all sorts of ethical, moral, legal and social concerns. Our policies and judiciary are yet to catchup to these new technologies, and might keep playing catchup for a long time.

So for now, we are at the mercy of platforms whose primary allegiance lies not with people, but with profit.

There’s another menace insidiously brewing beneath the surface. The erosion of privacy.

Teenagers today are turning to chatbots for comfort and therapy. Not because they get the best advice. But because these inanimate bots are free of human judgement and free of humanity. They feel more comfortable sharing their intimate thoughts with them. And the bots listen. Patiently, passively.

But AI models are increasingly trained on the very data we share. Chat’s photos, confessions. Every message, every vulnerable moment, is quietly teaching the machine how to know us better. To profile us more accurately.

Do people know this?
Do they care?
Does it really matter?

If privacy is given up willingly, and our thoughts can easily be manipulated mirrored back at us, where do we draw the line between advice and coercion?

6. Environment

Of all the effects of AI, this might be the quietest one. Not because it’s small. But because it’s harder to see.

We often imagine AI as a floating brain in the cloud. Weightless, clean, abstract. But behind every prompt, every image, every line of generated code is a very real, very hungry machine.

One that needs computation. And power. And water.

The servers that keep AI running, that make Claude respond, that render Midjourney’s images, require massive data centres. And those centres consume energy at staggering rates.

A research due to be published later this year estimates ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. The range varies depending on where its servers are located and the season. But it underscores a point: tens of millions of users chatting with AI could be silently draining lakes and rivers.

The energy footprint is similarly huge. Training one large AI model can consume hundreds of megawatt-hours of electricity. Running them in production adds even more ongoing draw. It’s telling that Google’s environmental report admitted its carbon emissions rose 48% in 2023, citing AI and data centers as a major driver.

How do we plan to sustain this technology as it keeps progressing, getting better and needs more and more resources? And all of it drawn from a planet that is already stretched thin?

We talk of AI as though it floats. But it’s tethered, tightly, to the Earth.
To lithium mines and power grids. To freshwater reserves and fossil fuels.

So we must ask ourselves:

“Can we build a future where the intelligence we create doesn’t come at the expense of the home we live in?”

“Should we?”

The Seduction

We know the problems. We’ve read the warnings. We’ve watched the videos, shared the articles, whispered the fears.

And yet… we still use it.

Why?

Because AI offers us something intoxicating: the illusion of effortlessness. Creation without the mess. Output without the process. Genius without the grind.

Why spend hours crafting the perfect sentence, when a prompt can do it in seconds? Why wait for inspiration when you can autocomplete it?

We are creatures of convenience. And AI speaks our language fluently.

It flatters us. It makes us feel smarter, faster, more capable. It turns us into mini gods of production. Build an app in one click. Design a website in one prompt. Animate a story in while you have a meal.

We tell ourselves — it’s just a tool.

It’s just helping.
It’s saving time.
It’s giving access.

And sometimes, all of that is true.

But beneath that truth is a trade: one small piece of your creative soul, exchanged for speed. And so it keeps seducing us, like the Sirens in the Odyssey. With answers that are just good enough.

We keep using it not because we are blind to the flaws. But because we no longer remember what it felt like to struggle for beauty.

So yes, AI is seductive.

But maybe the question isn’t why we use it.
Maybe it’s why we stopped believing in the value of doing it ourselves?

The Hope

Let’s flip the coin.

Because despite the noise, the fear and the spiraling questions, AI isn’t all dark clouds.

It has been instrumental in medical break

AI is not all that bad. Even in these dire circumstances, there are enthusiasts who are excited about the possibilities that this technology can bring to our society.

It has been pretty helpful in medical research break throughs, from protein structure predictions to drug discovery.

It is giving sight, or something close to it, to the visually impaired, allowing them to navigate the world with newfound independence.

It is teaching children in new and interactive ways. For example, Khan Academy’s “Khanmigo” uses GPT-4 to guide students through problems Socratically, never giving away the answer but prompting the next thought.

It is helping researchers and students build things once reserved for professional labs. Sign language translators, health apps, assistive tech. Ideas once stuck in minds and notebooks, now becoming prototypes.

A team of undergrads used open-source AI to develop an app that listens to a person’s cough with a smartphone microphone and predicts if it’s likely asthma, pneumonia, or just a common cold. A pocket diagnostic tool that could be especially useful in low-resource areas.

It is lowering the entry barrier for storytellers too. Filmmakers no longer need blockbuster budgets to tell stories that move hearts. Game developers can focus on character, plot and emotion, while AI handles the grunt work.

And perhaps, most magically, we’ve started to talk to our machines. Not in lines of code, but in the language of desire, of imagination:

“I want a website that feels like a forest.”

“I want an app that helps my grandma remember her medicines.”

“I wish my game character could fall in love.”

This is new. This is beautiful.

So, there are clearly good things that have come out of AI technology. So we are faced with the moral dilemma.

“When is AI use ethical and when is it not? Where do we draw the line?”

The Line

As a design studio, this is a question we’ve had to confront almost everyday.

As creatives, we use these AI tools.
As a future forward design agency, we always stay updated.
As innovators, we experiment and try out new things all the time.

So we have spent a good amount of time discussing, deliberating and arguing about the ethical use of AI within our teams. And we’ve come to a simple test.

It’s not about the output. It’s about the intent. Is the intent to aid you? Or is it to make the AI do it for you?

Is the AI assisting your creation?
Or is it creating for you?

Is it helping you think?
Or is it thinking for you?

Is it helping you tell stories?
Or is it telling your stories for you?

Is it the hammer in our hand?
Or is it the hand itself?

We think there is a fine line, and once you see it, it’s hard to unsee.

AI should help us. Not make us helpless. And there are real consequences when we cross that line.

A recent MIT study found that using ChatGPT led to decreased brain activity and cognitive development in students. Not because AI is evil. But because we’re outsourcing the act of thinking to it.

So every time we design, we ask ourselves:

1. Are we still the Makers?
2. Are we still the Storytellers?

Final Thoughts

People often say AI is just another technology. That the internet too, was ridiculed and feared in its early days. That every great invention faces its share of backlash.

But AI is different.

This might be the first, and very possibly the last invention that doesn’t just how we live, but what it’s meant to be alive.

Because if we hand over the act of creation, the joy of discovery, the journey of struggle and the power of thought, if we lose the “labour” from our “labours of love”..

We risk losing purpose.

Just look to the “Rat Utopia” experiment. A world where every need was met. Every struggle removed. And with it, the collapse of motivation, identity and meaning.

We were not wired for passive perfection. We were wired to strive. To build. To stumble and get back up again.

We need to equip ourselves with AI. Not hand over the reins.

Because like every technology that came before, the true nature of a tool is determined by how we use it. AI may be the pen. But we must still write the story ourselves.

So, what does the future look like?

Maybe we’ll use AI for good and propel our civilization towards peace and prosperity. Maybe we’ll overlook the dangers and submit to our AI overlords.

We’re only human, after all.

PS: This piece was conceptualised, written and illustrated by humans at Studio Carbon with AI as an assistive tool for ideation and research.

Humanity in the Age of AI was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Foldables were supposed to be the future.

They were meant to disrupt the black slab. To offer something fresh after a decade of rectangular screens and minimalist monotony. But what did we get instead? Sleeker rectangles. That fold.

Some time ago, we got the opportunity to work on this very brief as part of a client pitch. Two days, no boundaries, and one simple goal: to fall in love with a phone design again. Not its specs. Not its features, apps or the software. The phone itself.

We spent this time researching, sketching and visualizing concepts that would disrupt the mobile industry.

The pitch didn’t go forward. But the idea stayed. As it often does.

Here, we are sharing our journey of designing a unique foldable design. From the research, our insights, to the trials and all the way to the final concept development.

People and Queries

Before we sketched even a single line, we did a demographic research of the people who would be using this concept phone. Specifically the Millenials and Gen Z. We studied their behaviours, motivations and emotional responses to tech today. We wanted to understand why they buy, scroll, fidget and care.

From this, we uncovered six major insights and directions:

1. The Odd Case of Cases

Query #1: Is it not odd that a beautifully crafted device is almost always put in a case?

In a world obsessed with youth and perfection, beauty needs to be redefined. Objects, like people, age gracefully. These imperfections, like wrinkles on a face, tell stories of resilience and growth. Instead of hiding them, we can celebrate them as symbols of enduring elegance. The Japanese philosophy of “Wabi-Sabi” embraces these flaws and the natural cycle of life.

These marks aren’t decay but life experiences. So what if we embrace the beauty in these marks and wear them with pride.

Concept #1: Embrace

Imagine a phone that embodies Aging-Inspired Design. Sturdy and elegant, it withstands falls and scratches, showcasing each unique mark as aesthetic patterns. This phone evolves with time, celebrating enduring beauty through aging, a personal treasure that grows with you.

2. The Analog Dialogue

Query #2: What if touch, a primal sensorial experience makes a contemporary comeback?

Touch, a primal sense, has shaped our survival and continues to define our experiences. It’s been crucial in our evolution, fostering both technological and emotional connections. In today’s hyper-connected world, touch remains a grounding force amidst digital overload. The younger generation seeks solace in tactile experiences, from clicking pens to tapping feet. Fidgeting serves as an outlet for inner restlessness, anchoring us in the present.

We can harness this innate desire to explore touch beyond touchscreens.

Concept #2: Sensorium

Touch, a universal language, connects us to our environment and others. “Sensorium”, a smartphone concept, goes beyond flat touch screens, offering analog controls with tactile feedback. Physical knobs, sliders, and buttons rekindle the joy of touch and control, making tasks immersive, thus enhancing well-being and expression.

3. Digital Wellness

Query #3: What if your phone could facilitate your digital wellbeing?

As digital immersion becomes the norm for work, communication and entertainment, its impact on our well-being is clear. Constant screen exposure results in eye strain, disrupted sleep, heightened stress, anxiety, and depression. Social media alters societal dynamics, fueling feelings of inadequacy. Excessive phone use diminishes our relationships, creativity, and imagination. While technology brings enrichment, it erodes human connection.

Perhaps it’s time for a digital detox and intentional screen usage. What if we had a phone that helps us power down and engage in meaningful conversations?

Concept #3: Tranquil

Imagine an ethical phone: “Tranquil”. It prioritizes digital well-being with Connected and Wellness modes. The latter, on a secondary e-ink display, promotes detox, free from distractions. Tranquil offers tools like screen time tracking, focus mode, and scheduled downtime, making it effortless to balance functionality and digital wellness.

4. Material Rethink

Query #4: What if the interpretation of metal phone bodies takes a radical turn?

Traditionally, phone case manufacturing involved carving metal blocks to maintain a sleek, premium look, but it also limited creativity. This led to a flood of uniform brick-like phone designs, erasing the distinctiveness of older, plastic models. However, we can draw inspiration from the automotive industry, which continuously crafts unique and functional forms using various techniques like sheet metal bending, casting, and stamping.

Concept #4: Finesse

Imagine a revolutionary smartphone concept: “Finesse.” It redefines aesthetics and efficiency by utilizing “FinesseFrame,” which employs deep-drawn sheet metal for intricate, cost-effective designs, a departure from costly CNC milling. This innovation promises distinctive, affordable smartphones, marking a leap forward in design and production.

5. The Clear Choice

Query #5: What if we look back to trends from the past to shape the future?

Design trends have evolved with changing tastes and technologies, and one trend making a comeback is the use of transparent materials. This choice reflects innovation, nostalgia and a desire for authenticity. Iconic products like the Sony Walkman once used transparency to highlight form and function, fostering curiosity. This aesthetic was overshadowed by minimalism and metallic finishes, but recent manufacturing advancements have again enabled intricate transparent components.

Transparency aligns with the demand for honest, open products, resonating with consumers’ values. The resurgence of such aesthetics is likely to endure in this decade.

Concept #5: Prisma

“Prisma” redefines smartphone aesthetics by embracing transparency. Its unique design philosophy is simple. We have nothing to hide, and we are proud of who we are. The robust, shatter-resistant glass body showcases the phone’s inner workings, demystifying technology. Prisma is a fashion statement, conversation starter, and cutting-edge device all in one.

6. The Pixel Matrix

Query #6: What if your phone is as emotive as your human friends?

Pixel aesthetics originated in the digital age, notably during the 8-bit and 16-bit gaming eras. Technical constraints birthed low pixel density, which now evokes nostalgia among the new generations. This generation raised on pixelated video games seeks the simplicity and charm of these early visuals, leading to their resurgence in contemporary art, illustration, animation and design. Pixel aesthetics thrive on limitations, challenging artists to convey depth and detail with simplicity, resulting in intricate yet straightforward visuals.

Artists have honed this art of concise expression for decades, making pixels a potent tool for minimalistic communication.

Concept #6: Mosaic

“Mosaic”, a dual-screen phone, elevates communication beyond words with its innovative pixel screen on the back. It enables expressive messages, emotions and creativity through dynamic visuals. Whether conveying love, humor, or memes, Mosaic adapts to your mood, weather, and music, doubling as a discreet notification screen. Personalize and be unique.

Some other What-ifs that we explored as well:

- What if a part of the phone never dies?
- What if mobile phone becomes family heirloom?
- What if smartphone never runs out of battery?
- What if smartphones are the ultimate personal entertainment hub ?
- What if smartphone helps in managing your anxiety?
- What if modularity for phones was relooked at from the perspective of a democratised system?

Eventually, we asked: What if we combined the best of these concepts?

And that’s how Voxel was born.

Retro Tech Revival

Voxel was designed to be a foldable that blends retro personality with modern needs. With an instantly recognizable form and look, Voxel invites onlookers to pick it up and play. We intended for this concept to not be a product governed by specs, but one with a character. A device that lets you play, pause and connect on your own terms.

The Grid That Made Us Smile

We spent hours playing with pixel grids. Which one is the best?

Too small, and it lost charm. Too big and the screen became unreadable. After multiple iterations, we found the sweet spot. A 28 × 23 pixel grid. It was just enough to show a heart, a smiley or a weather icon.

Not enough for distraction, but perfect for delight.

Inspired from the “Mosaic” concept, this grid became the canvas. The face. The emotion engine of the phone.

Fold to Disconnect

Although the brief required us to design a foldable phone, we didn’t want it to be just another cool feature. We wanted it to mean something. Like how the old flip phones had a personality of their own when flipped open or slammed shut. For us, the folded form was philosophical.

So we took inspiration from the “Tranquil” concept for this feature of Voxel.

When open, the Voxel acts just like your normal phone, with all the latest tech and features. But the when folded, Voxel becomes a dumbphone. No apps. No doomscroll. You can interact with all the important stuff right from its pixel screen, without the need to open it. It let’s you pick up phone calls, skip songs, check the time, check how long until your food arrives or even play retro pixel games!

And when open, it becomes smart again.

The physical action of folding becomes symbolic. A way to switch modes.
From chaos to pause. From doing to being.

A Scroll that Grounds You

Remember the iPod click wheel? The smooth and intuitive interaction was what made the iPod iconic. It was a tactile experience like no other. So we brought it back!

When folded, a circular, tactile ring near the thumb acts as a versatile navigation tool that lets you spin, scroll and select. We designed it to be placed right within the reach of the thumb, so you don’t have to do finger yoga.

Inspired from the “Sensorium” concept, this button intended to bring back the kind of analog joy we’ve lost in the swipe age.

Nothing to Hide

We designed the back of Voxel to be transparent. Not to be flashy, but to be honest. We realised that the new generations prefer authenticity and honesty, and for us, a transparent back was a beautiful metaphor for the same.

Inspired from the “Prisma” concept, the transparent back cover reveals the internal workings of the Voxel in all their glory. The magnetic coil, the circuits, the skeleton. Because we wanted to have a phone that was authentic, with nothing to hide.

Additionally, we conceptualised two variants of the phone, one with a subtle grey and another with a loud accent colour. You can choose which one you resonate more with as a personality.

Closing Thoughts

This design sprint reminded us that good design doesn’t always add. Sometimes, it subtracts. And that’s the kind of future we want to feel more of. Not louder, but wiser. Not faster, but more intentional.

When we were working on the phone concept, we approached it like a thought experiment. We wished to create something that helped us explore the things we missed in today’s tech. All the while having a unique character, that makes you use the phone as it is. Show it off, without covering it up.

Currently, foldable phones open up to reveal more pixels, and increase a barrage of information and cognitive load. We wanted to create a foldable phone that folds to reduce the same. Why?

Maybe because in a world of infinite scrolling, we all need a fold.

Our Lowest Resolution Yet was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In November 2024, we kicked off something new at Studio Carbon. A program, a platform or an intiative, call it what you may, the Carbon Cohort was our response to a pattern we saw every year.

We noticed that each year, around November and May, we’d receive a wave of internship requests from design students looking for internships and graduation projects. Many of them were talented. Some of them felt like a great fit. But the process felt tedious, inconsistent and inefficient. We were often hiring on instinct and not through a process that reflected our values.

So we decided to formalise it.

That is how we came about the idea of the Carbon Cohort — A program that would help us find young designers who are experimental, self-initiated and future-focused. Designers who weren’t just skilled, but also divergent in thought. The Carbon Cohort was born out of a simple intention: create an experience that helps us find people excited by the kind of questions we ask at Studio Carbon!

The Thought Behind It

We were clear about one thing. We didn’t want a generic application form or a passive portfolio review. So we created an open-ended design challenge to help us find our kind of people.

At the same time, we knew how stressful internship season can be for students. Waiting for responses, chasing follow-ups and feeling unsure about whether the effort is worth it. So we set a few ground rules for ourselves.

One, we would reply to every applicant. We think that everyone deserves a response, even if they are not selected.

Next, the experience of applying should be meaningful, even for those who don’t make it. Hence, the challenges were structured to become portfolio pieces in their own right.

We also introduced Certificates of Appreciation for the top entries. And while we had promised to showcase some of those entries earlier, this blog is our way of revisiting that promise.

The Design Challenges

For the last cohort, our team decided to design an overarching theme, with 3 sub-challenges that were tuned to each of our design verticals. Each one was rooted in future speculation, and designed to push people to think deeply and imagine freely.

The theme we chose was “Future of Food in a Post Scarcity World”. We imagined a world where traditional agriculture has been revolutionised by technology, making food scarcity a thing of the past.

However, this abundance brought new challenges:

1. Ensuring balanced nutrition in a world of plenty.
2. Maintaining trust in food sources and production methods.
3. Preserving culinary traditions and community connections to food.

We tied each of these challenges to a design discipline and put out the word, patiently waiting for fellow divergent thinkers.

What was the response?

We received over a hundred applications for the Winter Cohort. Most of the applications came in during the final few days. We received appreciation from many of the applicants about how much fun it was to work on the task, and how even the interview process was so much of a learning experience for them.

Out of all the task submissions, some were rough but full of heart. Others were polished but missed the mark. A few stood out completely.

These were the entries that took the brief seriously. They imagined with care. They asked difficult questions and made thoughtful decisions. Out of all the applications, we selected three people to join us at Studio Carbon for a six-month internship.

Each one brought something different to the table, and they’ve been part of the team ever since!

Top 10 Submissions We Loved

Here are ten submissions that really caught our attention. They’re not ranked in any order, because each one stood out for a different reason. Clarity, courage, creativity or process.

We’re sharing them here because we believe they deserve to be seen. We have also tagged their profiles, so do reach out to them if you liked what they created!

Kirthana S — Industrial Design

Kirthana brought a refreshingly different perspective to the brief. Her idea stood apart from others, not just in form but in the clarity of her thinking. Her background in HCI and UX also reflected in how she approached the problem — structured, sensitive and original.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirthanas/

Shlok Shetye — UI/UX Design

Shlok’s submission was built on solid research and a deep understanding of the user. The visual design was clean and the thinking was thorough. His ability to frame insights and use them meaningfully showed maturity in approach.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shlok-shetye-a8b24920a/

Suvrat Golchha — Industrial Design

Suvrat’s energy was immediately visible in his work. His design process was clear, and he brought a strong maker’s mindset to the table. He had already prototyped nearly a hundred versions of one product before even joining us. That kind of commitment stays with you.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suvrat-golchha-283571243/

Ashwin Fulfagar — UI/UX Design

Ashwin took the challenge quite seriously and made the effort to test and prototype new interactions. His work was one of the most implementation-ready submissions we received! He did more than thinking. He was creating a product.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashwinfulfagar/

Priyanga Rajkumar — Industrial Design

Priyanga’s approach was structured and thoughtful. She translated research insights into design with clarity and care. Her work felt intentional and well-communicated, and we found that her skills would complement any design team.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyanga-rajkumar/

Tisha Barman — Communication Design

Tisha’s submission showed an interesting mix of future speculation and systems thinking. Her ability to think across functions and imagine scale made her work stand out. She also brought a practical lens to her storytelling, which added depth to the concept.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tishabarman/

Srinibash Bartia — UI/UX Design

Srinibash’s process was honest and clear. His submission reflected ordered thinking and a strong understanding of the brief. While it stayed within a familiar structure, the strength of his logic and UX flow made the work feel well considered and complete.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srinibash-bartia-39613b29b/

Aayushi Kalpesh Shah — Industrial Design

Aayushi imagined a speculative and imaginative future for food and supply chains. Her scenario building was detailed and convincing. What stood out was that even though she was a vegetarian, she showed great insight and consideration durint research of cultured meat. It was also one of the few submissions that tackled a taboo subject in a thoughtful and nuanced way.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aayushi-kalpesh-shah-176784284/

Vaidehi Shirsath — Communication Design

Vaidehi’s strength lay in systems and structure. Her ability to scope complexity, ask sharp questions and communicate clearly stood out. She also showed potential in information design and strategic thinking, which gave her work a sense of quiet strength.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaidehi-shirsath/

Kalabi Meetei — UI/UX Design

Kalabi approached the challenge with an unusual lens. Her interpretation of the brief was distinct, and her process revealed a strong conceptual imagination. There was a boldness in her ideas that made her submission stand apart.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalabi-m/

We congratulate all participants who submitted their design visions with us, and for coming up with ideas that inspired our imagination. While we could take in only a few, we are confident that these young designers will shine through their thinking and work.

What Next?

The Winter Cohort taught us a lot. We saw what worked, what didn’t, and where we could do better. We are currently in the process to kick off our next edition of the Carbon Cohort. This time, it’ll be coming in with rains!

This time, for the Monsoon ’25 edition, we’re doing a few things differently.

• We’ve decoupled design challenges from specific disciplines. So applicants can now mix and match briefs and design lenses freely.
• We’re building a stronger brand for the cohort, with clearer information, a dedicated website and better resources to help candidates apply.
• We’re also setting up a better system for timely communication with applicants, and keep you informed at each step.

We want this program to grow and evolve every season. And we want it to reflect the values we care about at Studio Carbon.

Why You Should Apply

The Carbon Cohort is built for designers who are just starting out, but already thinking ahead. It’s for people who want to question, explore and make things that matter.

If you’re looking for a space where you can learn by doing, challenge the usual way of thinking and work on projects that push boundaries, this might just be your dream workplace!

You’ll be part of a team that values both freedom and rigour. You’ll get to work on live projects and open-ended explorations. And you’ll be joining a studio that’s constantly asking “what’s next?” not just for design, but for the world.

The Monsoon 2025 Cohort will be launched soon. So to all the budding design minds out there

Stay Tuned!

From Winter to Monsoon was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Imagine this: You’re standing in a bustling marketplace, surrounded by countless stalls, each vying for attention. Your innovative product is clutched tightly in your hands, ready to change the world. But as you look around, a sobering realization hits you — in this sea of noise, how will your voice be heard?

This is the challenge every Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) startup faces in today’s digital landscape. But fear not! There’s a secret weapon that can cut through the clutter and make your brand shine brighter than a supernova. It’s your brand strategy, and today, we’re going to unpack the science and art of building one, and why it’s not just nice to have, but absolutely essential for your D2C success story.

The Tale of Two Startups

Let me tell you a story of two startups: Blaze and Fizzle.

Blaze burst onto the scene with a revolutionary eco-friendly water bottle. They had a crystal-clear brand strategy from day one. Their unique selling proposition? “Hydration that loves the planet as much as you do.” Their brand persona was that of an adventurous, eco-conscious friend, always ready for the next hiking trip. Their tone of voice? Encouraging and nature-inspired.

Fizzle, on the other hand, also had a great water bottle. But they were so focused on the product that they forgot about building a brand. They tried to be everything to everyone — sometimes eco-friendly, sometimes luxury, sometimes sporty. Their messaging was all over the place, leaving potential customers confused and unengaged.

Fast forward one year: Blaze is the talk of the town, with a cult following and skyrocketing sales. Fizzle? Well, they fizzled out.

The moral of the story? In the D2C world, a solid brand strategy isn’t just the icing on the cake — it’s the whole bakery.

Your Brand Strategy Toolkit: The Secret Sauce of Success

What exactly is a brand strategy? Think of it as your brand’s GPS, guiding you to your destination without taking a wrong turn. Now that we have a good metaphor to understand it, let’s dive into what makes up this magical brand strategy toolkit.

1. Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Think about what makes your D2C offering stand out. Is it your sustainable packaging, your AI-powered personalization, or your unbeatable price point? This is your brand’s secret sauce. What makes you stand out in a sea of sameness? For Blaze, it was the perfect blend of eco-friendliness and sleek design.

Bonus Example: Apple’s USP is its seamless integration of hardware and software — like Batman and Robin, but for tech.

1. Brand Persona: If your brand were a character in a Netflix series, who would it be? The quirky best friend? The wise mentor? The innovative rebel? This is the personality that’ll make customers want to hang out with your brand. Blaze chose to be the quirky, environmentally conscious best friend that everyone wants to hang out with.

Bonus Example: Nike’s persona is that of a relentless, inspiring athlete — think Rocky Balboa, but with better shoes.

1. Tone of Voice: How does your brand speak? Is it the soothing whisper of a luxury spa or the energetic cheer of a fitness coach? Blaze opted for an encouraging, nature-inspired tone that made customers feel like they were chatting with a fellow outdoor enthusiast.

Bonus Example: Mailchimp’s tone is like your quirky friend who always knows the right thing to say — friendly and informal.

1. User Persona: Who’s your ideal customer? Paint a vivid picture. What are their habits, dreams, and pain points? This is the VIP profile of your ideal customer. Understanding your user is key to crafting messages that hit home. For Blaze, it was the urban professional with a weekend passion for hiking and a deep concern for the environment.

Bonus Example: For a premium coffee brand, the user persona might be urban professionals who need a caffeine boost to conquer their day.

1. Brand Tagline: Distill your brand’s essence into a punchy phrase. Think Nike’s “Just Do It” or Apple’s “Think Different”. This is the catchy phrase that sums up your brand’s essence in a nutshell. Blaze went with “Quench your thirst, nourish the Earth” — simple, memorable, and perfectly aligned with their brand.

Bonus Example: Subway’s “Eat Fresh” says it all — freshness in every bite.

Why Skipping Strategy is Like Jumping Without a Parachute

In the D2C arena, where you’re going toe-to-toe with established players and scrappy newcomers alike, a robust brand strategy is your competitive edge. Here’s why it matters:

1. Align Internally: It ensures everyone in your startup, from the CEO to the customer support team, is rowing in the same direction. At Blaze, every team member could recite their brand values in their sleep.
2. Build Clarity: When you’re faced with tough decisions (and trust us, you will be), your brand strategy acts as a north star. When Blaze was offered a lucrative deal to use non-recyclable materials, their brand strategy made the decision a no-brainer — it was a hard pass.
3. Focus Efforts: In a world of endless possibilities, your brand strategy helps you concentrate your efforts where they’ll have the most impact. Blaze knew exactly which influencers to partner with and which events to sponsor, all thanks to their clear strategy.

Crafting Your Brand Strategy: A Journey of Self-Discovery

Now, you might be thinking, “This sounds great, but where do I start?” Fear not, intrepid entrepreneur! The journey to a killer brand strategy starts with a bit of soul-searching.

Start with You

Before you can convince customers to choose you, you need to understand what makes you, well, you. It’s time to channel your inner philosopher and ask the big questions:

• Why did you start this venture? Was it a midnight epiphany or a long-harbored dream?
• What values drive your team? What gets you all fired up and ready to conquer the world?
• What’s the perception you want to create? When people think of your brand, what images come to mind?

Focus on Your User

In the D2C world, understanding your customer is everything. It’s time to put on your detective hat and get to know your user:

• Who are they beyond basic demographics? What makes them tick?
• What are their needs (physical, emotional, psycho-social)? What keeps them up at night?
• What pain points are you addressing? Are you solving a problem they didn’t even know they had?

At Studio Carbon, we’re like brand archaeologists — we dig for explicit, observational, tacit, and latent knowledge. We use various tools to extract everything from the obvious to the deep-rooted insights and aspirations. Because it’s not just about what they say, but what they do, feel, and dream.

Understand the Competition

Study your competitors like a hawk. Analyze everything from their logo to their marketing strategies, taglines, and the communities they’ve built. This gives you a playbook on the competitive landscape.

• How do they position themselves? Are they the luxury option? The budget-friendly choice?
• What communities have they built? Are there any underserved niches?
• What can you learn from their successes and missteps? Remember, it’s often cheaper to learn from others’ mistakes!

The Magic of Brand Strategy: Turning Information into Gold

Now comes the fun part — turning all this information into brand strategy gold. It’s like being an alchemist, but instead of turning lead into gold, you’re turning data into brand magic. Here’s how we do it at Studio Carbon:

1. Resolve any Tensions: If there’s a mismatch between what you think is crucial and what users want, that’s a tension. Do you pivot or educate? Blaze faced this when users initially didn’t care about eco-friendliness. They chose to educate, and it paid off big time.
2. Check Your Biases: Ensure your strategy is based on solid research, not just gut feelings. Your product might be your baby, but remember — every parent thinks their child is the cutest.
3. Use Analogical Case Studies: Look for examples from different sectors. Competing with market leaders? Find a David who took on a Goliath in another sector and learn from their slingshot strategy.
4. Use Metaphors: Simplify complex ideas with relatable metaphors. Blaze described their product as “the superhero of water bottles — saving you and the planet one sip at a time.”
5. Trend Analysis: Stay ahead of the curve. How can your brand strategy anticipate and capitalize on emerging trends? Blaze predicted the rise of eco-consciousness among urban millennials and positioned themselves perfectly.
6. Stakeholder Consideration: Get insights from all angles — investors, potential customers, even that brutally honest friend who always tells you when your outfit doesn’t work.

The Grand Finale: Your Brand Strategy in Action

With all these elements in place, your brand strategy becomes a living, breathing entity that guides every aspect of your business. It’s not just a document that sits in a drawer — it’s the beating heart of your brand.

Imagine walking into a pitch meeting, armed with not just a great product, but a compelling brand story that resonates with investors. Picture your social media feeds, each post a perfect encapsulation of your brand voice, drawing in followers like moths to a flame. Envision your customer service team, each interaction infused with your brand personality, turning satisfied customers into raving fans.

This is the power of a well-crafted brand strategy. It’s not just about standing out — it’s about standing for something. It’s about creating a brand that people don’t just buy from, but buy into.

Your Next Chapter Awaits

So, brave founder, are you ready to write your success story? Remember, in the world of D2C, your brand isn’t just a logo or a catchy tagline — it’s your digital storefront, your salesperson, and your customer service rep all rolled into one. A solid brand strategy is your secret weapon for carving out your niche in a crowded marketplace.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to revamp your existing brand, the time to craft your killer brand strategy is now. Don’t let your brilliant idea get lost in the noise — let it blaze a trail in the D2C world.

Ready to craft a compelling brand strategy that resonates and drives growth? Reach out to us at Studio Carbon. Let’s make your D2C brand the talk of the digital town!

Remember, in the grand story of D2C success, your brand strategy is the plot twist that turns you from an unknown character to the hero of the tale. So, what’s your brand’s story going to be?

Disclaimer: While this guide provides a solid foundation, remember that each brand’s journey is unique. Depending on your specific needs, you may also need to conduct thorough trend analyses, case studies, and stakeholder consultations to ensure a holistic and robust brand strategy. At Studio Carbon, we’re here to guide you every step of the way.

From Whisper to Wildfire: A D2C Guide to Killer Brand Strategy was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The design room is an immersive experience inundating your senses with innovation. Sunlight pours in through floor-to-ceiling windows, revealing a panoramic view of the city outside. A sleek work table takes center stage, strewn with futuristic designs and drawing tools, and other sketches, blueprints, and prototypes line the walls. Dressed in sleek, modern attire, the team moves with fluid grace, discussing intricate details of their latest project as an ambient soundtrack plays in the background inspiring creativity with driving rhythms that occasionally prompt a foot tap or nod of the head. This is the heart of Industrial Design at the Studio — a place where creativity and inspiration flow freely, and every detail is crafted with care and precision.

“Are you ready to get started?” we ask. Heads pop up and smiles flash in excitement.

“Of course!”, “Sure!” they respond, with budding anticipation.

We are set to conduct an interview — to discover the journey this incredible team made on a unique project, Epick Bikes. We begin by commending the team on their great work, and with that, we launch into the first question.

Q1: “What is Epick Bikes?”

Deep sigh. A big grin.

A1: Epick Bikes is an ultimate game-changer in India’s micro-mobility scene. Their smart and practical vision to develop and deliver a sustainable and clean energy solution for daily commute by manufacturing affordable, reliable, and customer-centric electric bikes have established them the industry. The brand is truly set to change the way India commutes, one ride at a time.

Q2: Impressive. What can you tell us about our clients’ background?

A2: Picture this — in the early days of India, cycles were available for rent, just like you might rent, or ‘pick up’ a bike today. And that’s exactly how Epick started — as E-pick! Founded in Hyderabad, India, in the year 2016, the brand recognized the need for eco-friendly and affordable transportation in India’s bustling cities and started out as a rental mobility services company with a broader vision to bring innovative solutions on cleaner transportation that align with the Sustainable Development Goals to consumers directly. They made it a goal to design an electric bicycle that was not only sleek and functional but also featured a renewable battery — a true game-changer in the industry. Remarkably, their focus on customer satisfaction drove the brand to become pioneers in the electric bicycle market today.

Q3: They sound very interesting. How did they become clients of ours?

A3: When Epick Bikes approached our Industrial Design team, they wanted more than just a new look — they wanted a brand statement with their bike. As we delved into the project, we realized that the real challenge was creating a unique selling point for the brand, since the product was based on existing technology. We had to get creative to help Epick Bikes stand out in the crowded market of bikes, but we were up for the challenge!

Q4: We totally agree. Uncovering the elusive “sweet spot” is essential for any business to stand out in a competitive market. Can you share with us how the Industrial Design team discovered a core appeal for the clients?

A4: We were impressed with Epick Bikes’ commitment to exceptional customer service, but felt that their unique value propositions — like their impressive range on a single charge (more than 100 km at a go!), and comfortable seats for all genders — were not apparent to potential customers. That’s when we knew that our team could make a real difference. Our goal was to create a strong visual identity to set them apart from the competition, and with our team’s expertise, we were able to do just that and give Epick Bikes the magnetic appeal they deserved.

Q5: How did you approach the project from an Industrial Designer’s perspective? What was the first initiative you took?

A5: We knew we needed to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty, so we began with user research that helped us understand the needs and pain points of the target audience– using methods like interviews, vendor visits, and even talking to on-field experts to get an inside look at what really revs users’ engines. To target our 20–30-year-old audience, we visited colleges and gyms, and checked out our competitors’ showrooms. We used various methods such as Experience Mapping, Perception Study, and Synesthetic Exercises to understand their emotional attachment to bikes and even their moods while riding. Finally, we spoke to retailers who sell e-bikes directly to consumers for retail and aggregator research. This gave us the insider scoop on what customers really want, so we could create a design that really spoke to them.

Q6: It seems like you had a treasure trove of information to work with. So how did you condense such copious research into one clear design direction?

A6: It was like making sense of a picture from a huge pile of puzzle pieces. First, we dumped out everything we had collected — research, recordings, interviews — and then we started sorting and clustering them together. We played detective and started connecting the dots until patterns emerged. We then extracted keywords from those patterns, and insights began to surface. With that, we had the foundation we needed to start shaping something tangible. Turns out people don’t want to ride something that looks like a Frankenbike with parts just thrown together. And guess what? Most electric bike brands out there don’t design their bikes in-house. They just grab a frame from this dealer, a headlight from that store, and voila, you have a new bike brand. But perhaps a more critical insight we got was that people wanted a unibody design — elegant and seamless.

Our primary research also showed that Indian customers have a preference for renewable batteries. So we checked that off. We also discovered how people perceive bikes in general, taking color and silhouette into consideration. And so we studied different silhouettes and discovered that most of Epick’s competitors followed a certain triangular form, for functional reasons, which made differentiation challenging. But with so many bikes looking the same, we had to ask ourselves — could we design our bike in a different way to create a unique identity? Epick was already interested in exploring die casting as a manufacturing process, which would allow us to bypass the traditional method of cutting and welding tubes together. This opened up the possibility of a fresh, unique form for Epick Bikes!

Q7: Your journey from research to critical insights is impressive! It’s amazing to learn how you harvested so much valuable information from the research. So did you guys nail an alternative form design for Epick Bikes? What did the creative process look like?

A7: Funny, we actually stumbled on some articles bemoaning the fact that all bicycles look the same. And it’s true, the traditional two triangle system has been so successful that few have dared to move away from it. Our team decided to shake things up and explore a new manufacturing method to break away from the mold. The tricky thing was finding a way to design the bike differently without the option of manufacturing again with our now preferred method (which was a lower hanging fruit). But after some iterations, we landed on a unique structure and design that worked like a charm — no ugly welded-joint finishes in sight! It also completely eliminates the central element dividing the triangular trusses, creating a really sleek and distinctive look that seems to say, “Who says bikes have to be boring?” And even better, the “Epick” team was on board!

Q8: That sounds almost magical! Studio Carbon really values co-creation. Could you tell us more about how you incorporated this into the Epick Bikes project?

A8: Absolutely. We believe that involving the client in the design process is crucial for creating a successful product. So we didn’t just ask them to fill out a boring survey. No, no. In order to align with Epick Bikes on the project, we conducted a series of workshops with them. For one, they were presented with a graphic scenario– we asked them to imagine conversations they would overhear at a café about Epick Bikes, and write it all down.

Q9: Sounds like a pretty fun process, and a unique approach to design. I bet the team felt like they were part of a top-secret operation with that “eavesdropping” exercise. Now, we really want to know what other exercises you carried out with them!

A9: Oh, we had a blast coming up with different scenarios. One interesting exercise we conducted was: we had them imagine spotting the bike parked somewhere at a crowded traffic signal, and we asked them how people were reacting to the bike. This was to gauge what kind of reaction they would want their customers to have upon seeing the bike. We also had them discuss what they would feel themselves if they were there. There was also the “persona” exercise– we asked them to describe Epick Bikes as a person, and they really got into it. One of our favorites was the “transfiguration” exercise to get a sense of their aesthetics. And let’s not forget the classic “toast and roast” exercise, where we asked them what people would applaud and criticize about Epick Bikes if it were a person walking into a room.

To top it off, we gave them a range of tunes to choose from — soft melodies, all the way to heavy metal — and asked them to pick the type of music they preferred to listen to while riding. We also had them consider the weather and terrain they were riding in. Did they want smooth jazz on a sunny day? Or were they more of a heavy metal headbanger on a mountain trail? Through this, we uncovered the fear that electric bikes might get damaged in the rain. All of these exercises helped us get a better understanding of Epick Bikes’ values, preferred identity, and personality, which in turn influenced our design decisions.

Q10: Wow, you really went all out with these exercises! It’s great to see such creative and unconventional methods being used to understand the vision and values behind Epick Bikes. Would you tell us what you did next after gathering and synthesizing all the information?

A10: Of course! Once we identified the common themes and keywords, we started building a design philosophy around them. We wanted to create a bike that would stand out in the market and have its own unique design language. So we identified key attributes that the client wanted, such as an aggressive Black Panther character. However, we also determined that people wanted a bike that was bold and commanding but not flashy and attention-seeking, and we translated these insights into a design philosophy of “progressive minimalism” which would combine boldness with subtlety.

With our design philosophy in place, we began sketching ideas and exploring the different animal inspirations we had, and translated their abstract forms into the bicycle frame, taking care to ensure that the details spoke for themselves. And then we created photographic renderings to visualize how our design ideas would look in different contexts, and presented about 6–8 concepts to the Epick team. They narrowed it down to their top 3 and we worked with an engineer to make sure that the final design could be implemented during production.

Q11: Wow! Who knew that bicycles could be so complex and nuanced? I’m half expecting to see a Black Panther at a crowded traffic stop, blasting heavy music now. But let’s be real, we’ve all seen bikes before — what sets this one apart in an Indian market?

A11: Glad you asked! We’ve designed a sleeker silhouette with seamlessly blending surfaces, usually reserved for high-end cycles. It’s a construction technique that sets us apart and makes us one of a kind in the Indian market. Also, most cycles in this market have retrofitted parts — you have a basic bicycle frame, and then you have a battery pack that is mounted on it, making it look like a transformed bike rather than an intentional e-bike. Epick Bikes are designed with such careful thought that even the huge battery packs are perfectly integrated with the frame — no jutting out, no awkward retrofitting. Once on it, the visual experience is nonpareil, as every touchpoint and viewpoint is different from a regular bike, making the ride unique.

But wait, there’s more! Most bikes on the Indian market have retrofitted lamps that also look like they’ve been added as an afterthought. But we have designed Epick lights to go all across the rim, giving it a signature look that is easily identifiable from a distance. The rims are also three spoke — very unique in the Indian market. We also understood that a critical functionality of lights is easy identification from far distances, which is key to safety. But why make the lights constant all the time? For Epick Bikes, the lights strobe intermittently to add to the visual appeal, and can also be switched to constant when needed.

Q12: Hmm, colour us impressed! You mentioned something about huge batteries, though. What’s the story behind them?

A12: Ah, the batteries. It is no easy feat to come up with a battery pack that could power bikes for 100+ kilometers without making it look like it was carrying around a bunch of cinder blocks. Now, we didn’t have complete control over the actual weight of the batteries– the team wasn’t quite ready to increase their costs in the name of revamping the already manufactured products. So we had to focus on the visual weight instead. We did a ton of research on how we could use contrast and lighting to reduce the visual weight. We also studied CMF (Color, Material, and Finish) like a bunch of science wizards and learned how to use contrast to draw the eye to the brighter parts of the bike, making it seem lighter and more dynamic. But it wasn’t just about making the battery pack look lighter. We also wanted it to look like a beautiful piece of tech on its own, even when removed from the bike. Imagine taking your battery out at a café, and it becomes a conversation starter — “Wow, what’s that cool gadget you’ve got there?” — we wanted that kind of effect.

Q13: Great thinking. And gee, don’t even get us started on perfect lighting, contrast and angles. Enough people struggle with their photos and makeup already. But, it’s fascinating to know how your team designed the bike with a similar mindset. What else can you tell us about the branding approach?

A13: More! Finding the perfect lighting and angles is a struggle we all know too well. But our team didn’t just stop at making bikes that look good in photos, we wanted bikes that would turn heads in real life too. So, we studied the color palettes and geometries of other cycle brands and found that most brands lacked a strong identity. Some of them have one too many colors in their wheels, and bikes from the same production companies would speak different languages. If you removed the logos from them, you couldn’t tell one from another. We didn’t want any of these for Epick Bikes, so we worked closely with our brand team to establish a bold and memorable color palette that would make our bikes stand out. We wanted our bikes to be like a superhero’s costume — instantly recognizable and iconic. And let me tell you, we weren’t just inspired by any old superheroes, we looked to the likes of BMW and Bugatti — brands that have managed to create a consistent brand outlook that transcends generations of car models. That is the kind of coherence– in every form and styling– that we wanted to achieve with the bikes. We didn’t want any bike that came out of Epick’s production line to be mistaken for anything else. We wanted an effortlessly identifiable brand. And with our unique design and attention to detail, we’re confident that we’ve created something truly special.

Q14: That’s brilliant. How did you go about that?

A14: With a deep dive into market research. At Studio Carbon, we know that for a brand to be successful, we need to position it strategically. So we took a look at the past and present market space to help us define the future of the brand. We called it our ‘Look Up’ research, where we deconstructed successful brands that share a similar vision to Epick Bikes. By learning from their successes and identifying appealing aspects, we were able to position Epick Bikes strategically in the market. We also did a Trend Study to stay ahead of the game and identify new opportunities and ideas for the brand. By analyzing global and micro trends, we were able to differentiate Epick Bikes in the market. So yes, it was a brilliant process, if we say so ourselves, and we’re proud of the work we did!

Q15: Wow. Designing a bike seems like quite the ride! What is one big takeaway the team experienced on this epic design journey?

A15: Great question! The big takeaway is that it is not over until it is really over. Our team faced a significant challenge in translating our sketches into a physical 3D model during the digital prototyping process. We had to make sure that the surface looked parallel from the side, tapered in a specific way from the cross-section, and had impeccably sculpted surfaces. We used CAD modeling, surface modeling, and Virtual Reality to achieve this level of precision, but kept referring back to VR to observe the flow of light over every surface — VR allowed us to have a 1:1 perception of the bike and tweak details if need be. Another challenge was widening the space between the pedals to fit the batteries without compromising the bike’s design. It was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, except with batteries and bike parts. After several iterations, we were able to arrange the battery cells to achieve the desired form. The result is a stunning bike that boasts a continuous curve running through the side and a top surface that tapers like a finely crafted sculpture.

Q16: How interesting! Are we glad that everything came together like a perfectly crafted piece of machinery in the end? How did the project wrap up?

A16: The team was ecstatic about the final design and the project ended with a feeling of triumph, fulfillment, and a sense of pride knowing that our contributions would make a positive impact on the cycling community. We left the team with some suggestions on innovative finishes that would take the bike to the next level. Electroluminescent paint that glows like a supernova when electricity is passed through it, making the bikes more visible during low-light conditions? Check. Reflective paint that would make the bikes visible from space? Check! Working with the Epick Bikes team was an absolute joy, and we’re so proud of what we achieved together. We’re already dreaming up new projects to tackle with our partners in the future. Stay tuned. There is more on the way.

Studio Carbon on Instagram: "Our foray into the World of Mobility #comingsoon2023 . . . . #mobilitydesign #productdesign #industrialdesign #electric #mobility #bicycle #design #cii #ciidesign #electricbike #epick #studiocarbon #awardwinning #winner"

The interview is done.

Leaving the room, we feel a twinge of sadness, like finishing a great book.

“What do you think of the interview?” I ask Riya. Riya and I are part of the Communication Design team at Studio Carbon and were especially delighted to have been asked to conduct this interview together. We both share this moment of quiet reflection, basking in the afterglow of our first conducted interview, and keeping away from the elephant in the room. (Or outside the room — we were headed to our own desks now).

“Can you believe we got to interview the amazing ID team? Their passion and dedication to every detail is remarkable,” she replies.

“I know, right?” I nod in agreement.

Awkward pause.

I raise an eyebrow, “What?”

“Mika, we have to write about it,” Riya chuckles.

“Oh, right. The part of the job we conveniently forgot about,” I laugh.

“How do we even begin to capture the essence of Epick Bikes and their incredible journey?”

I shrug, “I have no idea, but one thing’s for sure — we’re going to need a lot of coffee.”

Innovations in Mobility Design : the journey of e-pick to Epick. was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nexstem’s Wisdom SDK (web application) is a revolutionary app designed by Studio Carbon to make Brain-Computer Interfaces accessible. The SDK is an app built to create an interactive interface between Nexstem’s BCI headset(Also designed by Studio Carbon)and the user. With a lucid ‘no code’ workflow and playful interactions, the app empowers its users to tap into the limitless potential of EEGs (Electroencephalogram) & BCIs’.

The awe-inspiring nature of human thought was the inspiration for the visual language of the app for us. The application was designed with a vision of making complex BCI tools and workflows accessible to both experts & general public. The intuitive interface has democratized BCI capabilities making it possible for persons with major psychomotor or cognitive impairments to have empowered communications.

We took on the challenge of designing this UIX for Nexstem because we wanted to make a mark in the industry and explore new opportunities in the deep tech space. It was a thrilling project that pushed us to our limits, but we knew we could rise to the challenge. Designing for a future-centered innovation, we had to develop UIX principles that defied the norms of UIX design. It was a creative experience to see our ideas come to life in such an exquisite and innovative design.

From the Carbon way of UIX design, this project was realized through five major stages -

Creating the DASHBOARD — The dashboard design was all about creating all the basic functions necessary for the user to interact with the software. This included options such as login, account creation, and the ability to access the different sections of the application.

Refining VISUALIZATION — Once the dashboard wireframe was ready, we moved on to design how the user could visualize the signals of their own brain. Multiple points on the head were targeted with the headset electrodes that captured signals, and these brain signals were visualized in the form of linear graphs. Here, we also meticulously designed the experience that allowed the user to choose which parts of the brain they wanted to focus on. (see youtube video below).

Designing the EXPERIMENTS — Once the dashboard was completely visualized we designed a functionality in it that allowed users to design their own experiments and see how their brain reacts to them. So now you could study your brain patterns during simple activities like listening to music or more complex activities like solving puzzles.

Processing the ALGORITHMS — Once the brain data was captured and visualised, it needed to be processed using algorithms to create meaningful data. We designed this section of the application to be iterative for the user, allowing them to experiment with different algorithms and see how it affects their brain data.

Allowing for DEPLOYMENT — And for the final leg of UI functionality, we designed an insight interface that processed the brain data and allowed the user to decode their signals. This meant users could decipher how they were feeling during the activity or even use it to connect with other applications that used BCI technology.

In the end, we had designed a dashboard that was one of its kind. And it does not end here. We designed additional features into it, such as the status of the headset and related information that the user might need to know about the physical product.

During the design process, we initially experimented with Visual Scripting which offered a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface to write code. However, we soon realized that it wasn’t suitable for our final design and we needed a more efficient approach. After some brainstorming, we hit the jackpot with the One to One mapping technique! With this technique, we were able to significantly reduce the cognitive load for the user. It was a win-win situation as it not only simplified the coding process but also enhanced the user experience.

In the end the Wisdom app had a fresh look and the Nexstem brand design(also done by Studio Carbon) played a big role in that. The brand our team had designed for Nexstem was all about enabling BCI to tap into the power of the human brain. A brand narrative that believed that technology is a powerful tool that can help us tap into our most human qualities — our emotions, our creativity, and our intellect.

And even though at first the project timeline of 18 months seemed ambitious, we were able to innovate our way through the process and complete the designs in just 12 months. And our biggest reward in this project came from seeing the Nexstem team develop the Wisdom app, keeping the sanctity of its design down to the last pixel. It’s was like watching a caterpillar transform into a butterfly — a metamorphosis that’s both awe-inspiring and energising.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ClqoPDaN0XZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Our approach to the Wisdom App design has defined a sector shift, setting new standards for UIX design. The ideas we brought to the table were beyond what the market was capable of, and we’re proud to have raised the bar. The design itself was an exquisite piece of work that matched the level of innovation and creativity that Nexstem is known for.

Beyond Nexstem : decoding the UIX was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Over the centuries, humanity has evolved socially and biologically as a response to its environment. It is clear that creating a healthy environment, that is good for our social, mental and emotional growth is vital for the sake of our evolution as a species. It is this crucial parameter that promotes healthy functioning societies thriving with logic as well as empathy.

With this in mind, two members of our team at Studio Carbon– Itika Gupta and Manikanta Polisetti, ventured out to understand the Refugee problem back in 2018, and to make a positive change; forces of relief in the folds of a crisis. Their study unraveled many threads, with which we worked to stitch together the base fabric of a solution to wrap around this crisis, and to foster a warm and snuggly sense of belonging and community among the peoples of the world — refugees, and non-refugees alike.

As felt by the world

The refugee crisis, affecting 65 million people globally, is a pressing issue caused by conflict and persecution. It strains host communities, who must provide shelter, food, and other basic necessities for the newcomers. But more scary than straining resources around the world, this humanitarian ciris has also resulted in a rise in xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment. The refugees, who flee to safety and a better life, face exploitation, discrimination, and constant fear. Their desperate circumstances call for compassion and support, not hostility. Their stories are a sobering reminder of the reality of those forced to flee their homes and the urgent need for a more just and equitable world.

As felt by a refugee

Migration is not a new phenomenon; it has been responsible for opening up global trade and providing an opportunity for cultural exchange and knowledge sharing among communities. However, for refugees, the experience of migration is so sudden and life-changing, that it can be challenging and difficult. They wake up every day trying to make ends meet, manage housing and healthcare, and balance work and family life in a new and foreign location. The displacement from their homes often leads to social isolation and loss of community.

Many refugees come from difficult circumstances, including trauma and violence, and adjusting to a new culture and environment can be a daunting task, especially for those who struggle to adapt to different customs and beliefs. In addition, practical challenges add to their difficulties, such as cramped living conditions in refugee camps with limited resources, unreliable electricity, limited internet access, and limited food.

Step into the shoes of a refugee. What does it mean to be called a refugee? Before this, you were a human being with hopes, dreams, and aspirations, just like everyone else. You know that there is more to you than just living out your life as a passive victim. You are capable and resilient and can contribute greatly to society if given the opportunity.

Under what circumstances might you thrive in the unimaginably tough climate of socio-cultural misalignment, and limitless challenges in your new land?

The focus

The Syrian conflict has caused millions of individuals to be displaced globally, with over half a million refugees in Zaatari alone. These individuals face abrupt disruption in their lives and struggle to integrate into society. The population in refugee camps continues to grow, leading to a lack of opportunities for independence and community engagement for refugees in host countries. This brings forth the rise of social inequity and lack of factors providing liveability for the refugees.

Designers Itika and Manikanta chose to focus on Syrian refugees in the Zaatari camp with the goal of providing a solution that promotes economic independence and inclusion, without adding additional stress to the host community.

First Phase

Plunging into Research

Designing for refugees is a complex task that requires the understanding of their needs, preferences, and cultural backgrounds. Itika and Manikanta approached the task comprehensively by conducting thorough secondary research, exploring the impact of environment, culture, health, economy, and technology on mass migration around the world. They gathered observations from various sources, including films and research papers, and focused on Syrian refugees in Jordan’s Zaatari camps and other user groups. Their research resulted in a design brief that centered on a specific problem.

“The land in this city had become so scarce that there was no longer any place for locals to bury their dead, as per tradition. The locals, therefore, use burners, even today, for cremation. The rich in Israel are also said to book available land plots for their family members. Others from around the world would buy pieces of land in advance, in order to be buried in their homeland (or ‘promised land’) post-death. This underscores the economic burden of having a sizable number of refugees in a host country.”

Following this, the two designers followed Eritrean refugees and immersed themselves in their experiences. They participated in English language lessons and studied with them, and then traveled to Palestine where they learned from local schools and listened to stories from citizens. This allowed them to gain a firsthand understanding of the refugee crisis, understand the refugees’ habits, behaviors, and narratives.

With the need for continued exploration, they further delved deeper into the problem statement with greater and greater vigor and enriched their understanding by conducting user interviews with many people in shops, streets, and other public places.

This time around, they sought responses to what different generations in Israel thought it meant to Belong to a Land.

After conducting a 6-hour social experiment, it was clear that comprehensive, creative, and innovative research can help to gain a deeper understanding of complex problems. The experiment aimed to gather information from the community using an unobtrusive approach, and was successful in attracting responses from all age groups, fostering open and meaningful conversations. The participants, including refugees and locals, felt comfortable expressing themselves honestly with the tools provided.

Itika and Manikanta synthesised the information they gathered and identified the most critical problems that refugees face after migrating to a new country. Their synthesis revealed top three challenges — communication, employability, and integration into the local community.

The synthesis also revealed two promising directions that could be pursued as opportunities for societal integration of refugees. These were — Food and Language.

1. Food

Everyone loves food! Food brings people together, creating opportunities for connection and conversation, and also making refugees feel more welcomed in their new homes, easing their cultural transition. This helps them break down barriers and integrate into their new communities. The team identified food as a solution to offset social isolation for refugees, through shared experiences of food design.

The team hypothesised that, a community kitchen designed for refugees, can provide a space for them to cook traditional meals, and would be an effective design solution. This allows refugees to feel more comfortable and connected with their new surroundings, while also giving them a chance to share their culture with others. Food design solutions like “food exchange programs” or “open food fairs”, that represent both local and refugee dishes, can help foster unity, intercultural understanding, and socioeconomic independence for both locals and refugees. Itika and Manikanta ideated on food design solutions through which unity can be weaved into a society’s fabric, as people get an opportunity to taste from and learn about different cultures.

We came across a project, that even today is providing communal cooking facilities for refugees in Germany. The project, called Kochtopf (German for “cooking pot”), is run by a team of chefs, designers, and volunteers. It provides a safe space for refugees to cook their own meals and share their culture with others. Kochtopf is just one example of how food design solutions can help refugees feel more connected with their new community. By creating communal spaces for cooking and eating, these solutions can help reduce social isolation.

Food is often more than just sustenance; it’s a medium for communities to connect and communicate. This was evident from a food experiment that was conducted in our camp. By taking up food as an aspect of connecting people, a sense of camaraderie and community began to develop. It was a very useful way to build connections and foster understanding between different groups of people.

2. Language

The refugee population presents numerous challenges for the host country, including potential cultural clashes. One of the biggest challenges faced by refugees is language barriers, which can result in isolation and difficulty performing everyday tasks such as finding food and shelter. The research showed that language barriers also make refugees unemployable, leading to dependence on local resources set aside for their care. Language proficiency offers refugees economic opportunities and can help them become assets to the host country by contributing to its economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Once refugees learn the local language, they can become financially independent, turning a difficult and traumatizing situation into a mutually beneficial relationship between both parties. Language learning was therefore identified as the most critical skill for displaced refugees to regain control of their lives, and a solution was needed to focus on this. Thus, a new problem statement emerged.

How might we design a product that helps Syrian refugees learn the English Language quickly and integrate into the host country’s community and workforce?

The big question

The realization that language was a major barrier for refugees in integrating into a new culture and society was not enough. Given the trauma of leaving their homes and countries amidst a crisis, it became apparent to our designers that acquiring new, fundamental skills like learning a new language seemed nearly impossible for adult refugees. The question then became, “How can they learn?”.

Second Phase

Language learning tools

The product design research on language learning tools for refugees began with a thorough examination of existing resources such as apps, bear-like toys, apps that blind people use to “borrow the eyes”, and quick-learning techniques used by nomads. Itika and Manikanta aimed to gain a comprehensive understanding of language learning triggers and methods.

Ideation

The image below shows the vast ideation and brainstorm process that the designers undertook to create language learning tools.

After this, they researched and analyzed the two scripts that were relevant for their primary users (Syrian Refugees) in Canada and Europe. This was conducted as a one-to-one comparison between the alphabets in the Arabic language and the English language to identify commonalities and differences between the both.

A crowdsourced list of the top 300 English words was also compiled. The words in this collection included nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions and pronouns — making it a complete dictionary for the construction of sentences in English.

The Light-Bulb Moment

At the end of their detailed exploratory research and ideation process, an amazing idea lit up. Itika and Manikanta figured out that the Arabic game of Backgammon could be reinvented to teach Syrian adults how to communicate in the English language.

Key points that make this possible -

• The game consists of multiple components — board, coins and dice to aid the redesign as language tools.
• The game has a metaphor that depicts reaching “Home” for Syrians.
• The game can be played by people of all age groups and genders.
• It is a game Syrians already know, and is deeply embedded in their culture.
• Its strategy of play is personalized by each individual, allowing each player to learn the English language through their own unique strategy.

Design Details

The modified backgammon board includes sliders for essential conjunctions, subjects, and objects. They were made using English words written in Arabic alphabets, and can be modified by players as their English proficiency improves. The board was also designed in the color yellow, for better memory retention and focus.

Following this, customized backgammon coins that can accommodate visual flash-cards of subjects were created. These flashcards were designed with an icon + arabic name of the subject + its English word, in arabic. As a player moves the coin on the board, they combine its subject with conjunctions on the board to frame a question for their opponent.

To ensure that each player moved a limited number of steps on the board to frame a short sentence in English, the designers reduced the markers on the dice from the regular 1–6 to 1–3.

Testing and Adoption

The newly designed game was tested with participants from the target group, and received great feedback. Players not only found the game to be engaging, but also informative.

Conclusion

The food experiment showed that even in difficult circumstances, food can be a powerful tool for bringing people together and creating a sense of belonging. It was a reminder that even in the darkest of times, humanity’s ability to connect and empathize through the medium of food is a powerful force for good. Food became a medium to not just sustain the body but also to nourish the soul, and bring comfort to those who had lost everything. It was an emotional and profound experience for everyone involved, and it highlighted the importance of food and community in the face of hardship.

Similarly, we realised how games could be a powerful tool for promoting empathy, understanding, and connection between refugees and the rest of society. By designing games that give voice to the refugee experience and foster communication and understanding, we could play a small but meaningful role in addressing this ongoing crisis.

With these solutions in place, the result showed that refugees could unlock their potential, becoming independent migrants instead of helpless victims. The project showed us a hope that we could reduce hostility and foster interconnectivity, enabling a more receptive environment irrespective of differences. Through our efforts, we could encourage the embracing of shared mutual interests. Using design as an instrument of societal integration, we found out how social isolation can be reduced drastically, while refugees struggle to rebuild their lives. We also managed to find a way to empower the refugees with financial independence, thus giving them a huge confidence boost.

The refugee crisis is a humanitarian issue that requires immediate attention and action. As designers, we have a unique opportunity to use our skills and systems thinking, to create solutions that can help refugees communicate their needs and integrate into their host communities.

Ultimately a great deal remains unknown about how we can collectively thread the human tapestry together, by managing international displacement on international levels. However, an immense leap forward may can be taken in the right direction, provided solutions such as these are implemented well in the society.

Finding Home was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Amongst the vast void of space, the Andromeda galaxy looked at the Milky Way. “Nothing going on there,” it scoffed. But somewhere, hidden behind the screen of cosmic dust and energy, there exist some groups of atoms that possess the ability to breathe — humans, animals, plants and microbes, unseen and unperturbed on a small planet in space.

Everything in nature, from gigantic stars to tiny dust particles is made up of the same building blocks — atoms. Some of these atoms work together, and possess the ability to sustain life. Some just stick together and create lifeless matter.

If these two are made up of the same fundamental blocks, how then, do we really differentiate between the living and the non-living?

One might say that living things age. But so do objects! Inventor Charles S Becker defined ageing as the changes that occur in an individual due to the passage of time. Over the years, objects change physically just like us humans. They experience ageing as well.

One might say that living things respond to external stimuli. But don’t objects too? They react to the breeze on a windy day, the rays of sunlight on a hot summer morning, they withstand scorching heat, battering rains and stormy gales. They are prone to damage too. Behind each bruise, crack, dent, loose screw, dangling wire and every broken light, there is a story. A worn out switch in your house tells that it has been used more than others. The scratch on your plate reminds you of the one time you used it as a cutting board.

Now one might get irritated and say that this isn’t even a debate! Living things just, live! They are born and they eventually die! They live a life! Surely non-living objects don’t.

Let’s try to imagine the journey a typical object might have undertaken in their “life”.

Stu was a watch born in a faraway factory, intricately pieced together by precise machines or hands. He was then shipped over large distances, suffocating in his box, fighting for a peek into the outside world and feeling dizzy as the shipment was transferred from point to point. As he reached the final stop, Stu was placed carefully in a showcase, basking in the fluorescent store lights. Month after month, customer after customer, he was admired a lot, but never picked. Finally a willing buyer came across and got him.

For years, Stu had the time of his life. He got to visit so many places around the world as his wearer’s companion, meeting other watches, and doing his duty of always showing the correct time. He also saw many weathers and experienced many scratches, each with a tale of its own. Eventually, the owner found another beautiful watch, and Stu was relegated to a drawer to live out his final days. As the final few ticks of his hands neared, he reflected on his journey. It was not always great, but it was definitely fulfilling. With a final click, the battery died out, and so did Stu.

If we think about it, each object lives a full life. Some are short lived, some last centuries. But they all are born from nature, living their lives, until they inevitably disintegrate back into nature. It’s a life as any other living life, with all its ups and downs, memories and experiences.

What does this make objects? Are they just an inanimate, impassive, sized-up or sized-down version of humans? Are they lifeless life?

One might start feeling lost, before finally declaring, “Living things have consciousness! We are aware and we can act with choice.” Yes, we do have consciousness. We do make choices. Even a plant can decide to sacrifice a few leaves so as to use its resources better. And this is the one thing that truly might differentiate the living and the non-living objects. We can act on our own volition. Objects only receive.

This differentiator has been instrumental in how we perceive objects and their place in the natural hierarchy of things. In an objective way, an object only has physical attributes. They can’t feel or think. This line of thought dismisses objects as just a construct designed to serve us. A way to bolster our inflated image of self. A means to establish our social status. “Oppresees” to their human oppressors.

Our association with objects dates back to the very inception of mankind. As Benjamin Franklin aptly put it, “Man is a tool-making animal.” While we might bear some resemblance to our ancestors, it was our tool-making abilities that set us apart from them. Man invented tools to make life easier. It helped us create the means to cut, chisel and grind, the weapons to hunt and protect, and even trinkets to cherish and decorate. But as technology progressed along with our population and needs, so did our objects. We made so many of them that we let their value go unrecognised.

The shift in our psychology of use and possession of objects has been dramatic. In the past, people had fewer objects. Some handed down over generations, some handcrafted with skill and finesse, but all valued dearly. Handmade goods, however pricey, were uncommon and largely revered, with their flaws embraced as “one-of-a-kind”.

The Industrial Revolution stripped away the very quality that made objects novel. With the advent of machines, we absorbed cheap, readily available, identical, mass-produced items, giving way to a wave of surplus. Ironically, the word “manufacture” was derived from “manus” meaning “hand” and “factus” meaning “to make”. But with the dawn of automation, “manufacturing” has mostly been associated with mechanised mass production.

The way we treat our objects tells us how much we value them. Smacking our phones and remotes in a fit of rage has become second nature to us. We discard old objects the moment a new one catches our eye. We use and throw single use objects without giving a thought to how miserable their short lives would be.

Today, when you hear the phrase “Objectification”, you quickly associate it with wrongdoing, unjust behaviour and unfair prejudice. You associate it with disrespect. Maybe because the way we treat our objects is just so contemptuous, we cannot imagine treating a living being that way.

But while objectification has developed a negative connotation, its counterpart, personification, is still seen as a positive attribute. If you look closely, there is a subconscious hierarchy that we believe in. We put ourselves above objects. Living above the non-living. It’s no surprise then, that objects are treated with such disregard. We use them, throw them, replace them, forget them without a second thought.

But what if we could redefine our relationship with objects? What if we could feel for them?

Previously, when you read through the story of Stu, you might have felt an instant pang of sympathy for the watch. A sense of compassion and fondness. You could imagine how the watch might’ve felt, while in reality, the lifeless watch didn’t feel anything at all! It’s because we aren’t really alienated towards the idea of showing empathy towards objects.

Anthropomorphism has been used for many years as a means to connect with inanimate objects. Simply put, it is the attribution of human characteristics or behaviours to non-human entities. We develop this attitude early in childhood and it persists till adulthood. Although people look down upon it as they grow up, dismissing it as childish, the subconscious mind never stops anthropomorphising.

Let’s take the case of Opportunity, NASA’ s Mars Rover Mission that landed on the Martian surface in January 2004. Opportunity set out to probe (and later confirmed) if some elements of life may have once existed on the Red Planet. It was one of the most capable rovers ever sent to Mars. The mission was to originally last three months but Opportunity, exceeding everyone’s expectations, ended up staying on the job for a whopping 15 years.

It collected bits and bytes of information while scouring uneven terrains, climbing high mountains and battling windy storms. “Oppy”, as scientists fondly addressed “her”, rolled over Mars for 28 miles, transmitted 217,594 images in her 5498 day journey.

Oppy “breathed” her last, in the June of 2018; in a suffocating dust storm. She bid adieu with the last image, of a dark world, masked in dust, and a final coded message that was paraphrased as: “My battery is low and it’s getting dark.”

“This is a hard day,” Opportunity’s project manager, John Callas, told reporters. “Even though it’s a machine and we’re saying goodbye, it’s still very hard and very poignant.”

“Opportunity was kind of like a family member and this last message was sad, but I knew it had a great life”, Carleton Bailie, a photographer who covered the mission for Boeing told SpaceFlight.

What made Opportunity different from everyday objects? In the crudest sense, it was just a mound of metal sheets bolted together, fixed with wires and lights — a robotic geologist. But her 350 million miles journey, 15 years of service and her last words said otherwise. She lived a full life. She amassed adoration from the scientific and non — scientific community alike. She had a story that people related to and empathized with.

Stories give objects a soul. It makes us associate sentiments and emotions with them. They become an integral part of our identity, and when they are gone, we mourn the loss like we lost a piece of us. We talk of it as fondly as we’d reminisce about a deceased loved one.

Anthropomorphism gives us a way of seeing things from the perspective of an object. A lens through which we can see the similarities we share. It helps us understand that the idea of being is not limited to bodies and minds.

We have been personifying objects since our childhood. The toys we played with didn’t really have feelings, thoughts or the ability to speak out. But we used our imagination to bring them to life. As we grew older, objects became signifiers of a distant memory — an heirloom, a gift or a souvenir. They became an archive of stories and emotions. Idiosyncratic, memory retrieval devices. An authentic, tactile gateway to nostalgia in this increasingly digital world.

If personifying an object can make us care for it and respect it more, adding to its perceived value, then it can be used as a potent tool for changing the way we see all objects. It can help us see that all things, living or non-living, handmade or mechanised, old or new, deserve equal care, love and respect.

The over-abundant availability of objects around us has given rise to a “throw-away culture”. We are taking objects more and more for granted. Instead of treasuring a few essential things, we are hoarding more and throwing away many more after a single use. This has led to what we now know is an unsustainable way of living with nature.

We are the victims of our own crimes. Single-use cutlery was born out of the need for convenient and portable dining. But that convenience came at a cost. Billions of forks, spoons that facilitate us in eating, end up corrupting water bodies. Such objects take ages to break down and complete their life cycle, causing enough harm to the environment in the process.

Learning to care for objects can be a very smart approach to tackling the environment crisis. With judicious use and re-use of objects, we can decelerate the environmental decay. For example, single-use cutlery has a shorter life span than its metal counterparts. If we start carrying our own cutlery, we not only get a treasured set of meal companions, but also reduce the load on our immediate environment in the process. Similarly, if we extend this approach to other things we use daily, we can have a much better connection with not just our objects, but also the environment.

As designers, we put a lot of thought into how we want a product to look and feel, and how we want users to perceive it. We hope it provides the appropriate logical, emotional, visceral and spiritual experience we intend to create. We want our product to speak to the user.

Interacting with objects goes beyond their form and function. It activates an implicit tacit connection. Such connections are just as meaningful as human relationships, as we saw with Oppy.

They lead us to cherish our objects, care for them and value them even more than their functionality or price. We would be unlikely to exchange an object with an emotional connection with something else of an equal or even greater value. Like the transistor radio that your mother cherishes or the watch that your grandfather so dearly passed on to your father, who will one day give it to you.

We have taken for granted the very tools and objects that have helped us reach the level of progress we enjoy today. In our insatiable desire to hoard, possess and dominate, we forgot to value and respect everything around us, living or not. But in our closely interconnected world, it is important to realize the obscure effects of how we treat everything around us. It is important to understand how our lack of care for banal everyday objects has led to the biggest impending repercussion the world has faced yet.

As humans, we are oblivious to the atoms that move in and make up everything we touch. We put ourselves on a pedestal because we think and feel. Because we can act. But the same attributes that make us different from objects can also help us empathize with them. The onus of respecting every thing falls on us. Empathy is a fundamental principle. It can be applied to humans and objects alike.

Some objects have short lifespans, but others live long enough to become silent, comforting companions who can add value to our lives beyond their function. Let’s try seeing things for what they are, treating everything with respect, living or not.

Let’s start by humanizing more objects.

Of Objects and People was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Ship of Theseus is an age-old thought experiment first initiated by Greek philosophers who asked tough existential questions about the identity of beings.

The paradox asks: If the ship of Theseus was kept at a harbour and every part on it were replaced one at a time, would it then be a new ship? If the outcome was not the same ship, then at what point did it stop being the ship of Theseus? If the outcome was indeed the same ship, could all the removed pieces, if reassembled to form a ship still be the ship of Theseus?

In this article, we attempt to navigate these perplexing waters through the perspective of the ship herself, as she tries to convince the world, as well as herself, that she is in fact herself.

Far at sea, a ship’s tired sails beat about in the chilly wind. Her sides have been stripped of colour by the incessant slapping of water, and her figurehead lowers itself in a bow. She must be a thousand miles away from land. Rudder, hull and mast all seem to move together — toiling against the splitting waves and ripping tides. And as the fading light casts a mirthless shadow over her, she is submerged into a bubble of silence and lets her lone thoughts roam freely:

“Theseus,” she mutters to herself, “I am The Ship of Theseus.”

For many nights since she left the coast of Athens, she has muttered these words to herself as if there were something false in them waiting to be found. Yet she knew it, as every member from keel to mast knew it, over the course of a thousand years, every individual part that made her a whole has been replaced with newer parts. It did not all happen at once, but the cabin walls have seen more voyages than the quarterdeck; 3 gunports have sailed only 50 times; and new shrouds were installed only yesterday.

Before setting sail, a rumour had drifted to her ears: all of her original parts that were replaced were to be assembled again soon, into another ship. This made her uncomfortable, and she was perturbed by the idea. What would that ship be? Who would it be? Will it be called the ‘original’ ship of Theseus? Would it be her mother? Child? Would it be a replica of her own identity in a different place, from a different time? These thoughts gnawed at her, took root and began to grow.

Can an identity exist simultaneously in two different entities? Which one would be the true identity? The one that came first? Or the one that seemed more authentic to the majority of believers? When an amoeba splits into two identical organisms, which is the mother and which is the offspring? Could one’s identity truly be stolen?

As the ship sails through her thoughts and the forlorn sea, the saltwater abruptly stops lapping at her sides, and for a moment, the silence grows as if the wind has emptied himself. She looks about. The quiet is almost crushing like some ominous presence were leaning into her.

Her sails droop, and there is a long pause. Within the unfamiliar silence, she senses a familiar presence — the wind. She smiles her wooden smile.

Just then, with an angry gust, the wind’s steely voice rises through the quiet and cuts across her sails: “WHO GOES THERE?”

Sure enough, she turns around to find the wind, his eyes like fuming thick black smoke. Surprised by the rather cold reception, she speaks up, “It is me! The Ship of Theseus!”

“LIAR!”

Taken aback by the unexpected accusation, the ship narrows her sails.

The wind goes on: “You are NOT the Ship of Theseus! You are an imposter! A poser! I have known her for a thousand years and travelled long and far on countless voyages. How dare you say her name and claim her identity?!”

She regards her battered sails, unfazed by his outburst, and lifts her lids to meet him squarely in the eyes. “Wind! How could you say that? I am the same ship with whom you travelled to Crete and back! We have been on so many adventures together on the Aegean Seas! We have accompanied Theseus and helped him defeat innumerable foes. The Athenians still keep me as a memorial of his legend. I am still the same! Why don’t you see that?”

“But I do see! The foremast is different, and so is the rudder. The hull is painted blue instead of red. Every single plank that has ever been on adventures with me is gone, replaced by foreign, unfamiliar parts. You look nothing like the ship I knew!”

The ship was calm. But she was starting to feel the frustration.

“So if a ship has changed in appearance over the years, especially because of life-changing experiences, does that erase her identity? In the process of changing my parts, at what point did I stop becoming the ship that you knew? Am I defined more by what I am made of, rather than what makes me? Do my memories and experiences count for nothing?”

“You are different because nothing of you remains of the old ship!”

“BUT I AM THAT SHIP!” she protests.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man” — Heraclitus.

“Turn back!” he growls at her. He will not let this imposter get past him. “Let me pass!” she cries.

The wind has set himself strongly against the ship, howling with fury. The sea crashes in on them, crackling with thunderbolts, and her internal turmoil fights against his roaring temper as she jostles at the mercy of big waves. Then her eyes peel away their rage as she vibrates with fresh ideas:

“You’ve grown violent!” she heaves.

“I am peaceful. But I will not let you smear the name of Theseus.”

“Yet many-a sailor would have different things to say about you. A different version of us exists simultaneously in the minds of everyone. Which of them is really you?”

His eyes betray his doubt. “We are not the stuff that abides, but the patterns that perpetuate themselves,” he quotes matter-of-factly.

“Yet the patterns that manifested through me all those years ago are the only versions of me you are familiar with. Everyone changes. You cannot dismiss my identity based on only one version of it!” she replies.

A swarm of question marks buzzes about the wind’s head and his fumes blow furiously — but he is as smart as he is unbending.

“You are wise,” he remarks. Then snarls, “However, you are not the result of the changes over time. Every time you shift away from the original, you become a different being. You are a completely different species: a jury-rigged solution to cover up my ship’s demise.”

She takes no slight with the insult, perceiving that he is not very convinced, himself. With a renewed confidence, she states to the wind -

“I have always been becoming what I am right now.”

If everyone changes over time, what is left that embodies you? We think of ourselves as static in our patterns. But are we mere dynamic vessels of our destinies? An old friend who drifted away will have a completely different version of you in his/her mind. So will everyone in your life. Which one is truly you? If your version of yourself is different from the majority, does that become your true identity?

“Perhaps permanence is a human concept. But nothing is permanent. Everything is constantly changing. Even right now,” she insists, with persuading eyes. His brows are furrowed, as he punctuates the atmosphere with his eyes. She has felt the strength in his folds. A fatal blow from him could smash her to pieces.

She continues, “We are constantly evolving with new knowledge and experiences. I did not arrive at who I am today overnight, but with a gradual process of learning and reforming, over the years.” She sucks in her breath, “I AM the ship of Theseus.”

Bracing herself, she matches his stare with strong-will, every atom of her being hanging on his next move. For a long moment, nothing happens save his belligerent thrashing. And then the temper leaves his eyes as the fumes clear away and he billows calmly. The sea sloshes against her, eager to quiet down.

“Go,” says the wind, and his turbulent clouds retreat into himself, leaving a still and quiet sea once again.

With a relieved breath of thanks, she pulls her weight forward and all her members start working together again. Although they were all new and foreign, this was their collective reality, and they believed it. That was all that mattered.

The wind watches her as she passes through, still unsure of her, but convinced just enough. Maybe there is a part of his friend still in her, beyond the figurehead and beneath the planks. Maybe he has changed too. Just slower than she. “Bye, friend,” says the wind, as he bids her farewell with a gust that fills her sails.

The ship cruises on into the horizon. She is content, but uncertain. She managed to convince the wind, but what about her conscience? Has she really changed so much? Become a new being altogether? Who is she now, after all these years?

“Theseus,” she mutters to herself, “I am The Ship of Theseus.” This time, more as a reassurance, than a proclamation.

Change is easily noticed when it is all at once. But what about gradual change? Do we accept someone’s identity if we get to see every little change of theirs, slowly? And what if the change is sudden? For example, do we still retain our complete identities when we receive organ donations?

Over the years, the Ship of Theseus’ paradox has given rise to countless interesting questions about our concept of “self”. Even the fundamental question about what makes us “US” gives rise to profound scenarios:

Does our body really encompass our identity? Research shows that every single cell in our body is replaced in a span of 7 years. Does that mean that we are reborn every 7 years? In such a scenario, do life sentences make sense? Are we still human if we replace our body parts with bionic ones?

Is it our mind that determines who we are? If our memories are erased, does a part of us die? Conversely, if our memories are backed up, will we ever die? If we upload our brain data into the virtual world, do we exist in two places at once?

Or does our soul constitute us? If you renovate your entire house, are you still living in the same house? Or are you moving into a new one? How much repair should be done to your car to say that you have a new one? If we start piecing together ourselves, part by part, at what point do we become ourselves?

There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. Maybe we are who we are right now and right here. Maybe we are all the things we ever were and ever will be. The thought experiment has fascinated scholars and non-scholars alike for centuries, and as we step into a digital world, it will continue to garner attention and spark debates.

Maybe the Ship of Theseus is just a metaphor for the collective consciousness of humanity. Over the years, we have been completely replaced by newer generations. We may not retain the cultures, ideologies, and values of our ancestors, but maybe, we do carry forward some parts from the past. A part, that still keeps us human?

Lost at Sea was originally published in Through the Carbon Lens on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.