Chennaification

What is this ‘Chennaification’?

We are not sure, but we know there is a checklist out there that includes things like all-day-all-you-can-consume filter coffee, masaal vadai in certain ‘corner’ teashops, shopping in Pondy Bazaar, and so on. There are also some words that your vocabulary will include. Like vasool, dillu, apeetu, ushaar…

This line of thinking started because we asked ourselves: what makes a Chennaiite SUCH a Chennaiite? And what makes a visitor to the city get Fully Chennai-fyd? A Chennaifying concept occurred right there and a design was thus born. However, at first, there were too many elements to be covered. 

So, we at Chennaigaga thought we’d keep it simple. A fun thing about Chennai is the language we use ‘locally’ for light-hearted communication. We then made a conscious effort to refer to daily conversations. That’s where we noticed that local ‘Madras baashai’ crept in more than one might have thought. Words like paisa vasool, dhool, gethu jumped up for our attention and expressions like Ahaan, Hayya, sprang out to be noticed, which all helped to get a sense of the word ‘Chennaification’! 

We won’t lie. Making this list was utter fun. As for executing the design, conveying the concept & mood to the graphic designer is one part: Translating the mental image to a graphic representation is a different matter altogether.

Just breaking down some of the creativity for a peek backstage:-

What font should we use?

Which words to keep and which words to skip? We only chose those words that you could display in your living room, for example.

And once the layout and design are complete, then what colours to choose?

How many colours to use?

We went with legible fonts and simple colour combinations. We do hope you like this Chennaification concept. Mugs, T-shirts and Coasters are available in this design.

Follow us on Instagram for stories and reels. We are @ Chennaigaga there too!