Get creative with our activity sheets

We’ve scoured our archive of heritage tiles and turned four of them into easy activity sheets. Download this set of 4 patterns from Tiling Bombay, print them out and get colouring! You can use any medium you have available – colour pencils, watercolours, sketch pens, inks, anything that sticks to paper.

Each sheet is sized to fit on a standard A4 printer paper. You could even trace the design out onto something fancier like cloth or canvas. The included colour guide of the tile is a useful reference but you could try any combination that strikes your fancy. You might even invent a new pattern!

We’d love to see how your tiling sheet turns out. Post it to instagram and tag us @storycityindia

Click the links below to download your activity sheets. (JPEG format)

1. Tile pattern from Elphinstone College

2. Tile pattern from Mumbai University, Library Building

3. Tile pattern from Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue

4. Tile pattern from Khadi Bhandar’s store in Fort

A conversation with Kedar Nimkar on Audiogyan

Ever wondered what goes into one of our Storycity publications? Earlier this month our editor Ruchita spoke to Audiogyan podcasts about the process of design, research and interpretation for Storycity.

An excerpt:

The decision to include a place or to include one story out of the 50 stories about that place is our decision, and our decision entirely. In that sense, map making is a very personal exercise – it is a very subjective exercise – but it can also be a subversive exercise because we may choose to tell you a story about a place that you may have seen and you think know, but we will tell you something you didn’t know about it. Sometimes we are trying to kind of shift your understanding of that place a little bit to help you see something different, but also to create a new narrative about that placed that may not have existed before.

Audiogyan is India’s leading podcast design, art and philosophy and they have featured some of our favourite designers, architects, illustrators, teachers, typographers and heritage professionals in India today.

Log on to their website or listen to the podcast on your favourite platform.

Children To Go On Nature's Trail in Mumbai

There’s nothing better than knowing that our work at Storycity reaches young people. And it’s even better when we get to do in local languages and make our publications even more accessible.

Earlier this year Kahani was commissioned by CMI FPE – A global engineering company – to produce and publish On Nature’s Trail in Mumbai for schools that they support in their neighbourhood. The aim was to introduce children to unique ways of engaging with environmental issues in an exploratory way. By publishing in Hindi and Marathi, the children could take the maps home and follow the trails with their families, learning and discussing in their mother tongue.

Our team took up the task of re-writing the map for a middle-school audience and creating translations into Hindi and Marathi. It sounds simple, but it takes a huge amount of attention and care to produce the same quality across languages. Nevertheless, we very pleased with the outcome especially since we were able to print these on recycled paper. The feedback has been so positive that we’re raring to produce more guides for kids.

Got an idea you’d like to commission? Talk to us on storycity@kahanidesignworks.com

Out in the City: Oddly Enough No. 2

Imagined as cross-disciplinary conversations, the Oddly Enough series of events by our friends at Paper Planes brings together creative and curious people of all persuasions. Our Editor Ruchita Madhok was invited to be part of one such unusual gathering on June 8th along with architect Sameep Padora, photographer Chirodeep Chaudhuri and designer Ayaz Basrai.

A note from Paper Planes on the theme for the day:

With Oddly Enough, we’re gathering to celebrate design in our everyday lives. This is design that’s all around us — often invisible, but always influential. We’re delving into the ways it shapes our daily interactions.

Take, for instance, our cities. These are our spaces. Stepping out of our homes, it’s where we navigate roads, saunter in parks, take cover under trees, and rush in and out of buildings. As historical hotspots as well as modern-day machines, our cities are also full of secret treasures. Sometimes, these can be found by paying attention to the details around us. Other times, it’s stepping in to see what you can do — whether that’s participating in local initiatives, making the most of your neighbourhood or even just spending time out in the open.

With Oddly Enough Nº2, in association with G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture, we’re observing our cities. How can we make our cities not only more efficient but also more engaging? How do public spaces affect us subconsciously? How does design make our cities friendlier? Join us as we examine our lives in the city and look at how design can enrich our experiences.

Needless to say, it was a great experience with some vibrant exchanges and lots of provocative questions. In the other speakers own projects we discovered their loves for the city, its resilience and its fragility. We’re definitely taking forward some of these ideas in our research. And who knows - in a collaboration or two!

* Psst…Paper Planes stocks all our publications and they ship all over India!

Storycity turns 5!

It’s International Museums Day today! And five years ago today, we launched our Storycity project at a very special gathering of ARThinkSouthAsia fellows in New Delhi.

Back then we started with a simple wish to make heritage and culture accessible to people in a fun way. Little did we know that we would go on to create so many publications, document so much of Mumbai’s design history and interpret the stories that make our city come alive. We’re so grateful to friends, colleagues and collaborators that have encouraged us over these last five years.

As a small token of thanks we’ve prepared a fresh quick guide to Mumbai’s Museums with listings for our favourite art and design haunts. You can download and print this on A4 paper or keep it handy on your phone for easy access.

Whichever way you use it, we hope it encourages you to support your local museum. So share, share away!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD (PDF, 3MB)